6 minutes ago, Magenta Line said:

Wonder how many people will read past the first page...

I saw the prompt and clicked and was like "Holy cow! You can do that?!"

23 minutes ago, Magenta Line said:

SI's biggest drawback besides the cost is probably that you simply can't use it without actually talking out loud

Interesting post, thanks!

I usually sim in the evenings and I've got two children sleeping on the other side of my office wall, so talking is not an option for me. As you said, both programs are competing with each other and are likely to improve.

35 minutes ago, Magenta Line said:

SI's biggest drawback besides the cost is probably that you simply can't use it without actually talking out loud.

  

5 minutes ago, flyingscampi said:

Interesting post, thanks!

I usually sim in the evenings and I've got two children sleeping on the other side of my office wall, so talking is not an option for me. As you said, both programs are competing with each other and are likely to improve.

 

There's a text box below the chat log you can type messages into, you don't need to talk. Plus if you're doing a IFR flight you can set the co-pilot to auto respond to ATC.

Edited July 4, 2025Jul 4 by Tuskin38

Just now, Tuskin38 said:

There's a text box you can type messages into. You don't need to talk.

Thanks. Not as easy as pressing a button the joystick, but still an option 🙂

 

10 hours ago, Georgleboui said:

I'm a supporter of both BATC and SI, but vastly prefer the latter for every flight. Especially with the way they handle traffic injection. 

SI does its own injection like BATC does?  If so, how is the traffic animation quality, smooth or a bit stuttery?

How is the cost of using SI compared to BATC when using premium voices in BATC?

Edited July 4, 2025Jul 4 by Noel

The only thing I hate about BATC is trying to change the arrival runway or approach. It has never worked since day one, and I have complained and complained about it on Discord for months. It just seems like they put that issue on permanent ignore. I just change approach my self, and just ignore BATC for the rest of the flight. 

1 hour ago, Tuskin38 said:

There's a text box below the chat log you can type messages into, you don't need to talk.

I stand corrected! I forgot they added that!

I'll put a strikethrough on my original post.

EDIT: Maybe there's no strikethrough on this forum? I just deleted that part instead.

EDIT2: I see a strikethrough option when making a new reply but not when editing.

Edited July 4, 2025Jul 4 by Magenta Line

3 hours ago, Magenta Line said:

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My general impression is that BATC works great for airliners and larger airports, but has some limitations and quirks that are noticeable if you're flying smaller planes to smaller airports:

• If your flight plan doesn't have a STAR, ATC often issues approach vectors and descent instructions 100+ miles away from the airport. (They've already made one update addressing this, so probably they're continuing to work on it.)

THIS!  This is exactly what I run into flying a smaller aircraft especially when flying to an uncontrolled field.  And GA will fly into uncontrolled airports a lot more often than towered airports, it's just the nature of flying GA.  Additionally when my point to point flight is really short (say 50-100 miles) BATC really get's confused and does a terrible job of getting me to the airport.

I haven't updated in a month or so... ill try that and try another short flight...  I'm not that optimistic though.

Another important point - do people here actually know what to expect from ATC while using light aircraft?  Because hehe, I do.  I've got 18 years of experience in the tower, tracon (approach/departure) and enroute (ARTCC/FIR) environment.  I do tailor my expectations in the sim though, there's many things BATC doesn't know from a logic perspective....  but frankly it's terrible for the majority of the flights.

Here is a flight I just did today in 2024 with an updated copy of BATC

 

Edited July 4, 2025Jul 4 by ryanbatc

5 hours ago, Noel said:

SI does its own injection like BATC does?  If so, how is the traffic animation quality, smooth or a bit stuttery?

It's not out for the public yet. There's some videos on their youtube channel.

4 hours ago, ryanbatc said:

My general impression is that BATC works great for airliners and larger airports, but has some limitations and quirks that are noticeable if you're flying smaller planes to smaller airports:

My chief complaint as a mostly airliner flyer is that BATC doesn't have a clue what plane you're in and how your loaded, and will, for example limit your departure runway to X, which is too short for your airplane and these are in mild wind conditions.  I have submitted requests to allow overrides after initially instructing you to take off on X for just these scenarios.  After all, this is an entertainment sim.  It has a slew of customized airports for things like this but still it happens at which point we're stuck with TO on a runway that actually would be used in the RW and cope with the scolding from BATC.

90% of the time I use BATC for ambience essentially because I use FSLTL's injector instead.  This cuts down processor demand by around 50% at the same amount of traffic, plus animation is super smooth unlike BATC's which usually is a rhythmic stutter if you look at that traffic from close up as in taxis, TO and landings.  Most of all by doing this I can use 100% Premium voices w/ very low cost because I'm using only one controller and my pilot's voice which are premium.  When you enable BATC traffic you get all of the other traffic using up premium characters even when limiting to Controller voices only because controllers interact with that traffic, whereas not so when you use FSLTL's injector.  Of course there is the obvious cost but it's well worth it for me as it's essentially ambience here.

one thing I prefer with BATC over SI is that BATC uses your scenery data for taxiways, so it will always be accurate to what you see out the window.

From what I understand, SI uses data from the charts, so it may give you a taxiway that doesn't exist in your scenery if it's out of date.

Edited July 4, 2025Jul 4 by Tuskin38

20 minutes ago, Tuskin38 said:

one thing I prefer with BATC over SI is that BATC uses your scenery data for taxiways, so it will always be accurate to what you see out the window.

From what I understand, SI uses data from the charts, so it may give you a taxiway that doesn't exist in your scenery if it's out of date.

Yeah, but if the scenery data is even a little incorrect or incomplete, it won't let you fly at all. Tells you to contact the scenery developer instead of fixing the data themselves.... Not great.

8 minutes ago, BoseGlucke said:

Tells you to contact the scenery developer instead of fixing the data themselves.... Not great.

How are BATC supposed to fix data that isn't theirs?

Edited July 4, 2025Jul 4 by Tuskin38

39 minutes ago, BoseGlucke said:

Yeah, but if the scenery data is even a little incorrect or incomplete, it won't let you fly at all. Tells you to contact the scenery developer instead of fixing the data themselves.... Not great.

That’s a good example of what I mean about BATC being a bit more of a hassle to use.

A lot of my flying is done outside there typical US/big international airports theme. I had cases where BATC would just refuse to work due to lack of data which is annoying. May have gotten better lately.

I’d much rather get given a generic “taxi at your own discretion” than completely fail to work.

7 hours ago, Noel said:

SI does its own injection like BATC does?  If so, how is the traffic animation quality, smooth or a bit stuttery?

 

It’s okay but getting better. Early SU3 had the planes in weird spots but it got fixed pretty quick. You’ll be able to try in a weeks time I think? Getting released soon.

What I appreciate about the way they handle injection is – same as my point above – just how frictionless it is. A bit like FSLTL, you run the app in the background and it just does its thing. Doesn’t matter if you need to change airports, you can end flights and start new ones, etc. It will just update traffic around you automatically - no simbrief plan needed, no progress bars, nothing.

You can even tune nearby airports and hear their departures, ground, etc. Or do that as you fly overhead. It really adds a lot for immersion.

It seems to me that they have now reached the ceiling of their developers' capabilities