Custom ACARS Programmer

[ctabuyo]

Hello:

I open this post, because I read about an ACARS called smartCARS which costs $69,99 for an airline, and the premium costs 3,99/month to the pilot. I think they´re too expensive especially the smartCARS premium. So since I have lot of experience programming in C#(in fact I´m "RallyeAir Software Development Department Director"). I decided to start doing custom, for airlines which are(in my opinion) affordable and better than smartCARS. These ACARS are programmed exclusively for each airline. It costs $35(just one time of course) the Windows Versions(MFSX, P3D, X-Plane), and everything is free for the pilot(he will have free features like automatic save of your flight...) and for $15 more ($50 in total) you´ll have a mobile version(iOS, Android, Windows Phone).... I think prices are pretty affordable, huh?

And of course, the ACARS is paid when it is 100% finished, implemented on your airline and you´re happy with it.

However:

- If you order just the Windows Version($35), I ask for a 10% of the total price when you order it($3,5), just to make sure that you ar "interested" on it. If once finished you wouldn´t like(which I´m pretty sure won´t happen), I´ll return the $3,5. Pays are done via "PayPal"

- If you order the Windows Version + Mobile Version($50), I ask for the 5% of the total price($2,5), just to make sure that you ar "interested" on it. If once finished you wouldn´t like(which I´m pretty sure won´t happen), I´ll return the $2,5. Pays are done via "PayPal"

You can contact me via PM on this forum, or via email, by clicking here.

P.S: I also programm on Mac(Swift/Objective-C) so if anyone would be interested on an ACARS for that S.O, please get in touch with me and we will talk, but an ACARS for that system will be more expensive than for Windows, ofc.

P.S2: The first airline asking for it will have a 20% discount off for being our first client. Hurry up, you might take one of that awesome ACARS 20% off.

Kind Regards!

Edit: I already had my first order, so the 20% discount offer is no longer available.

[flyalaska]

Any demos or screenshots?

[ctabuyo]

Well, I haven´t programmed any ACARS yet(I have programmed one to get familiarized with FSUIPC Offsets, but it was pretty simple and without a good UI...). So as soon as I programm one, I will post screnshoots.

Thank you,

[Vangelis]

If i may ask in what language do you write code in ?

[ctabuyo]

The ACARS I programm in C#. But I do know Objective-C/Swift as well.

[Vangelis]

My friendly advice is before you offer services prepare a generic demo it will be useful for your potential clients also avoid doing direct calls to the MySQL database and create a bridge to work between phpvms and your acars so that your db doesn't get compromised if some one reverse engineers your client

Feel free to download my open source client so you get an idea how it works

[ctabuyo]

Hi Mate

Thanks for your advices. In fact you´re pretty right about the MySQL, that never should be done because it will be very easy for anyone one who reverse engineers your software to acces to the database, so I prefer using other methods like HTTP, JSON...

About the generic demo, I´m going to upload photos of every ACARS that I develop(of course when they´re finished), because as they are going to be different from each others, people can see all the differents UIs that I have created.

Thanks again Vangelis

[turbofandude]

Those are some big claims my friend. You clearly underestimate how much goes into/went into smartCARS (some 20,000+ lines of code, now). There's a lot more than just tracking flight data - A LOT. That said, some friendly competition is always good.

However, I have to ask: how much experience do you really have? If you know how to code so well, you know how long it takes and how hard it is, so at the prices you're charging, you're not going to be making a whole lot per hour of work put in, especially when you're making each deployment custom. Doing that also makes adding new features or fixing issues infinitely more difficult.

There's also the time you'll spend offering support, planning future services, or in our case, money spent on maintaining recurring cloud services so your customers don't have to.

As well, mobile apps are not free to make and will cut into your already thin time and profits, so unless you have a good plan, it'll complicate things.

Finally, consider the feature requests you can't honor due to technical limitations in FSUIPC, or in most cases, the underlying FS system or incompatibility with your program's policy.

Now, if you've already thought about all of these and have a solid plan, I'm impressed. If not, you should. Feel free to reach out to us for insight, if you'd like.

None of this is meant to be negative, for the record. It's being realistic. We do our best to do the best we can for our customers and for our product and we try to remain as humble as possible, so tall, unsupported claims or lack of appreciation for what goes into what we do bothers us, considering we're a team with over 10 years combined experience.

[ctabuyo]

Those are some big claims my friend. You clearly underestimate how much goes into/went into smartCARS (some 20,000+ lines of code, now). There's a lot more than just tracking flight data - A LOT. That said, some friendly competition is always good.

However, I have to ask: how much experience do you really have? If you know how to code so well, you know how long it takes and how hard it is, so at the prices you're charging, you're not going to be making a whole lot per hour of work put in, especially when you're making each deployment custom. Doing that also makes adding new features or fixing issues infinitely more difficult.

There's also the time you'll spend offering support, planning future services, or in our case, money spent on maintaining recurring cloud services so your customers don't have to.

As well, mobile apps are not free to make and will cut into your already thin time and profits, so unless you have a good plan, it'll complicate things.

Finally, consider the feature requests you can't honor due to technical limitations in FSUIPC, or in most cases, the underlying FS system or incompatibility with your program's policy.

Now, if you've already thought about all of these and have a solid plan, I'm impressed. If not, you should. Feel free to reach out to us for insight, if you'd like.

None of this is meant to be negative, for the record. It's being realistic. We do our best to do the best we can for our customers and for our product and we try to remain as humble as possible, so tall, unsupported claims or lack of appreciation for what goes into what we do bothers us, considering we're a team with over 10 years combined experience.

Hey mate, let´s go in parts:

First of all and very important, I am not trying to compete with you, if you take a look at it for a moment we are offering different products at all. Your is a commercial software which is always the same for every airline in the world. However mine isn´t a commercial software, it is designed for each customer and it does what they want it to do.... At a very affordable price.

Mobile apps aren´t a problem at all, because when both(the mobile and the computer in which the desktop app is running) are connected to the same network, is "easy" to send "data" from one to another.

FSUIPC doesn´t work fine with every single addon, that´s why if you want your ACARS to work perfect with a particular airplane, well, you just tell me and we see what we can do(probably use another SDK like SimConnect, PMDG....).

I have a solid plan, but as I already said we´re offering completely different software

And about the claims, I might understand that it can bother you, but for me it is just the thruth. It is really nice to try to empathize with the rest of people, not just strict to what you think.

Kind Regards!

P.S: Anyone who wants commercial software should go for smartCARS this is not his/her place, if you want a low-price ACARS with the best quality then, go for mine.

P.S2: I do not understimate what went into smartCARS. I perfectly understand/know that it was A LOT of work, on programming. But I think it was worhtwile. Don´t missunderstand me, my "claims" on my first post against smartCARS were just to make people understand that if they dont wanna spend too much money on their VA, smartCARS is just not their ACARS.