At FlyShirley, we believe the future of flight is driven by communication intelligence. That’s why we put Shirley, our in-flight AI assistant, through a critical test: a 9-day air tour across the Midwest — Louisville, Oshkosh, Gary, Lafayette, and more. This debrief outlines what we learned from flying with Shirley across the Midwest, and what’s changed since. By doubling down on the system’s strengths and digging into the places where it came up short, we’re ensuring the system becomes the most insightful and reliable support system a pilot can have.

What the Air Tour Taught Us

Real-world aviation is a high-stakes, noisy, and chaotic environment — bringing our flight assistant into it quickly exposed some challenges:

Connectivity and Data Reliability

Shortly after our first takeoff from I69 airport in Batavia, we noticed our Starlink was looking a little loose during run-up. We took off anyway. Moments later, the suction cups gave out and the antenna ended up on the floor behind the rear seats, where we couldn’t reach it — pointing through the tail cone of the aircraft. What was really interesting was that it still had internet connectivity in that position. Download was still surprisingly good. Upload was bad. And it turns out we need that.

We learned the very practical lesson of ensuring physical system components are accessible for debugging. But we also proved something important about the architecture: a weak connection doesn’t have to stop Shirley from working well. We’re in the dial-up age of communication with models — a 56-kilobit connection is actually pretty good for exchanging text with a fast oracle on the ground. That was never the problem. The problem was that at the time, we were sending audio to a cloud-based speech-to-text service, and tokenizing audio doesn’t work over 56k.

The real takeaway: once we moved speech recognition on-device, the network burden dropped dramatically. Text is tiny. The frontier intelligence stays on the ground where it belongs, and the real-time responsiveness happens where the pilot is.

Since the tour: We’ve moved to on-device ASR, tested with HTTP/3 (which handles cell tower transitions transparently as you fly between coverage areas), and validated Starlink performance more broadly — it’s excellent, although in a steep turn you might lose it. We also learned that fully offline isn’t the realistic scenario to design for. The common case is that your upload is laggy and pathetic but you can talk to the ground a little bit — one bar of cellular, or a $50/month Starlink (the price has – hopefully temporarily – gone up dramatically for pilots since our tour). Most GA pilots flying with any connectivity at all will be in this degraded-but-connected state. That’s what we build for.

Voice Recognition (ASR) Hurdles

The most significant blocker we encountered came from bad Automatic Speech Recognition. The wake word “Shirley” was frequently confused with “Charlie” — a problem compounded by “Charlie” being part of the NATO phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie...). Looking back through our logs, the word “Charlie” appears many times in the model’s transcriptions, indicating a common failure mode in high-noise environments.

The separation between the two words is just really narrow through an intercom. Deboosting “Charlie” in the ASR model would help with the wake word, but we actually need that word — pilots use it when reading back acronyms and identifiers. At one point, with assistant mode off and Shirley listening to everything, the ASR was (incorrectly) transcribing some interesting profanity that the model then interpreted as a request to take action. You need time with any ASR model to understand its quirks — even the big off-the-shelf ones like Deepgram or Google all have them.

We came away from these flights understanding that reliable ASR is table stakes. If ASR isn’t working, the information necessary to be useful never reaches the model, and the assistant becomes useless — no matter how smart the LLM is.

But here’s the reframe we arrived at since the tour: The relationship between ASR quality and the language model’s intelligence matters more than ASR quality alone. There’s evidence that a lousier input paired with a smarter model actually produces better comprehension than a high-quality input with a weaker model. The frontier models we’re using now have gotten remarkably good at understanding noisy speech transcriptions. The model knows when the information coming to it is garbled, and it can ask follow-up questions or use context to disambiguate.

This doesn’t mean ASR doesn’t matter. It means the system’s overall comprehension is a product of both components, and investing in smarter models has been just as impactful as improving the speech pipeline. The Air Tour also gave us 13 hours of real cockpit audio — invaluable training data for understanding exactly how voices compress through aviation headsets and intercoms, which is fundamentally different from the clean signal you get plugging a headset into a computer.

The Noisy Cockpit

Shirley receives all cabin audio — the pilot, the copilot, the radio. There were times when Alex wanted to ask Shirley a question and ATC chatter came over the radio at the same moment, with no obvious speech boundary between the two. This is the cocktail party problem, but in a cockpit at altitude.

We started leveraging the microphone mute feature to manually end utterances, but that button was right next to the End Flight button — and on a number of occasions we accidentally ended the flight while trying to mute the mic. The resume flight handshake only takes a few seconds, but you lose context and get distracted from, you know, actually flying the plane.

