Submitting Pireps through FS Acars.

[Gary Smith]

Guys, just a reminder to all, and in particular our newer members. When you submit a pirep using FS Acars please be mindful of the fact that FSAcars DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY include all of the flight parameters. YOU, yes you, are required to edit the report after submission, as per the the instructions that are displayed in rather large and bold type prior to you pressing the submit pirep button. All of our pireps are checked manually by staff, and apart from the fact that it is rather time consuming, it is becoming increasingly common and particularly frustrating to say the least, not only to staff but to the pilots concerned, to have to keep marking pireps as a Resubmit because people are not taking the time to RTFM.

It is a rather pointless exercise to return a pirep to us after a Resubmit, claiming that Acars is not recording this and Acars is not recording that. Fact of the matter is that if you have it set up correctly Acars DOES record everything with the exception of the three items listed above, which I might again emphasize is highlighted in the preamble after you hit the Stop button and prior to you pressing the Send Pirep button.

Here is an abbreviated quick and easy solution taken from the manual. After you submit your pirep using Acars, go to the Ansett Pilots Centre page, look to the left margin under Quick Links and you will find a button marked Pirep Status. Then all you need to do is open that page, go to your particular pirep and open it, and you will find up near the top in blue type, an underlined heading marked EDIT PIREP. Click on it and it will open the pirep and viola, it will allow you to fill in the missing details. When you fill in the blank spaces, press submit. Problem solved.

May I be so bold as to repeat myself people, RTFM. As stated above, FSAcars does not automatically include aircraft type, flight level and purpose, these items, as per the instructions, YOU are required to edit AFTER you submit the pirep, and really folks, it is a quite simple and painless exercise.

Please take the time to read the instructions BEFORE you hit the "Submit Pirep" button, and help us to help you by vetting and accepting your pireps without the need to have to mark them (in some instances two and three times) as a resubmit because of missing details, and thus taking all that longer to be credited to your logbook and in some instances delaying a well deserved promotion.