I did another trial of SI a few months ago...previously had it for a few months in 2024. Outside of all the added 'stuff' which I am not interested in, the ATC part of it was no better for me. It forgot about me after departure, I had a the same exact controller with an English accent for the entire several hundred mile flight in USA mid-atlantic area (busy guy working every freq!!), fully lost me on arrival as well. It was honestly some of the same problems I had and even reported 2 years ago and they claimed 'fixed!' after I reported. I guess it depends on what you are looking for but I did not find the actual ATC for an IFR flight very good at all....

5 hours ago, tttocs said:

So in BATC, you get VFR GA traffic flying RW traffic patterns? 😉

Scott

Not yet, I was indeed talking about IFR traffic only. I don‘t use VFR so didnt even think about that :)

22 hours ago, simsuper80 said:

I'll probably try it later in the week. But have you tried it at busy airports? And if so, how was the approach?

I flew KLAX-KJAC it was good, with no performance issues. I want to spend more time interacting with the co-pilot, cabin announcements, and GSX in my home simulator before I decide to purchase a year subscription.

25 minutes ago, Fiorentoni said:

Not yet, I was indeed talking about IFR traffic only. I don‘t use VFR so didnt even think about that :)

Understood, but the point I was making was simply that "lags behind" in large part depends on your point of view and what's important to you.

You say you "don't use VFR", but that kinda misses the point. I'm a GA pilot (RW and sim) who flies mostly IFR in the sim, and yet it's still an important feature to me, as having realistic GA traffic (IFR and VFR, including planes flying proper patterns - or circuits if you prefer 😁) adds enormously to the realism. Hence - important to me and pretty much anyone who flies mostly to/from regionals, relievers and smaller GA only fields. If you fly strictly big iron to/from major airports, sure not so much.

Still - I confess I was also attempting to needle ya just a bit. Having a guy who works closely with BATC, coming into a Say Intentions AI discussion to tell us he's not used SI, but, here's what he saw in a YouTube - it's improved but its still way behind - is a bit, well... y'know. Using this stuff on a regular basis and understanding where it's going, how it's structured and what's being changed regularly gives a level of understanding that can't be gleaned from anyone's videos, especially given the speed at which both of these apps are being improved. Yesterday's video is both incomplete and out of date tomorrow and I know that goes for both SI and BATC.

That said, pls don't take my comments too seriously. I was amused (or perhaps bemused) more than anything.

Scott

I finally gave SI a try today, and I must say that overall I am pretty disappointed.

First of all, not being able to change all settings in the program itself, but being redirected to browser and website for many settings is very poor. I don't want my browser open when flying. Speaking of their website, I get really sick of the HORRIBLE pictures of what is supposed to be flight decks etc on there. Just have a browse through the different copilots here and notice the cockpits in the backgrounds: https://www.sayintentions.ai/co-pilot Stupid AI slop which gives a very negative impression.

Back to settings, the GUI is very busy and not really intuitive. I couldn't find any way of having the controllers sound like they talked through a radio, but they sounded like they almost sat in the same room as me. Other traffic sounded better though.

The voices were very stale and speech speed was far too slow. I am used to Beyond ATC's local voices, but these were a lot poorer. Yes, I found the settings for these things after a while, and I did try adjusting them. Couldn't get it as I like.

Crew communications also feel stiff and stale, and the novelty wore off midway through the first flight.

The actual controlling felt better than Beyond ATC for the most part. More options and intelligent handling of things when not everything goes 100% to plan. Vectoring seemed better, I did not have any close calls on approach etc. This part of the program I was very satisfied with.

Now, I don't really care about most of the added gimmicks but I really want solid ATC with speech that does not sound too robotic or slow. This is not it for me. Even though controlling for the most part gave a somewhat better impression that what I currently use (Beyond ATC) I am not tempted to switch and pay a (far too big) monthly fee for that, but rather stick with my one-time purchase of BATC which despite its flaws is far simpler, works well enough and don't have controllers who sound like they sit on your lap while talking veeeery slowly.

8 hours ago, Mytola said:

The voices were very stale and speech speed was far too slow. I am used to Beyond ATC's local voices, but these were a lot poorer. Yes, I found the settings for these things after a while, and I did try adjusting them. Couldn't get it as I like.

I find this incredably difficult to understand... Depending where in the world you were flying. The V3 voices are literally like listening to a human. There isn't anything robitic about them....To each their own I guess. I tried BATC last week and the voices killed it for me...and I've still got 500,000 premium characters there.

2 hours ago, KL Oo said:

I find this incredably difficult to understand... Depending where in the world you were flying. The V3 voices are literally like listening to a human. There isn't anything robitic about them....To each their own I guess. I tried BATC last week and the voices killed it for me...and I've still got 500,000 premium characters there.

I was flying from Riga to Thessaloniki. Perhaps they are better in the US, but I do my flying mostly in Europe.

The slowness of the speech was my main problem, but there was something really icky about the voices overall. Like they were sounding far too happy and eager, if that makes sense. I don't get that with BATC.

According to my SI log, I have flown over 1300 flights in the last year with SI (its great when you work from home and can do 3-4 short hauls a day 7 days per week!). I have seen a massive improvement in the product during that time.

Vectors now, by and large, are sensible, do not send me miles away from where I need to be for a tight intercept. The issue of being left too high also seems to be resolved. Every day, there just seems to be a little more polish with the raft of updates.

Is it perfect, not by a long way. Is it improving rapidly to the point where I would not want to fly without SI? Short answer, yes!

all the best

Jane

Lucky you are! :) I'm very focused on one region ;) Congested area (for my usage: GA).