SquawkBox for PS1.3a User Manual and Tutorial
Contents
1. such as in Voice available on 193 130 4 110 EHAM_v_APP You can usually spot controllers who use voice communications because they have a _v_in their callsign but this is not a requirement In the Controllers in Range box you can get an imme diate overview of controllers with a RogerWilco voice connection 6 1 1 Manual tuning The most direct way to tune RogerWilcois by manually setting the host and then manually connect to join the channel rw h 193 130 4 110 then rw j eham v app The chance is high that you do not need to reset the host often as many facilities use the same host Note also that you can must use the dash instead of the underscore When approaching an airport and directed by ATC to switch to another frequency and therefore RogerWilco channel having to retune the radio listen in to the new station s ATIS then retune RogerWilco is completely impractical SquawkBox 747 therefore contains an Autotuner that facili tates RogerWilco channel switching 6 1 2 Autotuning Although not guaranteed fail safe the Autotuner will in most cases cor rectly find the appropriate RogerWilco host and channel for you Controllers are required to put their RogerWilco host and channel in their ATIS SO SB747 can look up this data for you The program will ask 23 for the controller s ATIS as soon as the controller is recognized on the net work and re fetch the ATIS every 30 minutes after that Incoming ATIS messages are2. switch off the weather updates and set your own winds with the winds command and your own weather with the wxr command 5 3 Wind Aloft Forecasts On long haul flights it is mandatory to have proper wind aloft forecasts available Unfortunately theonlineATc networks do not provide real world winds at altitude so the normal skewed T charts and other available re sources are of no use for your flight planning So sB747 had to contain a smart look ahead feature so that you can actually get the winds out ahead before you get there First make sure you imported a PS1 route filein your flight plan oth erwise sB747 does not know where you want to fly Then go online type probe and sit back sB747 will fetch all the winds aloft on the waypoints of your flight plan for you list them in the log window and also dump them in the file etc winds txt This feature is still under development so it might produce slightly different information depending on what version of SB747 you are using During the probe sequence your plane s radar echo will most likely blink a few times so it is best and most realistic to probe the winds as part of your preflight and not while airborne We are aware that the current mapping from network winds to Ps1 winds is less than optimal Any good solution to map from the four net work wind layers to PS1 s continuous atmosphere model is welcome 21 Chapter 6 RogerWilco RogerWilco is a free voice re
3. be created This file may be thrown away at any time but in case of problems it might contain valuable tracing information that the sB747 authors might find useful Thereare no other files involved in the SquawkBox system If you delete all files and the directories every trace of the program is gone from your machine If you want to move the program just move all files together as long as you maintain the structure with the three subdirectories The reason why you get a small directory tree instead of just a flat struc ture has to do with the development of sB 747 Full source code releases when available will be able to gracefully coexist with the current wrapped version in the same directory tree 2 2 The 747 Broker SB 747 just by itself cannot work with Ps1 You need one additional pro gram for this called the Broker It can be gotten from the same Web site as you got sB747 from The Broker comes with ts own documentation Please make sure it works correctly before you try out sB 747 2 3 Starting SquawkBox for PS1 There are various ways of starting sB747 You can start it directly from the Start Run menu of Windows This is convenient for a first try but not suitable for permanent usage You can also start sB 747 from a DOS window which has the same draw backs as from the Start Run menu However you can write a batch file that includes commands to start both sB 747 and friends plus PS1 together or does even morethings
4. call sign because you will not be able to change it during your online session All other fields can be changed while you are online so you can change your mind or divert simply by changing and then resubmitting your flight plan Not fillingin a field may lead to the network server rejecting your flight plan so please fill them all in even if it is with zeroes some institutions such as the NOAA Thevirtual air traffic networks download this information about every 90 minutes so you might see a delay of a couple of hours compared to the real weather 2 http www weather glideslope de 3 http rogerwilco gamespy com Snttp www hoppie nl rwd 12 SquawkBox 747 Flight Plan Callsign TEN Livery Boeing for scenery generators Origin EHAM Destination LPPT Alternate LPPR Planned departure time fizos Z Actual departure time foooo Ez Planned TAS soo kts Planned altitude 370 ft FL Planned time enroute ozso hhmm Endurance fuel aboard 0400 hhmm Remarks to ATC om A Route max 255 characters 4 lines LEKKO UB31 WOODY UNS7 2 FIM R Cancel Clear Import Figure 3 3 The Flight Plan Dialog Window You must select a callsign that is unique at that moment for the whole network An appropriate livery selection is up to you select Boeing for a no frills standard Boeing 747 400 factory look Origin destination and alternate airports using four letter cao codes are straightforward
5. code to your name to give a hint about where you live Pilot 1D and password are handed out by your network and are strictly personal In the SquawkBox Configuration part of the dialog box you must fill in the host IP address where the Broker can be found In casethe Broker runs on the same machine as B 747 leave the default of localhost 10 SquawkBox 747 Setup Server Configuration Host Name WATSIM EUROPE C Pilot Name Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers EHGR Pilot CID 511469 Password sax SquawkBox Configuration Broker Host 192 168 50 2 Msg arrival ajaj in seconds DDD BF amp Sa Tl High priority IV Traffic passthrough I Show callsigns I Clock callout IV Weather update VV Join ACARS network MV Disconnect message Lag to File Browse Path roger exe remote Browse qu Cancel Figure 3 2 The Setup Dialog Window The slider sets the minimum number of seconds in between messages in PS1 When you do not have enough time to read the messages increase this number On slower systems the High Priority setting might improve perfor mance and decrease network lag This switch will only take effect the next time you start B 747 Show Callsigns can be handy in case you lose track of who is saying what to who In reality radio messages of course are not automatically tagged with the identity of the transmitter that s why there is such a strict protocol of callsign use But
6. displayed If this queue gets too long you should decrease the minimum time between messages in the Setup box otherwise you will lag further and further behind ATC Messages which contain your call sign are automatically put at the head of the queue to improve responsiveness 4 1 3 ATIS Receiving ATIS messages is also a function of the radio set However the network usually does not transmit ATIS on VHF directly neither with the facility ATIS bound to a callsign nor with the AutoaTIs that is bound toa frequency So in order to get ATIS you must send a special command atis The reception of the ATIS will be channeled to your VHF radio set though and you will get the message displayed in the outside view window In case 1Make sure that Ps1 can get at this file otherwise it obviously cannot play it 17 you want to receive the ATIS associated with the facility you are already tuned into either a facility ATIS or an AutoATIS you can just type atis 5B 747 will try to find out the callsign by itself or detect that you want a response from the ATIS server In case you want to poll another facility add its callsign to the atis command Not all stations provide ATIS all the time and once in a while the mes sage format is less than desirable for Ps1 In case of severe readability problems temporarily switch back to the B 747 graphical user interface to peek at the log window 4 2 ACARS SB747 has pretty good ACARS
7. in the previous paragraph with the data required for traffic display but as of this writing neither of them supports this feature yet Markus Vitzetum s external instrument panels include the traffic in formation of sB 747 and even calculate proper TCAS warnings r http www jcavanagh flyer co uk si alpha htm 2 http mypage bluewin ch Visual744 3http www displays glideslope de Chapter 2 Installation To install B 747 just create a suitable directory somewhere we suggest calling it sb747 and unpack the z1P filein this directory with a suitable unzipper such as WinZip PKUNZIP or UNZIP The result will be three additional directories inside your directory bin etc and 1ib Make sure you use the create directories option of your unzipper d with PKUNZIP UseFolder Names with WinZip You now have installed sB 747 If you are in High Anxiety Mode with the Broker already installed and running and just want to get going you are cleared to proceed directly to Chapter 3 2 1 Files This section describes the purpose of the files that make up sB747 Inthebin directory you will find a single rather large 3M b executable called sb747 exe in lib one file called priority dl1 and in etc four files called aircraft cfg hosts txt icaopos txt and expand txt These small files are plain ASCII lists of network servers supported aircraft liveries ICAO weather stations and phrase shortcuts respectively You only nee
