Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler - ACARS, DVA2006 and YOU!

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | DVA2006 | ACARS, DVA2006 and YOU!

DVA043
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP

Joined on June 10 2001
Event Half Century Club
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
Everett 1500 Club
Bi-Millennium Club
Four Million Mile Club

"Col. Panic"
Marietta, GA

2,316 legs, 9,327.6 hours
240 legs, 553.9 hours online
1,974 legs, 8,120.7 hours ACARS
75 legs, 196.3 hours event
2,352 legs, 9,462.5 hours total
91 legs dispatched, 66.4 hours

Posted onPost created on August 07 2005 19:07 ET by Luke Kolin

This weekend, I communicated to the Delta Virtual staff that DVA2006 has finally been completed. What started off in January as a few static classes and test cases on my PC has slowly over time turned into a living, breathing piece of software. I have a few last items to clean up and finish (like the AFV2006 copy of the site), but overall we're almost ready to go.

This afternoon, I sent off the first "Release Candidate" build to our offsite server. My goal is to test the sytem over the next few weeks to ensure that it meets the same level of reliability that the existing server and its software have been known for. With the exception of a single 72-hour outage because of hardware failure over a weekend in 2003, Delta Virtual Airlines has been running pretty much nonstop since June of 2001, through lightning strikes, a move from my apartment to a house, home renovations, two hardware upgrades and heavens knows else.

The only way DVA2006 is going to match that is for you to sniff around and break things. I fully anticipate that the first bug will be found only minutes after my posting. Only 20 minutes ago I had to update the code because of a bug in the Fleet Library. I'd hazard a guess that we are dealing with approximately 170,000 lines of code, with over 340,000 records in our databases - there's stuff I missed somewhere, and it's up to you to find it.

As an inducement, I'm going to offer you a bribe. The DVA2006 has an empty Fleet Library, but it contains one installer that you might be somewhat interested in - Build 42 of ACARS. This is the new revision, designed explicitly to communicate with the embedded ACARS server in DVA2006. It will give you all of the same ACARS flight logging goodies as before, with a few enhancements. It will load FS9 and SB3 flight plans. It will, if SB3 is running, squawk Charline on takeoff and Standby on landing. It integrates with the DAFIF database and can automatically tune your NAV radios to any VOR or ILS that's in the latest AIRAC cycle. It has a live moving map using Google Maps. And finally, it is linked with our approach charts database and can pull up any SID, STAR, approach or facility chart that is in our database.

The site addres is http://golgotha.deltava.org/

Please log into the site, take a look around, download ACARS 42 and have some fun. Before you rush off right now, let me outline the conditions.

First, ACARS 42 WILL NOT LOG PIREPS TO THE EXISTING WEB SITE, ONLY THE NEW ONE. THIS MEANS THAT ANY FLIGHTS LOGGED USING ACARS MUST BE FILED MANUALLY IF YOU WANT CREDIT FOR THE HOURS AND FLIGHT. I may put a warning dialog on ACARS Build 43 to make this more emphatic. Please file the PIREP using ACARS so you can see all of the position data logging goodies, but then file it again manually on the new site. If this is too much work, then you can wait until September.

Second, NOT EVERYTHING WILL WORK. If something doesn't work, it's going to keep not working until you get off your behind and tell me about it. At the bottom of the left side menu, there's a link called Issue Tracker. If you have a problem, log it there so we can fix it.

Finally, the data in DVA2006 was migrated over several weeks ago. It is old. If you are an AFV pilot or have a DVA seniority number above 2409, it will not let you in. I plan on doing another data migration later this month when I get the AFV side of things fixed to test that out, but until then, sorry.

Other than that, have at it. I have paid close attention to what other virtual airlines have been doing with FSACARS, and it is my intention to go an order of magnitude beyond what they have done thus far. The more you test the system and break stuff, the faster this goes from being the "test" system to the "live" system.

Cheers!

Luke Kolin

Senior Captain, MD-11

Posted onPost created on August 08 2005 07:35 ET by Luke Kolin

At approximately 2145 ET I will be logging into the ACARS server to test out a flight. You are more than welcome to join me to test out the ACARS server in a multi-user environment. If you can't make it, please visit the live ACARS map at http://golgotha.deltava.org/acarsmap.do to watch my flight.

Cheers!

