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ACARS
May 3, 2012 9:37:31 GMT 1
Post by Speke-EZY on May 3, 2012 9:37:31 GMT 1
For anybody else like me who has not invested in an SBS-box or similar dedicated tracking device,using ACARS can be rather hit-and-miss,but this may help.
If you want to interrogate a flight number,be careful as certain rules apply.
The relevant text box only accommodates six digits.
It usually prefers the two character (IATA) prefix rather than the three character (ICAO) one. If this is followed by fewer than four numbers,you need to add lead zeros...e.g."EK0017".
However,some operators do not use a two-digit flight prefix,and there isn't enough space to input a three character prefix followed by four numbers. "CWL0068" doesn't fit...and "CWL068" doesn't work!
You have to use the three-digit prefix followed by the wildcard symbol "%". So ask it for "CWL%" and (in theory) it should return all known flights with that prefix.
In the above case only one flight was active today,which ACARS reported as ZK453/CWL0068...note it can return more characters in the callsign than you can ask it to search for!!!
Has everybody got this? Computers rock! :-)
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ACARS
May 3, 2012 23:39:11 GMT 1
Post by Biggles on May 3, 2012 23:39:11 GMT 1
It`s snippets like this from users of equipment who make this forum very informative and especially helpful.
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ACARS
May 4, 2012 10:07:54 GMT 1
Post by Speke-EZY on May 4, 2012 10:07:54 GMT 1
...and amusing rants/anecdotes which make it entertaining!!! :-)
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Posts: 0
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ACARS
May 4, 2012 16:10:20 GMT 1
Post by Deleted on May 4, 2012 16:10:20 GMT 1
ACARS, for reasons which I'm not aware of, (I've been told it's the datalink rather than the kit itself, but I don't know if this is true), can be quite unreliable at times. (For example on the EZY flights, it's supposed to record the time on and off stand, doors open/closed, etc., but it often doesn't). It doesn't always print out the info it's supposed to on the flight deck either, much to the frustration of the crew, but then we've all had problems with printers, haven't we? ;D
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ACARS
May 4, 2012 19:23:06 GMT 1
Post by Speke-EZY on May 4, 2012 19:23:06 GMT 1
Also,you have to be careful with ACARS logs,as they sometimes slip in the odd fib just to see if anyone is paying attention. For a couple of weeks on-and-off,ACARS reported that Lufthansa had been using their own (D-ACK*) CRJ-900s on MAN flights instead of the much commoner Eurowings (D-ACN*) ones. Thus,when the Lufty ones really began to appear,nobody believed it. This is known as the "ACARS double bluff". I'm still waiting for their US Airways A320s to turn up!
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