Blown away by SI demo

[Kaboki 437]

Been crossing America with the commanche since I got SI last month. I can never go back to something else. Its full of bugs and beta but enjoying it immensly, but seen improvemnt everyday since i got it.  
 

When they get traffic separation and sequencing in, it will be the best word not allowed offline ATC ever made!!! Probably also the most expensive ATC ever made:p

Edited March 18 by Kaboki

[decker89 110]

Jumping in with my two cents. I just tried the Demo and wow, I'm impressed. Did two flights in Southern California. IFR on the first flight and VFR on the second flight. Only glitch was the ground controller didn't give me any instructions to parking when I first contacted them after landing on my IFR flight.

However on my 2nd flight, the VFR flight, I landed at KPSP Palm Springs and upon exiting the runway I contacted ground and requested to park at Signature Aviation. It actually acknowledged my request to Signature Aviation with appropriate taxiway instructions. It knew where Signature Aviation was and guided me there!

Another glitch I noticed was when I botched the Clearance readback. I honestly wasn't ready for the IFR clearance instructions as I wasn't taking it as seriously as I would have on a Vatsim session. With that said I winged the readback instructions having got the squawk code wrong and initial altitude wrong. It still told me that the readback was correct even though it wasn't. 

All in all, this is very impressive. I am definitely looking forward to this technology getting even better in the future. As it is now it is better than any standalone ATC I've tried, and by a lot. Vatsim of course is as real as it gets when the controllers are online, but they aren't always online and they are never fully online with the different frequencies such as Clearance, Ground, Tower, Departure, And Center. Usually Vatsim is one controller trying to do all of it if you're lucky.

Lastly I like the idea of the multiplayer integration they have. The ability to hear other real life sim pilots on the frequency talking to and receiving instruction from the ai controllers is pretty cool. It's one of those things that if Everyone was using it the emersion would be unreal. The cost is a problem. Not sure I'll be able to justify it when Vatsim is free. The tech is exciting and is worth keeping an eye on.       

Edited March 19 by decker89

[abrams_tank 7,424]

55 minutes ago, decker89 said:

Not sure I'll be able to justify it when Vatsim is free.   

Unfortunately, VATSIM doesn't cover every airport around the world, and the most annoying part is that VATSIM controllers log off when you are in mid-flight, forcing you to UNICOM with no controller. Something like an AI powered ATC that will never quit on you midflight is very useful and allows you to complete your flight to the end.

[RALF9636 1,966]

Nice to see this app is evolving so fast. 

I am going to try the demo after they will have implemented the control of AI aircraft and things have matured for a while.

On the other hand I just can't imagine myself paying $30 a month for this, no matter how good it is. 

So hopefully they find a way to significantly lower the price some day.

 

[Fiorentoni 4,235]

Really what‘s a big problem is that it‘s ChatGPT behind that. ChatGPT is like a devout friend, he will apologize even if you‘re the one who did it wrong. ATC, however, needs to be strict. It needs to tell you (or yell at you) when do do something wrong, because after all this is about hundreds of human (virtual) lives. I‘m not sure it‘s possible to do this with ChatGPT (yet), he‘s just like your good old dog.

[techman 149]

1 hour ago, Fiorentoni said:

Really what‘s a big problem is that it‘s ChatGPT behind that. ChatGPT is like a devout friend, he will apologize even if you‘re the one who did it wrong. ATC, however, needs to be strict. It needs to tell you (or yell at you) when do do something wrong, because after all this is about hundreds of human (virtual) lives. I‘m not sure it‘s possible to do this with ChatGPT (yet), he‘s just like your good old dog.

Its easily possible to make an AI strictly follow rules. When it makes a mistake, it wasnt well trained. Which is different to your dog maybe.

 

I made a couple of flights today with FSHud and Sayintentions running parallel. FSHud is so more advanced regarding IFR (and of course the much more cheaper solution). I think that Sayintentions still has a couple of things to do before it will catch the level of situational awareness that FSHud has. For almost 400 bucks a year I would expect at least the same level that FSHud has.

Edited March 19 by techman

[JYW 2,981]

12 hours ago, Fiorentoni said:

ATC, however, needs to be strict.

Oh it can be strict!    I was flying between two GA airfields in south east England last night.  I missed the Standsted zone boundary and the ATC was very obviously angry!  Seriously, it got my heart going.  "GLL, YOU WERE NOT GIVEN PERMISSION TO ENTER THE STANSTED ZONE. TURN 180 DEGREES IMMEDIATELY AND STANDBY FOR PHONE NUMBER FOR POSSIBLE PILOT DEVIATION!".    SayIntentions had been so easy going on all previous flights and I almost jumped out of my skin when this happened.  You could tell that the audio compression level had been increased to make the call louder and it started very abruptly.  I literally jumped.

