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AACars Operations Manual
Table Of Contents
- Introduction
- Development
- Features
- Downloading & Installation
- System Requirements
- Downloading
- Installation
- Using AACars
- Starting The Program
- New Pilots
- Existing Pilots New To AACars
- Options
- Program
- Realism
- Debugging
- The Flight Dispatch/Release
- Connecting To Flight Simulator
- During Your Flight
- Crashed!
- Shutting Down
Atlantic Skies was the first VA to have a fully automated PIREP and flight assignment system in the form of AAMS, or the Automated Airline Management System, created by Brad Hodges with help from Tim Cailloux and others. Limited though it may seem now, it was state-of-the-art when first unveiled and was surely the major factor in our longevity. While other virtual airlines fell by the wayside due to their executive's lack of time or interest to properly update and maintain their rosters, we could leave ours to maintain itself while focussing on other, more long term development goals.
As time wore on, however, and management positions were vacated and re-filled, it became obvious that AAMS was due for upgrading. Many options were examined, many freeware, shareware, and commercial software packages were tested. Most were far to generic in design for our purposes, and none met the criteria we had set despite what extensive features they offered. The decision was made to design and build our own replacement from the ground up, and the seed for AACars was sown.
AACars is an acronym for the Automated Airline Communications, Addressing, and Reporting System, a program meant to streamline our virtual airline operations while adding a number of new and exciting features for our pilots to enjoy. It is a desktop application that runs on the pilot's computer and communicates directly with Flight Simulator through the FSUIPC.dll interface, gathering pertinent flight information in preparation for filing a proper PIREP.
AACars will surely, and once again, place Atlantic Skies at the top of the virtual airline industry, not only as the oldest virtual airline to be in continuous operation since inception -- an accomplishment we take great pride in, not only as one of the largest virtual airlines in existence, not only as a virtual airline with one of the widest and most far-reaching route schedules, but also as one of the most forward-thinking virtual airlines in the world.
One thing worth mentioning here and now: AACars is a program specifically designed for the use of Atlantic Skies pilots. It is not a generic flight logger, and cannot be used outside of the corporation. Each AACars session begins with the pilot logging into the system using the pilot database on our website. New pilots can sign up with Atlantic Skies from within AACars, if they like, but AACars cannot be used without a valid Atlantic Skies pilot record.
Development
AACars was written in C++. Source code is not available, so don't even ask.
It was designed from the ground up as an all-business application, and as such there is very little eye-candy or extraneous bells and whistles. As Chief Executive Officer Jerry Halladay once said during its initial testing, it's something you might expect to see in the corporate offices if you walked in after a flight to file your report there. Using C++ rather than Visual Basic or another higher-level development language allowed for more direct communication with Flight Simulator as well as development of an application that is much faster and requires far less overhead.
If you suffer a system error (a system crash, to be perfectly blunt) while using AACars, then chances are it was something other than AACars that caused it. Had too many programs running under Flight Simulator? This is a common cause of system errors.
In addition, we wanted to allow as little fuss as possible when transitioning between AAMS and AACars, so the same remote database system was used. This means that both systems are fully capable of running concurrently with each other, using the same pilot database.
In order to properly track flight time and reward pilot hours, AACars was originally designed to use Zulu time as reported by Flight Simulator, however in testing there arose a number of problems. First and foremost of these was that Flight Simulator did not report Zulu time accurately or consistently on long-haul flights crossing multiple time zones. This caused reported flight times to be off by as much as 7 hours!
Secondly, it was discovered that there was too much potential for abuse using this system. So AACars was built with an internal timer that does not track time-zoom factor (2x, 4x, etc.) but will still pause when Flight Simulator is paused. Our current PIREP system, AAMS, will award appropriate hours if a pilot honestly admits that he or she has flown using time-zoom. This is now enforced. If you fly a 14 hour flight in 6 hours using zoom, you will be awarded 6 hours on your record.