8. scanned for the RogerWilco host and channel and if avail able this information is stored in sB 747 memory You can review this list in the Controllers in Range box at all times You activate the Autotuner with rw a on You only need todo this once as this mode is retained in between sB 747 sessions In the rare occasion that you would want to deactivate the Autotuner use rw a off rw a lists the current Autotuner mode Whilein Autotuner mode B 747 will tune RogerWilco immediately af ter you change VHF frequency you have instant contact with the new controller sB747 will tell you whether a RogerWilco channel was avail able by flashing Connected to XXX on voice in the outside view window Alternatively it tells you Connected to XXX on text If you suspect a station to have changed RogerWilco host or channel you can re poll the station for the new information with the rw p callsign command If you leave the callsign out rw p the currently tuned station is repolled This is very useful with many RogerWilco problems as quite often a straightforward re tune will solve them In case SB 747 announces Connected on voice and you don t get voice contact try rw p 6 1 3 Future Developments For true integration of RogerWilco we need to wait until the networks com plete a special RogerWilco mapping server or integrates the RogerWilco channel in their server software As soon as this facility becomes avail able each controlle
9. such as setting the volume of your sound card and download yoke commands Lastly you can start the program through an icon or shortcut that you make This probably is the most handy way on Windows especially if you also write a startup batch file which fires up PS1 and the associated helper programs on top Putting the program somewhere in the Programs menu is a good alternative All ways of starting aretechnically equivalent You do not need to switch to the directory where the executable is located the program will find out where it lives and from there it searches for the other required files 2 http www hoppie nl 2 3 1 Recommended Start Order There is a preferred order to start all programs although they do not de pend on this order Generally it causes the least hiccups and error mes sages when you start the Broker first then sB 747 then if you want to RogerWilco then Ps1 which will take you to full screen mode You need to start RogerWilco before PS1 so that the first gets the sound card With some sound cards like the SoundBlaster Live series this is not any longer required and you can let sB 747 start RogerWilco when it is tuned for the first time In case one of the programs crashes just restart it All programs are designed to re establish communication with each other as soon as they reappear on your system In case B747 itself crashes you need to make the server connection again manually Chapter 3 Gettin
10. support It does not perform all ACARS func tions exactly like in reality because PS1 does not allow overriding of the ATIS and weather functions But you have full access to the telex function ality which can be used for about everything Important sB 747 has actually two ACARS systems The one described here lives on the virtual air traffic network and uses the mcDu of Ps1 It is fully integrated in PS1 you do never need to leave the virtual flight deck to operate it The other system described in Chapter 8 uses a separate network that has nothing to do with either VATSIM or IVAO and can only be accessed via the special MCDU that sB 747 provides 4 2 1 Telex Incoming private messages chat mode and system wide broadcasts end up in your Ps1 flight deck mcpu They will sound the EICAS chime and be announced on the scratch pad You can use the standard ACARS TELEX page to review the message If you have a message waiting to be read and another new message comes in it will overwrite the waiting message Each message is always preceded by the reception time in PS1 Zulu By means of the ACARS TELEX SEND feature you can compose a message to any other station or plane on the virtual ATC network You must put the required callsign as the first word of the message followed by the rest on as many lines as you need After you press the SEND button of the F mc the message will be sent directly to the facility This can take a few
11. virtual pilots and sometimes even con trollers tend to get lazy about this because the SquawkBox for MSF s always displays the originating callsigns automatically With this switch you can select whether or not you want the extra callsign display Most times you would want automatic continuous weather updates rea son to check the box Weather Update This synchronises the weather in PS1 with the weather such as exists in the virtual world This weather is more or less synchronised with the real weather in the real world If you 1The real world weather stations submit reports every hour These reports are collected by 11 leave this switch off sB 747 will not touch any weather setting and another program such as SimWX can take over With Disconnect Message you can select whether or not you want a notification sent to you by ACARS if the network goes down You will get a message in the outside view window in any case The Traffic Passthrough setting should only be switched on if your sys tem is powerful enough and if you want it With this switch off you do not get any pilots in the Pilots in Range box and if you have any TCAS capable program connected to the Broker it won t receive traffic information The upside is that you will significantly reduce the cpu load that sB 747 causes especially when there is a lot of traffic out there In case you fly with your Ps1 board clock set to real time you will want to sele
12. you planned for Since there are few airports in the oceans it is probably best to use the last airport before the crossing as reference for the first half of the oceanic leg and the first airport after the crossing for the second half Or use the weather that is in effect at your current first choice deviation airport 20 5 2 Automatic weather If you switch on the weather updates in the Setup box B 747 will provide you automatically with the correct weather The program determines where you are and requests the correct weather for that area every five minutes You can also force an immediate weather update to the nearest cao station by the wxr command without an Cao code Sometimes the network cannot provide the weather for the requested station In that case SB 747 tries the next closest station and continues until some weather is found sB 747 shifts to a reduced set of weather stations when below FL240 to save CPU time In cruise all 6000 cao stations are scanned for the nearest one During departure or arrival only the nearest 20 stations at the beginning of the flight or when crossing FL 240 are used Network winds aloft are not always as physically logical as you would want They might even behave counter intuitive eg with their direction decreasing with altitude on the Northern hemisphere This is due to the incomplete weather model of most networks it is not an sB747 issue In case the winds are really annoying
13. 25 7 1 Lists of Pilots and Controllers in Range 25 7 2 Direct Communications o o oo e 27 7 3 Offline ATC the Robot o o 28 7 4 Dot Commands 0 00002 eee ee 28 7 5 Expanding VHF Messages o o e 31 7 6 Ground Position Tracking Tricks 31 8 External Systems 33 8 1 TheexternalMCDU o oo e eee 33 8 2 BasicACARS principles o o oo 33 8 3 ACARS menu structure o e 4 35 83 1 Preflight cos ia ee ee rt ion 35 8 3 2 Inflight coreo oia EA 36 8 33 POSHO a rna ra y a AA a 37 8 3 4 Received Messages o o e 38 9 3 9 ROQUESES cdo cs aw a dr e a ed 38 8 4 ATCTUNCIONS ri a a A ee 39 8 5 GorFlight Hardware o o o eee 40 92003 Kees Leune and J eroen Hoppenbrouwers All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recording potato stamp or otherwise except as documentation with the SquawkBox for Aerowinx 747 400 Precision Simulator program without the prior permission from the au thors Acknowledgments This program could not have been written without the help of a number of people First and foremost Hardy Heinlin who wrote 747 400 Precision Simulator and has been the driving force behind most of the developments aroun
14. Radio Tuning page shows the currently tuned frequency the sta tion s callsign if thereis a station operative on this frequency and its Roger Wilco details if available You may re poll the station for RogerWilco retails with LSK6R Oncein a while this saves the day Otherwise you may manu ally override all items on this page except for the callsign 39 Figure 8 6 The Radio Tuning Page Figure 8 7 The GoF light GF166 Versatile Radio Panel 8 5 GoFlight Hardware GoF light Inc produces several hardware modules that have been inte grated in sB 747 You can tunethePs1 radios with it and select transpon der codes For more information visit my web site 0 0 0 0 2http www goflightinc com http www hoppie nl g sb747 40
