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Help centre · For pilots

EFB datalink and traffic map

Two tabs of the EFB talk to the online networks: Datalink sends and receives ACARS messages on Hoppie's free network, and Traffic shows the VATSIM and IVAO pilots and controllers around your flight. Your airline switches each one on (Staff → Optional features: EFB datalink and EFB traffic map).

Your Hoppie logon code

Hoppie's ACARS network is free for hobby pilots and controllers. Ask for a logon code on Hoppie's website; it arrives by email. Then open Account settings (your profile) and paste it under Hoppie ACARS (EFB datalink), or save it on the Datalink tab itself.

  • Vaeroly keeps the code encrypted and only uses it to talk to Hoppie for you. It is never shown again in full: you see its last two characters.
  • To change it, save a new one. Remove code deletes it.
  • Treat it like a password: anyone with it can send messages as you.

The datalink works for the flight you have booked, with its callsign. Your browser only talks to Vaeroly; Vaeroly talks to Hoppie.

  • The light at the top: green when Hoppie answered with your code in the last few minutes, red when it refused (the reason is shown), grey before the first check. Check connection asks again.
  • Pre-departure clearance: the request is filled in from your booking (callsign, aircraft type, departure and destination). Add your stand and the ATIS letter if you have them; when your booking's network is VATSIM or IVAO and the departure has an ATIS online, its letter is filled in for you. It goes to the departure airport's station unless you type another.
  • Telex: a free-text message to a station or another aircraft (up to 220 characters, sent in capitals).
  • CPDLC: type the station (for example EGTT) and press Log on. When the controller accepts, the tab says Logged on to EGTT. Messages that need an answer show buttons: WILCO, UNABLE or STANDBY for instructions, AFFIRM or NEGATIVE for questions, ROGER for information. Log off ends the connection.
  • Messages: everything sent and received for this flight, newest first, with the time in UTC. They stay with the booking.

While the tab is open, it checks for new messages every 45 to 75 seconds, as Hoppie asks of every client; it stops when you leave the tab. To keep the network fair to everyone, a pilot can send a few messages a minute.

Messages travel on Hoppie's network, which isn't part of Vaeroly: if it is down, the tab says so and you can try again a minute later.

Traffic map

The map shows the online network's pilots near you and the controllers covering your flight, from the networks' public data, read about once a minute.

  • In flight, it shows the traffic around your aircraft (your ACARS position). Before departure, it shows the traffic along your planned route and around the departure and arrival airports. Without a booking, around the airport you are at.
  • Switch between VATSIM and IVAO at the top; the tab remembers your choice.
  • Pilots show their callsign, aircraft type, route, altitude and speed. Names and member numbers are never shown.
  • Airport controllers (delivery, ground, tower, approach, ATIS) are marked at their airport; centre controllers light up their FIR's boundary. The list under the map gives each one's frequency, and the ATIS letter where there is one.

FIR boundaries come from the VAT-Spy Data Project (CC BY-SA 4.0), credited on the map with the network data.

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