You will also find that the category restrictions, in place but unenforced with AAMS, will be enforced through AACars. When the time comes for you to choose a new assignment you will only be presented with those flights suitable to your current rank/rating. However, the hour requirements for upgrades have been reduced from those you'll find on our website.
Features
In addition to aiding our pilots in filing more comprehensive PIREPs, AACars offers a number of other exciting additions to our normal flight operations. Each pilot will now have his or her own logbook, on the corporate server only, that details each individual flight complete with block times and fuel used, as well as the pilot's own comments.
During a flight, if the pilot remains connected to the Internet after initially logging onto the system, details of his flight will be sent to a real-time flightboard. This flightboard allows visitors to our website to track flights in progress that are using AACars. A "Flight Tracker", a small window updated each 60 seconds, can also be opened from any flight in the list with even more detail and a map that plots the aircraft's flight plan and current location.
The map, however, is an offsite feature, and may not always be available. We have no control over that.
Higher realism for the pilot will be afforded by a flight release detailing not only departure and arrival airports and the other details you've become used to, but the number of passengers on board, the crew compliment, and the cargo load, as well. Fuel load is calculated based on these loads as well as the maximum take-off weight of the scheduled aircraft. Options can be set to actually adjust the weight of the aircraft using these numbers, and to simulate realistic boarding/loading operations prior to departure. You can watch your fuel gauge rise as you go through your pre-flight checklists! When boarding is completed, a message will be flashed across the top of the Flight Simulator window.
Should you just want to get your assignment, hop into your aircraft and go, you can do that to. AACars will also support multiple pilots using the same installation on the same computer through the use of its configuration files.
System Requirements
AACars was developed on a Pentium 4 1.6Ghz with 224mb RAM running Windows XP Home Edition and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 Professional, connected to the Internet by broadband cable. Quite frankly, if you can run Flight Simulator then you can run AACars.
Peter Dowson's fabulous utility for allowing outside communication with Flight Simulator, FSUIPC, is required, in particular version 2.8 or higher. You can always find the latest version here: http://www.schiratti.com/dowson.html.
FSUIPC is not included in the AACars installation.
In order to use the Realism Options of this program, you must be using FS2002. You may still use AACars to track and record your flight, however, without the realism options (see options, below).
Download
The latest version of AACars can be downloaded from this web page: http://www.atlanticskies.com/aacars.html, where you'll also find any patches, additions, or support files as they are released.
Installation
Once you've successfully downloaded the setup file, extract the ZIP archive to a temporary directory, and then double-click "setup.exe" to start the installation. Follow the prompts on your screen and you should be good to go.
AACars will need to know where you've installed Flight Simulator, but it does not edit your system registry, and as long as all the files it needs, installed automatically, are in the same directory as the executable, all should be well.
There are some particulars you need to be aware of, and steps you need to take, before you can successfully complete a flight using AACars. Be sure to read this section completely before attempting to run the program.
Starting The Program
If you don't plan to use the realism options you can have Flight Simulator all ready running and minimized if you like, however if you do want to use these options (detailed later) you must wait until AACars is ready to connect to Flight Simulator as detailed below.
To start AACars Click the AACars icon from the Start menu. This is what you will see at first:
AACars is a program specifically designed for the use of Atlantic Skies pilots. We've said this before in this document, but it bears saying again.
New Pilots
From the log on screen pictured above, new pilots who wish to sign up with Atlantic Skies may do so by clicking the "New Pilot" button. This will take you to an application form that will take all pertinent information and even assign you your first flight based on your chosen area of operations.
In order to use this form, you must be connected to the Internet so AAcars can properly submit your application to our corporate server and update the remote database.
Once your application is accepted, you will be returned to the log on screen with your pilot identification number and your password all ready entered. Simply click the "Log on" button to continue.
And for crying out loud, write your pilot identification number down!