15. SquawkBox for PS1 3a User Manual and Tutorial Kees Leune kees leune org Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers hoppiethome n1 February 8 2003 Contents 1 Introduction 1 1 What You Can ExXpelt o o e e 1 2 What You Can Not Expedt o o 2 Installation ZP a cr A A ee UN 2 24 The ABONA a 2 3 Starting SquawkBoxforPSl 2 3 1 Recommended Start Order 3 Getting Started 3 1 SettingUpSquawkB0X 0 o e 3 2 Filinga Flight Plan 0 oo o 3 3 Testing your SB747 o oo ee 3 4 Connecting tothe Network aasa o 3 5 Running the System aaau aaa o e 3 6 Quittinga SessiON o o e 4 Communications 41 VEE RAGS wici aog te Gl dls E As PPS 4 1 1 TransmittinQ o o e 4 1 2 ReCeiViNgQ o o o ee AS SATS RA A a a cie AD ACARS a a a he ee ane PA N 42 1 TAX weve eb eB ee bee he ee kV ERE ED 4 2 2 Weather RequestS o o 4 3 Transponder o o o o ee 5 Weather 5 1 Manual Weather o 5 2 Automatic Weather 5 3 Wind Aloft Forecasts o o ee 6 RogerWilco 6 1 TuningRogerWilco o o e 6 1 1 Manual tuning o oo e 6 1 2 Autotuning cocos E e ES 6 1 3 FutureDevelopmetS o o 7 Extra Features
16. TMA_N_CTR CENTER 118 199 MB_SUP CENTER 119 213 MAN Y_CTR CENTER 134 420 267 193 99 186 170 man_v_ctr EDBB_V_CTR CENTER 121 050 316 rw realtech de 121 050 EDMM_V_CTR CENTER 124 050 349 rw realtech de 124 050 LKAA_V_CTR CENTER 127 100 372 212 47 22 26 lkaa_v_ctr Refresh Now Sorton Callsign Distance i Dismiss a Figure 7 2 Controllers in Range Dialog Window you Network protocols do not deliver more than the plane s call sign lati tude longitude altitude attitude which is ignored by sB 747 speed and plane model If you want to know more about a specific plane such as the name of its pilot you have to look at your network s Web pages On the last line of the list separated from the others by an empty line is the callsign and position of your own plane This is mainly useful for checking whether you indeed are in the virtual world where you think you are If this position is missing or consists of mainly zeroes your PS1 connection has trouble Check the Broker which data it shows A short form of about the same data can be displayed on the flight deck with the pilots command Also the TCAS injector uses the planes on this list only The Controllers in Range menu analogously presents a list of Air Traffic Controllers in range However the definition of in range is more specific here Ground Control 5nm Clearance Delivery 5nm Tower Control 30 nm Departure Control 100 nm Approach Control 100 nm Cent
17. York J F Kennedy you type wxr kjfk After a few seconds B 747 will have set the ps1 weather to that reported for KJ FK It might take up toa minute before the PS1 set weather screen reflects the changes but they are immediate Ps1 will take care that all changes are reasonably smoothed out you won t find yourself suddenly in the middle of a roaring thunderstorm This mechanism supposes that you regularly reset the weather to that observed at certain airports While enroute switch on the ARPT feature of the navigation display and once in a while reissue the wxr command with an airport nearby You need to get their METARS anyway for your enroute deviation airport checks At cruise altitude you will not at all ex perience the low level weather at those airports so you do not need to reset weather all thetime but they will cause gradual upper wind changes pres sure changes cloud cover changes and temperature changes Together with the ground level observations SB 747 also sets the winds aloft to the values that the network relays to it Although these values are not the observations in reality unlike the METAR the winds aloft are generated by a mostly random algorithm they will be equal for all pilots in the vicinity Only when they get really out of hand you should use the winds command to override the winds aloft In case you want to plan a long haul flight you can also use the winds command to set the winds to the values
18. You are encouraged to find creative ways of encapsulating the external MCDU in your virtual cockpit the program has plenty of features to blend in seamlessly in most hardware You can even start more than one copy and have them all operate in a different mode or in parallel in the same mode See the MCDU manual for more information 8 2 Basic ACARS principles The sB747 ACARS module is based on store and forward of discrete mes sages Imagine a network of ground stations typically airline dispatch 33 offices one central communication station and many airborne stations Each station has a unique call sign and you can send messages to other stations by addressing them to the correct call sign Each message travels to the central communication station where it is stored When the ad dressee station checks in the message gets delivered You can have a peek at the central communication station on the Web A separate application called ACARS747 is available to take on the role of ground station Neither of these systems are exclusively for PS1 so if you want to develop your own ACARS add on feel free to build further upon the common infrastructure Essential in the system is that all stations drop by the communication station regularly to pick up mail If they don t their mail is destroyed 24 hours after being sent Soif you do not get any reply your addressee might simply not be online yet An exception is made for pre stored
19. akesure you have filed a valid flight plan Then simply put the three way switch on the sB 747 main window to Online The switch temporarily goes to standby mode and after a few seconds it should settle in the Online position If it falls back to Off the reason for the failure to connect is shown in the log window There are various reasons for a failed connection ranging from plain network problems to a call sign that is already in use Correct the problem then try again After connection you should get a few login messages from the network which should be noted but usually do not tell you anything new You are now connected to the server cluster with your flight plan already filed and you call sign operational You exist in the virtual world The S activity indicator should turn green and increase steadily You can get a rough indication of thetrafficin your area by watching this indica tor the quicker it increases the more traffic Should the indicator not run at all there is most probably something wrong with either your connection or the server Disconnect and reconnect again to see if that helps or select 14 another server in the Setup window This does not destroy any of your settings or your flight plan You can always just disconnect and reconnect later but of course your plane will disappear in the virtual world for as long as you are offline As soon as you are online you can minimize the running sB 747 sinc
20. as are most other items Your actual departure time obviously can be filled in only after you left the gate Endurance is the estimated time you can stay airborne given your fuel load and burnoff rate Use the Remarks line for generic remarks about your intentions they will appear on the controller s flight strip next to your route You can decide for yourself how detailed your route description will be Note that there is a maximum of 300 characters in the route field It is a good idea to just import your flight plan from the Ps1 route file You may have to dump the current ps1 FMC flight plan to disk first either give that file a proper name or simply use acars sothat you can easily find it PS1 route files can be found in the ROUTES directory in the main Ps1 di rectory Importing the Fmc flight plan has more advantages than just ease of use Only when you import the flight plan B 747 will be able to pro vide some route dependant functions This influences mainly the external ACARS position reporting which needs waypoint sequencing information and the ability to gather forecast wind data for your flight route These 13 functions won t work without an imported flight plan Submitting a flight plan also saves it in your preferences file so the next time you start B 747 the flight plan will be there again But it will not automatically be submitted you will still need to do that manually by clicking the Submit button after you revie
21. ave only those options that a real airline pilot has to communicate your transponder ACARS and a broadcasting transceiver However when you use the B 747 program itself and thus temporarily suspend Ps1 unless you have two computers you have the option of comfortable direct communication with any other party logged on to the network This is often useful for example when polling an ATC what kind of services s he delivers only approach or also tower and ground for example If you want to initiate a direct communication session you open the File Direct Comm dialog box and fill in the receiver s call sign The only difference between normal radio communication and direct communication is that you do not tune a broadcasting frequency but you dial a call sign and communication therefore is private When somebody calls you directly while you are on the flight deck you will get an ACARS telex message In SB747 you can also press the Ping button which will send a ping request to the given call sign The ping dot command Section 7 4 has the 27 same effect from the flight deck When you receive the pong echo back it will be displayed in the message window together with the time that has elapsed between your ping and the pong echo More than a few seconds lag time indicates a bad slow line somewhere between you and the ping target You could try to switch servers to see whether that improves lag time As an extra feature
