Finding the perfect route on VATSIM can feel like solving a puzzle—maps, event pages, bookings, staring at traffic flows, who’s controlling, and more. But don’t worry, our new AI-powered flight recommendation service has your back! With just one click, you’ll get personalized, real-time flight suggestions based on your preferences. Whether you’re in the mood for a popular route, a scenic detour, or something totally off the beaten path, we’ve got you covered. And yes, our AI models learn your preferences automatically—kind of like having a personal dispatcher who actually knows what you want (even before you do ), but without spilling coffee on the job.
How It Works
Using the service is quick and easy:
Sign in: Assign a display name and log in with your Google/Facebook/Microsoft account.
Get Your Recommendations: In seconds, receive a list of curated routes designed just for you.
That’s it! Your next virtual adventure is just a few clicks away. Here is a sneak peak of what info is provided in the recommendations.
Just a couple more things to note:
This is a very early beta version we couldn’t wait to share with you! Try it out and let us know what you think—we’d love your feedback.
For now (and only temporarily), you can query recommendations for any CID (using a textbox). We’re waiting for VATSIM staff to enable OAuth authentication so we can verify your CID during the process. You can find more details here.
We’re already working on a ton of exciting improvements (so many, it’d take another post to list them all), including making our AI models smarter and more accurate with every update.
Feel free to contact us at vatsim.buddy@gmail.com or send me a DM with any questions, feedback, or suggestions (or literally anything else!)
Happy flying and spread the word!
Luis & the team!
Feature request: The ability to enter ICAO codes for every airport I’ve got a scenery for.
I do not fly to default airports but just bought myself those which passed a quality check and thus I don’t want to get routes to an airport recommended, that I won’t fly to. Just enter my ICAO codes like this …
This is very good idea! We are working on adding some ability to filter pre-ranking stage and this seems like a very good filter as well! Will work on add it.
I hope you had a very nice Christmas.
We are also very excited to share some big updates on our service, which I’ll list below.
We added flags icons to indicate the departure/arrival countries to the front cards.
We now support several pre-ranking filters:
You can filter flights by length/duration.
You can specify the departure/arrival country (or both)
You can specify how much traffic you want at arrival/departure or both.
You can specify whether you want controller at departure/arrival or both.
You can specify whether you want the arrival/departure airport to be part of an event (or both).
You can specify the arrival or departure airport.
You can select a preset list of airports to generate flights from (say a list of 20 airports you usually flight between)
Filters are all stored so next time you access they will be preloaded exactly as you left them.
We have added a couple more sources of candidate flights (user past flights and most common flights hourly in the last 30 days).
The display name requirement has been removed as it provides no clear benefit.
Note: Filters are applied during the pre-ranking stage and can significantly reduce the pool of flights reaching the ranking phase, depending on the filter combinations. However, all remaining flights are ranked just like any others.
Hope you enjoy and find these new updates useful. As always don’t hesitate to reach us if you have any comments/questions, etc.
), but without spilling coffee on the job.
