2 minutes ago, Flic1 said:

But for $100, you get a T-shirt!!

So now you pay $20/month...plus another $30 for their standalone and now $50-$100 to be a supporter (???).... for a program that still cannot properly vector you for an approach and getting the same 2-3 voices the entire flight......😆

I spent around $30 for Beyond ATC, it works great, and getting better and better. No monthly charges, and I will wait for the AI traffic, in the mean time, my free FSLTL works fine. 

7 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

I spent around $30 for Beyond ATC, it works great, and getting better and better. No monthly charges, and I will wait for the AI traffic, in the mean time, my free FSLTL works fine. 

FSLTL is great but it is just an injector and MSFS controls the traffic (very badly) so I just use FSLTL for parked aircraft and fly in empty skies.

Do you end up on finals dodging other aircraft or am I doing something wrong?

I think BATC is the overall winner at this point. SI is bloaty as heck and has not fixed bugs/inaccuracies. I'll get a couple of these once their feature sets are semi-stable in like 2030 or something.

I think I've been a PilotEdge member for over 7 years now of both the SoCal and Western regions (since it was added). Thats my #1 go to ATC but have long wanted ATC outside of their coverage area. BATC was looking to fill that but their development time has gone long and their voices are closer to robotic than not. Once and if they release a product that gives great AI/ATC ina 95% solid format I will certainly look at them again but for now I have them on the back burner.

That said, last night I "invested" in SI with their partner program. I can care less about early access and other perks it offers. No, I say I invested because Brian is doing some great work and I believe in his determination and abilities to deliver. If my funds help in going towards R&D, support for more staff that can help code or fund what needs to brought in software/hardware to achieve his goals, then I am happy to help.

When SI is on, the immersion is about dang near as realistic as any real life ATC but when it has a moment of interruption via a break in realism then I know there is more work to be done. However, I see positive progress and it hasnt even been a year since release yet. One other aspect that always impresses me is that nothing is canned. 

I wont get into cost or fees because we are all in different phases of our own financial situations. However, while on that topic, I will say that simming is my #1 hobby and I use it to stay sharp for my real life recreational flying. So not only do I see the value in my hobby but I feel when compared to the cost of other hobbies (golf, snow boarding, sportfishing etc) the added cost of addons and subscriptions in simming isnt that bad at all in my eyes.  

39 minutes ago, flyingscampi said:

FSLTL is great but it is just an injector and MSFS controls the traffic (very badly) so I just use FSLTL for parked aircraft and fly in empty skies.

Do you end up on finals dodging other aircraft or am I doing something wrong?

In over 2 years of flying 10-14 flights a week, I have had traffic issues with AI, about 6 times, and I fly into major airports almost always. 

25 minutes ago, Ident said:

I think I've been a PilotEdge member for over 7 years now of both the SoCal and Western regions (since it was added). Thats my #1 go to ATC but have long wanted ATC outside of their coverage area. BATC was looking to fill that but their development time has gone long and their voices are closer to robotic than not. Once and if they release a product that gives great AI/ATC ina 95% solid format I will certainly look at them again but for now I have them on the back burner.

That said, last night I "invested" in SI with their partner program. I can care less about early access and other perks it offers. No, I say I invested because Brian is doing some great work and I believe in his determination and abilities to deliver. If my funds help in going towards R&D, support for more staff that can help code or fund what needs to brought in software/hardware to achieve his goals, then I am happy to help.

When SI is on, the immersion is about dang near as realistic as any real life ATC but when it has a moment of interruption via a break in realism then I know there is more work to be done. However, I see positive progress and it hasnt even been a year since release yet. One other aspect that always impresses me is that nothing is canned. 

I wont get into cost or fees because we are all in different phases of our own financial situations. However, while on that topic, I will say that simming is my #1 hobby and I use it to stay sharp for my real life recreational flying. So not only do I see the value in my hobby but I feel when compared to the cost of other hobbies (golf, snow boarding, sportfishing etc) the added cost of addons and subscriptions in simming isnt that bad at all in my eyes.  

I flew Pilot edge for a couple of months. I felt like I was flying in a goldfish bowl, small area of the world. In addition, talking to the same controller after switching frequencies most of the time, was a real immersion killer for me. In addition, the cost was way too much ($35 a month for expanded region)  for what I was getting. 

Edited October 19, 20241 yr by Bobsk8

Disregard, double post. 

Edited October 19, 20241 yr by Bobsk8

$192 per year is too much for the average user. I guess the price of AI usage will go down eventually, but in the meantime - it’s too expensive.

I hope Asobo will implement something similar in the future (better ATC, voice support etc.). Their flight plan tool (which is replacing a Navigraph sub) was apparently the first step towards a better ATC system 

Edited October 19, 20241 yr by Niko_

52 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

I flew Pilot edge for a couple of months. I felt like I was flying in a goldfish bowl, small area of the world. In addition, talking to the same controller after switching frequencies most of the time, was a real immersion killer for me. In addition, the cost was way too much ($35 a month for expanded region)  for what I was getting. 

