Yes, I remember the "phone book!" :-)

I also remember when we first got ACARS data that I could get performance for multiple runways via ACARS. (727) If I do that now, as soon as I request a new runway, the FMC dumps the current runway and erases V-speeds from the speed tape. Somehow, The FMC knows I asked for a new runway from ACARS.

I've only had ACARS quit once, but more often is a scenario where the computer in Chicago can't find an answer: "SCAP error," which I think means System Can't Analyze Performance.

Capt just pulls out his phone and calls dispatch; I'm usually on the radio telling tower we need two minutes (non-taxiing, of course!). SCAP errors happen fairly often, I think it is usually with clutter/contamination or anti-ice (seems I saw it more last winter). Dispatch runs it a different way, and either reads him the numbers, or sends it to the printer.

On my 757 fleet, when the Performance numbers come in via ACARS, and you hit "Accept," it populates the speed tape....but you still have to set plastic bugs; clean maneuvering isn't shown on the tape. We have five bugs.

Most common flaps for T/O are 15, 20, and sometimes 5. So, when SFO "helps"me with the switch to 28R at the last moment, I'm busier than a one-legged man at a butt-kicking contest.

"It" meant the FMC will set the tape bugs and the target EPRs/Flex temp, but I have set the Flaps and Trim.

I've been flying almost four decades, and have been doing the airline side for a while. I often wonder after a situation like that "What happens when a new-hire that's new to the plane, the company, and maybe the industry gets in this predicament?"

Point being, I don't think ATC realizes how this can be risky.