JetStar Virtual Airlines for FSX Flight Simulator X Online in Singapore and Australia

SimACARS Flight Tracker Tutorial for Virtual Airline Pilots

After you have logged in and selected a flight from your virtual airline's web site this is the first thing that you will see. It will say that your flight has not been found. Make sure that you have connected to the network that you have selected to fly on. Make sure that you are the airport that you are scheduled to be departing.

Once your flight has been found you will receive the "Welcome on Board" announcement through your web browser. At this same time your status will show that your flight is "Online and Ready for Departure". At this time you are free to depart from your destination. The number at the top right of the screen counts down in seconds and when it reaches 0 it refreshes the data.

After you have departed your departure airport the SimACARS Flight Tracker will show that you are "Departing". This is when your aircraft is flying between 50 knots and 250 knots (TAS) True Air Speed. If you are flying a turboprop then this is between 50 knots and 200 knots.

Once you have passed 250 knots in a jet aircraft or 200 knots in a turboprop aircraft on the next data update the SimACARS flight tracker will show that your status is "Cruising". During this period you will receive random in flight announcements throughout the flight. The Flight Tracker will continuously update your remaining miles to your scheduled destination airport and your on time performance. You must make sure that you keep your browser open during the flight or it will not track your flight. You may keep your browser minimized and this page does not affect any other software that you may be running on your computer. The SimACARS Flight Tracker automatically saves your flight's last position. If your flight simulator or browser crashes then you can simply log back in through your virtual airline's web site and select to "Continue" the flight if your flight is saved in your flight simulator. This is equally useful to saving your flight in Flight Simulator, shutting down your computer, and continuing your flight at a later time if you want to.

We have tried to work hard to ensuring that the flight tracker does not freeze up but there are always variables that we cannot control. The most common problem for this is internet pipelines that get overwhelmed between your Internet Service Provider and the SimMiles Server. If you see that the countdown number in the top right hand corner has stopped counting down or that the aircraft symbol in the bottom left has turned red then this means that the tracker has frozen. In this case all you have to do is refresh your screen and SimACARS will continue to track your flight normally. If you are continuously experiencing difficulties with SimACARS then you can "check" the "Debug" botton at the top left of the flight tracker. Then you have to click on the aircraft symbol on the bottom left hand and it will give you a string a of data. If SimACARS freezes while the Debug is selected and it is receiving data then you can simple copy this data and send it to SimMiles staff to examine. We will try to identify the problem and see what we can do to fix it.

Once you start your descent and your jet aircraft TAS is below 250 knots or 200 knots for turboprop aircraft you will receive the Approach announcement and your flight tracker's status will change to "On Approach". If for whatever reason during the cruising phase of your flight your true air speed falls below 250 knots or below 200 knots for turboprop aircraft this announcement and status will play and the status will change. Once you bring your airspeed back up to over 250 knots for jet aircraft or over 200 knots for turboprop aircraft again the status will automatically change back to "Cruising". The approach phase is very important becuase you must pass this phase in order for your flight to be completely tracked and submitted. If you do a high speed approach and your aircraft is not between 50-250 knots or 50-200 knots for turboprop aircraft for at least 2 minutes, then after you land the Flight Tracker will lose the tracking of your flight.

After you have landed at your scheduled destination your flight will automatically be submitted. You will receive exactly the scheduled amount of hours for the flight regardless of how long the flight took you to complete. The Flight Tracker will only submit your flight as completed if you flew for at least 90% of the during of the time that the flight was scheduled for. For example if your flight is 2 hours long the Flight Tracker will process your flight as completed after 1 hour and 48 minutes. Otherwise the SimACARS flight tracker will say that you have "X" amount of minutes remaining until a gate becomes available for your flight and it will make you wait before it submits your flight as completed. If you land at the wrong airport then the flight tracker will simply lose tracking of your flight and not submit it as completed. When you are on the ground before departure and after arrival make sure that you do not taxi above 50 knots or the tracker will then too lose tracking of your flight once you have landed at your scheduled destination.