22. ces of boring data Your company must have made the route available to you and tell you the company route code If you have it you may enter the code and press Send If the route is available it will be downloaded into your FMC and you may pick it up as follows 1 Gotothe PS1 FMC RTE page 2 Fill in ACARS in the co route field 3 Review activate and execute Route repositories are company specific For more information about setting up a route repository contact the author A note SB 747 saves the route in the same directory as where you imported your last PS1 flight plan from You might need to import one flight plan once in order to set this directory use the B 747 File F light Plan menu then click on Import Weather This only works when you fly online on one of the ATC networks You can select one of the three known ICAO codes origin destination and alternate airports or key in any other station you want to get weather from When you press Send the large font cao is sent out for weather information The resulting coded METAR is sent to your generic messages box where you can keep it for later review This also means that you may request more METARs in a sequence they will all be stored as they come in Load sheet A very airline specific item If your airline uses this feature you may pick up the final load manifest of your plane and drop it in your received messages buffer 38 Figure 8 5 The ATC Page Arri
23. ckly In case you want to repeat your last message there is a sa Say Again command available Lastly there is an extensive character expansion mechanism in place that allows you to shorten messages that you use often to just a few keystrokes More about this mechanism can be found in Section 7 5 4 1 2 Receiving Incoming VHF messages are displayed in the outside view window in black on white Ps1 also tries to play a static radio noise sound with every incom ing message Should you not like this sound it isin the static wav file of the Broker s 1ib directory In order to prevent your outside view to be cluttered up completely by a long message B 747 breaks up long incoming messages into manageable parts Each part counts as a separate message The Setup dialog lets you specify the minimum time between received messages You should find a balance between having enough time to read it all and not running behind too much Four to five seconds usually turns out quite well The Broker contains another setting the time a message stays on the screen This is essentially the time the last message stays on the screen since incoming messages from sB747 will always replace the current message immediately When there is much chatter on the radio and you have set the min imum time between messages on the high side you will notice that some messages arefollowed by atrail of dots Each dot represents a messagethat is waiting to be
24. co info rw p callsign Repolls the given facility for RogerWilco info sa Say Again repeats the last message you transmitted on VHF scan on off switches the radio to scanner mode In scanner mode all received communications are shown in the log window This might be handy in some debugging situations but will quickly fill up the window if you arein a crowded environment Winds Sets the winds aloft A command without parameters deletes all winds With a wind list given PS1 will interpolate between the given winds to give the plane a wind changing with altitude and meeting the given wind points A wind list looks like winds 120 340 12 20 240 010 25 370 030 40 The first number is the flight level followed by the wind direction and speed and optionally the gust speed You can give any number of altitude winds However the PS1 flight deck entry line can likely not even accomodate one so you are advised to use the B 747 interface for this wxr icao code Fetches the METAR of the given airport like the metar command and then sets the weather in Ps1 to the received report Also sets winds aloft to the network data deleting the manually set winds with the winds command If you leave out the cao code the command looks for the nearest cao station and tries to fetch the weather for that station If that fails it tries for the next nearest etc 30 7 5 Expanding VHF Messages The etc expand txt file holds a list of phrase s
25. ct clock callout so that your F O warns you when the board clock deviates significantly from real Zulu time J oin ACARS network enables the external ACARS functionality that you might want to use if you fly for a virtual airline See Chapter 8 for an in depth description of the external ACARS functionality If you want to log everything that appears in the Log Window to a file fill in the file name in the Log to File box Leaving it empty means no logging takes place Should you desire to have RogerWilco integrated with sB 747 you must fill in the full path to the roger exe executable too Indudethe file name itself in the path In case you use the separately available remote Roger Wilco tuner so that you can run RogerWilco on another machine as B 747 fill in remote Your settings aresaved in the fileetc sb747 ini and will remain per manent for as long as this file exists or until you change them using the File Setup dialog box again There is quite a chance that you will not need to touch them any more after you have set them once 3 2 Filing a Flight Plan In order to either connect to the network or to run the ATC robot you must file a flight plan Open the Flight Plan dialog with File Flight Plan Most fields are to be treated as if you were filling in a real paper flight plan they will appear exactly as you fill them in to the air traffic controller s and they are not validated Take care in selecting your
26. d this piece of software Second the people behind VATSIM and ivao the organizations that en able global air traffic coverage over the Internet J oe J urecka and J ason Grooms the authors of SquawkB ox for MSFS95 98 2000 and ProController both provided valuable input for our project Phillip Dale and J ohn Eisen hour who run ned the SATSERV server network cooperated in a great way during the testing phase of the program and helped us getting everything just right Third Ivan Ngeow and Dusan Lacko for their implementation of the link with Ps1 2c and all the fights with a certain operating system that resulted from this Without them sB 747 would not have run on 1 2c at all Fourth a group of dedicated beta testers that made sure that our pro gram did not contain too many goofs and insured usability with Ps1 and the rest of the VATSIM IVAO community Their comments and suggestions were highly valued Lastly the whole active PS1 community that meets regularly at the Ps1 Message Board and that has provided us with continuing and very con structive support Kees Leune J eroen Hoppenbrouwers 1 http aerowinx com Chapter 1 Introduction SquawkBox for PS1 is the pilot plane side of a larger system This larger system consists of a cluster of Unix server machines on the Internet that coordinates the message traffic between all connected pilots planes and air traffic controllers ground stations In this manual we will call this s
27. d to change the hosts txt file if there is a change in the server cluster Newer releases of sB 747 will include all required modifica tions but you can make them yourself as well Some firewall setups also might require changes in this file In case you fly on more than one network you can add your pilot 1D and network password after the server lines us ing colons as separators just as the rest of the line If you do this selecting a new server will also select the correct pilot 1D and password The file aircraft cfg is a plain copy from the csL plane model li brary for the original SquawkBox by J oe J urecka and others It contains all plane models that correctly show up in the Microsoft flight simulator When a new CSL library is released you can replace this file by the new one SB 747 will correctly pick up the available 744 model liveries from this file The icaopos txt file contains over 6000 ICAO stations and their po sitions in latitude and longitude plus elevation data B 747 uses this list l http avsim com mike sb pc csl to look for the nearest weather station while you are in flight and for some altitude corrections to winds clouds and temperatures You may edit this file as needed The expand txt file is described in more detail in Section 7 5 When you run the sb747 exe file it will create etc sb747 ini in which your personal preferences will be stored For debugging purposes etc debug log will also
28. e you will not need to use it from now on Everything can be done from the PS1 flight deck In PS1 load in the situation you want or set your position and other features yourself Congratulations you can start flying the virtual skies 3 5 Running the System If you tune the radio to the correct frequency look in the Controllers in Range window for nearby controllers and their frequencies you will see and hear ATC messages coming by as usual but this time they are live and interactive Go ahead Tune into the clearance delivery or ground control frequency of your airport or contact Tower all depending on which controllers are available and request clearance using the terminology and phrasing you learned before Soon you will be taxiing to the runway with quite some extra tasks to perform Do not drive over those Cessnas 10 meters down below please If ever something breaks and your network connection gets severed you might need to cycle sB 747 to Off then back to Onlineto get the S indicator running again This will not affect your appearance in the virtual world except for a short hiccup Every time you expect that something is broken especially if the S indicator stops running and turns red for more than 30 seconds just cycle the connection In case of doubt ping a callsign that you know is present such as server who should always be there 3 6 Quitting a Session When you are done flying first stop Ps1
