I fly primarily on vatsim or not online at all since I never liked default or non human arc. I read somewhere that sayintentions.ai can be used when flying on vatsim when there are no online atc available.  Is that true and if so, how does that work?  Is it any good instead of using Unicom?

14 minutes ago, Zimmerbz said:

I fly primarily on vatsim or not online at all since I never liked default or non human arc. I read somewhere that sayintentions.ai can be used when flying on vatsim when there are no online atc available.  Is that true and if so, how does that work?  Is it any good instead of using Unicom?

And can someone explain the differences between SI.AI and BATC?  At first glance both look similar.  For IFR flying at the moment is one better or more realistic than the other?

9 hours ago, Zimmerbz said:

And can someone explain the differences between SI.AI and BATC?  At first glance both look similar.  For IFR flying at the moment is one better or more realistic than the other?

The links below are pretty much self-explanatory, I use BATC as I cannot afford a monthly subscription. What I do like about both is the total commitment of both the BATC and SI developers and how often and quickly updates are released.

S.I.

https://www.sayintentions.ai/pricing

BATC

https://www.beyondatc.net/

Edited February 27, 20251 yr by SierraHotel BSc

10 hours ago, Zimmerbz said:

I fly primarily on vatsim or not online at all since I never liked default or non human arc. I read somewhere that sayintentions.ai can be used when flying on vatsim when there are no online atc available.  Is that true and if so, how does that work?  Is it any good instead of using Unicom?

https://sayintentionsai.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/154000200521-how-do-i-use-sayintentions-ai-with-vatsim-

The above article will explain how the integration works with Say Intentions.

Do you find that one has less "robotic sounding" voices over the other?  Any downsides you all feel for either? 

2 hours ago, Zimmerbz said:

Do you find that one has less "robotic sounding" voices over the other?  Any downsides you all feel for either? 

I don't know anything about using SI with Vatsim but the BATC voices are very good.  Even the free voices are very decent.  I personally use the Premium voices most of the time and they are much better than SI (I usually only got 1 or 2 different voices entire flight in SI).  Also, BATC works much better for airline flying than SI and eliminates the need for Vatsim...

3 hours ago, Zimmerbz said:

Do you find that one has less "robotic sounding" voices over the other?  Any downsides you all feel for either? 

They have a free 24 hour trial... that will answer a lot of your questions. The voices are absolutely not robotic!

57 minutes ago, Flic1 said:

I don't know anything about using SI with Vatsim but the BATC voices are very good.  Even the free voices are very decent.  I personally use the Premium voices most of the time and they are much better than SI (I usually only got 1 or 2 different voices entire flight in SI).  Also, BATC works much better for airline flying than SI and eliminates the need for Vatsim...

I don't want to necessarily eliminate Vatsim.  I'd like to compliment it more.  It sounds like SI can do that but maybe not BATC at the moment?  Meaning start with Vatsim and then when going to an uncontrolled area switch to SI or BATC and Vice versa.  

Can both of them use PTT and the planes radio stack exclusively and not need to use the pop up windows?  That is a big one for me.  I'd prefer to tune in the stations via the radio and talk via my headset and PTT button

 

18 minutes ago, Silicuss said:

They have a free 24 hour trial... that will answer a lot of your questions. The voices are absolutely not robotic!

Both have trials?  If that is the case i'll have to try and see! 

11 minutes ago, Zimmerbz said:

I don't want to necessarily eliminate Vatsim.  I'd like to compliment it more.  It sounds like SI can do that but maybe not BATC at the moment?  Meaning start with Vatsim and then when going to an uncontrolled area switch to SI or BATC and Vice versa.  

I don't think you can use BATC with Vatsim in the same way SI is supposedly implemented to fill the gaps.

11 minutes ago, Zimmerbz said:

Can both of them use PTT and the planes radio stack exclusively and not need to use the pop up windows?  That is a big one for me.  I'd prefer to tune in the stations via the radio and talk via my headset and PTT button

Yes, both can use a button assigned as a PTT  and you can tune frequencies yourself (i actually use the auto-tune in BATC to reduce the workload during approach/departures).

 

BATC does not have a trial and SI does.

15 minutes ago, Flic1 said:

I don't think you can use BATC with Vatsim in the same way SI is supposedly implemented to fill the gaps.

Yes, both can use a button assigned as a PTT  and you can tune frequencies yourself (i actually use the auto-tune in BATC to reduce the workload during approach/departures).

 

BATC does not have a trial and SI does.

Cool.  Do you use both?

2 minutes ago, Zimmerbz said:

Cool.  Do you use both?

Used SI for a couple months but cancelled, now only use BATC (although I do not use ATC on every flight I do).  I like the integrated traffic feature, I sometimes only use the traffic without using the ATC.  I think it works much better for airline style flying over SI if you are interested in more realistic ATC...but neither are perfect.

40 minutes ago, Zimmerbz said:

I don't want to necessarily eliminate Vatsim.  I'd like to compliment it more.  It sounds like SI can do that but maybe not BATC at the moment?  Meaning start with Vatsim and then when going to an uncontrolled area switch to SI or BATC and Vice versa.  

Can both of them use PTT and the planes radio stack exclusively and not need to use the pop up windows?  That is a big one for me.  I'd prefer to tune in the stations via the radio and talk via my headset and PTT button

 

Both have trials?  If that is the case i'll have to try and see! 

I dont fly on Vatsim but i do on PilotEdge and I have and use both SI and BATC. To me, BATC is all or nothing right now. SI allows both, to use fly within the PE coverage area and be able to turn off SI ATC but keep the Co-Pilot, Dispatch etc or for VATSIM users it seem you can basically be handed off to SI from VATSIM as read in the above link. I never have to go outside of the vc once I start a flight. With SI you can assign a hotkey to turn off/on ATC keeping the other AI voices and features of SI available. (You can also assign a hotkey for those voices as well). Then for PE, 5 quick clicks of the radio PTT and I on or off PE.

If I start a flight at an uncontrolled airport in the PE coverage area, I will call them up and get my clearance and start there. If landing at a towered airport but it does not have PE tower manned, I will turn on SI ATC to get the ATIS and then turn it back off once getting near the destination. When PE hands me off to land treating it like an uncontrolled airport, I click the mike 5 times leaving PE and then turn on SI and tell tower that I'm on the approach to land. This is all IFR.  For VFR, its close to the same but have no issues with starting with PE or SI and same for the landing.

BATC is more geared right now for IFR of airliners so keep that in mind if thats what you like to fly.

With SI you can have a copilot and they will handled all the radio work when you ask or give it back to you when you ask but only for IFR flights.

Heres my setup with PE and SI