Reading CDU information

[Luke 782]

I'm trying to integrate fuel and passenger loading from my virtual airline's ACARS package with PMDG aircraft. Sending events to the CDU to navigate to the fuel and passenger loading pages isn't too difficult, but my bigger problem is how to determine the passenger capacity and the maximum number of seats in each class. Is there any easy way to do this?

Cheers!

Luke

[Captain Kevin 586]

Doesn't the FMC already tell you how many passengers can be seated in each class? Or am I not understanding your question.

[Luke 782]

Yes, I am attempting to read it in software.

Cheers!

Luke

[downscc 1,327]

This seems to come up quite often and the answer is a short no.  The NGX has options for single or mixed class cabin which changes the number of seats by class and 747/777 also have number of seats per class but this is really not much more than eyecandy.  Every operator has a different mix of class seating, and often even within type airframes.  PMDG does not get into this, it is not a gate attendant simulator.  It is a flight simulator for pilots and all we are interested in is ZFW.  Pilots only need to know the number of souls on board when declaring an emergency, otherwise weight is weight.

[cannonplug 126]

2 hours ago, Luke said:

Yes, I am attempting to read it in software.

Go to the Payload page under FS Actions. Under the number of passengers for each class, the number following the slash is the capacity for each class. E.g., for the NGX, under first class, you'll see something like 8/12. 8 is the number currently loaded. 12 is the total capacity of the first class cabin.

[markdf 84]

9 minutes ago, downscc said:

This seems to come up quite often and the answer is a short no.  The NGX has options for single or mixed class cabin which changes the number of seats by class and 747/777 also have number of seats per class but this is really not much more than eyecandy.  Every operator has a different mix of class seating, and often even within type airframes.  PMDG does not get into this, it is not a gate attendant simulator.  It is a flight simulator for pilots and all we are interested in is ZFW.  Pilots only need to know the number of souls on board when declaring an emergency, otherwise weight is weight.

It may not be the focus, but that value is definitely held in a variable in memory somewhere, and the data does appear when using third party remote CDUs so whether documented or not there clearly has to be some way to read the full contents of the CDU pages

1 minute ago, wsmeier said:

Go to the Payload page under FS Actions. Under the number of passengers for each class, the number following the slash is the capacity for each class. E.g., for the NGX, under first class, you'll see something like 8/12. 8 is the number currently loaded. 12 is the total capacity of the first class cabin.

He's said he knows it's readable by looking at it, he's attempting to read it via an external application

[cannonplug 126]

3 minutes ago, markdf said:

He's said he knows it's readable by looking at it, he's attempting to read it via an external application

Oops. Reading comprehension failure on my part. Sorry.

[wedgantilles 76]

16 hours ago, Luke said:

I'm trying to integrate fuel and passenger loading from my virtual airline's ACARS package with PMDG aircraft. Sending events to the CDU to navigate to the fuel and passenger loading pages isn't too difficult, but my bigger problem is how to determine the passenger capacity and the maximum number of seats in each class. Is there any easy way to do this?

Cheers!

Luke

Well I guess it's all down to if the SDK provide access to this information, which I think it don't, I believe tehre is button event to click on the buttons, but I'm not sure there is something to read that. But I don't think there is anything for this.

Why not taking a simpler approach by entering a ZFW and Fuel values, the maximum for these values do not change so you can have on your side the maximums predefined in your acars system. Because in the end the numbers of passengers I believe would not really matter if you computer a PAX/Baggage weight and then turn it into ZFW maybe the CDU won't show the same number of passenger as you, but I don't think it's important, as it's only the weight that matters for flight performances.

[Luke 782]

I'm making some assumptions regarding cabin sizes and from there fuel/payload/pax loading is working properly on the 737 and 772. Does anyone know what the cabin sizes are on the 773?

Cheers!

[wedgantilles 76]

4 hours ago, Luke said:

I'm making some assumptions regarding cabin sizes and from there fuel/payload/pax loading is working properly on the 737 and 772. Does anyone know what the cabin sizes are on the 773?

Cheers!

I think it completely depends on carrier. as an Example with Air France in my country, there are 4 classes (Premiere/Business/Premium/Economy), and even on the same varient 777-300ER they have 4 configurations : 296, 322, 381, 468.

You can have a look at http://www.seatguru.com it has details cabin plans for a lot of airlines and aircraft type