Posted by Lee Baker on Friday December 12, 2014
I'm finishing up work on version two, and wanted to share some of the new features I've added.
Control over autopilot is probably one of the most desired features. Once the plane is in the air, this lets you fly the plane around super-easily. Meanwhile, on the ground, you can now control the brakes, start and stop the engines (and APU!), making your startup procedures just that much more natural.
I have also focussed on making the existing commands work better. Numbers are recognized in more general formats, so you can say “three hundred twenty knots” instead of “three two zero knots,” with similar improvements for headings and altitudes. There are now dozens of new things you can say to control the flaps- jump directly to a specific setting by saying something like “go to flaps 3” or “flaps all the way up please”.
After hearing back from a few people on various forums, I was glad to hear that PlaneCommand works with most systems in a variety of aftermarket aircraft, even ones that I didn't specifically design for. Despite that, I want to get perfect support in the most common planes, so I've started with what might be the most common freeware aircraft, the x737 project. All commands work in this plane. In future updates, more planes will get this level of support.
Version two should be out before Christmas.
PlaneCommand is an add-on plugin for PC flight simulators uses speech recognition technology to emulate a co-pilot. The voice interface frees virtual pilots from needing to memorize arbitrary keyboard commands, and provides a natural speech interface to many common cockpit instruments. Realism is enhanced by assisting the pilot with common cockpit tasks like tuning radios or configuring instruments.
PlaneCommand supports the X-Plane 10 and 11 flight simulators on Windows and Mac OS, and fully supports VR. Support for Microsoft Flight Simulator coming soon. A free demo version is available for download, and the full PlaneCommand Pro license is available to purchase at PlaneCommand.com.
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