Quote from Mark Speechley on April 17, 2026, 5:00 am

Hi everyone,

Well just thought I'd throw in an update.

I have moved from my beloved P3D V5.4 to finally upgrade the sim to MSFS 2020. After confirming that the RobertsLearjet45 actually works and that a significant amount of Jet45 does as well, we decided to push the envelope further.

Hence over the last month we have upgraded again to MSFS 2024. Primarily we did this as having everything working in 2020 will not totally prepare you for 2024. As an example, many of the keyboard commands are different !   So we have started to knock out some stick time and understand the quirks of the Roberts Lear. All of us have trouble straightening up on the runway after landing, as well as the need to have the right landing speed.

Anyway, to liven up the sim, ATC is a whole new kettle of fish in MSFS, which we had mastered in P3d.

The take home message is the default ATC should not be your goto choice, unless you have no choice. Here are your main options.

1/ MSFS ATC

2/ Live Human Networks, such as VATSIM, IVAO, PilotEdge, POSCON etc

3/ Ai ATC such as SayIntentions.ai, BeyondATC, Skylink etc

Other members of the Hangar have opted for the subscription based SayIntentions ( around US$18.95 pm). that was a bit pricey for us but I believe at the moment Sayintentions is the front runner in Ai ATC. Due to exchange rate and costs etc and to explore a different option we have opted for BeyondATC.US $29.99 for the Base package or US$59.99 for the Supporters Package ( which includes the Experimental updates ( Beta) )

Those prices are a once off fee ( excluding Premium voices).

So we have the Supporters Package. That includes the beta at the moment which includes Part 1 of the VFR update. What that means is the Base Package gives you IFR anywhere but NO VFR ATC. You will also need to do your Flight Plan using Simbrief.

The Supporters Package allows you to use Simbrief, MSFS or Other, such as Little Nav Map. The VFR incorporation is being rolled out in three parts. the first part is included. Basically it means VFR take off and landing but no ATC in between cross country. Circuits no problem.

The reason for this post, as well, is the issues we have come across, so take note.

If you choose BeyondATC (BATC) and use the RobertsLearjet you may have issues if you make a Flight Plan from a source other than Simbrief if you want to fly VFR. In Simbrief you choose the LJ45 so that it knows what plane ATC is dealing withand that it is VFR flight. If you use the others, BATC reads from the RobertsLearjet, aircraft.cfg. In there, it is referred to as '45'.

Batc throws up an error that it has too many planes with the numbers 45, so refuses to load the Flight Plan.

The fix is  to change the cfg file references where you see '45' to 'LJ45'. Once done, voila, all good with the VFR Flight Plans.

ATC adds a huge dimension to flying and really gets you thinking and working instead of kicking back and enjoying the scenery.......................unless of course, you still have that option.

I hope this is helpful. dive in and have a go.

https://www.beyondatc.net/

https://www.sayintentions.ai/

Cheers

Mark S. ( Technical Engineer), Mark C.( Chief Test Pilot ) & Peter N.( Crash Test Dummy)