ACARS

ACARS is a term used to refer to Flight Tracking software used to provide data to our System. That software is as follows: > smartCARS for Windows PC > FlightTrackerXP for MacOS (X-Plane only)

FlightTrackerXP | MacOS

Prior to 1 December 2021, this was known as Belerophon.

FlightTrackerXP is a paid application. You must purchase and download it from the Apple's App Store.
We do not own, develop or provide support for it. For support, contact the Developer.

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The FlightTrackerXP application is subscription-based flight tracking software created specifically for MacOS in support of  Laminar Research's X-Plane.

 

It may be downloaded here from Apple's App Store.

 

Once downloaded, you'll be required to complete a few items to set it up.

 

Launch

Once you open up the application, you will want to click on the + at the bottom right to add a virtual airline.

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Airline Configuration Page

This is the Airline Configuration Page.

On the left side, scroll down and find Walker Air Transport and click it.

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When you click on our airline, it is going to default to smartCARS 2 as the TYPE. You must change this otherwise you will be unable to log in. We do not support FlightTrackerXP on the smartCARS 2 API as of August 15th, 2023.

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Type smartCARS 3
Name Walker Air Transport
Address https://acars.walkerair.us/api/flighttrackerxp
Username This is your email address used to log into CrewOps
Password

This is the password used to log into CrewOps
Other Settings

You are free to set these as you wish

Click the Save button.

Home Page

On the Home Page, your Pilot stats can be viewed.

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Bookings Page

On the Bookings Page, you can view your Bids.

Enter your route in the Route Text Box and and click the Start Tracking button to begin your flight.

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ACARS Page

On the ACARS Page, your active flight and log file are displayed.

At end of your flight, click the Finish button. Your flight data will be transmitted to our Flight Data System to generate your PIREP.

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Map Page

On the Map Page, you can track your flight.

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Support
User Manual FlightTrackerXP's User Manual can be accessed here:
https://www.griesslehner.at/flighttrackerxp/manual
Discord If you have installation or start-up issues with FlightTrackerXP, you must contact the Developer on their Discord. The staff at Walker Air Transport will not be able to provide application support outside an invalid login account.
Discord Link:  https://discord.com/invite/GF9sEdE

smartCARS 3 | Windows PC Mac OS Linux

If you haven't already read the Flight Operations chapter, we recommend you do so now before continuing.

Important INFO! Please Read This!

There are two important things you need to know.

1. In the settings for smartCARS 3, if you are a PC user with X-Plane, you do not use the 'xplane' option under Tracking Provider. There is a bug and it will result in your livery not being logged and your flight will be rejected. We do not have the bandwidth to fix this for every pilot. We have asked TFDi to fix this problem and as soon as they do, we will notify everyone.

YOUR FLIGHT WILL BE REJECTED IF YOU DO NOT USE XPUIPC AND CONFIGURE SMARTCARS3 CORRECTLY AND WE WILL NOT OVERRIDE THIS.

Click here to download and read our installation instructions for XPUIPC for XP11/12 in order to not have your flights rejected.

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2. You cannot run your simulator as administrator. If you have "User Access Control" enabled on your PC and you received a popup asking you if you wanted to run X-Plane, MSFS, or Prepar3D and you clicked yes -- your application has been hard set to "run as administrator". If you attempt to try and fly you will be presented with this error.

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How can I fix this?

 

You will need to find your executable file (not your shortcut file), right click and choose properties, compatibility, and uncheck the "Run as Administrator".

 

Another option is to also completely disable 'User Access Control' but that is your choice. You can watch this video and decide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2XlznYAcAQ

 

If you continue to have problems after doing this, you will need to contact TFDi at the support links above.

 

Downloading and Support

To download smartCARS 3 for PC, Mac, or Linux, please visit here: https://smartcars.tfdidesign.com/central/download

Plug-In's Required

If you require support with the application, you need to contact TFDi Designs at one of the links below.
Walker Air Transport cannot provide support for the application.

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/tfdidesign
GitHub: https://github.com/invernyx/smartcars-3-bugs
Support Portal: https://support.tfdidesign.com/support/home

You can view the official user manual from TFDi here: https://docs.invernyx.com/en/smartcars3/beta-guide

The following details below will walk you through the application from the perspective of a pilot at Walker Air Transport. There are features in the TFDi user manual that we will/do not deploy in our virtual airline.

