atc-software ACARS/PDC for the absolute beginner (and for those who just fancy installing it)

[Peter Mooney]

This is really great, loving using PDC and thanks for the tutorial @George Peppard. Is there any way to use this for airways clearances or is it only possible with SIDs? I'd love to be able to issue an airways PDC.

[George Peppard]

21 minutes ago, Peter Mooney said:

Is there any way to use this for airways clearances or is it only possible with SIDs? I'd love to be able to issue an airways PDC.

Non standard clearances like these are usually only delivered via radio.

[Jack Edwards]

Logon codes for CPDLC irl are EGPX for Scottish and EGTT for London and the code doesn’t change when you switch between controllers in the same FIR. This could prove an issue here (eventually) if multiple London/Scottish sectors want to logon. This is a map of the currently implemented CPDLC areas in Europe. North Atlantic is also fully implemented.

[Luke Brown]

With the Hoppie system when I’m on Bandbox, I currently use EGTT via vSMR (for PDC’s) and EGTL via the Hoppie ACARS client (for enroute CPDLC). Having tried doing both using the same logon, it creates issues.

This seems to work well, as you say though, if we get multiple sectors going at one time, we could quickly run into issues.

[Chad Byworth]

Is this not something the Ops department could standardise so that there's a defined Hoppie's identifier for each sector?

eg.

LON_CTR = EGTT

LON_N_CTR = EGTN

_W_ = EGTW and so on

Suspect for SC bandbox you can stick with EGTS or vice versa.

Similar setup for the Scottish sectors.

Not sure immediately what we could do for MAN and TC (I'm pretty sure the real NATS does not use CPDLC below FL195 so really for TC the ACARS use case would be PDC.)

Also I know some of these would be valid airport ICAOs but I don't think this should present an issue - the largest is Cranfield and none of them are datalink equipped.

@Luke Brown what issues do you get combining the PDC and CPDLC logon? I know vSMR does not tolerate CPDLC attempts and will lock the users ACARS client if done mistakenly. Are there other issues?

 

I guess another issue would be if IVAO also commonly used Hoppie's in which case the designated logon might be taken. I'm not a member there so have no idea.

Edited June 30, 2019 by Chad Byworth

[Louie Lister]

Really good guide! I've just installed this myself. 

I've issued my first PDC which was successful without the faff. However, I've just heard a ping but no visual notification to a PDC being requested. Any ideas what it might be?

[George Peppard]

5 minutes ago, Louie Lister said:

I've issued my first PDC which was successful without the faff. However, I've just heard a ping but no visual notification to a PDC being requested. Any ideas what it might be?

In my experience it's someone sending you a PDC request whilst either not being connected to the network/connected to a different network, or having used an incorrect callsign - anything that would mean the system can't match the request to an item in the departure list.

[Maxim Gerasimov]

Is it working with CPDLC FSLabs?

[Robert Ispas]

20 hours ago, Maxim Gerasimov said:

Is it working with CPDLC FSLabs?

Can confirm it does, I've issued plenty of clearances for A321s lately ?

[Elliot Cross]

How do you mark it on the ATIS, that CDLPC is available? Or would it be via Controller Info?

Edited December 27, 2019 by Elliot Cross

[Robert Ispas]

3 hours ago, Elliot Cross said:

How do you mark it on the ATIS, that CDLPC is available? Or would it be via Controller Info?

Best to have it in Controller info. That's how most controllers have it!

[Simon Kelsey]

Just on a small (but significant!) point of order: be careful not to confuse ACARS PDC with CPDLC.

PDC (Pre Departure Clearance) as used in the UK and as operated with vSMR, is not CPDLC - it is a simple ACARS telex message and, importantly, pilots do not (and must not!) 'log on' to CPDLC to receive it.

CPDLC PDC is a thing but it is used in the USA and Australia mainly to my knowledge.

CPDLC (Controller Pilot Datalink Communications) is mainly used in the enroute environment (not below FL195 in the UK) and is intended to reduce R/T loading for routine instructions such as frequency changes etc. It also means greater accuracy and integrity of instructions and reduce ambiguity. This is where the pilot 'logs on' to the service through the ATC COM pages. Only a limited number of pre-formatted messages are available, not free text.

For instance, you can send a CPDLC climb clearance, the system automatically confirms that the message has been received by the aircraft, then the pilot sends their response and gets an automatic confirmation it has been received by ATC, and in some cases can uplink the cleared altitude direct in to the FCU rather than having to manually twiddle the knob, reducing the chance of input error. Same with DCTs/reroutes and frequency changes - they can generally on modern aircraft (and the FSL A321) be uplinked direct in to the FMS/RMP.

[George Peppard]

1 hour ago, Simon Kelsey said:

Just on a small (but significant!) point of order: be careful not to confuse ACARS PDC with CPDLC.

PDC (Pre Departure Clearance) as used in the UK and as operated with vSMR, is not CPDLC - it is a simple ACARS telex message and, importantly, pilots do not (and must not!) 'log on' to CPDLC to receive it.

CPDLC PDC is a thing but it is used in the USA and Australia mainly to my knowledge.

CPDLC (Controller Pilot Datalink Communications) is mainly used in the enroute environment (not below FL195 in the UK) and is intended to reduce R/T loading for routine instructions such as frequency changes etc. It also means greater accuracy and integrity of instructions and reduce ambiguity. This is where the pilot 'logs on' to the service through the ATC COM pages. Only a limited number of pre-formatted messages are available, not free text.

For instance, you can send a CPDLC climb clearance, the system automatically confirms that the message has been received by the aircraft, then the pilot sends their response and gets an automatic confirmation it has been received by ATC, and in some cases can uplink the cleared altitude direct in to the FCU rather than having to manually twiddle the knob, reducing the chance of input error. Same with DCTs/reroutes and frequency changes - they can generally on modern aircraft (and the FSL A321) be uplinked direct in to the FMS/RMP.

I stand corrected - I have updated the title.

I’ll get to the rest of the post when I am back from holiday and add some information that’s now relevant thanks to the FSL321.

[Bradley De-Lar]

Great guide! Thanks

[Nihar Modak]

requesting a review from the center controllers whether you find cpdlc usage better or the voice communication better and also should cpdlc  be made first priorty radio transmission in vatsim in near future as the real world aviation is getting used to  

 

[William Sandford]

Deleted

Edited April 28, 2020 by William Sandford

[Ricky O'Kane]

Really clear instructions George - thanks for taking the time to share!

I've set up on EGPF_APP - if anyone fancies having a go at requesting clearance by Datalink please look out for me at Glasgow.

Looking forward to trying it out!

Cheers.

Ricky

[Archie Middlefell]

Thanks for this

[Aaron Saji]

Using this can I send PDC direct to vpilot instead of aircraft as datalink?

 

[Cole Edwards]

3 hours ago, Aaron Saji said:

Using this can I send PDC direct to vpilot instead of aircraft as datalink?

 

vPilot doesn't have any kind of PDC system - you can use the .pdc alias in the latest uk controller pack to send pdc-styled clearances as a message.