29. e transponder is forced to standby mode whenever a wheel touches the ground to protect sensitive equip ment at the airport from being bombarded with high energy transponder responses It would be possible to model this in 8747 as well but that would severely hamper the virtual ground controller in distinghuishing the planes on the ground Most ground controllers do not have a visual tower view but use a ground radar screen only Some controllers do not anticipate the squawk standby mode and will complain that they do not have you on radar after your initial clearance request In such a case please ask for a Squawk code and put it into your transponder In general when a controller does not see you on radar cycle the transponder first Strangely enough this is exactl y what happens in real life all to often too You can send an IDENT signal with the ident command Do this only when a controller specifically asks for ident It will make your radar blip stand out like a sore thumb on his screen 19 Chapter 5 Weather When you switch on sB747 it will essentially generate no weather at all no winds no clouds no nothing In order to get some weather up there you must specifically ask for it This can be done manually and automatically 5 1 Manual weather Setting weather manually is done by the wxr command This command accepts the ICAO code of the airport you want to set the weather to For example if you are at New
30. er 400 nm FSS 1500 nm Generally you can communicate over the radio only with the controllers on this list on the frequencies listed The network Web page usually has a complete list of all controllers and pilots in the system The list shows the controller s callsign the facility type current fre quency distance to you in nautical miles and its RogerWilco host and chan nel if available For your convenience the facility that you are currently tuned to ap 26 SquawkBox 747 Direct Communications Received Direct Messages KLM749 Ping to EHAM W_APP EHAM W_APP Pong after 0 seconds KLM749 Hello radio test please respond with a private message EHAM W_APP Read you 5 5 KLM749 Thank you EHAM W_APP Welcome To EHAM W_APP Msg Send Ping Dismiss Figure 7 3 The Direct Communications Dialog Window pears in boldface The facility that is geographically nearest give or take a few miles has a x sign prefixed to the frequency This is not often useful except when you appear in controlled airspace with no contact yet You can then use the nearest controller plus common sense to decide which facility to contact first The list can be sorted on callsign or on distance to you The atc command provides you with a shortened list of controller infor mation on the flight deck including the sign for the nearest facility 7 2 Direct Communications Using the interface straight through Ps1 you h
31. essage If nothing happens any more cycle the connection off and on or switch to another server n general try to keep both indicators green during a live session The three way toggle switch Online Off Robot lets you connect to the network disconnect or connect to the stand alone offline ATC robot The program can generate a variety of other windows These windows act as child windows of the main window when you minimize the main win dow the child windows will disappear as well All windows can be moved and resized and most of them will renember what you did to them 3 1 Setting Up SquawkBox The first thing you should do is to open the File Setup menu and fill in the dialog box that pops up It is divided into two parts one for the server connection one for SB 747 local settings If you do not yet have a virtual pilot or controller license apply for one at your network of choice Before you select a server to connect to you should check the same Web site to see which servers currently are online and also to look for NOTAMs which might influence your flight At the same time you can note the controllers which are active which might influence your flight You can easily switch servers in mid flight by disconnecting changing the server in the Setup box and reconnecting This will take you off a controller s screen for a few seconds only Please fill in your real name at all times You may add the nearest airport cao
32. g Started SquawkBox for Ps1 has one main window with very few controls since most work is being done from the Ps1 flight deck as it should You havea File and a Help menu a log area a VHF entry line a byte rate indicator two activity indicators and a three way toggle switch The menus are straight forward but most items in the File menu will only be meaningful when a server connection has been opened successfully The log area shows a growing list maximally 500 lines of events that might be of interest to you This list is a mixture of system messages and SquawkBox 747 Ol x File MCDU Help DN SIMUL wos 20 26 58 Network winds 0 0 0 0 80 302 2 2 180 321 32 32 370 328 63 63 20 26 58 EHAM_M_TWAR ATIS contains host 130 240 132 126 ch eham_m_twr 20 26 58 Retuning EHAM_ M_TWR 20 26 58 Prefetched Aw for EHAM_ M_TWR 130 240 132 126 eham_m_twr 20 26 59 RW host 130 240 132 126 20 26 59 Joined Aw 130 240 132 126 eham m twr 20 27 00 EDBB_ _CTR ATIS contains host rw realtech de ch 121 050 0 27 02 server Users are required to enter their REAL full names first and last when online on VATSIM 20 27 06 Tuned EHAM M TWA on voice 20 27 12 Sent flight plan to ATC 20 27 19 EHAA_W_CTR ATIS contains host 130 240 132 126 ch ehaa_w_ctr 0 27 37 545290 contact EHA4 4 CTA on 125 750 good day 20 28 07 EHAA W_CTR ATIS contains host 130 240 132 126 ch ehaa_w_ctr 20 30 09 Polled MB_SUP for ATIS 20 30 29 BAW225 contact EHA4 W CTR on 125 750 go
33. he latest sound cards such as the SoundBlaster Live series including the signif icantly cheaper Value Edition support both Ps1 continuous engine and event sounds and Windows RogerWilco sounds at the same time Second most networks urgently ask you to use RogerWilcoin PTT mode i e you need to push a button to talk The voice activation mode which switches on as soon as it detects sound is too much of a hassle to be prac tical However not all people can get RogerWilco to see a key pressed in Ps1 There are reports that the backslash key is suitable for use as a PTT key but it is not guaranteed to work In case you can only get voice acti vation mode to work consider to put a physical switch in the microphone line to cut the audio feed manually It works best to have the switch short the microphone signal since this cuts out all hum as well A regular light switch meant for assembly in a lamp s mains wire will do fine 6 1 Tuning RogerWilco The RogerWilco program must be tuned to a facility in order to establish communications A RogerWilco server host is a computer on the Inter net usually addressed by its 1P number such as 123 456 789 123 Several ATC facilities tend to share the same RogerWilco host so on the same host there are several channels You must know both the host and the chan nel of a facility if you want to contact to it Most of the time the correct host and channel are given in a station s ATIS
34. hortcuts or character ex pansions that you can use to minimise typing to ATC The file contains entries like the following c Scallsign aa Saltitude feet clr Sorg ground callsign at gate 1 request clearance for dest ctr 1 center callsign with you at FL flightlevel cm climb to and maintain d direct dm descend to and maintain dyr do you read eil established on ILS elo established on localizer E FLSflightlevel fr out of FL flightlevel for 1 h heading Sheading lvl level at FL flightlevel n negative ph present heading E roger callsign gs groundspeed groundspeed knots tl turn left heading tr turn right heading u unable to comply w wilco callsign y affirmative Each word in the left column is replaced by the phrase in the right col umn before the complete sentence is sent out Note that there are several variables included in the expanded phrases they all start with a sign These variables are filled in with actual values straight from Ps1 at the moment of transmitting to ATC They can save you some more typing but are sometimes not completely accurate For example the altitude vari able produces your true height above sea level as required by the network not the pressure altitude according to standard atmospherical pressure Therearealso parameter variables such as 1 Theseare used when you write commands like clr that need extra information i
35. ies com pslipc twy html 2 http infolab kub nl people hoppie psl gates 32 Chapter 8 External Systems Next to the internal chat functionality of the Ps1 flight deck cpu as dis cussed in Section 4 2 sB 747 offers a completely separate implementation that goes far further in capabilities This system contains currently both an advanced ACARS system and a complete interface to the online ATC sys tems In principle you can use this interface instead of the native Windows SB 747 interface during most if not all of your flight This provides a much better look and feel than the point and click interface which seldomly is encountered in a real airplane 8 1 The external MCDU You can get at the extended AcARS functionality only by installing the exter nal MCDU a separate program available from the same web site as where you downloaded sB 747 itself This program displays a simplified MCDU on any computer you attach to your network You will quickly feel at home with it All required buttons and keys work and you can use either the mouse or the standard Ps1 MCDU keys to operate it We had to program our own MCDU in order to implement more advanced ACARS features be yond a simple one page telex If you have the external MCDU attached Ps1 will stop using the internal PS1 CDU for all purposes except to tell you that a message appeared on the external MCDU However you are still free to use PS1 s CDU to send telexes or other things