Existing Pilots New To AACars
We currently have a roster of well over 200 active pilots around the world, spread across our various areas of operation. When designing AACars it was always important to allow these existing pilots to begin using the program with as little fuss as possible. With this in mind, we designed AACars to accept existing pilot ID's and passwords, regardless of whether the existing pilot has used AACars before or not.
Enter your existing Pilot ID and password, and you should have successfully logged into AACars for the first time. If AACars returns an error, chances are that the connection somewhere between you and the corporate server is bogged down. Try again!
If that doesn't work after a few tries, exit AACars altogether, and then restart it. Sometimes that works to jog the connection.
Options
Before taking your first flight with AACars, you'll need to understand the available options, and set them to your liking. The Options dialog box is accessible from the pulldown menu "Tools/Options":
All the options you set from here will be saved into your configuration file for future use. With certain restrictions, you can also change the options while using the program and they will take effect immediatly.
Program
The two top checkboxes are currently unavailable, since these features are not yet a part of AACars.
Realism
Only those pilots flying with FS2002 can use these options, since they require FS2002 Atlantic Skies aircraft specifically designed to work with AACars.
PLEASE NOTE: We do not yet have all of the required aircraft in our hangar, and the FS2002 Atlantic Skies 747 we do have is not compatible. We are working hard to rectify this, but felt it was necessary to release AACars anyway. Fly assignments requiring aircraft we do not yet have without the realism options using any aircraft you feel appropriate.
There are now three checkboxes in the Realism panel of the options dialog:
- Passenger boarding simulation
- Fuel aircraft while boarding
- Weight/balance simulation
1. Passenger boarding simulation
Checking the box labled "Passenger boarding simulation" will tell AACars to run this part of the program. This is a more realistic representation of what it's like to be a pilot pre-departure, since you must be at the gate a certain number of minutes prior to your scheduled departure in order to allow your passengers to board, your cargo to be loaded, and your fuel to be pumped. As an example, while testing this option the author was scheduled to fly the 747-400 from KSLC to Rio de Janeiro with 340 passengers, just over 58059 pounds of cargo, and a full load of fuel (378172 lbs). Having this many passengers required him to be at the gate at least 36 minutes prior to departure, since the gate opens 35 minutes prior to departure when you have more than 300 passengers booked. The cargo was completely loaded and secured 10 minutes before scheduled departure, the fuel was finished pumping approximately 2 minutes prior to scheduled departure, and the last passenger was boarded and seated 30 seconds past scheduled departure. We could just see him running down the terminal yelling"Hold the gate! Hold the gate!" AACars will hold the gate for no more than five minutes should you have a late passenger.
Cargo and fuel loading is done fairly steadily, and the amount loaded each step is based on the amount to be loaded in total. Passenger boarding is, as you might imagine, somewhat random. They will board in fits and spurts after the gate opens, and as you approach your scheduled departure time the passengers will gradually board more steadily. With smaller aircraft and fewer passengers you will most likely get off on time, perhaps even early. With the heavy iron and large passenger loads, such as this particular flight detailed above, you can expect to be clipping it pretty close, or be late, almost every time. That's the nature of the business.
While boarding is underway, you can, if you choose, watch it's progress on this screen:
These are the times you must be at the gate given your passenger load:
Less Then 100 passengers - 10 minutes minimum, gate opens at 15 minutes
Greater Then 100 passengers & Less Then 200 passengers - 15 minutes min, gate opens at 20 minutes
Greater Then 200 passengers & Less Then 300 passengers - 20 minute min, gate opens at 30 minutes
Greater Then 300 passengers - 35 minute minimum, gate opens at 35 minutes
The minimum represents at what time you must be at the gate, while the gate opens number represents the earliest time that the gate will open to accept passengers and begin loading your aircraft. For example, with a passenger load of 234 passengers, you must be at the gate no later than 20 minutes prior to departure. This does not mean that 10 minutes of loading will all ready have taken place. You can however, if you choose, be at the gate 30 minutes prior to departure, and the passengers will begin boarding then. In a nutshell, the aircraft will only begin loading when the gate open time has passed and you are at the gate. Both conditions must be met.