I wont be replying to defend PE, their years of professionalism can speak for itself. I also see merits in all of your points. My reply is that to date, PE is the only and best option for pilot radio work training and currency. As a simmer, it might not be for everyone. For looking to polish and stay sharp on your ATC skills to be used in real life, nothing compares.

All that said, PE is the only option that offers full coverage, 14 hours a day almost 365 (they take a few US holidays off) in a small but busy coverage area. Their install and software is highly easy to use and they are speech only (no text, no drop down items to select) They created beautiful distance and obstruction transmission deterioration resulting in fading, broken signal and static.

The same controller issue is a big one, regardless, I am going to say the same thing on my radio call no matter what the voice sounds like on the other end and they are not sloppy in treating you as if they just talked to you a second ago as a different controller for a different reason.

Edited October 19, 20241 yr by Ident

5 minutes ago, Ident said:

I wont be replying to defend PE, their years of professionalism can speak for itself. I also see merits in all of your points. My reply is that to date, PE is the only and best option for pilot radio work training and currency. As a simmer, it might not be for everyone. For looking to polish and stay sharp on your ATC skills to be used in real life, nothing compares.

All that said, PE is the only option that offers full coverage, 14 hours a day almost 365 (they take a few US holidays off) in a small but busy coverage area. Their install and software is highly easy to use and they are speech only (no text, no drop down items to select) They created beautiful distance and obstruction transmission deterioration resulting in fading, broken signal and static.

The same controller issue is a big one, regardless, I am going to say the same thing on my radio call no matter what the voice sounds like on the other end and they are not sloppy in treating you as if they just talked to you a second ago as a different controller for a different reason.

How hard would it be for them to apply a voice filter to modulate the controller voice so it feels different from station to station ? 😄

I’ve grown suspicious of some of the SI praise threads after seeing some of their devs posting here praising the product without identifying themselves as devs of the product, and more recently when there was a barrage of SI praising threads from “customers” on MSFS Facebook groups and finally one of them admitting there’s some sort of competition going on where they can win MSFS24 if they spam the internet with positive reviews of how amazing SI is.

I have to hand it to them, they’re great at marketing but I just don’t trust it all…

1 hour ago, Speedbird 217 said:

I've grown suspicious of some of the SI praise threads after seeing some of their devs posting here praising the product without identifying themselves as devs of the product, and more recently when there was a barrage of SI praising threads from “customers” on MSFS Facebook groups and finally one of them admitting there’s some sort of competition going on where they can win MSFS24 if they spam the internet with positive reviews of how amazing SI is.

Yeah. I am not impressed by that either.

3 hours ago, Speedbird 217 said:

I’ve grown suspicious of some of the SI praise threads after seeing some of their devs posting here praising the product without identifying themselves as devs of the product, and more recently when there was a barrage of SI praising threads from “customers” on MSFS Facebook groups and finally one of them admitting there’s some sort of competition going on where they can win MSFS24 if they spam the internet with positive reviews of how amazing SI is.

I have to hand it to them, they’re great at marketing but I just don’t trust it all…

This opinion is so false.  In fact Brian specifically asked people not to spam forums with messages about SayIntentions.  Yes there is a contest to help them with getting the word out so of course you’re seeing more about it from customers.  I’m gonna go ahead and guess that you haven’t even tried the 24 hour free trial recently.

I love SayIntentions and because I fly all sorts of aircraft and not airliners I need the variability and flexibility that it allows.  If I was just flying and airliner from A-B doing the same stuff over and over again then an on rails ATC would be fine.  But I don’t know of another ATC that will let me fly for example a military flight with a delay working in a MOA or air refueling with touching clouds mod and let me talk to it like I would in real life and it responds pretty appropriately.  And then when I’m ready to continue on the flight plan it picks me back up and works well.  Yes there’s bugs and sometimes things go backwards.  I saw the comment above about the same 2-3 voices.  That has been recently fixed again.

Anyway, you don’t have to like it or try it but for me and what I do with the sim it’s worth the money and I don’t even get to fly usually more than 2x a week.  But it’s everything I could have wanted from an ATC program and is just going to get better.  And if I just go out to eat one time less a month then it just paid for itself.

As an aside, Father Time (retired 777 captain) posted a nice video on SI handling a mayday situation.

 

 

Interested in getting this for a year subscription.

I downloaded and set up the account. First problem is when I start the program itself when i get the window it opens with the white window called  General Settings. Im not able to fill in the email, password, etc, nor the headset config etc as are whited or blanked out. What am i doing wrong?

 

This has been fixed on Discord. Thanks over there.

Edited October 19, 20241 yr by lenny777