36. lay program that enables people to communi cate with each other over the Internet while running their favourite pro gram in the foreground You need a good headset headphones plus micro phone and a supported full duplex sound card in order to work with Roger Wilco Although the network will always support text communications if only as a backup many controllers are now on voice using RogerWilco and it is quickly turning into the preferred mode of communication This manual does not detail the operation of RogerWilco but some re marks about running RogerWilco together with Ps1 arein order First and foremost you must usually start RogerWilco before PS1 since they might conflict in their use of the sound card Running one often means the other cannot get the sound card any more If you start RogerWilco first it will grasp the sound card and PS1 will complain that it cannot find the sound 1 http rogerwilco gamespy com 4 Roger Wilco olx Roger Wilco is pretty simple to use ato Typically one user Creates a channel and tells others to Join him there l Transmit Adjust About Joined on 130 240 132 126 ehaa_w_ctr y AH 5238 8TC Wwn12 kIm 50_jeroen_hoppenbrouwers Amsterdam_Radar UAL585 BAW 150 receive only Figure 6 1 The RogerWilco Program 22 card This is a pity since you won t have Ps1 sounds any longer but if you want to use RogerWilco it is the only choice Fortunately t
37. m will tell you why not 8 3 1 Preflight Here you set up most of the required data elements During flight there is much less to do If you file a sB 747 flight plan to the ATC network many of the details on the Preflight page will be filled in for you automatically The System Init prompt causes a cleanout of the ACARS system which should be done before each flight or as a courtesy for the next pilot after the flight You need to push the Lsk 1 two times Origin Destination and Alternate fields should contain the 1 cao codes of your departure and arrival airports plus the most likely alternate These fields will be used throughout the ACARS module for reports and requests They are not linked to your FMC In the right column you can fill in your flight details such as Flight number Planned Departure Time and Estimated Timeof Arrival The lat ter will be automatically recalculated when ACARS detects that your plane moves out of the gate by adding current time and estimated flight time from the flight plan You can manually reset it at any time Currently the ETA is not yet taken over from the PS1 Progress FMC page The flight number is used as your ACARS callsign Figure 8 2 The Preflight Page 35 Figure 8 3 The Inflight Page Very important is the Company field Here you fill in the three letter acronym of your company such as KLM CLX or STV If you fly for a virtual airline your airline will tell you the co
38. messages that are sent by a station to the communication station as some kind of poste restante you can ask for these messages at any time and they will get delivered to you instantly Typical examples of these drop off messages are load sheets arrival information and live weather bulletins ACARS only works properly if you have a near constant Internet connec tion during your flight This is why the package is part of 8747 which already assumes such a connection However the ACARS system is com pletely independent of the online network of your choice with the exception of the weather METAR retrieval functions lnttp infolab kub nl people hoppie psl1 fl acars Figure 8 1 The External McDU Window 34 8 3 ACARS menu structure The menu system of the ACARS moduleis not a perfect copy of a real airline ACARS system because it is very hard to get proper information and every airline seems to have a completely different setup If anything it resembles the Qantas model mixed up with Lufthansa However the functionality is largely the same over airlines ACARS has three basic modes preflight inflight and postflight When you call up the ACARS menu it will automatically drop into the most ap propriate mode but via the ACARS index choice you can always go to the main menu This main menu also offers the Link Status choice with which you can check whether your Internet ACARS link is operational If not the syste
39. mmunicate with ATC through your flight plan If you want another cruise altitude or descend to the level wherethe Ps1 ATC can take over FL240 just alter your cruise altitude in the SquawkBox flight plan The robot will get you there eventually 7 4 Dot Commands From the flight deck you can not only transmit radio messages but also have a limited control of s8747 You have this control through the use of dot commands words that start with a dot on a new line Available dot commands are in alphabetical order Empty command causes the incoming VHF message window to be cleared Useful in case some malfunction keeps your window cluttered with the last message received atc Produces a list of controllers in range and their frequencies Can be filtered for example atc eh produces only controllers whose callsigns start with EH Useful for peeking which controller you are likely to be switched to and to find out which controller to contact initially 28 The display order is the same one as the currently selected sort order in the Controllersin Range box atis callsign Requests the ATIS of the given controller Not all controllers havetheir ATIS installed You should get a reply back in a few seconds otherwise there is no ATIS If you leave the callsign out you will get the ATIS of the station your VHF radios are tuned into if it has ATIS Both facility ATIS and ATIS servers are supported just tune in the righ
40. mpany code to use Most of the time this is the address on the messages you send but you can override it in some cases these will be explained In principle you will want to have all fields on the Preflight page filled in before departure 8 3 2 Inflight After you leave the gate or by manual request the Inflight page appears This contains the items that you might need during flight up tothe moment you dock at the arrival gate and shut down Since most ACARS systems work automatically you do not need to do much here If an external station requests a position report it will be sent automatically but you can forcefully send one via the Position Report choice This opens a page where you cannot change anything sinceit is all collected automatically For the correct waypoint tracking you will need to have imported the flight plan from a Ps1 route file in SB747 Some items on this page are inoperative due to the limited access that sB 747 has to the PS1 FMC this might improvein the future A manual transmission of the position report is always addressed to your company ground station The ETA can be manually updated Large deviations might trigger an automatic progress report to your home base You should keep this figure more or less synchronised with the PS1 FMC Progress page which in the future might be done automatically In case you decide to deviate to the prefiled alternate you can simply press the LSK2L button This will over
41. n order to generate a full sentence If you type c1r e6 the expanded sentence will read KJ FK ground KLM123 at gate E6 request clearance for EHAM or something similar You are encouraged to change the expand txt file as you wish the authors do not claim that the provided set of shortcuts is of any real prac tical value For example you may want to have each word that triggers an expansion start with a special character such as to prevent accidental triggering of expansion rules 7 6 Ground Position Tracking Tricks Since PS1 is an IFR simulator ground scenery is sparse at best It is nearly impossible to follow taxiways even if you have a detailed map at hand because the outside visuals are not more than Spartan outlines of runways 31 plus some mysterious light poles No gates buildings taxiways or holding lines To solve this problem a separate program that integrates into ps1 has been developed You can download it fromthe nternet This Taxiway pro gram displays the appropriate ground map straight from the controller s screen on your lower EICAS An extension called TF is able to display the actual network traffic as TCAS symbols on top of this map giving you a good overview of traffic in the neighborhoud up to about 640 nm distance Alternatively you can use the position of airport gates to create a way point on the navigation display so that you have some idea where you are l http www geocit
