Hi all,
my virtual airline ("Stevens VA") is using Xacars as a flight tracking and PIREP tool. Being unhappy with the results I got from using Xacars together with FSX + VisualPSX and following advice by John Golin (http://aerowinx.com/forum/topic.php?post=23295#post23295) to do this task natively with PSX :shock: , I started writing my first add-on for PSX :).
The first alpha version got flight tested this weekend and ran perfectly stable for two long haul flights.
In case you don't know Xacars (http://www.xacars.net/index.php?about): it's a tool for use with FSX (and X-Plane) to automatically send post-flight PIREP data (Out/Off/On/In-Times, Fuel Consumptions, ZFW and some more stuff) to a server (e.g. a virtual airline). In addition to that, it has the ability to send live position reports and events (OOOI) periodically to the (VA) server (using the formatting of ACARS downlink messages). The server thus can keep track of your flight in real-time, plot a live map with PPOS, flown route, etc....
So far, the new add-on- which has no official name yet - is written from scratch with personal use in mind and doesn't have much fault-tolerant code yet. But I can possibly do that if there is a need for that. :) The program is designed to be compatible with the existing Xacars server-protocol..
For the decision on how to proceed, I would appreciate some feedback if there is a need for this program to be available to others. Anyone who needs or uses Xacars for flights with PSX?
Please note: the program can be used only if you have a server (*) to which the program can talk to. ;) And for the moment being I suggest you have either adminstration approval, or better, adminstrator rights to do so. :mrgreen:
Markus
(*) A private server in your own network is fine. It needs to run a web server, PHP and a SQL database, though.