SIM ACARS Beta Bug Reporting Thread

[Michael Blakely]

If you experience an issue with the SIM ACARS Beta please reply to this thread with this information:

1. Date and time of your error, in local time and time zone, or ZULU time
2. Action you were trying to take (installation, configuration, connection, flight setup, send report, etc.)
3. Error that occurred or error message you saw (please try to post a screenshot of the error).
4. If the error occurred during connection, pleas post a screenshot of the SIM ACARS Virtual Airlines Setting page, REMEMBER TO EDIT THE PICTURE TO OBSCURE YOUR PASSWORD!
5. If the error occurred while trying to send your report, please include the departure ICAO, arrival ICAO, and flight number in your bug report

[Theodore Martin]

Mike,
I did a 5hr.+ flight using Sim Acars to help with the testing. If performed without any issues during the flight. However the submitted FREP only showed a 2hr. flight. Not sure if this caused the problem but I paused the simulator several times during the flight.

1. Date and time of error = submitted FREP at 4:30a CDT.
2. Action you were trying to take = FREP reported approx. 2hr. flight on actual 5hr. flight
3. Error that occurred = No error messages were presented
4. If the error occurred during connection, pleas post a screenshot of the SIM ACARS Virtual Airlines Setting page, REMEMBER TO EDIT THE PICTURE TO OBSCURE YOUR PASSWORD!
5. Departure ICAO, and arrival ICAO = HECA/VABB Flight UAE537

I will test it again sometime next week and pay more attention to the start time as well as not pause the simulation.

[Michael Blakely]

Ted,

Were the departure and arrival times incorrect, such that the calculated block time was 2 hours, or were the departure and arrival times correct with the block time calculation being the only error?
If the departure and arrival times were incorrect, what were the departure and arrival times reported by SIM ACARS in your FREP?

[Theodore Martin]

Well, that's interesting Mike. When I look back at the log (see pic below) it shows the correct flight duration, but when I submitted the FREP and edited it to include comments the flight duration was only 2hrs. As I remember it was the start/stop times that were incorrect. I edited those times to get the correct flight duration in the FREP.

Capture.JPG (119.83 KiB) Viewed 28335 times

I don't know if this is an issue with pausing the sim or if it is a problem with submission. I paused the sim several times and the last pause may have been 2hrs. before I completed the flight (only a guess). On my next long flight (I'm doing the 20th Anniversary World Tour) I will pause and take special note of the start/stop times as well as when I paused the sim.

[Michael Blakely]

Ted,

Thanks for helping to Beta test.

My software has to do the Local to ZULU time conversion, and there might be an error in there as well.
I noticed last night that my P3D does the wrong conversion from ZULU to Local for VABB (4.5 hours instead of 5.5), so I think there may be several things in play.

Next time, please screenshot the AAVirtual.com "Edit FREP" page right after you submit so I can see what my software converts the SIM ACARS time to.

[Theodore Martin]

I finally got in a long enough flight for further testing of the SimACARS app. Notice that SimACARs shows a flight time of almost 4hrs. but the FREP report only shows 2hrs., and I don't see where the start/stop times in the FREP came from. My actual flight time was about 4.5hrs.

Here are the times I recorded from the computer when I pushed back:
Computer actual time = 20:35z
Sim (P3Dv4) time = 07:53z (I did not calculate this time. The Sim was showing 14:53 local time, then I selected UTC time)
VatSpy app time = 20:33z

Now here are the screen shots from my FREP and SimACARS. The FREP is still in the PENDING area for DFW if you need to look at them.

WSSS FREP.JPG (138.3 KiB) Viewed 28209 times

WSSS 1.JPG (93.8 KiB) Viewed 28209 times

WSSS 2.JPG (108.94 KiB) Viewed 28209 times

WSSS 3.JPG (121.6 KiB) Viewed 28209 times

WSSS 4 (pause).JPG (116.16 KiB) Viewed 28209 times

[Michael Blakely]

Ted,

You're seeing the same behavior I noted in this thread. SIM ACARS is using your computer time as pushback and shutdown time, not the sim time. I never caught this behavior during development. I don't know if there is a way to get SIM ACARS to use sim time instead. If SIM ACARS doesn't support SIM time, it's probably dead as an AAVirtual ACARS solution.

Hoping to see a few other pilots weigh in on their experience.

[Theodore Martin]

Ted,

You're seeing the same behavior I noted in this thread. SIM ACARS is using your computer time as pushback and shutdown time, not the sim time. I never caught this behavior during development. I don't know if there is a way to get SIM ACARS to use sim time instead. If SIM ACARS doesn't support SIM time, it's probably dead as an AAVirtual ACARS solution.

Hoping to see a few other pilots weigh in on their experience.

Ok, I now see that it is taking my computers "local" time as the start/stop times, however it is showing a flight of about 4hrs. but in the FREP report it is showing a flight time of less than 2hrs. To what do the start/stop times shown in the FREP relate?

[Michael Blakely]

Local times with a conversion to ZULU.
15:25 local - 5 hours = 10:25 ZULU departure
20:12 local - 8 hours = 12:12 ZULU arrival

When I saw the SIM ACARS didn't use ZULU time, I thought it was using local SIM time, so I built in a ZULU time conversion when the FREP is filed.

[Wayne Pierce]

Flying back and forth to/from KSEE-KMYF, a 5 minute flight. P3dV5. I have tried different times for the program. ( I did this quite a few times and probably really messing with the HUB manager for FREP reports.)

If I do not put any time at all for departure it loads the computer local time +8hour. Then it uses the computer local time for arrival.

1-1.jpg

1-3.jpg

Now if I put in a departure time, it uses the local computer time but then puts the arrival as the +8hours. I set the simulator time for my departure time but it defers to computer time.( I put in a total EET for grins and giggles. I am assuming it means Eastern European Time ? )

2-1.jpg

2-2.jpg

Submitted by Wayne

[Michael Blakely]

Thanks Wayne. You've confirmed the behavior I'm seeing. Only computer time is used.

The data you put in the Departure Time box isn't actually having any affect. What you're seeing is the SIM ACARS airport database I imported for time zones has KSEE at -8 (correct), but has no entry for KMYF, so the KMYF times are unmodified.

[Michael Blakely]

To whom this may concern,

I am reporting the following items (dont want to call them bugs):

Flight AAL1949 flown yesterday - critical error - taxi lights or beacon lights not on with engines running - they were / lights on above 10,000 feet - they were off
Flight AAL 334 - flown today - critical error - same as above.

Everything seems to have reported in correctly but thought I would add those two items to the mix

Chris,

Unfortunately I only control the code that pulls data from SIM ACARS and loads it into our website. The functions you're commenting on are the operation of the SIM ACARS client, which I have no control over nor any ability to change the client code.

[Michael Blakely]

I have updated the SIM ACARS interface so it no longer converts the reported pushback and shutdown times to UTC based on the location of the departure and arrival airports.
I did this because SIM ACARS only reports time based on the real time clock in your computer. This way at least the flight duration is correct, but the pushback and shutdown times still need to be edited for every FREP.

[Michael Blakely]

Support for SIMACARS has ended. The developer is no longer maintaining the client and the client no longer supports the secure web access (https) we are using on aavirtual.com
FSACARS is still operational.