42. network on off switches on offline A flight plan must have been filed for this function to work which can be done with the fp command pilots Like with the atc command you get back a list of callsigns and their current altitudes of the pilots planes in range You can also filter this list with the first few characters of the callsigns you want to see e g pilots kim ping callsign pings the given callsign With no callsign given pings the last station you received a private message from 29 probe fetches the current winds aloft of all waypoints in your filed flight plan if this flight plan has been imported from a Ps1 route file The winds are shown in the log window and also saved in the etc winds txt file They can be used for proper fuel planning and to feed the Fmc more accurate wind information r message here Replies to the most recently received private message robot on off switches the ATC robot on or off rw Displays the currently set RogerWilco host IP address This is not necessarily the host the RogerWilco is now tuned to rw a RogerWilco autotuning mode list rw a on off RogerWilco autotuner on off rw h hostlP Sets the RogerWilco host IP address for subsequent use by other rw commands rw j channel J oins the channel on RogerWilco using the host that was previously set by rw h rw I Leaves the currently joined RogerWilco channel rw p Re polls the currently tuned facility for RogerWil
43. od day VHE 172 bytes s soo P16 Online Off Robot Figure 3 1 The SquawkBox for PS1 Main Window texts that are transmitted by the network controllers and pilots Every thing that is also sent to the PS1 outside view window appears in boldface Generally you only look here when you are puzzled by something or to get confirmation that a certain action completed successfully This area is not the main interface to the controller because you will use PS1 itself for that purpose Should you find yourself in a position where you would want to interact with sB 747 directly though then you can type your messages and commands in the VHF entry line and press Enter when done The effect is the same as from the Ps1 flight deck Next to thethree way toggle you find a byte rate display and two activity indicators If you are onlineand receiving data the byte rate display simply tells you how many bytes per second flow in Theindicator marked with an S is for Server the P is for PS1 Each time a packet is received from the respective transmitter the indicator turns green and increases up to 99 If no packet has been received for a while the indicator turns red This does not necessarily mean that you havea problem but it is worth investigating the cause If the S indicator turns red there has been a suspiciously long period without any sign of life from the server B 747 will detect this and also warn you by a VHF m
44. r the last time after landing the system waits two minutes to be sure you really won t start moving again ACARS Calculates block time and flight time for you so you can copy these figures into your flight log As 0001 progress reports are sent to your com pany automatically you do not need to manually send these administra tively interesting times 37 8 3 4 Received Messages The Received Messages selection brings you to the message log of the ex ternal ACARS facility Here you can access all messages that the system received from a ground station uplink There is no downlink log The page opens up a list of all messages received and you can select which one you want to view A maximum of nine pages of five messages each can be retained by the system If it fills up the oldest messages go overboard Each message can hold nine pages of five lines of 24 characters Message lines in large font are not yet reviewed by the crew new If you receive a new message while not viewing the Recd ved Messages page the MCDU scratch pad will pop up a message ACARS UPLINK to warn you and the Ps1 cpu will warn you too 8 3 5 Requests Various requests can be made by the crew via ACARS They areall collected on one single page accessible from many places in the menu system Route You can download a complete FMC route so that you do not need to leave the cockpit at all for file handling and also do not need to key in lengthy sequen
45. r will automatically get a RogerWilco channel assigned to her him and this channel can be looked up in a standard way over the Internet sB 747 will be adapted to this automatic lookup procedure as soon as possible after the facility is made available to the general public 24 Chapter 7 Extra Features Thecombo PS1 sB 747 network has morefeatures than just flying under ATC This chapter summarizes some of the extra features You can do without them but it is nice to know they are therejust in case There is no specific ordering in the presentation yet 7 1 Lists of Pilots and Controllers in Range Through the File Pilots in Range menu you can get a live list of the planes that are within your range i e within approximately 40 nm from SquawkBox 747 Pilots in Range Callsign Latitude Longitude AHB343 BANZ25 BAW321 BAW6033 BCA45 DLH245 KLM1546 LHO39 RAPOO4 845290 545664 TRAS16 UALSS85 5P4280 WW512 DLH737 B767 B767 B737 B737 5345320 B767 UAL 744 B747 B744 ANAE ODOAA JAAN ODNO WDOA 5 3 3 3 3 8 3 8 5 5 3 8 KLM 50 o la B744 Figure 7 1 Pilots in Range Dialog Window 25 SquawkBox 747 Controllers in Range Callsign Type Frequency Dist RogerWilco channel 119 1 130 240 132 126 eham_m_twr EHAA U_CTR CENTER 125 15 130 240 132 126 ehaa_w_ctr EDUW_V_CTR CENTER 125 153 rv realtech de 125 650 EDFF_V_CTR CENTER 127 194 rw realtech de 127 500 L
46. seconds If you try to send a message while the transmission of the previous message is still going on the Fmc will notify you with a buffer full scratch pad message As a shortcut to reply to incoming messages using the sender s callsign as the address you can use the r command See Section 7 4 for more infor mation about all the dot commands 4 2 2 Weather Requests You cannot use the native Ps1 Weather functions with the flight deck MCDU but a very dose approximation is available through the metar com mand When you request a METAR from any airport the network server will 18 look up a recent METAR for that station and relay it to your ACARS as a pri vate telex message As with all dot commands you can put the command either in the VHF transmission line or in an ACARS telex Using ACARS to request weather information is of course the most realistic 4 3 Transponder During virtual flights the transponder becomes an important instrument If you switch it off called squawk standby mode code 0000 you will be invisible to ATC so you can drive around the tarmac looking for a place that suits you Usually you are also invisible to other pilots when your squawk is on standby As soon as you switch the transponder on out of 0000 you will pop up on the radar screens and into other pilot s vision It is a good idea to keep your transponder off until ATC has assigned you a squawk Note that in a real 744 th
47. t frequency eta hhmm Updates the estimated time of arrival at destination Needs to be done once in a while to let the external ACARS module know at what time you think you will arrive You can copy the Fmc estimated time from the PROGRESS page fp Resubmits the flight plan in case ATC asks for this Should never be required but the network once in a while drops flight plans If you type something after the fp it will be filed as remarks to ATC freq Displays the currently tuned VHF frequency including the callsign of the station currently operating on the frequency If no callsign is displayed the frequency is dead When called with a parameter tunes the VHF radio to the given frequency This is useful for the new 8 33 kHz gridded channel frequencies with three digits freq 119 255 help Gives all available dot commands ident Causes your transponder to send an IDENT signal for five seconds Use this only when the air traffic controller asks for it metar icao code mitates an ACARS request for the METAR of the given airport You will get back the most current true weather report of the airport as a real ACARS telex msg Callsign your message here Sends a direct communication mes sage to the callsign given This can be either a pilot or a controller If you use r as the callsign you will reply to the sender of the most currently received direct message The same effect can be obtained with the r command
48. ter dam Schiphol Airport you will not hear London Heathrow Tower but you might hear a plane enroute over London if you tune the correct frequency 4 1 1 Transmitting You can transmit a message on the radio by pressing the K key Make sure the FMC keyboard is off press Shift once to switch it on or off A brown entry box will appear below your PFD with space for 25 characters to type Use only lowercase letters and numbers and as few special characters as possible PS1 has a very limited character set and you can easily fool its editor When your message is complete press Enter to transmit it on the tuned frequency The entry box is quite short and more elaborate messages do not fit in completely By appending a dot to your message B 747 is instructed to 16 buffer it and not transmit immediately Each line entered that ends in a dot is added to the buffer Only when a line not ending in a dot is typed all of the buffer plus this last line is sent out Please make sure you give PS1 ti meto transmit each lineto sB 747 by waiting a second in between pressing Enter and K for the next line An important character the underscore which is used in many ATC callsigns cannot be entered in Ps1 Instead you should use the dash which is automatically converted to an underscore by B 747 Likewise in coming underscores are converted to dashes so that you do not get confused well not so qui
