FSACARS time error

[David Roark]

I have been using FSACARS with x-plane since I joined the VA and it has worked perfectly after I got it set up correctly.

The brake release times and brake set times are correct in the FSACARS report. When I send the report and check my FREP the pushback time is always the time that I started FSACARS not the brake release time from the report. The arrival time is also not the brake set time. The flight hours are correct.

I do not know if this is the appropriate behavior or not since I am new to the VA.

[Michael Blakely]

David,

Since this is a new issue, I went ahead and separated your post from the prior thread and updated the subject to provide differentiating details.
Let me go look at the logs and see what I can find out.

[Michael Blakely]

Score 1 for David. He has found a bug in the client. I think I can adapt to this in the website software. Here's what I found out...

First - David - Many pilots (me included) start up FSACARS immediately before pushback. This means as soon as FSACARS is configured, they are releasing parking brakes and pushing back. The result is that the first timestamp available to FSACARS is the same as the "Parking Brake Off" timestamp. If you use the procedure you won't have to manually update your FREPs until I get a fix in place.

Now to the details.

The FSACARS client sends a "Flight Start Time" to the website. I use this in the FREP as the departure time. It seems this is actually the FSACARS start-up time, not the parking brake off time. When I analyzed the logs, I saw some pilots don't set the parking brakes prior to flying, so their logs don't even have a parking brake off entry. FSACARS also sends a flight duration. This is the parking brake off to parking brake on duration. However, if the pilot didn't set the parking brake, then it's the liftoff time to parking brake on duration. I add this duration to the "Flight Start Time" (also the Departure Time) to calculate the Arrival Time. If Departure Time matches parking brake off time, this works. But if there is a delay from Departure Time to parking brake off time, it doesn't work.

I think I can fix this by looking for the Parking Break Off timestamp, and using this for departure time, and if it's not there, default to using the "Flight Start Time" that is always reported.

I've already spent a bunch of my Christmas holiday fixing the multiple FSACARS FREP problem, so I think I'll enjoy the rest of my holiday and fix this one in a couple weeks.

[David Roark]

I will do as you do Michael, start FSACARS just before pushback. Thanks for looking into this!