1 hour ago, Georgleboui said:

I'm a happy SI subscriber. I felt BATC's implementation of traffic to be a bit too cumbersome and 'static'. And I say this as someone keeping an eye on both products – I've paid for the partner tier on both of them.

What I like is that I can just start SI up and it automatically populates the world with traffic wherever I go. 

Can you tell me if the AI flights are really point A to point B.

That is not the case with BATC but it is with FSHud

I want to see the traffic in the sky taking off, on cruise, on approach and landing following a flight plan. 

 

 

I subscribe to SI. but lately I've been considering cancelling. The way I've done it is I cancel each month. When I go to use it and it has expired I'll reup since I show to myself I still use it.

I think it is slightly better than BATC. I really like the integration with the 2024 EFB, for example. I do feel the performance is better with than BATC. But I also look at the current price of $20 a month I also figure that's a scenery a month, or a new plane every 3 months. Like others, I am not thrilled with all the extra, gamey stuff. Getting that to closer to $25 isn't appealing. I don't want to keep a sub running to save some money.

One thing I do like about SI is a few friends are also subs. One of them doesn't like Vatsim so we ill use the SI group code to fly together.

3 hours ago, Farlis said:

It does not. 

I compared them and the only edge SI has at the moment is GA traffic in VFR and lots of unnecessary fluff. 

The reaction time of the LLM alone is a huge turn off. 

The more tightly scripted approach of BATC is vastly superior. 

Not to mention that it has no recurring costs unless you prefer to use the premium voices. 

I wish this was true. But BATC relying on scenery makers competence when it comes to creating proper nodes for ai traffic is a severe handicap. And its handling of ai traffic has only gotten worse (ai crossing the runway as you are taking off, being told to taxi into another airplane facing you etc).
 

I say that as a supporter and I much prefer BATC’s voices over Si. 

Edited October 9, 2025Oct 9 by UAL4life

4 hours ago, Georgleboui said:

I'm a happy SI subscriber. I felt BATC's implementation of traffic to be a bit too cumbersome and 'static'. And I say this as someone keeping an eye on both products – I've paid for the partner tier on both of them.

What I like is that I can just start SI up and it automatically populates the world with traffic wherever I go. I don't have to have a simbrief flight plan, reset stuff with every new flight. You open the app and forget it's there. Doesn't matter if I'm flying IFR or VFR. To me that's much better UX. 

Don't really see the reaction time as an issue – takes a few seconds for ATC to respond but that feels natural to me.

Also don't really see their features as fluff – not a fan of the ground handling stuff, but having a functional copilot and cabin crew you can coordinate with is great. I had a lot of fun with skyops, gives you a lot of stuff to do. 

Totally get that it's expensive for people, but my view is that it's an expensive hobby in general. Personally I get the value I need out of it.

 

I thought a Simbrief flight plan was required for all ops. Is this a change? Is there something special required for populated world traffic? 

I don't use SI as much as PE. 

It is already out of my league, way more than I can afford. These new prices puts it even further away, and I'm sure I'm not alone. Good luck sayintentions.....

I tried SI 24 hours trial. My first flight was from EDDW Bremen to EDDB Berlin in the Cessna Citation X. I planned the flight on Simbrief with a SID and departure from runway 09 (wind from 170 degrees).

As clearance I received „departure from runway 23“ (!), which choose the AI obviously due to the wind direction, and after that „vectors to HIG“.

Runway 23 in Bremen is for max TOW of about 5 tons. The empty weight of a citation is about 10 tons. I made several attempts to request a different runway. Reaction was allways „not available“. OK, I did what SI wanted me to to and took off from runway 23, avaiting the „vectors“. Unfortunately the only information SI gave me was „have a good flight“.

I did not finish the flight. Instead I purchased BATC. I am happy that my flightplan is respected - the voices are lovely either. Too much intelligence is sometimes not more useful.

 

3 hours ago, BrammyH said:

I subscribe to SI. but lately I've been considering cancelling. The way I've done it is I cancel each month. When I go to use it and it has expired I'll reup since I show to myself I still use it.