AACars will bark at you and refuse to connect to Flight Simulator if it is less than the minimum number of minutes prior to departure.
Also, just to avoid getting letters, all times are based on the scheduled times of your flight, and those local times reported by Flight Simulator. Your computer's system time has no effect on this whatsoever.
If you choose not to use this option, you must still be at the gate with your parking brake set and your engines completely shut down 6 minutes prior to departure.
If you notice a difference in the fuel load in Flight Simulator compared to what AACars reported as being loaded while using the Boarding simulation, that is unavoidable and has to do with the method Flight Simulator calculates pounds per gallon. We're blaming it on temperature variations and leaving it at that.
2. Fuel aircraft while boarding
"Fuel aircraft while boarding" was added after the screen capture above was taken as a result of some people reporting that the fuel was not being loaded into their aircraft, and as a result refusing to allow them to properly complete their flight. By checking this option, AACars will not actually put the fuel into your aircraft in Flight simulator, but it will simulate it in the boarding screen (below). This option can only be used if Passenger boarding simulation is also checked.
Be advised that if you are also using the Weight/balance simulation you must manually fuel your aircraft with the proper fuel load as specified, otherwise your aircraft will exceed it's maximum take-off weight and we cannot guarantee how it will react.
3. Weight/balance simulation
"Weight/balance simulation" takes the loading of your aircraft one step further. While with the Passenger boarding simulation you can watch your aircraft being loaded, this option allows your aircraft's weight to be adjusted properly given the number of passengers, the crew compliment, the galley load, the cargo load in pounds, and the fuel load in pounds. You can fully expect to be at or near your maximum take-off weight if you choose this option, and your aircraft handling to act accordingly.
Again, only those pilots flying with FS2002 can use this option, since it requires FS2002 Atlantic Skies aircraft specifically designed to work with AACars.
If using this option, it's important to understand a little about fuel management, since you may not have a full load of fuel. Delving into fuel management is not in the purview of this document, but suffice it to say that just because your aircraft can climb at 1800 feet per minute and 300kias, doesn't mean you have to. The climb is the most fuel-intensive phase of any flight. Watch your fuel flow!
It was originally thought that by choosing the boarding sim, the weight sim would be automatic, however we thought it best in the long run to allow each pilot the choice if they didn't feel they were capable of handling an aircraft at max weight but still wanted to experience the loading simulation.
Currently it is possible to start the Passenger boarding simulation and then to adjust the Flight Simulator local time to a point just prior to departure without waiting for the passengers or the cargo to load. This will not affect your weight or balance, regardless of whether you choose the Weight/balance simulation or not, however it will affect your fuel load. The fuel load is actually pumped in during the Passenger boarding simulation, and leaving this process prematurely may leave you with less fuel than your flight requires.
It's up to you. It makes no difference to AACars whatsoever, and will not reflect on your hours. These options are offered for your enjoyment only.
One thing to be aware of if you use this particular option is that your aircraft will handle differently and will require some changes in how you fly it, most particularly on landing. Your final approach must be slower than it would be with an empty aircraft so that your Angle of Attack is higher and your touch-down gentler. It is not impossible for either your main gear or your nose gear -- or both -- to collapse from too hard a landing with a fully loaded aircraft.
Debugging
During the early development and testing of this program, it became clear that the best way to track down most bugs was to log what AACars was doing as it was doing it. Most errors were fairly straightforward and had to do with the times it recorded and it's communication with the corporate server. To this end we've included the logging options, which will create two text files in the AACars directory, one for each option.
These files can become fairly large if left to themselves, so it's best to leave these options unchecked unless told to check them by Atlantic Skies technical support.
