| Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | Airline Operations |
ACARS Build 64 Released |
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
2,347 legs, 9,466.0 hours
240 legs,
553.9 hours online
2,005 legs,
8,259.1 hours ACARS
75 legs,
196.3 hours event
2,383 legs, 9,600.9 hours total
91 legs dispatched, 66.4
hours
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Posted onPost created on
February 23 2006 23:22 ET by Luke Kolin
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I have pushed ACARS Build 64 onto the server. This is designed as an incremental change only; it fixes a minor sterile cockpit issue and enhances crash recovery. If FS9 terminates but ACARS remains running, then you should be able to recover the flight without restarting ACARS. I do not plan on deprecating Build 63 any time soon, but if you have a few minutes you may wish to upgrade.
ACARS is very close to my goals for it 18 months ago. If Build 64 remains as stable as 63, I hope that we can stay on this build for a while. I might add some TeamSpeak support (there is some, albeit disabled in the current build) but that's about it.
Cheers!
Luke KolinSenior Captain, MD-11
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DVA2724
Senior Captain, L-1011-100
Joined on December 04 2005
Million Mile Club
Seven Century Club
"Long Live the TRISTAR!!"
Concord, GA USA
714 legs, 3,467.6 hours
43 legs,
80.2 hours online
466 legs,
2,709.6 hours ACARS
5 legs dispatched, 26.7
hours
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Posted onPost created on
February 24 2006 10:09 ET by Ken Nesbitt
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Luke,
First off, thank you very much for all you do with ACARS, cause it is an awesome program and extremely helpful to everyone who uses it. However, since all this "chat" is beginning to be a problem (I personally don't mind it), is there anyway to maybe make another page off the main acars chat that is strictly for people who just want something to do that have long hauls or a few hours to spare? I find myself chatting on there more than I should merely becuase I am sitting there with nothing to do for 4 and a half hours. It is merely a thought for sometime later, I just thought that might help or at least be a thought. I would be happy to email you with something more specific if you would care to even entertain the thought. Again thank you for all you do for us at DVA, it is truly a masterpiece.
Ken
Ken NesbittSenior Captain, L-1011-100
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DVA544
Senior Captain, B727-200
Joined on October 24 2001
Online Century Club
Triple Century Club
Southeastern United States
329 legs, 661.4 hours
186 legs,
368.2 hours online
47 legs,
90.0 hours ACARS
7 legs,
22.1 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
February 24 2006 12:14 ET by Joe DeGregorio
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| hhmmm..thats an interesting thought Ken..How about a cockpit chat,and a cabin chat..cockpit is business only and Cabin can be for anything,as long as it's kept clean..no profanity..e.t.c.
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DVA613
Senior Captain, B727-200
OLP, VFRADV
Joined on June 17 2002
50 State Club
Events Century Club
Million Mile Club
US Coastal Club
US Mountaineer Club
Commuter Conquest
Globetrotter
Everett Millennium Club
Bi-Millennium Club
Online Twenty Century
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
"Beware of the Green Baron!"
Charlotte, NC USA
2,509 legs, 4,025.8 hours
2,328 legs,
3,644.8 hours online
2,142 legs,
3,186.8 hours ACARS
130 legs,
238.7 hours event
165 legs dispatched, 103.9
hours
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Posted onPost created on
February 24 2006 13:02 ET by David Keech
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"As Long as it's kept clean"...that is the issue. Unfortunately, we have had way too many issues with people who can't seem to do that. I say if you want to chat, fire up MSN or alike. Leave the ACARS as is. Wasn't meant for that purpose originally. Just my .02 cents.
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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
2,347 legs, 9,466.0 hours
240 legs,
553.9 hours online
2,005 legs,
8,259.1 hours ACARS
75 legs,
196.3 hours event
2,383 legs, 9,600.9 hours total
91 legs dispatched, 66.4
hours
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Posted onPost created on
February 24 2006 16:44 ET by Luke Kolin
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One key to Delta Virtual's success over the past half-decade has been a brand identity. While clearly Delta Air Lines is part of that, we've had considerable freedom to distinguish ourselves from other virtual airlines in a number of areas. I think the two most significant areas are a superior technological infrastructure across all areas of the airline, and a healthy community atmosphere that can attract people of all ages and interests.
To be honest, I think the brand and the community are of greater value than the technology, and certainly harder to restore. Were we to lose the server I could probably get us back to around 95% functionality in 24 to 48 hours, but losing that identity and mindshare takes far longer to restore.
One thing we've been pretty consistent on is not allowing our brand name to be associated with anything that does not match our standards for identity and atmosphere, especially considering the number of individuals under 18 in our community and consistent warnings about inappropriate content being placed in front of minors. If we as an organization facilitate something that leads to problems, this isn't going to end well. ACARS chat was reaching a situation where a number of us who hadn't been extremely active started hearing feedback, viewing the logs and then getting rather concerned ourselves when we logged in. There was a reaction, and I think down the road things are going to reach some level of a happy medium where there's more communication, but not excessive or inappropriate. If anything, I think the Sterile Cockpit and other features introduced in ACARS 1.2 are going to allow things to be more laid back because pilots can choose their level of interaction when using ACARS.
When you think about it, we're not all that much different from a real airline in terms of protecting our identity. I've heard it stated on more than one occassion that our reputation and demeanor has some connection to the fact that we've never heard a peep from Delta's legal beagles. I want things to stay that way, because our relationship is such that we retain maximum flexibility. Take a peek at some of our other "competitors" and you'll see that they're significantly more restrained (and agressively moderated) than here. I don't want to end up that way.
One thing to consider is to create a private voice channel at rw.avsim.net, and using SB3's private voice facilities to tune in. Delta Virtual has its own channel at rw.deltava.org/DAL, and ACARS will automatically tune SB3 to it when you type in .pvtvox in the console. Additionally, if a group of you are getting together there's nothing stopping you from making private chat arrangements, or discreetly mentioning it using ACARS.
A lot of our features and functionality are the result of experimentation and giving people flexibility to innovate. If something's a success and matches our goals, we are happy to extend and embrace it. If it doesn't, then we will push it away. It's up to everybody to make things like this work, and I expect that things will. I think there was a strong reaction partly due to a failure of management; we weren't paying enough attention and allowed things to get a little out of control. Going forward, I think that's not going to be repeated, and this monitoring will provide more flexibility to everyone down the road.
Cheers!
Luke KolinSenior Captain, MD-11
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DVA2539
First Officer, B757-200
Joined on July 22 2005
Southeastern United States
69 legs, 120.3 hours
37 legs,
65.6 hours online
29 legs,
45.4 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
February 25 2006 17:21 ET by Michael Graves
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thanks... im 14 and there have been some times when ppl would put profanity on the water cooler adn such... but Luke was awsome and took it off in under 10 minutes!!! GO LUKE!!!
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