How To - smartCARS

[Darren Hill]

Hi all!

The aim of this post is to help members understand what smartCARS is and how we implement it for both FTEs and our Pilot Ratings.

Firstly, what is smartCARS?
smartCARS is the software that VATSIM UK uses to track users flights, in Flight Training Exercises and Pilot Rating lessons, and automatically check the flight was within predefined parameters. While there are times where this can be inaccurate, the system is rather reliable and incorrect results can be manually overridden. Feel free to create a ticket via the Helpdesk should you want a flight result to be manually reviewed.

 

FAQ

1) Do I need to be connected to the VATSIM network for a flight with smartCARS?
We do encourage that you do this, as if there's ATC around it'll be of great benefit! Also, if you are unable to use smartCARS (Linux or Mac user) for a Pilot Training lesson, then its the only way we can track and verify the flight actually took place.

2) Do I have to use smartCARS?
Flight Training Exercises: Yes, as this is the only way we can track the flight.
Pilot Rating Lessons: If you are on Windows then yes, as this is our primary source for checking the self-study lessons. SmartCARS gives us some REALLY useful data like landings rates, cues like flap extension, and of course a ground track with an accompanying speed/altitude graph that is much more accurate than on https://map.vatsim.net/. As mentioned above, Linux and Mac users can request an alternative for Pilot Training.

3) How do I book a flight?
Booking the FTE is essentially "booking" the flight that smartCARS will compare your flight track to. In the backend, we have it setup such that it will automatically grade the flight based off of several criteria which have been put in place (for the P1 lessons these are quite relaxed compared to the "real" FTEs). This allows these flights to be done completely on your own, with us kind of just checking you didn't crash or mess up too badly. You can book these flights at the FTE dashboard: https://www.vatsim.uk/fte/exercises.

4) How do I file a PIREP?
Once you have completed a flight with smartCARS running, more on this below, you can click End Flight and it should either give you an option to submit a PIREP (you can leave the comments etc. blank) or it will automatically do it.

5) Who do I contact for support?
smartCARS is created by the TFDi team and not maintained, beyond a user level, by VATSIM UK. As such, the TFDi forums are the best place to get support for the software.

 

Here's some steps to use smartCARS:

1. A) Pilot Rating Lesson: From the Moodle, click the "Book Flight Training Exercise" option under the relevant lesson.
   B) Flight Training Exercise: Go to https://www.vatsim.uk/fte/exercises and select the exercise you wish to fly.
    
2. On the left of the screen, click the "Book Flight" button.
   
    
3. In smartCARS, navigate to the "FLIGHTS" tab from the homescreen.
   
    
4. Once there, select the flight in the upper half of the screen, then hit "Fly".
   
    
5. On the flight setup page, the route, A/C registration, passenger count, and altitude will already be filled. You can select whether you're on the network or not, and then click "Start".
   Note: The altitude box for some of the PPL lessons will not be filled. The far right box (in this example, filled with 1300) must then be filled manually.
   
6. Once the flight is completed, you can click on the Finish button to submit the flight along with the PIREP comments entered in the text box. The flight can also be cancelled at any time using the Cancel button.
   
   
    

Feel like I missed something? Feel free to add it as a comment to this post and I shall address it in the post.

Edited July 9, 2021 by Darren Hill

[Jeremy Kent]

Hi Darren,

For Mac users Bellerophon is an alternative smartCARS flight tracker for X-Plane. I've tried it with the Flight Training Exercises and it all works... apart from position reports. My flights were logged - complete with actions and landing rates etc - but not where I flew. I still passed though!

Apparently Bellerophon works with lots of Virtual Airlines and someone at Delta Virtual Air Lines kindly proved my setup worked with them. So, we know I'm outputting my position. I've spoken with the developer; his best guess is that the format expected by the receiver is somehow slightly different. I expect it we knew what it was, the developer would be happy to tweak Bellerophon accordingly. Any chance we could get this?

I previously swapped messages Alex Toff about this on this thread. As someone hoping to complete the Pilot Training it would be great to sort this. I'm happy to act as a Mac-user guinea pig if that helps!

Cheers,

Jez

Edited June 7, 2021 by Jeremy Kent