Track On Air (VRFlights73) — VR flights with an AI voice companion copilot: new episodes in this thread

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S1E23 — Montpellier, France (38 min)

Early morning over the south of France in the R66, photogrammetry on the ground. I ask for an introduction and she gives it; I ask for a story and she tells it, stops halfway, and asks whether I want her to go on. I complain. Then we lift off and I start testing what this flight asks for.

The reading test came first: Ikea, Carrefour, Decathlon, a kart track, a cluster of tall buildings, and a sign in French that I asked her to read out. After that the neighbourhoods, churches and gardens, the aqueduct, and a stadium that from up here looks like it was built out of Lego bricks. Landing, and then the flight debrief: heading, temperature, wind.

What went wrong: the photo. I asked for one eighteen times over twenty minutes and got the same polite sentence back every time, asking what I wanted to do with it. When she said she had taken it, nothing appeared on the iPad — no flash, no shutter sound, no picture, because the feature was not wired up yet. The story also still cuts itself off halfway. And at the end the tablet showed 110 degrees next to a wind arrow that read 280, which looked like the wind was inverted; the 110 is my own heading, with no label on it, so I was reading two different numbers as one.

About Track: the voice in this flight is Track73, a voice companion for MSFS 2024 that I am building. You hold one button on the stick and ask about anything you can see outside; she answers out loud about the place you are looking at, in VR or on a flat monitor. It is not released yet — how it works, and the waitlist for launch, are at https://track73.com.br

23

S1E24 — Providence, Rhode Island (38 min)

Afternoon over Providence in the R66, photogrammetry on the ground. I ask her to introduce herself and we lift off. She takes me over downtown, the river and its bridges, the old power station and the Riverwalk footbridge. The city is covered in murals, and there are old churches, the State House with its dome, the Brown campus and the Crook Point railway bridge.

I asked her what things were all the way through, and she was right some of the time and wrong some of the time. We checked her against the on-screen “Did you know?” and “Fact check” balloons. The photo button got its first real flight here: 25 of the 29 pictures came from the button, with only the shutter click and no talking, and I liked that a lot. The landing was on a rooftop helipad, and she warned me about the building’s height before I needed it.

What went wrong: my name. Halfway through she got it wrong, and when I corrected her she insisted on the wrong one, over and over, while the right one was sitting in her notes. It turned out she only reads those notes when she is talking to an audience, not in a normal answer. Earlier, when I asked “is this place a museum?”, it was filed as my name. Once she did learn it, she started opening every answer with it, and each of those put a junk pin on the map. On top of that, the photo button kept taking the same frame, so 8 of the 29 photos are duplicates, and “I want a photo” was not recognised as a request, yet she answered “photo taken” anyway.

About Track: the voice in this flight is Track73, the voice companion for MSFS 2024 that I am building. You press one button on the stick, ask about whatever is outside, and she answers out loud about the place you are looking at, in VR or on a monitor. It is not out yet; what it does and the launch waitlist are at https://track73.com.br

24

S1E25 — Warwick, Rhode Island (36 min)

First flight in the series that isn’t a helicopter. After 39 flights in the R66, this one is the Caproni Vizzola C-22J Ventura, an Italian jet trainer, out of T. F. Green in Warwick. The first thing I wanted to see was whether Track’s map would notice the new aircraft by itself. It did: the jet icon swapped in around minute three, with nothing written for this plane.

From there it’s East Providence, the Seekonk River, Providence, the Scituate Reservoir and Johnston. Track names what’s under the wing and the on-screen balloons check her: a golf course in East Providence, the high school, Interstate 195 and the Washington Bridge. She gets some right and some wrong, and the video keeps both. All 29 photos I took came out with a location attached.

One thing you only learn in a jet: the photo button sits on the collective, and in the Ventura my other hand is on the throttle. I need a second bind on the stick.

What went wrong: I said I was on the runway and about to take off, and she set a destination (KPVD) anyway and wrote the route, so I had to cancel it. She also said we had just taken off while we were still taxiing, repeated the same golf club in two different places, mixed up a mall, and the intro ran far too long.

About Track: The voice in this video is Track73, a voice companion I’m building for MSFS 2024. You press a button on the stick, ask about whatever is outside the window, and she answers out loud about the place you’re looking at, in VR or on a monitor. It isn’t released yet. What it does, and the launch waitlist, are at https://track73.com.br

25

S1E26 — Brisbane, Australia (39 min)

Out of the river police helipad at the mouth of the Brisbane River in the R66, past the airport, under the Gateway Bridge and then up the river into the city. The first photo of the flight was an island sitting in the river. Then the racecourse at Albion Park, Toorak House and Newstead House, and the old gasometer at Newstead.