Logging into smartCARS 3

When you launch smartCARS 3, you will be asked to log in with your TFDi account.

 

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You do not have to create or login with an account, you can simply click on 'Skip TFDi Design Login.

If you choose to not create and/or login with a TFDi account, you will not be visible on their map under our virtual airline. You will also be unable to access your premium features you purchased from TFDi.

On the next screen, choose 'Walker Air Transport'.

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You can now log into our virtual airline by using your email or pilot ID number (do not include WAT, just enter the 3-4 digits.)
The username and password here is the exact same username and password used to log into our website.

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If you cannot log in, please attempt to log into https://crew.walkerair.us -- if that works then you are typing something wrong in smartCARS 3.

Main Page

The Main Page screen containing your name, pilot ID, and rank will appear together with your personal statistics – total hours, total flights and average landing rate. You will also get notifications in this panel as well as be able to logout using the button under your name and rank.

For a new, first time Pilot, these fields will be blank because no flights have been completed.

To navigate through the remaining sections within smartCARS, click the icons in the left column. You can drag these icons around as well to create your preferred menu layout.

 

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My Flights

In order to see the flights that you’ve completed a bid from the crew site, click on this image-1688300033767.pngicon on the left side of the screen.

NOTE:  If you've completed a Bid and it doesn't show up, click the image-1688300076378.pngicon on the top right.

 

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A pilot's first instinct is going to be to click on the image-1688300194648.png button, however please be aware there is more data and options available if you click on the physical bid itself. 

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Please read this section in it's entirety, the way smartCARS 3 operates is completely different than smartCARS.

In smartCARS 3, a pilot is no longer required to enter their route, cruise altitude, and load. This information comes from a couple different sources within the Walker Air Transport bid as well as simBrief.

Route Your route will be blank unless you (A) enter a custom route in this box, or (B) you used our simBrief integration to build your flight plan.
Cruise Altitude Cruise is automated in smartCARS 3, it will detect when you are in this phase and adjust if you should have to conduct step climbs or descents.
Load Every pilot briefing is given a random load based on a couple variables. You can see this load by visiting your pilot briefing and looking at the left side. If you use our simBrief integration to generate your flight plan, it will use the load provided by our website or a custom load you enter. Read more here.

Using our simBrief integration (read more here) will ensure that your route and load are prepopulated for your flight.

Selection of online service (VATSIM, IVAO, POSCON, PilotEdge) should be done here as well, this will allow you to show up on the CrewOps map in your ATC network color.

Once all checks out and your plane is at the departure airport and is stationary, you can hit the fly button.

Using the image-1688300396124.png button here will also delete your bid in our CrewOps.

 

Flight Tracking

Selecting Fly on the My Flights page will connect your smartCARS to the sim, and will bring you to the Flight Tracking page. In this page, you can monitor your flight log for any erroneous logs. In this page, you can also change your route (by clicking the Show Route) and add comments (by typing into comment field then pressing enter) to the flight log in realtime as needed.

Pause at TOD is now the toggle button at the bottom left of the screen, under the comment field.

There is also a drop down that will allow you to change your online network status while in flight. If you are on VATSIM or any other online service and accidentally forget to specify that at the start of your flight, you can now do it while in flight.

Your TOD is a rough approximation by the application based on your altitude and thus will not exactly match the TOD on your aircraft's ND and may, in certain cases, be after your FMS-calculated TOD.

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Flight Completion & PIREP Submission

After landing at your destination, taxi to the ramp, come to a complete stop and shut down your engines.

In smartCARS3 - the only way to end a flight is by shutting down ALL engines - this is the only way for the End Flight button to appear after you've landed

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Once you have shut down your engines, End Flight will appear on the bottom right, which once you hit, will send your PIREP to the Walker system. Once it is processed, a confirmatory notification on the bottom right will show up. If you have smartCARS premium, it will also notify that the logs have been sent to TFDi servers.

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If you didn’t exceed our flight requirements and/or standards, your PIREP will be automatically approved – and that will be verified by its presence in your Logbook.

