Just wondering, given the current group of ATC programs out there, which one is best for VFR?

Thanks.

I've tried to find something suitable for VFR flight but I suppose the very nature of VFR flight being largely uncontrolled means nobody has bothered developing for it, VATSIM is pretty useless and asking for a VFR Transit of a CTR on a known route using VRPs usually results in a confused controller trying to give vectors

Interested to know if there is anything out there

Say Intentions, also best for IFR and really immersive.

Little bit expensive but I never regretted to have paid for a year now. 
 

It is controlled by AI and not scripted like all the other Atc which makes it much more enjoyable. If you use it for a while it is really hard to go back to scripted Atc.

Edited December 3, 20241 yr by rob0203

1 hour ago, Rusty Spanner said:

I've tried to find something suitable for VFR flight but I suppose the very nature of VFR flight being largely uncontrolled means nobody has bothered developing for it, VATSIM is pretty useless and asking for a VFR Transit of a CTR on a known route using VRPs usually results in a confused controller trying to give vectors

Interested to know if there is anything out there

On Vatsim it really depends on where you are flying - every country is different and have different rules as to how they deal with VFRs. For instance in Europe/UK - flying VFR is a lot more stricter then perhaps US. But as a controller myself - Have dealt with 100s of VFRs never had to give vectors unless flight's safety was at risk (Close proximity of other traffic/terrain or controlled airspace) 

1 hour ago, Rob G said:

Just wondering, given the current group of ATC programs out there, which one is best for VFR?

Thanks.

But to OP - if you want to try out ATC for VFR/IFR - Have a look at Vatsim/IVAO, which is as close to real thing as it can be and all of it is free of charge. Just ensure you know/read up local rules and procedures before flying. Pilotedge is another good suggestion - similar to vatsim but it is payware and only covers some states of US. 

 

Edited December 3, 20241 yr by CAP1234

2 minutes ago, CAP1234 said:

On Vatsim it really depends on where you are flying - every country is different and have different rules as to how they deal with VFRs. For instance in Europe/UK - flying VFR is a lot more stricter then perhaps US.
 

But to OP - if you want to try out ATC for VFR/IFR - Have a look at Vatsim/IVAO, which is as close to real thing as it can be and all of it is free of charge. Just ensure you know the local rules and procedures before flying. Pilotedge is another good suggestion - similar to vatsim but it is payware and only covers some states of US. 

 

I say this as someone who’s been an I1, I3, done more hours than I’d like to admit, I’ve gotta say, the average quality of control you get in the US flying VFR is poor. Obviously it has to do with the facility, but overcontrolling, issuing IFR instructions, and generally not understanding what to do/say are huge issues in VATUSA that, thankfully, have been getting better. But you still hear things all the time from controllers that are like pouring broken glass into your ear. 

I'm (unfortunately) glad to hear that VATSIM suffer the same problem as IVAO when flying VFR. These networks attract - with their limited coverage for small hops - more IFR and airline's simmers. And recruiting general airport ATC is a tough task. No offense.

Have tested SayIntention, but it's too much expensive for basic VFR. When you wanted to get as-real-as-it-gets, flying some specific VFR corridors for examples, AI is at first positively surprising but I faced several times, the syndrome of AI hallucinating. It's totally ruined the immersion. Not to mention the delay of challenge-response. May try it later when retired and hopefully more accessible pricewise.

I monitor BeyondATC. But I have small hope as target market seems also more tubeliner's simmers.

And of course, PilotEdge is the best experience so far (not free) and with a limited coverage.

Finally, I'm totally disappointed by Microsoft with MSFS2024: until the release I was still a believer in AI integration in ATC to revamp it from scratch. AI is everywhere, in all products even vaporware or marketing BS, Microsoft puts their CoPilot (hey! Look at the name!) in all their portfolio and there 'isn't a inch of generative AI in MSFS2024 😉 Sounds like the next promise among a lot for Microsoft.

PilotEdge without a doubt.

I was real happy with SayIntention for VFR. It was really good when I tried it and that was early on. Probably gotten even better now.

Very very expensive though.

There really is nothing else.

Vatsim is not really a solution for VFR.

 

Hi, everyone,

I had a very bad time flying today with the ATC (MS2024).

The ATC was talking and talking all the time, and I couldn't deactivate de IFR mode (I had my fly plan with VFR!).

I think it's not just only my problem. But, please are there any solution to fly VFR with ATC without issues?

Is there any possibility to configure the ATC to act like in MS2020?

If not, is there any ATC external software for MS2024?

Greetings

 

 

 

There is only one that do VFR for now and that is Sayintentions…BATC will do VFR in the unforeseen future..

Im very happy with sayintentions, but the cost may not be for everyone..

On 12/3/2024 at 3:26 PM, Rob G said:

Just wondering, given the current group of ATC programs out there, which one is best for VFR?

Thanks.

Are you familiar with ATC procedures for VFR operations? Once you learn that, default will be good enough.

For IFR ops, BATC is the one ATC add-on for MSFS 2020 that I highly recommend.

Just re-tested SayIntentions, after being an early Beta testers, and did a couple of flights these last days.

It has improved in several areas like chatters, ATC reply's delay and add a lot fancy-enternaitment features that I'm not interested in (mentor, copilot, tour guide, cabin crews)

But for now it doesn't progress enough.

It's still very impressive in voice recognition, ATC generated voices, it knows a lot of real thing (VRP, PoI...) and overall it creates a great immersive ambiance, but unfortunately the architecture based on AI LLM still hallucinating a lot. This blows away this great immersion capability.

The taxi issue still there despite the cool TaxiTuner initiative and give non-sense routes : when you ask for alternative because it doesn't make sense, AI insist repeating/hallucinating ;( I get several non-sense clearance or out-of-sync (twice cleared for take-off, no hand-off between two Class D (KSEE and KMYF) the list is long and for every flights I did had one or two glitches that make me thing "so close to be cool but this or that is really stupid". I could spend 30 min after every small VFR flights raising bugs or inconsistency as I did during the Beta. Didn’t changed much. For example, 2 flights ago, all numbers said by ATC where spell as regular figures like runway twenty-five. Discord support replied "It could happened with AI you know".

Will give more feedback details later on. Need more tests. But so far, I may not be the perfect SI customer because I want an ATC that gets closer to as-real-as-it-gets and I look for a more "study-level" ATC for the SayIntentions cost.

Edited January 3, 20251 yr by vbazillio

10 minutes ago, CFIJose said:

Are you familiar with ATC procedures for VFR operations? Once you learn that, default will be good enough.

For IFR ops, BATC is the one ATC add-on for MSFS 2020 that I highly recommend.

So the default ATC support VFR corridors, VRP’s and FSS? If it does, sure that would be good enough:p

Edited January 3, 20251 yr by Kaboki

3 hours ago, Kaboki said:

So the default ATC support VFR corridors, VRP’s and FSS? If it does, sure that would be good enough:p

I flown in enough real VFR corridors and as I stated, if a pilots knows what they are doing, in a sim, default VFR is enough.

BATC will have VFR traffic in the future. I think it's up next in the development chain after the LLM. The LLM might actually help a lot with it, because VFR is much less strict in terms of phreseology and procedures

16 minutes ago, CFIJose said:

I flown in enough real VFR corridors and as I stated, if a pilots knows what they are doing, in a sim, default VFR is enough.

I never flown VFR IRL ever in my life(im a sim pilot) and still dont feel default is good enough:p. Good enough for a CFI but not good enough for a casual flightsimmer like me:).

I guess I dont know what Im doing then:p

Edited January 3, 20251 yr by Kaboki