kerosene31

People "ask AI" because every browser forces searches to use it unless you jump through hoops to not use it. Even then there's no "off" switch. Companies are throwing it into everything because they invested unheard of amounts of money into it, not because people are necessarily asking for it. The fundamental problem with AI right now is that we've thrown it at every problem, regardless of whether it is a good fit or not. Instead of asking, "What can AI do well?", it is thrown into everything. Tech companies talk about the AI revolution in the past tense, like everything already got figured out and everything works. In the reality I see, we're still in the early stages, and the rough edges that accompany technology in the early stages.

My vectoring has been much better lately (I'm on the main branch, not experimental). Other than the known issue with late descents, I've been getting pretty good vectors. No crazy wrong way instructions, basically putting me 30 degrees or so with the runway heading. I'm flying into smaller, regional airports with no procedures, and it seems to be doing ok. My last flight was into KELM, a very small regional airport in central NY.

I tried this out and it basically just told me to turn a bunch of graphics settings down. I'm already getting very good fps (granted with framegen). I did pick the balanced option, so I guess I should have chosen the visuals option. I'm already getting 90 fps (again with framegen), I don't need to turn anything down to get more than that. I'm just highly skeptical of LLMs. They are designed to talk to you and tell you what you want to hear in a convincing way, not necessarily give you facts. Not to say it doesn't have uses, some of the searches are getting better and better. My recommendation is always to follow the links it pulls from and verify. People say, "AI provides citations for what it tells you!" - It does, but sometimes, those are completely made up.

The survey results video is great. I wish more companies did this. So many send out surveys, but you never hear what comes of it. I'm glad I'm not just shouting into the void about vectoring and descent issues.

Looks great. A Taog's Hanger heli is a day 1 buy for me.

I used to be able to get it working again by uninstalling and reinstalling FS Traffic. It never lasted though, traffic would still sometimes just never appear. I really do think it is something with the program. I even recently had to completely uninstall MSFS 2024 after some issues. I reinstalled Traffic and the exact same issue happened. So either some random addon is conflicting or something else isn't working. I gave up trying (and their support spend a few weeks trying, I give them credit). I kept the program, hoping it gets updated some day. For now I'm using FSLTL or BATC. The funny thing is, the real time traffic can often have issues. With FSLTL I get planes buzzing the airport at 100 feet or cruising at ground level like a fighter jet. Schedules aren't real time, but seem to just work more consistently.

Ever since they updated it to work in 2024, it works for me maybe 50% of the time. Sometimes I start up and get traffic, other times nothing. I opened up a ticket with them and they went back and forth with me for quite a while and honestly they could never figure it out. Another thing, even when it does work, it can take a long time for traffic to move. I've had to sit on the ramp and just leave the PC and come back later to see stuff going. No idea why this is an issue. I've used FSLTL, Aig, Batc injection, all those work fine. This has never worked well for me in 2024. There's occasional talk on their forums of an update, but very little news. They actually offered me a refund after I worked with their support (they really did try and figure it out). I held on to the product, hoping some day it gets fixed. I have a funny feeling it just doesn't work well in 2024. The last official news update was December. Hopefully they are still working on it. For now I use FSLTL or BATC. At least you can use the models in other products. https://www.justflight.comJust Flight - Just Flight End of Year Round Up 2025 - Par...Part One of Just Flight's 2025 End of Year Round Up - A year of updates!

I was highly critical of BATC in the past, but the last couple of main updates (I'm not in the experimental build) have smoothed over a lot of issues I had with vectoring. It still isn't perfect, but I feel like it gives me solid instructions most of the time, even with my flying into smaller, regional type airports without STARs. I haven't gotten "forgotten" about or given really weird wrong way type instructions in awhile. It was weird, a few patches ago there was one that was supposed to help vectoring, but it didn't for me, but follow up ones got better. Descents are still late, but I just start early and the ATC doesn't seem to mind. For the most part, it is vectoring me to a reasonable path for final now. IIRC, traffic spacing is still in very early stages and is clearly quiet rough. The big thing is it doesn't seem to know the difference in speeds of various planes. They told me to slow down in my Bonanza, and I slowed down and got someone flying up my tail. Hopefully future updates will address that. This is still early access of course. I don't use any payware products, so I'm not sure if anyone does that better, but I've never seen any ATC program that can handle any kind of heavy traffic volume. For me price is the #1 factor.