Luke Kolin

Senior Captain, MD-11

DVA950
Senior Captain, B737-800

Joined on November 19 2002
Online Quadruple Century Club
Millennium Club
Million Mile Club
Events Double Century Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary

"Houston, We have a Problem"
Nazareth, PA USA

1,210 legs, 2,875.1 hours
1,147 legs, 2,716.7 hours online
886 legs, 1,977.2 hours ACARS
206 legs, 484.9 hours event

Posted onPost created on August 08 2005 08:00 ET by Anthony Piasecki

Ok Luke started to experiment, Updated my profile, Played with the Moving Map, Downloaded the ACARS, I will Fly a Test Flight Online and see how the online function of the map dispalys, I guess from what I am seeing so far , you have alot of the bugs pretty well worked out.

Anthony Piasecki

Senior Captain, B737-800

DVA1008
Senior Captain, B757-200

Joined on December 14 2002
B757 100 Club
Everett 250 Club
50 State Club
Six Century Club
Online Six Century Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary

"Fly 'till the map turns blue"
Kokomo, IN

633 legs, 1,731.3 hours
613 legs, 1,689.9 hours online
212 legs, 792.3 hours ACARS
35 legs, 77.7 hours event

Posted onPost created on August 08 2005 08:03 ET by Matt Young

I'll be there.

Matt Young

Senior Captain, B757-200

DVA2482
Chief Pilot, B777-200

Joined on July 16 2005
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
Flying Colonel
Globetrotter
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
Everett Millennium Club
Six Million Mile Club

"Master of Gravity"
Boston, MA USA

1,909 legs, 11,955.3 hours
228 legs, 1,400.0 hours online
1,752 legs, 11,085.1 hours ACARS
7 legs, 57.1 hours event

Posted onPost created on August 08 2005 08:48 ET by Oliver McRae

Mr. Kolin I cannot log into the DVA2006 website and i am not in the pilot roster and i am wondering if it is due to the fact that i joined just last month or if it is an error.
thanks for your response.

Oliver McRae (DVA2482)

Posted onPost created on August 08 2005 08:50 ET by Anthony Piasecki

" If you are an AFV pilot or have a DVA seniority number above 2409, it will not let you in. I plan on doing another data migration later this month when I get the AFV side of things fixed to test that out, but until then, sorry."

In A Nut Shell smile

Anthony Piasecki

Senior Captain, B737-800

DVA238
Senior Captain, B737-800

Joined on August 15 2001
Online Double Century Club
B757 100 Club
Millennium Club
Million Mile Club
Everett Millennium Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary

"Repainters, "Get Ready""
Comer, GA

1,485 legs, 3,437.6 hours
235 legs, 435.3 hours online
1,124 legs, 2,800.8 hours ACARS
1 legs dispatched, 1.8 hours

Posted onPost created on August 11 2005 10:08 ET by Brittany Sventon

I can't get into the fleet library on the new site.

Brittany Sventon (DVA238)

Posted onPost created on August 11 2005 10:45 ET by Luke Kolin

What error are you getting?

Cheers!

Luke Kolin

Senior Captain, MD-11

DVA1763
Senior Captain, B757-200

Joined on June 29 2004
Everett 250 Club
Online Six Century Club
Seven Century Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary

Oklahoma City, OK

723 legs, 2,015.0 hours
645 legs, 1,824.0 hours online
585 legs, 1,608.7 hours ACARS
10 legs, 44.8 hours event
740 legs, 2,044.9 hours total

Posted onPost created on August 11 2005 12:48 ET by Steve Pickle

I am 1763 and getting the error I am not active. Is this besause i just transferred back to DVA from AFV?

Steve Pickle (DVA1763)

DVA2527
Senior Captain, B737-800

Joined on August 15 2005
50 State Club
Two Million Mile Club
Quad-Millennium Club
Online Thirty Century
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
Everett Tri-Millennium Club

"Flying Delta's Western Hub"
Salt Lake City, UT USA

4,922 legs, 9,500.0 hours
3,663 legs, 7,166.5 hours online
4,339 legs, 8,326.6 hours ACARS
22 legs, 49.5 hours event

Posted onPost created on August 18 2005 13:24 ET by Joe Porter

Hi Luke,

My Name is Joe Porter and have been communicating with Terry a lot lately, was just hire and still getting my 10 flights to qualify for Captain out of the way. Terry invited me to take a look at your work, but as he expected, since I am a new hire, I can't login. Anyway, look forward to your work.

Joe

Joe Porter

Senior Captain, B737-800

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