Hi!Do, or did you ever consider making the data printer of the 747-400 "real" und usable with an actual printer connected to the PC? I don't exactly know which features the real 747 one has and which things could be printed from the FMC (weather, routes, ATC?), but it would be great to actually have this thing working right from the FMC!Keep up the good work!Thank,Stefan Walcherberger

Hah, that would be sweet, getting a data printer working. But I'm still waiting on Vin to implement cabin row numbers into one of these releases, so don't hold your breath. :-lol (Just teasing, man).Daniel P.http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/ng_driver.jpgMember of SJU Photography. [A HREF=http://www.jetphotos.net/showphotos.php?userid=9004]Click Here[/A] to view my aircraft photos at JetPhotos.Net!The official psychotic AA painter. :)

I thought the printer was primarily used by the ground maintanence after the flight, not by the flying crew.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpg

The printer is used to recieve clearances, ATIS, and I *think* ACARS messages.

>The printer is used to recieve clearances, ATIS, and I>*think* ACARS messages.Actually you get the entire weather info via ACARS, so yes the printer is used for ACARS as well.Now there's another one: One of the F/As comes to the flight deck telling you there's a real good paying customer on row 1 in first class who would love to know the most actual soccer results. No problem you say, you type a message through ACARS to your company operations office asking them for the results. Time passes and the printer gives you their reply containing the results. The F/A will bring that very paper to the passenger and you can be sure he will fly with you again! Yes, ACARS is horribly expensive, but that money you used to get those results is well worth it as that passenger will book another first class ticket soon... Good to have a printer on board!No, that is no joke! Happens from time to time :)Regards,Markus

>>No, that is no joke! Happens from time to time :)>I agree! Something like this happened to me when I flying to visit a friend in the hospital and my first flight got late and I was worried about missing the connection. The crew communicated with ACARS to see if the next plane could be delayed slightly or if they could find me another flight because of the emergency situation I was in. Well, goes without saying they did not stop the next plane ...About the Data Printer idea: Interesting I just thought about this last night ... ! Would indeed be cool and when you advertise something like this, it will BLOW PEOPLE AWAY, so it might be worth doing just for the sake of it. I would love to get route info, weather, etc prinouts soo.- Neeraj

I thought it was just the airbus that had the onboard printer. Goran

This was intesively discussed during the beta testing of the NG. It would be neat to buy one of those cash register printers, make a little slot in my mother-in-laws dining table, mount the printer underneath the slot and voil

737's use that printer to get dispatches -- full flight plans!I went on a job interview to be a flight attendant a while back on a Continental NG and the Captain printed out a plan for me right in front of me because he had already thrown the old one out!!!! The ACARS had the dispatch.I know many developers have been wanting to implement some way for FMC's to import data from, say, FSBuild to print the dispatch-style sheets.BTW I still have that copy of the flight plan and I fly it often. I didnt get th job, but I still love the crew that flew me there . . . . first class!!! (I was space avaiolable and THAT was the only space they had!!! **smiles**)

I guess you can print out any ACARS message on that printer. The fascinating thing is what is being transmitted via ACARS!I know that european airports are beginning to hand over IFR clearences via ACARS. No more voice clearence. And the crew pushes the "ACK" button on the MCDU to acknowledge they've received it.Fascinating,