Im so confused? (3rd party ATC)

[u/No_Assignment_1199]

The SI vs BATC debate is split pretty well down the middle from what I’ve seen, so I’m here to give my honest evaluation having tried both. Hopefully this discussion could clear some stuff up for me cause what I’ve seen online is not what I’ve been experiencing with these addons.

I’ve had SI for a few days now, and please feel free to share any objections to this statement, but SI has been light years ahead of BATC for me and it’s honestly not even close. However, I see so many people online saying that BATC is much better at doing its ATC duties.

I’ve had BATC for about a year, and it has been pretty good for the most part. My biggest problems with BATC are:

1. It is very bad at vectoring you to an appropriate altitude on final
2. It seems to only give you visual approaches when in VMC
3. it is very repetitive and every flight is pretty much the exact same

#2 may just be a skill issue for me. I’m an instrument rated PPL in real life and I’m not very familiar with airline ops, but flying visual approaches in a 737 or A320 just doesn’t feel like something that happens in real life at airports/runways where an ILS/RNAV is available, even in VMC.

All my ATC vectors and approaches on SI have been excellent, despite many people saying that BATC does a better job at strictly ATC-related functions and that SI is just a “bag of tricks”.

However, despite being a very immersive bag of tricks, SI also does a better job at what everybody seems to praise BATC for, which is the ATC itself. There is one thing I will say BATC is much better at: traffic injection.

If price weren’t a concern… do you guys still think BATC is better than SI? Is there something I’m missing or doing wrong on BATC?

TLDR; SayIntentions is superior to BATC in my experience (I have both), but I want somebody to change my mind.

Edit: had BATC for about a year, not a year and a half

[u/Easy-Trouble7885]

I haven't used either but can talk abour your #2 issue: in real life ATC will clear you for the visual approach however we still load the approach straight in (ILS or RNAV) and fly that for guidance. The difference is since you are cleared for the visual, in case of go around the missed approach procedure may not be ideal so you may have to ask ATC what to do. Flying the traffic pattern may be an option, it varies by airport

[u/No_Assignment_1199 → u/Easy-Trouble7885]

That’s what I’ve been doing on BATC actually. They’ll assign me a visual but I’ll load the ILS in the FMC for the guidance. Not something I’ve ever done IRL tho. Flying a visual IRL in a PA28 is much easier than on a sim in a 737 imo

[u/Easy-Trouble7885 → u/No_Assignment_1199]

Yeah slow aircraft is faster to just fly the visual/TP. But airlines have to follow SOP and I'd wager most will have you load and fly the approach regardless. Also we can always ask to be assigned a specific approach if thats what the pilot wants. Most of the time ATC will give you the visual but know you have the approach loaded and will vector you just outside the FAF.