The Flight Dispatch/Release
After successfully logging into AACars, the first screen you will see will be the "Flight Dispatch/Release" form. During development, this was often referred to as the "Assignment" screen. It appears, as most similar screens will, in the right-most panel of the AACars main application window, a panel appropriately labled "AACars MFD" (multi-function display).
This is where you find the details of your current assignment, including departure and arrival airports, the assigned aircraft, the passenger/cargo/crew loads, and any pertinent remarks. You can, if you choose, also download the current METAR data for your departure and arrival airports by pressing the small button labled "Download METAR" found just below the "Flight Distance" box on the right hand side. it is important to understand that this is for information purposes only, and it will not change the weather in Flight Simulator. If you use Real Weather or some other utility that downloads real weather and adjust it in Flight Simulator to match, then these two boxes will accurately reflect what you will find.
The small button next to the lable "Cargo" on the right hand side will simply change the cargo display below it from pounds to kilos. The button will tell you which is currently being displayed.
"Print" will allow you to print off a simple and somewhat realistic IFR Dispatch Release, which can be handy to have on hand in-flight, though you can check this information in AACars at any time.
By either printing or taking note of this information, you should at this point fire up Flight Simulator and place yourself in the proper position:
- At the appropriate gate at your departure airport
- Important: In the proper aircraft according to your assignment details (if there is no appropriate AAC aircraft, use another, but be sure it's the same type)
- Parking brake set
- Engines shut down
- The correct number of minutes prior to departure as required (see above)
It was said above, but it's worth repeating: Use the proper aircraft, or, if there is no AAC aircraft available for your scheduled flight, use another from Flightsim.com or another download site, but be sure it is the same type as required by your Flight Dispatch/Release.
You can also, if you like, file your flight plan, get clearance, or whatever you like as long as your brake remains set and you do not start your engines, and you allow enough time so AACars will not sense a timing error when it connects, as per the last point above.
When you are ready to connect AACars to Flight Simulator, press the "Continue" button.
Connecting To Flight Simulator
From the Flight Dispatch/Release screen you will be presented with the Flight Status screen in the AACars MFD:
The form will be blank since AACars does not automatically connect to Flight Simulator. You must tell it you are ready for it to do so by pressing the "Connect" button on the bottom of the MFD. This will cause the program to initialize it's communications with Flight Simulator through FSUIPC, and to poll for certain information. Almost immediatly some of the boxes in this screen will become active and fill with data. Some will remain inactive and empty. Depending on your progress, AACars will only activate the boxes it needs to, when it needs to.
You will also notice that the panel on the lower left, labled "FS Status", will activate as well. This was originally placed there for debugging purposes, but we liked it so we left it in place.
Even though AACars is now connected to Flight Simulator, the internal timer which tracks your flight time for the purposes of awarding hours to your record will not start until two conditions have been met: Your parking brake has been released, and your engines are running. This simulates leaving the gate, or departing.
During Your Flight
At this point it is entirely possible for you to minimize AACars and fly your assignment normally. However, at any time you can click the right-most button, labled "Assignment" if you feel the need to refresh your memory on some of your flight details, and then return here by pressing the right most button on the Flight Dispatch/Release screen, now labled "Flight Status". Feel free to flip between them as needed during your flight, AACars will still maintain it's connection and track your flight properly.
Crashed!
If you overstress your aircraft or strike another aircraft while in the air, then AACars will promptly exit without saving any data from your flight. You should be more careful!
If you crash while landing, AACars will stop logging your flight immediatly as if you had properly shut down at the gate, and a notification will be sent to the chief executive officer. The program will then allow you to file your PIREP pending review and remind you that you are REQUIRED to email a report right away to . This report should contain any contributing factors such as weather, low fuel, etc., and an explanation of why it is you felt you were unable to successfully land our aircraft. If the both the report and the review are deemed satisfactory, your hours will remain intact. If you do not file a report within a reasonable amount of time, or your report or the circumstances surrounding your crash are deemed unsatisfactory, then it is possible that the flight time for this assignment will be stricken completely from your record, or reduced an amount to be decided on by the review committee. Appeals are possible, and you will be given details of this process if your record is to be changed after the review committee hands down it's decision.
