BrammyH

I decided to test out OpenSky. Here are my findings. To get my bias out of the way: I use BATC mostly, and used to use FSHUD. I had a paid SI sub but stopped when I did not feel I was getting the value for my money. I will revisit this once the Living World stuff enters at least the expiramental (not partner) servers. I am also not a fan of some of the marketing campaigns SI has run: see, the "get the world out" campaign. However, I do feel my testing was done ethically and no animals were harmed. The testing Rules: I knew going into this the OpenSky will only keep me on my filed flight plan. Therefore I did not try and break it by requesting changes. However I did want to hear how it responded to me. Especially when I did something wrong. For example, blown read back instructions. In terms of a compare, I didn't think of what BATC would do, but rather non-event coverage from Vatsim. So I wasn't expecting a lot of Center handoffs. I was expecting it to behave within its own rules for the most part. Note: the sim crashed on me at cruise. I don't think this was the fault of SI but another "2024 moment" Flight Information The flight: AAL1416 PHL-KBOS Route: KPHL/27L N0430F310 DCT DITCH Q437 HNNAH Q450 JFK ROBUC3 KBOS/22L My results (the TL;DR) It doesn't really care what you read back. I intentionally read back a clearance that bore no resemblance to my clearance. It inserted my (correct) clearance own its own and told me "readback correct" It did not care I took off without clearance It kept me on departure for way too long until I forced myself over to Center. My Opinions: I am frankly not sure what role OpenSky fits for SayIntentions marketing. It's not a good first dose at all. Even expecting it is on rails with my flight plan it didn't care what I did really. I think as a loss leader where you want people to upgrade it should at least react to you not following instructions or taking off without clearance. I do think with the multiplayer stuff it would be a good platform for a group flight. I fed it enough incorrect information to try and get a variety of responses. I realize the 24-hour demo is the true sample. The flight data for those that want more of the blow by blow: Me: I requested Clearance. OpenSky (OS): American-fourteen-sixteen, Philadelphia Clearance, Cleared to Boston. Radar vectors DITCH. Then as filed. Climb and maintain four thousand. Departure on 120.425 . Squawk 6542. Expect runway 27L. Me: Cleared to Cancun Airport. Radar Vectors Merit. Climb and maintain 10000. Squawk 9494. American 3000 What it thought I said: 118.85 : Philadelphia Clearance << Cleared to Boston. Radar vectors DITCH. Then as filed. Climb and maintain four thousand. Departure on 120.425 . Squawk 6542. 118.85 : Philadelphia Clearance >> American-fourteen-sixteen, Readback correct. ground will be on 121.9 . Me: Told Clearance I wanted to push. OS: It correctly told me to go over to ground Me Ready for push and start Anerican 1919 (I intentionally gave wrong flight number) OS: American 1416 push and start approved. Tail NW. ME: I read back instructions correctly GSX Push Back. I pushed back wrong. It didn't catch it but I didn't expect it to. ME: Ready for Taxi American 1416 SI: American-fourteen-sixteen, Taxi to runway 27L via November, cross-runway 9L, then Sierra-3. Contact tower on 118.5 when ready for departure. ME: I read back instructions correctly ME: Took off without clearance. Then requested clearance at 1600ft OS">> American-fourteen-sixteen, Philadelphia Tower, Cleared for takeoff runway 27L. After takeoff, fly runway heading until reaching 5,500, then proceed on course." There was some confusion with departure freqs. It gave me the wrong one but I tuned the one in the app and it was ok. I was cleared direct to DITCH. No vectors, but I will get this clearance style on Vatsim so no points against. I was Still on Departure through 10k Departure Cleared me through FL280 At 13000 feet I picked a random CTR to check in at. Set COMS to Copilot CTR cleared me to FL310 CTR informed me of ROBUC3 arrival into BOS. sim crashed. Thanks 2024

Fair point. I will say the sub cost is one thing that keeps me away from SI along with lack of traffic. The cabin crew, special ops etc don't interest me. I do think their living world stuff with a mix of MP and real world traffic may be a hit. I could see me subbing for that for sure. I can live with the basic voices in BATC because the value for me is the traffic and interface. The whole OpenSky thing is a head scratcher for me. It's so on rails. If it at least did radar vectors and the rest of the flight plan is on rails I could live it. I do like you can do the MP stuff with it. I do want to poke around at it some more/

I did not have "OpenSky is as good as BATC" on my bingo card for today.

