ACARS etc...

[kattz]

I didn't want to create a zombie thread on the old ACARS postings.

So, When I came back from Mexico last spring, I got to experience a full Q and A with the A/C and F/O regarding the 737-700 SFP bird that we took from Mexico City to KATL.  In the discussion was ACARS and the large format printer that they were using.  It printed out the approach plate, airfield diagram, dispatch and fuel info, etc.  There was a two-button ACMS panel that their explanation of was rather vague, and COMM 3 radio was set to DATA for ACARS transmission.

I have seen one or two 737's with a third CDU similar to the 747 pedestal layout; perhaps it was performing ACARS?

How to duplicate this in our sims?  I've used TOPCAT for years and looked at the hopple.nl site.  Doesn't look like what I'm looking for.  What am I missing?

[Mach7]

I have never seen or heard of an ACARS printer spit out an approach plate, but we do use them for TLR's (takeoff and landing reports), Weight and balance, weather atis, and other various messages.

Even most flight simulators (real) do not have ACARS installation, so the instructor just hands you a piece of paper with the required information on if for the phase of flight you are in.

I am not sure how you would even duplicate the information the system generates.

I fly mostly in North America, so when we send an ACARS request, it sends a request out to a server....(somewhere in Phoenix)...then 30 seconds later we get a response.

[kattz]

I'd be OK with just the info that you named.  Regarding the approach plate, I didn't see it, but there was an airfield diagram about the size of a Jeppesen chart page that had come off of that printer lying over on the F/O side of the cockpit by the O2 mask box.

I'd like to get wx, file flight plan changes, and pull weight and balance off of the printer.

Thanks.

Kev