More surprises from Say Intentions

Every few days Say Intentions (SI) ATC seems to add new features, or I discover features I didn't know it had.  In the last couple of weeks It has changed me from a far side approach to a near side approach  (probably because of a late change in wind direction) relatively late in the approach. This required me to abort the current approach, because I was too high and too hot for the requested approach (i.e. "unable"), and required that I do a go around from my planned approach to the MA holding point and then program the new approach into the FMC.  SI has warned me about reported turbulence (twice), asked me to hold at a waypoint late in my flight plan to address a temporary emergent problem on my destination runway, changed the SID in my filed flightplan to another SID from the same departure runway, changed my departure runway after push and start, etc. These changes are challenging, particularly for a single pilot in a dual pilot aircraft (B738).  However, none of these changes were impracticle unrealistic, or undoable.  However, they did require a higher facility at making changes "on the fly" than I have developed in my 23 years of flight simming.  So SI isn't just providing appropriate responses to pilot inquiries or reponses, it's enriching the flight simulation experience by inserting realistic and appropriate, if unexpected, elements into the flight..

This afternoon I flew from Minneapolis to Buffalo.  As I descended into Buffalo I encountered gusty winds and very heavy rain and on final I discovered the weather was a good deal worse than forecast (ceiling of 300' instead of 3600').  To complicate things further I lost the localizer on approach (the G/S was OK) and the nav system defaulted to LNAV.  This frustrated my hope to use autoland and prevented me from knowing how well I was holding the runway C/L until I finally broke out of the ceiling at 300'-400' (minimums 200').  I broke out late and handflew a pretty good landing, but exited the runway on the wrong side to get to the Termnal.  I explained the problem to Buffalo Ground (SI) and they gave me a gate assignment and detailed taxi instructions to get to the gate.

Mike

Mike,

I've been testing it out, and I'm enjoying it more than BATC.  I guess you get what you pay for...or what you're willing to pay for anyway.  The voices are superior, and I've been having fun with the interactive.  I was surprised by a recent flight when told to hold at a fix just prior to the initial approach fix because maintenance vehicles were on the runway.  I entered the hold and advised the flight attendant that we were being delayed about 10 minutes due to maintenance on the runway.  Surprisingly, she gave the passenger announcement about the delay and even the time expected to be delayed.  I'm thinking I'll have to switch to SI as my primary ATC.

John

John,

I think that is the same reason SI gave me for ordering the hold, so there is a scripted element here, it's just that we don't know the script. Anyhow, I think we are in violent agreement.

Mike