Flight Length Calculation

Veteran pilots who used smartCARS2 before may be confused with how total flight time is calculated in smartCARS 3 - unlike the previous version where it starts from pushback and ends only once the plane has reached a complete stop, the current version calculates total flight time using off blocks to in blocks.

Map Tab

The Map referenced here is not the same one on the Crew Ops website. This shows various densities depending on your filter selection on the top right - ranging from VA-only to online networks.

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Chat

Clicking and opening this tab will enable to you to chat with someone else using smartCARS. There are 2 options - global chat which allows you to chat with all smartCARS users, and a VA-only chat which only Walker pilots can access.

The Walker chat is usually very quiet as most pilots are on Discord - we highly encourage joining us there for questions and just general banter.

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Logbook

This page allows you to see your previous logged flights with the VA, and its PIREP status. You can also use the search and filter options if you are looking for a certain flight.

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You can click on a flight to see more details, including the flight log, map, route, etc.

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We highly recommend using the Walker CrewOps Logbook instead of the smartCARS one as that provides more detailed information. Further, flights logged with SC2 will not show all details in the SC3 viewer - particularly actual route flown on the map.

Plugins

In this page, you may add community-built plugins to enhance your smartCARS user experience.

As of now, there are no Walker-specific plugins added, nor are there any aside from the default ones that you will need to be able to fly for Walker.

Do note that the available SimBrief plugin in SC3 does not communicate with the Walker website - which means your passenger counts, routes, etc will not automatically sync on the CrewOps OFP page. We highly suggest using Walker's own SimBrief integration available on the CrewOps site, and we will not be liable for any PIREP inaccuracies or rejections resulting from the usage of the SC3 SimBrief plugin.

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Settings

smartCARS 3 has a number of settings that you may adjust as you see fit and to align with your preferences - none of these settings should stop you from being able to log flights with Walker aside from tracking provider, so set them as you'd like.

For XPLANE users - do not use the UDP network option (marked as "xplane" in settings) as there is a bug that precludes the Walker system from detecting proper livery usage, and will lead to rejection of your flight. Please continue to use XPUIPC and select "FSUIPC" in tracking provider in settings.

TFDi allows pilots of X-Plane to use UDP network traffic to log flights. However, UDP currently has a bug that precludes the Walker ACARS system from detecting correct livery use, and thus should not be used at the moment. Please use the "FSUIPC" option for all simulators.

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smartCARS 3 | XPUIPC for X-Plane 11/12

In order to fly with Walker Air Transport using smartCARS 3 and X-Plane 11 or 12, you are required to install XPUIPC plugin and set smartCARS 3 accordingly. The UDP option in smartCARS 3 has a bug and will not record your livery, and as a result you will have rejected flights every time. The way our virtual airline operates and the autonomous systems we have in place, we are not able to manually approve each and every pilot's flight because of this bug.

Please follow these instructions and if you have any questions reach out to us on Discord or by email.

Lastly, we STRONGLY urge our pilot base to submit tickets to TFDi and/or reply to our bug report here: https://github.com/invernyx/smartcars-3-bugs/issues/351

Click here to download XPUIPC for XP11/12.

  1. Open up the zip file, you want to copy the single folder 'XPUIPC' to your X-Plane 11 or 12 installation. You can ignore the other files/folders, if you don't know what they are then they do not pertain to you.

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  2. Drop the XPUIPC folder into your XP 11 or 12 installation folder / Resources / plugins

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    You should see the plugin listed with all your other plugins (this is a fresh install so there are no 3rd party plug-ins.)image-1699277809492.png

  3. You can verify that the plugin is successfully installed by launching X-Plane and moving your mouse to the top of the screen > Plugins > XPUIPC > XPUIPC Version and Info

    If you see this, and the version, you have successfully installed XPUIPC.

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  4. Open smartCARS 3, and click the image-1699277877412.png settings button.

     

  5. Scroll down to Plugin Settings and click the drop down next to Tracking Provider and choose 'fsuipc'. Ignore the name as it's misleading, this option enables both FSUIPC and XPUIPC tracking. Click the save button at the top right.

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  6. Now start your flight and you will see that the livery is being tracked appropriately in your log file.

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If you have any issues, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.