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davidtriggs
11th Oct 2001, 05:11
I have a nephew who, at ripe old age of 10 wants to be a pilot. In preparation for this he collects ACARS messages at his home in Queensland. He passes a lot on to me to try and work out what is in them, but since Uncle Pontious is a Conquest pilot he can't answer all of the questions as yet. (I'm sure P&W will be putting FADEC on the PT6's one day!)

One message that has completely baffled both of us (that is the royal "US") is from 767's, a FCP message. Does anyone know what FCP stands for?

The message has two lines of 8 parameters, we (again the royal we) have determined that the bottom line is a percentage figure, but a percentage figure of what. "We" think that this is a fuel message but really have no idea. :confused:

Can some provide some assistance. Uncle Pontious would be VERY grateful. :p

Bally Heck
13th Oct 2001, 04:07
Wots ACARS? :rolleyes:

Don't know what FCP is but the next time I'm at work I'll have a look at the DFDAU and see if I can work it out. (If I remember)

Bally Heck
17th Oct 2001, 04:21
Pontius.

The nearest I could find to FCP was FCR which is a Flight Control Report. Gives the position of flight controls, control surfaces, AOA etc.

Any good?

davidtriggs
17th Oct 2001, 11:44
G'day Bally,

Actually thought it might be that, but it appears to be something to do with fuel. The message has two lines in it with NO on the top line and PC on the bottom, the PC lines adds up to or very close to 100 which makes "us" think that it percent.

Thanks very much for having a look for us

Pontious

eagle767
17th Oct 2001, 13:45
Pontious how does your nephew get hold of the ACARS messages? :confused:

Checkboard
18th Oct 2001, 06:19
ACARS messages are transmitted by radio, like all other messages. International ACARS users are on HF and can be recieved around the world by radio fans. The internet has several free programs to decode ACARS messages into plain text - so BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING :eek: (or at least a radio ham somewhere!)

Why - rethinking that message you sent the other day? ;)

eagle767
18th Oct 2001, 13:26
Checkboard I knew that ACARS was not 100% secure, but did not know that there were programs so easly obtained for decoding.
ETA 1205
2 wheelchairs
2 extra crew meals please! :D

davidtriggs
18th Oct 2001, 14:01
G'Day Eagle,

It is relatively easy to read them, you can get software of the 'net and use your soundcard, or more glamourous systems have modems you stick onto a serial port.

However...don't be too alarmed, to make any sense of the messages you really need to be either an engineer or a pilot familiar with the specific aircraft, since each type has different data formats, types of data etc.

Pontious