I did exactly as he instructed; turning 180, flying for 3 miles, then calmly asked for permission to transit the zone.  The same guy came back super politely, gave me permission and wished me a nice trip to Coventry😄

Anyone trying SI should try it.   Go to a GA airfield near London (or another very busy airspace), go over about 1200AGL and head straight for the major airport. 

Edited March 19 by JYW

[Purr 124]

I'm watching it closely...the discord is crazy busy with updates happening all the time. It seems like a very alive project that has many creative possibilities. Tackling all the procedural aspects for the world and all the differences is monumental but the pace of development is really going hard. It's actually pretty inspiring reading the discord as everyone is contributing helpful information and is sharing in the excitement of the development. I honestly can't remember ever seeing this kind of positive vibe in any flight sim forum or discord...erm...well, ever.

I'll be jumping on board to try for a few months even just as a means of supporting the dev, who is working his tail off. I think it's kind of neat working to shape the ai into (admittedly gradually) more and more accurate reflections of the real world.

So, yes, there are lots of "holes" but there is actually a lot going right here. The dev activity and community makes me feel pretty optimistic about where it's heading. Main holdback for me at the moment is that there is still delay for the ai to "think" and respond. Some of this happens in the real world too, of course, but I'm confident at the tech accelerates and AI improves, and programming tightens, there will continue to be reductions in that gap.

Anyway i just wanted to comment because it's weird seeing a discord channel with helpful people being patient and giving useful feedback and the developer being on things and excited in a realistic way. In contrast to...ahem....some flight sim related forums lol.  

[Tuskin38 6,526]

yeah there’s a ‘student pilot mode’ which makes ATC super lenient when it comes to deviations, using correct phraseology  and doing exact read backs. It’s basically easy mode

Edited March 21 by Tuskin38

[decker89 110]

Well I did another flight today and this time it wasn't so great. IFR from KPSP Palm Springs to KLAS Las Vegas. Everything was acceptable up until the approach, with a little forgiveness needed on the botched taxi out instructions. It told me to expect the RNAV for 26L, however it proceeded give me vectors that had nothing to do with the RNAV. It then handed me off to Tower while I was still a few miles out and not lined up for any runway. Tower proceeded to guide me out past the airport and eventually lined me up for impact to the mountains west of the airport. I decided I didn't want to die on this flight, so I broke off the track just before impact and landed safely at the airport on my own navigation. 

The tech is exciting, but this one is not ready yet. At least not ready to spend any money on. 

[Langeveldt 281]

The lack of AI control (I know this is in the pipeline) and the long gaps between when you transmit a message to when you get one back kill it for me at the moment.  It looks a really good project though, and I am glad the direction of travel is up.  It is criminal that we have such a good sim and such average default ATC at the moment.  

[JYW 2,981]

11 hours ago, Langeveldt said:

the long gaps between when you transmit a message to when you get one back

As someone who's used it every day on a range of VFR/IFR flight in the US and Europe, I agree, this "lag" is definitely the biggest usability issue for it so far.  SI have said it is the top of their priority list and that they are working on some changes that would potentially halve the delay.  I see about a 8-9 second delay at my end, so that would be reduced to 4, which is accepetable.

The other thing I would love to see is some basic regionalisation.  At the moment it has US and UK accents only - but they are completely randomly deployed.   Yesterday I flew in Florida and spent most of the flight with a broad-accented Cockney Centre controller .... I then flew in Essex in England and every controller was as American as apple pie 😄   I know it's not just about the US and UK but I would love, at least, having US accented controllers in the US and UK accented controllers in Britain.

Eventually what we need to be hearing is Spanish accents in Span, German accents in Germany, French accents in France and Quebec, etc, etc.  That would be amazing for immersion.

Edited March 21 by JYW

[Rocky_53 1,579]

$30 a month?????  Hmm, I may be in a minority, but it doesn't matter how good it is, I won't be paying anything close to that.

Edited March 24 by Rocky_53

[thepilot 578]

13 minutes ago, Rocky_53 said:

$30 a month?????  Hmm, I may be in a minority, but it doesn't matter how good it is, I won't be paying anything close to that.

Especially not with BeyondATC on the horizon, where the $30 are a one-time payment.

[Rocky_53 1,579]

2 minutes ago, thepilot said:

Especially not with BeyondATC on the horizon, where the $30 are a one-time payment.

Exactly