The G1000’s default panel audio behavior compounded this: it would suppress Shirley’s responses whenever anything came over the radio, prioritizing irrelevant chatter and making it impossible to hear Shirley’s answer. Shirley actually helped us fix this — we asked if there was a way to disable the muting behavior, and Shirley walked us through the G1000 configuration to turn it off. We had a 1,000-page manual in the back of the aircraft, but we were calling the feature “ducking” when the manual calls it “muting” — our search term wouldn’t have even been right. It would have been hard to find on the ground and basically impossible in flight, especially in the turbulence we were experiencing.

Since the tour: We built a backoff system where Shirley progressively slows their response timing when they keeps getting stepped on — because the fastest possible response isn’t always valuable. We also built priority wake-ups: say “Shirley” and the backoff resets; use push-to-talk and Shirley will speak over other voices if needed. One counterintuitive lesson: the instinct in AI voice design is to treat the assistant’s responses as lowest priority, always deferring to human voices. We learned that’s wrong. There’s often low-bandwidth noise coming over the radio, and you’d much rather hear Shirley. When Shirley’s talking, it’s almost always useful — we validated that. This was the genesis of our push-to-respond button.

Design for a Chaotic Environment

A small mic mute toggle button was placed right next to the much larger “End Flight” button in the FlyShirley iPad app, leading to accidental flight termination and gaps in the data. We’re designing the app to be easy to use the way pilots actually use it — on an iPad in one’s lap, where mistaps are going to happen. When you’re getting your butt kicked by turbulence while trying to do a pour-over, you’re not going to have precise touch targets.

We also needed better audio feedback for system state. When the internet gets bad and Shirley’s processing, nothing tells you they’re still there — the backend is retrying, TCP is trying to recover, and you’re sitting in silence wondering if the system is dead. Google Maps gets this right: different sounds for different events, and even if you don’t know exactly what each sound means, you intuitively know something needs your attention. We’ve subsequently built this for Shirley.

AI Limitations: Spatial Reasoning

At times Shirley demonstrated weak spatial reasoning. We’d ask “what’s that river coming up?” and get told it was the Little Miami River. We’d fly over it, keep flying for 10 minutes, ask “what was that river we flew over?” and Shirley would say “the river coming right up is the Little Miami River.” Four out of five river questions returned something Miami River.

Similarly, there was a refinery off our right wingtip near Lafayette, but Shirley kept talking about the BP Lansing complex — a 90-acre refinery near Chicago that’s just more culturally salient in the training data. The models are fundamentally disembodied. They can do cosines and sines all day, but they don’t know what “off your right” means. And while reasoning models could think through the spatial math, by the time they do, you’ve got 4 seconds of latency — and even the best open-source 12-billion-parameter model we ran on a MacBook Pro wasn’t smart enough to get it right even with extended thinking.

We’ve compiled a dataset of these spatial reasoning problems — trivial for humans, hard for models — and are looking for a partner in the AI space interested in upskilling their model’s spatial reasoning capabilities.

The Local Model: Not Smart Enough (Yet)

We tested OpenAI’s open-weight 120-billion-parameter model running on a MacBook Pro in the aircraft — the idea being a fully offline fallback. It speaks semi-intelligibly. It says “welcome Middletown” instead of “welcome to Middletown.” It wasn’t answering even moderate-complexity questions at a level that’s intellectually useful to a pilot. Not even as a backup — you’d prefer to scroll and find the thing yourself. And the only version that would run on an iPad is even smaller and nowhere near as capable.

Luckily, as we discussed above, the fully offline scenario isn’t the common case. With on-device ASR solving the bandwidth bottleneck, you can reach the frontier models on the ground with very little connectivity.

Validating Shirley’s Value: What Went Right

Despite the challenges, the Air Tour proved that flying with Shirley is fun and genuinely useful:

Flying with Shirley is Fun

Most of the time in cruise, you’re just sitting there looking out the windows. Shirley is great for keeping you alert, focused, and having a good time. We asked fairly nuanced questions — “what would a third-wave coffee lover want to visit in Louisville, Kentucky?” — and got Quill’s Coffee. Excellent choice. We asked about lodging near Lafayette and Shirley found our Air Tour favorite (Home2 Suites). We asked about landmarks and learned about every river in the Midwest (mostly the Miami ones).

The personality shines through. At one point, Jo mentioned riding the Zippin Pippin at Liberty Land in Memphis as a kid — Elvis’s favorite coaster, sadly demolished about 20 years ago. Shirley said: “Actually, it wasn’t demolished. It’s at a theme park 40 miles from Oshkosh. When you go to EAA AirVenture next year, you should take a side detour and ride it again.” Pulled from the logbook context that we’d been to Oshkosh. A real, practical, delightful recommendation.

