BACARS Version 8 - Major Overhaul of BACARS / Planning Portal

[Mariano]

Thank you. :-)

[skelsey]

I've had a productive weekend:

Code Select Expand

01 Mar 2026
CARD v1.5
- Added support for live temporary obstacle and runway data (UK only at present)

CARDPerf.Notam v1.0
- Intial release of NOTAM data retrieval and parsing module to support live temporary obstacle and runway data

CARDPerf.Notam.Nats v1.0
- Initial release of module to retrieve and parse NOTAM data from NATS NOTAM XML

CARDObstacleDB v1.1
- Refactor to move runway catalogue and GeoUtils in to separate library to support live temporary runway data

CARDPerf.Geo v1.1
- Added runway catalogue and GeoUtils to support live temporary runway data
In short - for departures from UK airfields, CARD will now pull the live UK NOTAM feed, parse any temporary obstacles or TORA reduction affecting the departure (if the NOTAM valid from time is within 1 hour of the request and the valid to time is at or later than the time of the requst), and apply them to the calculation.

If a temporary obstacle or TORA reduction is present, you will get two sets of data - temporary (reflecting the obstacle) and permanent, like so (note reduced TOPL due to the crane):

Code Select Expand

PERFORMANCE
PERFORMANCE MSG
1 OF 1

BAW123     01MAR26 14:24
G-BNLL      G ENG
A/C PACKS OFF
EGLL/27L
W/C  14 HW  TEMP 36C
DRY RWY     ANTI-ICE OFF
QNH 1005    MACTOW 20

DAY  : CLG NIL
       VIS 150M
NIGHT: CLG NIL
       VIS 150M

PERF CORRS
NONE
------------------------
 310.0     REQUESTED TOW
(   . )   FMC CALC GR WT
------------------------
**TEMPORARY RWY DATA**

TEMPO CRANE IN RWY 27L
TKOF CONE

F/L (N1 HOLD)   TOR 3657
***********
* FLAP 20 *  TOPL: 383.5
***********
ATOW   TEMP   V1  VR  V2
310.0   62   146 146 160
310.0   64   146 146 160
310.0   66   146 146 160
MIN ACCEL HT 1157FT
------------------------

**PERMANENT RWY DATA**

F/L (N1 HOLD)   TOR 3657
***********
* FLAP 20 *  TOPL: 401.7
***********
ATOW   TEMP   V1  VR  V2
310.0   62   146 146 160
310.0   64   146 146 160
310.0   66   146 146 160
MIN ACCEL HT 1157FT
------------------------


NOTES
ALL ENGINES USE FCOM 1 NOISE
ABATEMENT PROCEDURE
TERMINATING ALT 4000FT
QNH. BETWEEN THE HOURS OF
0700-2250 LT USE NOISE
ABATEMENT PROCEDURE
REDUCING THRUST WHERE POSSIBLE.
IF T/O IS ANTICIPATED
BETWEEN 2251-0659 LT USE
SAME NOISE ABATEMENT PROCEDURE WITH
FULL T/O THRUST.
Enjoy! I will try and expand this over time if I can find reliable live NOTAM feed sources for other parts of the world.

[Mariano]

Productive weekend indeed! :-)

Best regards,

Mariano

[skelsey]

CARD v1.6.1 is now live on the server.

CARD now has a worldwide live NOTAM temporary obstacle and runway data feed (it may take a few days to fully populate) and if an obstacle impedes the takeoff flight path (or if there is a NOTAMed TORA adjustment) will automatically provide temporary and permanent runway data.

In addition you can now send an AIS request to .FIC using ACARS Freetext to receive a NOTAM briefing for an airport. E.g.

TO: .FIC
AIS EGLL

Code Select Expand

Changelog
28 Mar 2026
CARD v1.6.1
- Fixed weird bug where in some cases Vr could be less than V1

18 Mar 2026
CARDObstacleDB v1.2
- Improved intersection parsing for full length entries
- Switched to local OSM data source rather than API to improve performance and reliability

15 Mar 2026
CARD v1.6
- Added support for worldwide live temporary obstacle and runway data (previously UK only)

[Mariano]

Another impressive update.

Thank you!

Best regards,

Mariano

[Kurt]

Thank yoou so much Simon - highly appreciated !!

Cheers

Kurt

[Mariano]

Simon,

Would you consider adding an option that forces all uplinks and printouts to show simulator time instead of real time?

Thank you,

Mariano

[Gary Oliver]

That would be a BACARS change required too.  I'll have a think on what we could do here and how much would need to be changed.

Cheers
Gary

[Mariano]

Thank you, Gary.

Best regards,

Mariano

[skelsey]

Another update for CARD today:

Code Select Expand

19 Apr 2026
CARD v1.7
- Added VMBE check
- Fixed bug where obstacle and tyre speed limit tables were not being reloaded for different flap settings
- Fix for bug where non-performance limited takeoffs could return assumed temperatures above maximum allowed
- Fix for bug where assumed temperature search at hot and high airfields could cause a crash

[Mariano]

Thank you.

Best regards,

Mariano

[FlyItLikeYouStoleIt]

I was trying to get BACARS v8 working on a mac (running in either Crossover or Parallels and then connecting to the Mac version of PSX) and had similar problems to those I had with v7 a year ago: an initial connection - the CDU switches to the new ACARS - that then goes nowhere. I set Claude on it (for what it's worth) and this is its conclusion:

==========


I've traced this down to a server-side TLS problem, not a client-side .NET or virtualization issue. Diagnostic steps and results below:
TCP connectivity to database.simfest.co.uk:443 succeeds (confirmed via Test-NetConnection).
TLS handshake fails with "Could not establish trust relationship for the SSL/TLS secure channel" when connecting via .NET (Invoke-WebRequest), even after forcing TLS 1.2 explicitly and updating the local root certificate store.
Inspecting the certificate presented by the server during the handshake attempt shows:
Subject: CN=planning.simfest.co.uk
Issuer: CN=YR2, O=Let's Encrypt, C=US
Valid to 15/09/2026
In other words, when connecting to database.simfest.co.uk, the server is presenting a certificate issued for planning.simfest.co.uk — a hostname mismatch, which .NET correctly refuses to trust.
Bypassing certificate validation entirely (for diagnostic purposes only, via ServerCertificateValidationCallback) still results in a failure — "An unexpected error occurred on a send" — meaning the connection breaks even without cert checking. This matches the original Wireshark capture: a handshake starts with database.simfest.co.uk, but only a couple of packets follow before it stops.
This looks like database.simfest.co.uk isn't correctly provisioned as its own virtual host / SNI entry on whatever server or proxy sits in front of it — it may be falling back to serving the planning subdomain's certificate, and the session isn't completing properly afterward.

==============

I appreciate that BACARS is undergoing a major rewrite right now but thought the above may be of some use.

[Gary Oliver]

Hi Mate,

I think this is fixed in the re-write - I have one remaining bug to fix and will release BACARS and EFB over the next week or so.

Cheers
Gary