There's a long thread on it somewhere. Basically, when BATC works, it is great. Other times, not so much. Descents will almost always be late. I almost always start my descent early. When it comes to approaches, if they give me instructions that make sense, I follow them. Anything odd, I just ignore them and fly an approach. They seem to love long, visual approaches. I always have an IFR approach (if there is one) handy. Basically, if a vector is taking you away from a reasonable approach, just ignore it.

I know they were asking for beta testers not long back. Didn't say for what project, but this is likely it.

I watch a lot of MSFS streamers, but I don't directly listen to them as much as I'm just watching their experience with the addon. Of course I'm watching multiple ones and looking for common things. Their actual opinion can be useful, but that's not the primary thing. I'm really just watching the addon itself. I don't own this yet, but the big problem isn't whether it is worth $17. The question I have is: is it worth my time? Not that I like to throw money away, but $17 isn't really that important. The thing is, will I fly this plane over other addons? I already have the FSR500. That's usually why I end up skipping most of these. Not that every addon needs to be Black Square level of complexity, but why buy this if I already own better addons?

I only watched two videos, but the twitchy flight is scaring me away for now. Not sure if that's how that really handles, but I wouldn't think so for a light GA. I know for me if it isn't fun to hand fly, it will mostly sit idle in my hanger.

It looks interesting, I'm just not familiar with the developer. Is that the same group working on the 757? Hopefully there's some more reviews out soon, but I haven't seen anything from the usual streamers.

I'm using FSLTL + Navigraph, and noticing a lot of odd issues. Planes buzzing the airport at low level, planes disappearing, planes hovering a few feet over the ocean, etc. There's always an oddball issue, but they seem pretty consistent. I was flying around in the F35 tracking planes and noticing a lot of issues.

I started to focus on helicopters more and more, and it is a rewarding, but long journey. I do just fine with the Thrustmaster Airbus stick, old CH Pedals and a logtech throttle. Now, MSFS has a tendency to be extra twitchy, and that hits helicopters even harder. Gentle inputs and finding the right sensitivity settings is key. This is where the higher end setups really do shine I'm sure. My advice: -You have to learn the real world characteristics of helicopters first. There's lots of good real world insruction, and check out some good msfs heli youtube channels. You've got to understand the basics of what is happening and why, otherwise you'll just be chasing the controls and not learning. Belatu42 is a real world pilot who has great videos. P Gatcomb isn't all heli, but he has a lot of good intro videos. Matthew Crawford is good, just don't get discouraged by how easy they make it look. They mostly use higher end controls, plus most of them have real experience. -Get your controls set up for helicopters specifically. There's many videos on how to do it. It is collective, cyclic and torque pedals, not the usual airplane controls. -Find one heli and stick with it. For default, the Cabri is pretty good, as is the R66, otherwise there's tons of payware options. One of the best helicopters is the Taog hanger MD500, but that is a hotrod in real life, and not exactly an easy one to learn on. Find something and just keep picking it up and putting it down over and over until you get the feel of it, then start trying to do more and more. When it comes to airplanes, I can pick up and fly just about anything, but helicopters all have their own different feel. Repetition is key. I would just start at a big empty runway and spend 30+ minutes just trying to lift and hover. Just be ready that this will take time. I don't like recommending addons, especially with helicopters. I know I started buying every heli out there and wasting a lot of time and money. -Learn trim and especially force trim. -Patience, patience, patience. I could buy any airplane addon this weekend and figure out how to fly it pretty easily, from fighters, to tube liners to GA (not including the systems, but just the stick and rudder flying). Helis will take a lot more time, but are a lot more rewarding. It was hours before I could keep the Taog's MD500 even stable, but now I can handle it fairly well. It was humbling for sure.