What a pain!

[MarkB]

Did my first ACARS flight in the Iditarod option 1 and everything worked fine. Decided to do the second flight before lunch, loaded FSX, loaded XACARS and put in the info, clicked START, start engine, parking brake off and off we go. 45 mins later, landed (rather hard) at destination, taxied and parked, put parking brake on, switched off engines, hit Stop, clicked VIEW PIREP and it told me that the PIREP was imcomplete, even though all sections where complete! Because I couldn't view it I couldn't save it so bang, flight lost! :'(

Mark

[apa864]

i can understand what you feel, bro! we all are victims of these imperfect softwares!
but think that it would be worst if it was the second leg, that's more long!

[MarkB]

but think that it would be worst if it was the second leg, that's more long!

It was the second leg!

[apa864]

ooops... so ....s**t !!!

[Swann]

I almost hate to make another post.

My leg ID102 entered 5 times and havent seen on the PIREP that leg one was recorded.

I thought it was my lack of computer savvy but when you have trouble with it maybe there is a glich.

I'll start from scratch again, there still is time.

By the way the Misty DC3 is doing OK with VFR and actual weather.

Dick Swann
Misty 121

[MarkB]

Like I said the first flight went OK.

The only thing I can think of is I didn't close FSX or XACARS between flight one and two. I submitted the first PIREP (successfully), ended the flight to get back to FSX main menu, made another Flight Plan and adjusted cargo and then when the sim had loaded I got the ID102 details from XACARS and started it and flew!

It might be worth people noting that it might needed completely closing down and restarting between flights. (Unless anyone else can say otherwise).

Take care!

Mark

[eyelleye]

Guys,

Please continue to post your experiences with xacars so we can try and narrow down what's causing the problems. I do recommend, where possible, to save the flight pirep locally, even if it says it was successful submitting it. That way, if it doesn't show up, you can still submit it again later.

If there is a bug in xacars itself, there isn't much I can do about that as I don't have the source code... but if it's a problem with something not going through on the site, I may be able to fix that. Please note that we have had some problems with the host lately and the site being offline for short periods of time (or the database being down). If it tries to submit during that time, obviously it won't go through. We are working to resolve those problems, however.

If we can continue to gather data on when it isn't working correctly, we can submit a bug report to the developers and/or figure out a work around (as Mark is suggesting here).

[Pete C]

I do recommend, where possible, to save the flight pirep locally, even if it says it was successful submitting it. That way, if it doesn't show up, you can still submit it again later.

And if the flight is one that needs to be verified, then the saved file could be emailed and opened locally.

[papalimabravo]

I flew ID201 and sent my pirep with no problem! Just to tell you that sometimes this software is working well! Just need to read conscientiously the pdf file "dummies guide to xacars". Thanks Pete and Nick for all the good work you did for the Misty pilots...

[eyelleye]

Well, so far we're hit and miss with xacars. My only alternatives at the moment are FS ACARS (which was just as problematic in my experience) or FS FlightKeeper which costs money. We will, of course, work on said alternatives in the future (before switching to all automatic pireping), but for this particular event, that's the best I can come up with. FS ACARS and FlightKeeper can be mailed... or FSFK can be posted as I did in a demo here: http://mistyair.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1125

I wish I had more control over the ACARs software, but I don't unless I write my own (which I don't have time to do right now). *Sigh* sorry for the problems guys... we'll work with you to work through them or find an acceptable alternative.

[MarkB]

Everyone has 20/20 in hindsight but I ithink a public test of this would have ironed out the issues. Once everyone knows the little glitches in Xacars then I'm sure it'll work out fine in the long run. It's just the competition of the event and the fact it's a new piece of software to get your head around in the same flight that's the problem. Let's face it if anyone did a 30 min supply flight and got an error it'll be nothing, 2 hrs and nothing when a golden medal is on the line is something!

I say lets get this event out and then let all get xcars tested together for a few weeks and then if we all think it's a bag'o'crap we'll consider forking out for payware.

Mark

[eyelleye]

Well, I'm all about options... so it's my intent to support a freeware option along side the payware option. I'm just in the middle of getting the new server setup before I can go back to coding on the site. The timeframe for the rollout on this to be used during the Iditarod event was way to short in retrospect, but that's water under the bridge now.

We'll finish with the event as it is and folks can continue to use xacars in it's current setup after that for pireps if they like. I don't think anyone should be forced into purchasing payware, but I do want to offer to support it if they do. I'd really like to start coding my own acars utility, but I honestly don't have the time to do that. If anyone has a suitable alternative, I'm open to supporting it.

Part of the problem for us is our support of charter flights. Indeed, this is our primary flight/dispatch model... and most of the existing systems don't support this (ie, they're all setup for or designed with scheduled flights in mind).

Anyway, you all should know that we're not going to foist a payware utility on you, but we will support it as an option. We want a reasonable means to track flights, which means the use of some sort of acars utility. Pete will have to make the call as to what he'll accept in the event that xacars crashes as it's not my call. Losing a 2 hour flight is beyond annoying, whether there is a golden medal on the line or not.

Not much more I can say about it at the moment. We'll figure something out.