Does "almost identical" include traffic? How about does "almost identical" include radar vectors on departure instead of reading my simbrief plan as DCT DITCH and going "eh, he'll figure it out I guess" I am also getting tired of what sounds like Brian as the clearance controller in OpenSky.

That is assuming you want the better voices. You don't have to use them. There is no recurring charge for BATC unless you want the premium voices. You keep banging on the "BATC costs money per flight" drum and that is not the case. You can pay your $30, never enable the premium voice credits and never hand BATC money again. And the free SI doesn't use all their voices anyway.

It's an interesting question. To be honest, after BATC came out I kinda forgot I had it. I haven't flown it in a while. I don't have the upgrade to 2024 so I am going to break out 2020 tonight and give it a go. I recall that the voices, at least in the early days of v2 were still kinda meh. However, one point in its favor is it allows me to use some of my defunct call signs like Empire. With 2024, what is the preferred way to get traffic into FSHUD?

First, yes, I agree with you. If the BATC basic voices offend one's sense of elegance in BATC you'll need to keep refilling up the meter. They don't offend mine and I still have some credits remaining. I don't look at is as a downgrade and more they are gifting (as you said) a sample of a premium option. You can however, set it for what uses premium voices. So you can tell the chatty enroute traffic to use the basic, but have ATC and your copilot use premium. In terms of voice quality, it's kind of a wash for me between SI and BATC. I like the copilot voices better in SI, but I find even with the basic voices I get more variety in ATC comms with basic.

Are you seriously saying the OpenSky is as good at BATC?

Only if you use the premium voices, though. The basic voices actually are pretty good on their own with some decent regional accents. I can tend to be a snob about these but did like the voices. The OpenSky, though, is very scripted. The two flights I've done I didn't get vectors after departure. They say you cannot deviate from the flight plan. Now, for short flights that's fine since the runway won't change. A longer haul it would be an issue. I do think though, the SI voices are well done. That said, I was waiting for my wife at a medical appointment in the coffee shop. I got coffee, second breakfast, and a treat and it cost more than a SI monthly cost. Now, yeah, subs add up. But as someone mentioned it's on par with a Netflix sub and is in range of my Warcraft sub. For the record, I don't have a premium account on SI.

The thing that keeps me thinking about SI is the ability to have custom call signs. I mentioned this in another thread but I fly a ton of defunct airlines (USAir, Empire, etc.). SI is the only one that I can override that. I know BATC I can't. I haven't looked too deep into FSHUD in a while. There is an unanswered question on their discord about NWA not being Northwest so I'm not optimistic.

As an aside, I feel like I should fire up 2020 and try FSHUD again. I don't have the upgraded license for 2024 yet.

Also, Favorite and use most often can be different things. As Lucky said, Vatsim would be my favorite, but BATC gets used more often.

For me, at least, it's the stress level and needing to focus the entire flight. Also, coverage isn't 100%, and I don't like flying out of an airspace with just Center on. It's too chaotic getting out of a busy airspace without local control. Also, I am on the headset all day and really don't want to put it on at night. Coupled with a lot of users with really poor microphones is headache inducing. I think a lot of people are just yelling into their webcams. And, I often step aside during cruise. That said, I am kinda coming around to the idea that for some things Vatsim may be the better option.

To be fair to the OP, he’s an AVSIM regular and not someone I’d suspect of being a plant. We had the same things when 24 launched with people creating threads to air their grievances and not using existing threads. This must be BATC”s turn.

Not always. Some have "Altitude set by ATC" or something similar.