Say Intentions.Ai

Would you like to tell your co-pilot, cabin crew or passenger what you feel about MSFS2024 ?... Well, now you can ! ( just keep the foul language to an absolute minimum please).

It's called "SayIntentions" and it's an AI program that provides ATC services, Co-Pilot facilities, Cabin-crew, Tour guides, Mentor guides, radio chatter and more. I just came back from a demo flight by Jonathan Beckett doing a few simple circuits around Parafield Australia guided by Parafield ATC. The thing is that you can TALK to ATC or any of the other services. No more clicking on pre-fab text or anything like that. I couldn't help noticing too that the controller here has an Australian accent in the first place...

Payware (obviously) but we can try it for free.

Here's Jonathan's demo flight:
And here's the website https://www.sayintentions.ai/

Watching the demo flight i kinda thought it made my day....

Edit: i just had a better look at the advert that does shine a little bit different light on it all. A little bit more expensive light so to say.....

The 'One Time' unlimited use for about $50 does *not* include ATC.... That'll come for a subscription of $16,25 per month....

It just *might* be worth it... ---- It CAN be used with both MSFS2020 and 2024, X-Plane and P3D as well.. ----

I guess it's not worth it then...

Watched a few more Jonathan flights demonstrating "Sayintentions". Certainly the best ever in the FS franchise but certainly not perfect (yet). And for that kind of money you would expect it to be perfect. Something like this should have come as default ATC in MSFS2024, shouldn't it. If 'Say Again Solutions LLC' can do it why not MSAsobo ? (because they think childern are not interested in ATC ?...)

I have very fond memories of ATC in a flightsim program i can't even remember the exact name of.... It was pretty simple but the voices sounded fantasticly real, not computerlike at all and with humor too sometimes. Particularly *that* could give you the impression of real people up there in the tower. F.i. if you accidently strayed off the taxiway too much you'd hear : " we appreciate you trying to help us, sir, but we don't need you to mow the lawn this time, please stay on the centerline."

Must've been either Flight Unlimited II or III by Looking Glass, Fly! by Terminal Reality, or Pro Pilot by Sierra. I *do* remember that much (i'd almost say 'those were the days'... ;-)

The voice recognition in "SayIntentions" seems to be very good. I guess this much be one of the reasons the program is (too) expensive. What if they would offer a 'Lite' version *without* voice recognition at a 'normal' price... I'd go for that, i'm sure.

I'm probabely an outsider but i kinda liked FS ATC as it was. FS is not real and perfect so why would ATC have to be ? I always used it, be it VFR or IFR. It worked, not realistic at all, but it worked (mostly). Like with Captain Beckett's 'SayIntentions' VFR demo flights with Flight Following not one single prove occured that ATC was indeed following the flight. He did not even get a 'Clear to land' on finals but that might've been due to pilot error...

Anyway, despite of the price, i am still interested in SayIntentions. I know what JB thinks of the program but since there's a free demo available i was hoping some peeps here would give it go and shine a bit of light on it. Or, in any case, if you watched some of Jonathan's demo flights, what are your thoughts about it ?

In any case, thanks !

I have flown MSFSs so long without using ATC, I don't know if I want to be bothered using it. Funny, in real life, ATC wasn't a bother, but in MSFSs it is a bother. They want you to change freqs too often.

I use BeyondATC with FS20 and FS24. It is pretty good in my experience and is relatively close to real ATC procedures.
Voices are somewhat localized which is a good thing, if you are flying in different parts of the world.
But on occasion you do have to deal with understanding less than perfect english.
You can talk to BYATC as well, but you are a little more closely limited to real world procedural language.

Biggest drawback to me at this point is that it only works for flights under IFR rules

For me personally, just the "AI" thing is a BIG put off. Where is the data that the AI collects stored? Can they sell the data? What about linking your FS persona to your real life persona? Is it GDPR compliant?

No, just no.

Priller

jmig said:

I have flown MSFSs so long without using ATC, I don't know if I want to be bothered using it. Funny, in real life, ATC wasn't a bother, but in MSFSs it is a bother. They want you to change freqs too often.

Click to expand...

I bet that may have all to do with your being used to real ATC, John ?.... I can't for the life of me tell you how flightsimming is for a person like me who ( used to) know just about nothing of real aviation. Can i say it is 'godsent' ? Particularly in the beginning, with Sublogic's 'Flightsimulator II' and the two booklets that came with it which lifted up quite a bit of the veil surrounding aviation for aviation hobbyists like me. It proved to be the biggest eye opener i had ever experienced in my life sofar ( Ok, i took a introductory flying lesson in a Cessna 172 just for fun but that's all ;-).

