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What is ACARS? (From Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia)
Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System (or ACARS) is a
digital datalink system for transmission of small messages between
aircraft and ground stations via radio or satellite. The protocol was
defined in the 1970s and uses telex formats. It will be superseded by
the Aeronautical Telecommunications Network (ATN) protocol.
XACARS is a plugin for X-Plane that emulates the real world ACARS
system. The flight data sent by the XAcars system can be used to plot a
pilots position on Google Maps
and Google Earth.
Download and install Google Earth.
Download the CAX ACARS Live Google Earth overlay and open it in Google Earth. Save your temporary places folder when you exit Google Earth.
This file is not needed any longer after you have saved the changes in Google Earth.
XAcars can also be used to send your flight report (PIREP) to CalAir.
Download the plugin from XAcars.net Web Page
Copy
the file xacars.xpl (capitalization is different for mac, linux and
windows) and the folder XAcars to your /x-plane/resources/plugins
folder.
Windows users must copy the files from BASEDIR to x-planes root folder (that's the folder where your x-plane.exe is).
On Linux and OSX these libraries should be installed - if not please install them.
Download the .INI File for California Airline, unzip and copy XAcars.ini to the /x-plane/Resoures/plugins/XAcars folder.
Start X-Plane and open XAcars when you are ready.
 
Before
you can use XAcars the first time, you have to enter your loginname and
password (the same as the Home page login) in XAcars Preferences.
You can only enter the XAcars Preferences when the engines are off.
Preferences should be set as follows:
ACARS Server URL http://www.californiaair.net/acars/liveacars.php
PIREP Server URL http://www.californiaair.net/acars/CAXpirep.php
FlightInfoServer URL http://www.californiaair.net/acars/flightdata.php
ACARS Server User Your California Air username.
Acars Server Password Your California Air password.
You can enter the Acars flight
info manually, import from Acars (Flight Schedules), import from XSB, or import from FMS.
Enter the flight number to import a flight from the flight schedules.
You need to start XSB and enter your flight plan before clicking Flight Data from XSB.
First three characters of the Flight Number is the type of flight.
The following flight number prefixes must match a flight number listed in the Flight Schedules!
CAX = Airline
CRG = Cargo Operations
GBR = Golden Bear
GCB = Golden Cub
EXP = California Express
SPO = Special Operations
SCH = Special Charters
CHS = California Heli Services
Flight number may be up to 12 characters.
You may include any alphanumeric characters with these flight number prefixes.
CKR = Check Ride
FLY = Flyin Event
PVT = Private Flight
VFR = VFR Flight
TST = Test Flight
TST is only for California Airlines Test Pilots use.
California Airline Aircraft ICAO Codes
The Aircraft must be a valid California Airlines Aircraft ICAO code with the following exceptions:
If Type of Flight is "Alliance" enter the name of the aircraft flown up to 20 characters. It will be changed to "Alliance ACF" when the PIREP is saved in the database.
If Type of Flight is "Test Flight" enter a valid California Airlines Aircraft ICAO code. If the ICAO is not found the aircraft will be changed to "R and D Aircraft" and the text entered for the aircraft will be saved as Type of Test when the PIREP is saved in the database.
When you are ready to make your flight click Start Acars.
You can only start acars tracking when the engines are off.
When you finish a flight and shutdown the engines XAcars will open for you to send your flight PIREP, if it didn't open automatically, open it.
XAcars version 2.5 has a comments line, enter a comment if you would like, your comment will be stored in the database and will be included in your PIREP sent to the Hub Manager.
Click View PIREP and then click Send PIREP. You may want to Save the PIREP if it is not sent successively.
Note: DO NOT click exit until you have saved or sent your PIREP. You may NOT be able to view it again.
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