I sign in occasionally to keep my account active. As I use a Mac, and they stopped officially supporting Macs, it is a very painful process to login. It requires installing an old version of Java, which I think you have done already as I vaguely recall a post to that effect a long time ago. It is supposed to then work from Windows, but for a Mac, I need to open the cadas file in a text file application, inspect it (and some other files too, if I recall correctly), and then manually repeat some of the script steps in a terminal window. Every time I do it, I ask myself whether it is really worth the effort. I doubt its interface will win any ease-of-use awards any time soon.
p.s. For me, the login link has always downloaded a file. In the past, on a Mac, there was a way to use the file to launch the app (can’t quite remember how now), but since the ‘new’ release, I have not found a way to do that, and hence the terminal window ‘solution’
Sounds like it’s not worth the bother.
Java keeps wanting to update itself. The popups are hard or impossible to stop.
Then I have some specialised apps e.g. Cube IDE which true to Java $10/line coder tradition is
and while this pile of junk seems to include its copy of Java, I am not sure whether it makes any use of the Java installed on the PC.
Peter wrote:
Does anyone still use AFPEX?I keep it as a backup means of sending AFTN messages but have just found that the URL https://flightplanningonline.co.uk/index.html no longer works. It just takes you to a NATS website which attempts to download a center.cadas file, which one can’t do anything with.
Haven’t used it in years. But I do still have a log in.
Have a look here
https://www.myafpex.co.uk/documents/AFPEx_Windows_Setup_Guide.pdf
You need to install a specific version of (non-Oracle) Java and another program to pen the cadas files before it will work now.
Hmmm, clearly NATS pay more than $10 per line of Java 
I think part of the complication is that the app is quite old now (and developed by an external company I think) and presumably not being updated anymore. I think it is now no longer compatible with the latest versions of Java. The convoluted process now is so that you can create a virtual environment running an old version of Java that works with AFPeX without disturbing your main installation of Java.
OK. I have a winXP VM (VMWARE) which I use to run various old tools. So I could use that.
It doesn’t have any Java though…
Hardly worth the trouble, I think. The scenario where I might be using that is when travelling, and everything has gone wrong. So I would be accessing this stack of cards remotely…
I agree. Probably not worth it. I keep my login because AFPEx is a pretty direct translation of AFTN messaging protocols. The proper apps that do flight plans shield you from all those details, which is good, but sometimes I want to understand what is going on ‘under-the-hood’ which is easier with AFPEx, including their help system, and in my experience, their very helpful telephone line support.
Also, most countries won’t give you an AFTN address unless you are corporation. I figure one of these days, having my own address and being able to send a message directly through AFTN will cut some Gordian knot…
So basicly, CAA/NATS don’t want you to use AFPEX then…
Few changes to that – AFPex is going to free for use in the UK:
https://nats-uk.ead-it.com/cms-nats/export/sites/default/en/Publications/Aeronautical-Information-Circulars-AICs/yellow-aics/EG_Circ_2023_Y_039_en.pdf
In short – NOTAMs would have to be submitted via AFPex only, e-mail submissions go away in Aug-2023
