kerosene31

One thing AI can do is find and compille massive amounts of data. You could spend an entire weekend searching and not come close to what AI could do in a moment. The question is - where is it getting that information from? That's the big issue. I find a lot of my MSFS 2024 releated seaches end up referencing threads right here at Avsim. That's generally a good thing, people here know their stuff way more than most. The problem is, maybe what I'm looking for isn't exactly the same thing being discussed. There's also the case of someone saying "I did X and Y happened". That's a 100% fact, but that doesn't mean that's the same outcome everyone will get. We've all seen weird things that behave differently with MSFS. From there it will scour reddit and even youtube videos. Here's where you're already venturing into uncertain territory. Reddit can be hit or miss (and has a lot of bots itself). Youtube? Anyone can upload a youtube video. If you've ever googled a random Windows problem, you know that much of what gets returned is flat out wrong or "snake oil". There's your "download this EXE to fix it" scams. AI is meant to convince you that it knows what it is talking about, not necessarily give you the most accurate or best information. It does seem to have some logic to not just take everything, but it is far from perfect. That's not to say this doesn't have value, it absolutely does. I was asking about an actual MSFS 2024 pause function, not just active pause. I entered it into an AI search and the results of a thread here were posted. That's good, it was exactly what I was looking for in this case. It gave me answers like just hit esc or there's an FSUIPC option to use (which I did). That begs the question though, what value is AI providing if I already know to search here first? I don't need a supercomputer taking up all our hardware components to tell me what I already know.

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.

When the idea of the walkaround feature in 2024 first was announced, I thought it was kind of a waste. However over time I find myself using it more and more. Granted, not a ton. Parallel 42 released a small addon that let's you fish in the MSFS 2024 world. Again not something I use all the time, but I'll grab a bush plane with tundra tires and look for interesting spots. One time I jumped out of the plane and walked over to a nearby lake and fished as the AI traffic landed overhead. There's a few GA sceneries that let you walk into a bar or some other modeled area. Orbx has some really cool ones. It is kind of neat. Now, would I walk around the inside of a large airport? Probably not, but I'm sure some people would. The inside of the tower is modeled at St Barths and is neat to get that view. Now, do I need this feature? No, of course not, but it can be neat to walk around and explore. I do wonder about the performance hit on larger airports. For the smaller ones I'm sure it is negligible, but I could see a big mega hub hurting because of it. Honestly I'm not the kind of flyer who flies the commercial stuff at all, so it makes a lot more sense on the GA side. I can see how modeling every single terminal of a large airport might be a bit much. Some people might like to explore, but how many people will actually visit every single inch of an airport, but I bet someone does. Again I'm a GA flyer so it makes a lot more sense for the smaller sceneries I hit.

You're right, it has really degraded, not sure when exactly. I know I had it working fine in 2024 at one point. Now one of the falls doesn't have water (which is kind of what makes it a falls and not a cliff).

Looks like it is only the falls itself, none of the surrounding area. Not that I'd expect that for the low price, no issues with that. Sad to see the Jeppesen2001 stuff no longer looks right in 2024. I would love to see this (or any other) developer really enhance the area. There's really a lot more than just some water going over the rocks. 🙂

Got everything installed, seems fairly simple once I got the option to select Navigraph. One thing I'm noticing is that there's a plane flying low over the airport, every one I've checked so far in the US. Looks like American Airlines, but hard to tell. It just seems to be on a loop and repeats. I know default ATC has some quirks, but I don't remember this happening so consistently. There's always an odd plane here or there, but this is repeatable (At least at JFK, PVD and PHL).

This is great news, not "free" of course, but something I think many of us are already paying for.

Quite simply, the default toolbar sucks. Prior to SU5, if you added too many things, it would not scroll unless you downloaded a mod off fs to. SU5 finally fixed that. Also not sure if it still happens, but I know any changes I saved to my toolbar would not save. Some thing I never use would be front and center while the thing I wanted was way off screen. Just convinence really. I did start messing around with the scripting, but the functions you can do seemed kind of limited. You're limited to what MSFS functions can do. I was trying to create a script that would tune 122.0 into the radio automatically, but it didn't seem to work. It does come with some better tools too. The wind visualizer is neat. To me it isn't a "must have" but I like it. I press a key and my menu pops up, with everything exactly where I want it. So basically one of those things I'm using every day, but only kind of scratching the surface. Basically, I was happy to pay to stop my headaches with the default toolbar.

My super short guide to what I do with Chaseplane when using a new plane: -Edit the pilot view to be exactly where I want it, assign it to "up" on my hat -Create new views for pilot left and pilot right, assign that to hat buttons -Create another new view for back. I use 135 degrees back for pattern work, but adjust as necessary. Assign that to my hat (back) Once I got the hang of it, it is super quick. You can type numbers into the view to move them too. I do wish the left/right and back would be default views, but I can set them up in no time. The trick is being consistent for every plane. Then I get up in the air and set my autopilot for cruise. I then check out the external views and add any I might want. I like setting up stuff as if there's a gopro camera on the plane. A lot of the default external views work well. There's a way to edit how sensitive the view panning is too. Some are far too sensitive. As for overall key binds, I have a toggle internal external view (just like the default camera). You can assign buttons for next/previous if you like. I mostly just pop up the interface to go through the external views. My hat already controls the internal views as always. The big challenge is avoiding key bind conflicts. If any assignment acts strangely, check for a duplicate assignment. When you assign something in Chaseplane, go into the default controls and search for that input and make sure there's nothing that conflicts. The program does a pretty good job clearing these out, but a few might still be there. There's a lot more depth to it, but this is all I really need to do.

There's nothing like the default "look left/right". I just create a custom view for each and assign them to the hat you want. You can type in the numbers into the view too. So just take your main view, then go -90 and +90 (I always forget which one goes which way). Then adjust to get the perfect view. It is a few extra steps, but you can adjust it to exactly where you want it. There's a bit of a learning curve but it is well worth it.

This is the problem with issues that only impact certain people. Huddison's video isn't showing the problem I think some of us have had with clouds. It is way, way more noticeable than that. Plus the issue with clouds has nothing to do with the weather engine. I saw the same cloud issue with ActiveSky.