I think it is slightly better than BATC. I really like the integration with the 2024 EFB, for example. I do feel the performance is better with than BATC. But I also look at the current price of $20 a month I also figure that's a scenery a month, or a new plane every 3 months. Like others, I am not thrilled with all the extra, gamey stuff. Getting that to closer to $25 isn't appealing. I don't want to keep a sub running to save some money.

One thing I do like about SI is a few friends are also subs. One of them doesn't like Vatsim so we ill use the SI group code to fly together.

100%
 

I actually cancelled my sub the day before this was posted. I have really been rooting for SI, but they need to focus on the ATC aspect of the program. It’s been far too frustrating to use and lacks consistency in instruction. I’ve got the annual deal, so they’ve technically got 6 months before my sub expires. I hope meaningful progress is made in that timeframe. 

5 hours ago, Georgleboui said:

Totally agree. Friend raised $7m and spent most of it on a domain and marketing. The actual product is an API caller on a basic board, encased in what looks like a cheap soap dispenser off Temu. No value created at all. 

My point is that it's the sort of thing that you saw back in the dotcom bubble. I think the correction is going to be spectacular.

It's going to make the subprime crisis look like a walk in the park. It's going to be a disaster, thankfully it's (hopefully) not a category of stocks like RMBS where every single pension fund or stable asset class/ETF is exposed. Could resemble more dotcom, but the retail investors get hosed after the banks unload toxic stocks. All it'll take is one of these to fail or have a sustained dip - I kinda thought the Intel nationalization news would precipitate this.

Anyways, I turned down a very lucrative job offer back in August from an AI company, would have been good for my career, but I don't think the company will be there in a year. Same thing is happening here. Compute predicted to decrease in price - actually increases in price. They're dropping billions in data center cap ex - someone has to pay for that.

back to BATC for me I guess.

I always considered SI as expensive, but they got me really interested when they added VFR recently. I have no use for their product until December (beta testing a plane that doesn't need much ATC 🙂 ), and next year they will be way too expensive for my purpose. Hard pass.

 

I'm looking at this from a big picture and if I use MSFS for the next 5 years for example there isn't a chance in anyplace warm that I am paying $1,000 for ATC over that term.  Sorry SI.  It's not even means, it's principle that to me personally and solely speaking for myself that seems absurd.  

No problem sticking with FSHud with darn reliable ATC and the most accurate traffic control of any of the current offerings with no subscriptions.  

FSHud for the win for me. 

4 hours ago, Les Parson said:

I thought a Simbrief flight plan was required for all ops. Is this a change? Is there something special required for populated world traffic? 

I don't use SI as much as PE. 

Only for IFR flying, but not traffic. SI works a bit like the FSLTL injector - you turn it on, and then it just automatically populates both IFR and VFR traffic wherever you are. You could be switching airports, hopping to different sceneries, planes, etc. It just keeps doing its thing.

 

7 hours ago, Ron Lefebvre said:

Can you tell me if the AI flights are really point A to point B.

 

 

They are supposed to be, although to be honest haven’t verified. I’ve definitely seen enroute traffic. My bugbear at the moment is that a lot of my current flying is in NZ and there’s definitely less traffic than it should be. Maybe a case of cranking up the sliders.

BATC is amazing and getting better!

I considered this a while ago……and briefly. Subscription models sound great, but at the end of the day when the collective cost of all household subscriptions is added up, it becomes a sizeable chunk of income. Navigraph is the only FS related subscription I maintain. 

Edited October 9, 2025Oct 9 by cowpatz

Cancelled by subscription last week. I'd be prepared to continue paying, even at the higher rate, if what I was getting for my money was as good as or better than BATC or FSHud. But its not - at least not as far as the core part of the platform I want which is ATC and AI Traffic Control. 

I'm not sure why they continue to put resources into other things like checklists, Pocketsky, mentors or tour guides when they are yet to get the basics worked out to a reasonable level.

Anyway, just grateful we have BATC and FSHud.