ATC simulation took a while before it got more or less integrated with flight simulation. Before that i had a Bearcat scanner with which i could listen to ATC EHAM/Schiphol. Another eye opener (or in this case ear opener) which i loved very much of course. Once MS presented the first ATC service with the new FS version i thought it added a big stimulation to the simulation so to speak. I can full well imagine for a real pilot it may sound silly or even spoil the immersion of simulated flight but for a mere aviation hobbyist it is another step closer to what happens in the real world of aviation.

Listening to Schiphol ATC on my precious Bearcat for a year or so (it became clear to me quite quickly that it's "the same old stuff" each and every day or night no matter listening to Center, Approach, Departure, Tower, Ground, Etc. One time only i followed a conversion between Approach and a pilot that became quite exiting. Appr: " Do you want to officially report a UFO, sir ? " Pilot: "Affirmative". For a while already i heared the pilot report a bright light that seemed to follow his plane. The controller adviced him no helicopters in the area nore other aircraft. He also said to make sure it's not the reflection in the water, of the moon or another source. No, the pilot kept on reporting that he could not indentify the light that was following him and that he had never experienced something like this before. It remained dead quiet after that last conversation...

Followed the news the next day : nothing.... Must say that were some very exiting 20 minutes (more or less) for me sitting there in the middle of the night next to my Bearcat.... Seeing it in a movie or series is one thing, experiencing it life for real is another !

Btw, talking about Schiphol ATC, i just watched another Capt. Beckett US flight with 'SayIntentions' and suddenly a voice comes in on the ATC channel that i recognised immidiately because of the unmistakably accent: a dutch pilot confirming a command: "KLM so and so".... Hehe...SI does have airline crew speaking English in their native tongue's accent. Pretty impressive ! ;-)

Thanks for your reply, John !

Sunny9850 said:

I use BeyondATC with FS20 and FS24. It is pretty good in my experience and is relatively close to real ATC procedures.
Voices are somewhat localized which is a good thing, if you are flying in different parts of the world.
But on occasion you do have to deal with understanding less than perfect english.
You can talk to BYATC as well, but you are a little more closely limited to real world procedural language.

Biggest drawback to me at this point is that it only works for flights under IFR rules

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip, Sunny !

I did not know about BeyondATC and had a look at it. What i heared in a demo video sounds very good. Sofar i did not get an example of how to communicate exactly with ATC. It's not by talking to them like with SayIntentions, is it ?...

The price is nice, certainly compared to SI, but probabely not for me because i do fly more VFR than IFR... That's one thing i like about SI, they have VFR with flight following next to IFR although sofar i am not exactly convinced about that by the demo VFR flights by Jonathan Beckett.

Do you think BATC will support VFR flights as well in the near future ?

Thanks again !

Javis said:

Thanks for the tip, Sunny !

I did not know about BeyondATC and had a look at it. What i heared in a demo video sounds very good. Sofar i did not get an example of how to communicate exactly with ATC. It's not by talking to them like with SayIntentions, is it ?...

The price is nice, certainly compared to SI, but probabely not for me because i do fly more VFR than IFR... That's one thing i like about SI, they have VFR with flight following next to IFR although sofar i am not exactly convinced about that by the demo VFR flights by Jonathan Beckett.

Do you think BATC will support VFR flights as well in the near future ?

Thanks again !

Click to expand...

You can either talk to them, and the program does allow for some leeway in the wording used. It basically looks for key words in the readback or request.
It does work fairly well for me using a headset and mike so that it understands my voice commands. However there are also ways to get either you copilot to read back or request from a selection of possible commands.

Not 100% sure on the VFR part, it has been mentioned in the beginning as a future option and they did make built in traffic work as promised. So the developer seems to be intent on delivering, but it may take some time.

Ive been using BATC for VFR flights, but just to have aircraft flying around and at the airports I'm flying into and out of. I go thru the setup to get the AI aircraft active, but then just never start talking to ATC, since it will try to IFR me. I do use the ATIS channels though.


Forest

Thanks for the information, Sunny and Forest ! (try to IFR me... )

I'll keep an eye on BATC. Real pity no proper VFR yet. Nice to know you can talk to ATC like with 'SayIntentions'. I like ATC with my flights but not for 18 euros per month... I might buy BATC anyway and try some IFR to see and hear how it works. Not that much into GPS and all the fancy Garmin stuff, for the time being puttering around the area with flight following at 1000 feet and then being vectored to the nearest airfield would be one of my favourite things to do. I understand that'll belong in the 'Good things come to those who wait' department. ;-)

Anyway, thanks again, gents.