49. then switch sB 747 to Off The log will confirm your disconnect time Now you use the File Exit menu to quit the program followed by a disconnection of your Internet line if you want to The Broker should be killed last 15 Chapter 4 Communications This is what it is all about of course There can be no air traffic control without communications In Ps1 you have three communication decvices at your disposal to contact ATC your set of VHF radios your ACARS telex and your transponder 4 1 VHF Radios Your main link to ATC is of course your radio set PS1 has one tuning panel on the flight deck in reality there are three which you use like you have been doing it all along The frequency tuned here is the frequency you receive and transmit on You won t hear anything on other frequencies except for the emergency frequency of 121 50 MHz which is automatically received all the time regardless of the tuned frequency In case you need to tune to a facility that uses a three digit frequency the two digit PS1 tuner does not work Use the freq dot command instead Section 7 4 You can also use this command to review which frequency really is tuned and to see which facility uses this frequency at the moment The system takes into account that VHF radio transmissions have a lim ited range and follow the line of sight rule If you tune into New York while being over Europe it will remain silent While on the ground at Ams
50. uawkBox will see you through ther wind shields If they have set up their systems correctly they will even see you as a Boeing 744 with the proper company livery Combined with Ps1 s outstanding simulation of a 744 s systems SB 747 provides the finishing touch in simulated IFR flying 1 2 What You Can Not Expect The most salient aspect of a crowded flight environment will not be present you will not see other aircraft in stunning graphical detail This is due to the limited graphical capabilities of the current major version of Precision Simulator and cannot easily be improved In practice this is not a severe limitation except when taxiing and waiting in line for takeoff clearance All other phases of flight are strictly IFR However several programs are available to extend the current PS1 soft warewith a direct link tomsFs sothat you can usethis graphical workhorse for its natural application looking out of the window while still flying PS1 on another computer 2 Using this system you can see the other planes and most of the weather too Likewise the TCAS aboard the PS1 744 is not linked up to the virtual environment However linking up TCAS is far less complex than providing the outside scenery An external program already provides some of the required functionality see Section 7 6 Other traffic using MSFS will see you on their TCAs though just as with outside scenery sB747 provides the scenery generators described
51. val info Another airline specifc item used for advance information about your destination gate assignment maintenance expected crew rotation connecting flights Send Telex Used for free form messages to home base or any other ACARS station you happen to know the callsign of Remember that messages are stored in the central communication station until they are picked up which might not be immediate if your addressee is not online yet If for one reason or another the transmitting of a message fails the Send button will change to Resend and you may try again The Link Status choice in the main ACARS menu offers more detail if something seems to go wrong 8 4 ATC functions On theexternal mcpu you will alsofind a live list of ATC stations in range and a complete radio tuner including RogerWilco re tuning These pages are obviously not realistic but can be very handy if you wonder what is going on online They enable cockpit operation of otherwise very unnatural machinery On the Stations in Rangepage you see all stations currently within radio range ordered as you have ordered the same list in the Windows sB747 interface You can select one of the stations by the push of a button which will instantly retune Ps1 s radios In some pathological cases this works better than actually using the real radio tuners however it is a hack The station you are currently tuned to appears in large font the rest in small font The
52. wed the fields to see if they are still valid of course The Clear button erases all fields and gives you a blank sheet After you complete your flight plan and have submitted it you can al ways resubmit it using the same button replacing the old flight plan with the new one you are ready to go 3 3 Testing your SB 747 First do a brief test to see whether B 747 can contact your Ps1 Make sure the Broker is running and that sB 747 has found it This is announced by both the Broker and sB747 File a flight plan no matter what and dick the three way toggle to Robot sB747 should announce that the robot is engaged Now switch to or start Ps1 make sure the external data link is on on the Preferences screen of PS1 and wait After a short wait a message should appear in the outside view window and you should hear some radio static unless RogerWilco has been started too this will most likely lock out your PS1 sounds Now hit K and type hello in the VHF transmit line that appears in PS1 followed by pressing Enter You should see your own message repeated in the outside view window If this all works you can be sure that B 747 the Broker and PS1 are all set up correctly Switch back to sB 747 with Alt Tab and switch the robot off 3 4 Connecting to the Network Make sure that you have a working Internet connection for example by visiting your network s home page to check for special events and NOTAMS Also m
53. write the destination with the alter nate and ask for a new ETA You can also put a completely new CAO code in this field in case you want to deviate toa different field or continue back to your original destination Deviations are automatically reported to your home base 36 Figure 8 4 The Event Times Page 8 3 3 Postflight You end up here after docking at the arrival gate or by manual selection About the only option here is the Event Times page which summarizes important operational data of your whole flight This page contains the data that are included in the ooo out off on in progress reports which ACARS sends to your home base as soon as something important happens Pushback Out time and ETA are sent Takeoff Out and off times and ETA are sent Landing Out off and on times are sent Docking Out off on and in times are sent Docking time reporting is de layed until the plane has been stationary for more than two minutes ETA changed more than ten minutes and plane is in last 120 min utes of flight Out and off times plus revised ETA are sent 20 minutes before ETA Out off and ETA aresent You cannot change these data as they are automatically acquired from sev eral airplane systems and cheating is not approved by your company Out Time you leave the gate first motion of the plane after ACARS initial ization Off Time you get airborne On Time you touch down In Time you stop the plane fo
54. you can dick on all lines in all windows pilot list ATC list direct communication where call signs appear The call sign will then be automatically transfered to the To field A double click opens the Direct Communications dialog box with this callsign 7 3 Offline ATC the Robot In order to both save you money and provide you with ATC cover on long haul flights through uncontrolled airspace sB 747 has an ATC robot that can take over fromthe human controller The robot is designed to sound like it is actually controlling a sector but the underlying program is simplified The communications between the controller and the other virtual planes in the sector are realistic though You will have enough chatter over the radio to keep you alert for messages meant for you Currently the robot is fairly simple and it does not at all follow real world sectors and restrictions It even does not really listen to you although it knows you are there and you should check on with Center after changing frequencies using the standard phraseology Center good afternoon KLM 1534 with you level at flight level 370 But since this part of the program is open to changes it will grow in the future It will become possible to add specific procedures for specific airports as well which means that you then can use the robot not only for enroute center ATC but also for departure and approach control and even tower and ground For now you must co
55. ystem the network There are several organisations providing the same service with essen tially the same software As long as the protocol is the same sB747 can connect to all these networks VATSIM and ivao are the biggest networks at the moment For quite a time virtual ATC was almost exclusively accessed by pilots flying Microsoft Flight Simulator using the freeware SquawkB ox program by J oe urecka With theintroduction of SquawkBox for Ps1 pilots now can get their hands on the controls of the only current true heavy jet simulator and join the sightseeing crowds in the skies all over the world 1 1 What You Can Expect sB747 like the original SquawkBox program must be used on top of a flight simulator in this casethe Aerowinx 747 400 Precision Simulator The SB 747 program will let you connect to the server cluster login as a licensed pilot and contact all active ATC stations from clearance delivery via ground control and tower to departure and center all the way tothe arrival airport You use a text based interface message lines on the Ps1 flight deck to communicate with the controllers or a live voice system called RogerWilco sB747 contains most bells and whistles of the original SquawkBox such as private communications METAR and ATIS reception facilities and many features that makethe system niceto use You even havethe same weather in the simulator as there is on the same spot in the real world People using MSFS with Sq
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