From there it is the Showgrounds, a run over Herston where she read the shop signs out loud, the footbridge at QUT, Suncorp Stadium, then the Kurilpa Bridge, Roma Street Parkland and the towers of the centre. At South Bank, Streets Beach is a man-made beach right next to the river, and it reads very clearly from above; the Queensland Maritime Museum is just beyond it. Last stop was the Gabba and then the helipad at the children’s hospital.

What went wrong: she froze in the first attempt at this flight and I had to restart her; she came back and answered everything after that. The other problem is that she tends to give the name of the most famous place instead of what is actually below the helicopter, and the pins on screen are what show it.

About Track: the voice you hear is Track73, the voice companion I am building for MSFS 2024. You press a button on the stick, ask about anything outside, and she answers out loud about the place you are looking at, in VR or on a monitor. She is not released yet; what she does and the waitlist are at https://track73.com.br

26

S1E27 — Toowoomba, Queensland (33 min)

Lifted off the UniSQ campus in the R66 with photogrammetry on and followed the road and the low ground up onto the Great Dividing Range. The first photo of the flight came through and the chat cheered. From there it was a low pass over West Creek Park, the City Golf Club, the basalt escarpment above town and the quarry cut into it, then Baillie Henderson and the old Dairy Farmers factory, ending on the helipad at Toowoomba Hospital.

She read the shop signs out loud on the way, and told a joke and a short story near the end. Toowoomba sits on the edge of the range, and you only see how sharp that edge is from the air: the town stops and the land drops away.

What went wrong: I asked what a building was and she answered correctly, a school, then armed a landing leg to a hospital helipad a mile away that I never asked for, so I had to cancel it. She also guessed a place name at times, and the labels on the map screen were what caught it.

About Track: the voice in the other seat is Track73, a voice companion I am building for MSFS 2024. Hold one button on the stick, ask about whatever is out there, and she answers out loud about the place you are looking at, in VR or on a flat monitor. It is not released yet. What it does and the waitlist are at https://track73.com.br

27

S1E28 — Redcliffe, Queensland (34 min)

Out of Redcliffe Airport in the R66, photogrammetry on, and round the peninsula on the Moreton Bay side: Scarborough, the pier at Redcliffe, Margate beach, Woody Point. She named the marinas and the reserve on the way, and the map pins checked out most of the time.

Then across the bay on the Hornibrook and Houghton Highway bridges, over Deagon Racecourse and the Gateway Motorway, until the Brisbane skyline came up ahead. Landing was on the helipad at the Prince Charles Hospital in Chermside, after a pass over the big fig tree in Chermside. Seen from above, Redcliffe is a peninsula with water on three sides, which you don’t get from the road.

After landing I explain what Track is on camera and test her vision live: I ask her to look at what I’m looking at and say what it is.

What went wrong: she repeated a joke I had heard the day before. When I asked her to look, my head was pointed down and she described the concrete of the helipad and not what I meant, so I had to insist. And sometimes she just guesses the name of a place, which is why the balloons on screen are there to check her.

About Track: the voice in this flight is Track73, the voice companion I’m building for MSFS 2024. You press a button on the stick, ask about anything outside, and she answers out loud about the place you are looking at, in VR or on a monitor. It isn’t released yet. What it does, and the waitlist for the launch, are at https://track73.com.br

28

S1E23 — Montpellier, France (38 min)

Early morning over Montpellier in the R66, photogrammetry on the ground. On the ramp I asked her for an introduction and then for a short story. She told it, stopped halfway and asked whether I wanted her to go on. I did not, and said so.

Once we were up I tested what the flight asked for. She picked out the Ikea, the Carrefour and the Decathlon, a kart track and the tall blocks, and read a French sign out loud. Further on came the neighbourhoods, the churches and gardens, the aqueduct, and a stadium that looks like it was built from Lego.

What went wrong: I asked for a photo eighteen times and got the same polite sentence back every time. The photo feature is not hooked up yet, so nothing ever showed on the iPad. The story also cut off mid-way, and at the end her screen showed 110 degrees next to a wind arrow at 280, which looked like a reversed wind. It was my own heading, with no label next to it.

About Track: The voice in this flight is Track73, the voice companion I am building for MSFS 2024. You press a button on the stick, ask about anything outside, and she answers out loud about the place you are looking at, in VR or on a monitor. It is not released yet. What it does and the launch waitlist are at https://track73.com.br