Shutting Down
AACars will look for a number of events to take place during your flight in order to properly trap your block times. As we've said before, it will look for both the release of your parking brake in conjunction with running engines to trap your initial departure time. It will then look for the moment your wheels leave the ground as your wheels up, or time-off. During your flight, if you are connected to the Internet, it will poll for altitude, speed, and location and send these to the Flightboard on our website.
When your wheels next touch the ground it will assume you have landed and mark that time as wheels down or time-down. At this point, to complete your flight as any normal airline pilot would, you must taxi to the gate, set your parking brake, and shut down your engines. Only when both these things have been done will AACars assume you have arrived and mark this is your time-in.
Important: When you shut down your engines, you must allow enough time for them to properly spool down before you exit Flight Simulator or switch to AACars. During initial testing, it was shown that exiting Flight Simulator before your engines had properly spooled down but after shutting down the fuel flow could potentially cause AACars to not trap time-in correctly.
Depending on what you want to do next, you can either finish up in Flight Simulator (setting the switches, saving your flight, etc.) and then close it down completely, or you can minimize it and return to AACars to complete your PIREP and receive your next flight assignment. It doesn't matter to AACars, since as soon as it sensed you had arrived at the gate, shut down your engines and set your brake, it will have disconnected from Flight Simulator. It will be sitting comfortably on your desktop waiting for you to return.
On the Flight Status screen you will notice that most boxes have been filled in completely now. The boxes highlighted in white are those fields you can manually edit yourself. Aircraft specifically if the title of your aircraft in it's aircraft.cfg file is to long and cumbersome or doesn't properly reflect the aircraft type, the local weather observations for realism sake, and, of course, any comments or remarks you care to enter about this particular flight. You can ignore all of these if you like, the PIREP is complete without editing them.
You will also notice that the left-most button under the Flight Status screen in the MFD has now become active while the others have inactivated. This is to allow you no other choice but to continue on, since during testing there was some confusion about which step to take next to successfully file a PIREP. Now there is only one possible step. Click this button!
Before you can transmit your PIREP to the corporate server, you must add one more thing to the data you will send, and that is the number of your next assignment. After clicking the Continue button the MFD will change to show you the Departure Board for the airport you have just landed at:
The "big board" as we call it will list all flights available to you given your current rating/rank/accumulated hours, and you may need to scroll down to see them all, or there may only be one -- a return flight to the airport you just left. When you click on any one flight in the big board, the form beneath it will activate to give you the details of that particular flight. You may click any number of flights to see their details before choosing one as your next assignment.
When you have settled on which assignment you would like to fly next, be sure it is the one currently highlighted in the big board, and that it's details are properly displayed. Then click the one large button labled "Confirm" on the bottom of the MFD. This will lock in your next assignment. Be sure you have the right one, because you cannot come back to the departure board after you have clicked "Confirm".
Having picked your next flight, you will return to the Flight Status screen, however the left most button under it, previously labled "Continue", will now be labled "Transmit PIREP". Again, except for exiting the program (and losing all flight data), this is your only available option.
Important: You must be connected to the Internet before you press this button.
AACars will then transmit your PIREP to the corporate server and wait for the proper reply. This may take a few moments, so if it seems to stop, let it sit. It's probably still waiting for the reply. When the reply comes it will check to see if it is the proper reply, and if so, it will tell you that the PIREP has been successfully transmitted. If the reply is not correct, or takes too long, it will tell you to try again and drop back one step to the Flight Status Screen so you can press the Transmit PIREP button again.
Assuming a successful PIREP transmission, AACars will close the Flight Status screen and present you with the Flight Dispatch Release screen, just as it did after you had initially logged on, only this time with the details of your next assignment. At this point you can either continue on by flying the new assignment, or you can exit AACars completely.
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