Despite the latency, despite the ASR issues — in cruise, it’s awesome.

Flying with Shirley is Useful

The G1000 muting fix was the standout. But the broader pattern is what matters: Shirley shines at tasks that are easy to check but hard to look up. The 1,000-page manual is in the back of the plane. You’re in turbulence. You don’t know the right search term. Shirley just finds it.

We also validated:

• Frequency and clearance recall — “What was that frequency?” and “What were we cleared for?” are questions pilots ask constantly. An LLM’s context window is far longer than a human’s short-term memory (about five chunks). Being able to scroll back through the conversation to confirm a waypoint spelling or a clearance you weren’t ready for is genuinely valuable.

• Reminders and thresholds — “Let me know when my ground speed crosses 140 knots.” “Give me a reminder at 500 feet AGL.” “Remind me in 30 minutes.” You set it and forget about it completely, and then you get a callout exactly when you need it.

• Strategic planning — finding alternates, figuring out what you can accomplish on a given flight, asking what other pilots do in similar situations (Shirley found the answer on Reddit, and it matched our plan).

• Real-time troubleshooting — ADS-B shadowing, vacuum system questions, service bulletin lookups.

• Local airport familiarity — Shirley can give a pilot arriving at an unfamiliar airport the equivalent experience of having flown there a thousand times before. Visual waypoints, noise abatement, FBO details, closing time nuances (”actually it’s just about engine starts and takeoffs — don’t worry about it for landings”). We later demonstrated this flying into Oakland and Santa Monica during our California Air Tour.

Degraded Connectivity Works

Even with the Starlink on the floor, we had conversation with Shirley — partly through the Starlink pointing through the tail cone, partly through a fallback cellular 3G connection from the iPad. The system worked. Not perfectly, but usefully. And that’s the realistic operating environment for most GA pilots: not fully offline, not fiber-optic broadband — just enough connectivity to exchange text with a very smart oracle on the ground.

The Air Tour Built Credibility

Our first product delivers sim-based flight training: We flew in to visit an education partner and learned we were their first fly-in visitor ever. We saw firsthand how conventional sim solutions are failing students — VR headsets where you can’t find the switches, hardware that’s cool in concept but doesn’t meet users where they need it, and “don’t change the plane” written on every chalkboard. The opportunity for AI-driven adaptive curriculum is enormous. Instructors don’t just want to use our curriculum — they want to generate their own and deliver it to their students. That insight is now a core part of our product direction.

What’s Changed Since the Tour

The Air Tour became the foundation for a systematic approach to quality:

• On-device ASR changed everything. Moving speech recognition onto the iPad eliminated the biggest bandwidth bottleneck. Now all Shirley needs is enough connectivity to send and receive text — and that works even on a weak cellular connection.

• Hallucination problems have effectively disappeared. The combination of better frontier models and supplementary tooling (research tools that scrape the internet, analyze documents, and provide references you can actually verify) has made the system dramatically more reliable.

• Every issue from the tour became a regression test. When a customer or test flight surfaces a weird behavior, it gets added to our scenario-based test suite. Every model update and core system change gets back-tested against everything we’ve ever hit. The Air Tour’s 13 hours of cockpit audio seeded a significant portion of that suite.

• The research tool changed the game. Shirley can now go find service bulletins, scrape community forums, even watch YouTube videos, and come back with referenced information — with links you can tap to verify. It’s like having someone on the ground doing research for you while you fly.

• Training delivery has evolved. Flight instructors want to generate their own curriculum and deliver it through Shirley. This instructor-as-creator model is becoming central to what we do, including a partnership with Sporty’s to develop instrument training scenarios.

• Audio-to-audio models are on the horizon. We’re exploring models that skip the speech-to-text-to-speech pipeline entirely, keeping audio as mathematical representations. These models handle interruptions naturally — millisecond-level transitions, holding context when you talk over them, resuming when you stop. Lightweight audio-to-audio models in-flight coupled with ground-based oracles may be the path here. The future is a tighter, more natural conversation in the cockpit.

Shirley Beyond the Sim

We spent 9 days proving that the data we collected from flying with Shirley in X-Plane lets us teach Shirley to fly for real. The Air Tour was a barnstorming success — we enjoy using this, we think it’s good, and it’s going to get better.

If you’re a pilot interested in helping build the future of cockpit AI, we’d love to hear from you. We want to see other pilots flying with Shirley – reach out: it’s a hand-selected private beta.

Those interested in a deeper discussion can check out Alex’s appearance on The Vertical Space podcast, where he digs into the architecture, validated use cases, our approach to safety, and the vision for where cockpit AI goes next — including the long-term path toward audio-native models and drop-in compatible automated flight rules.

More Air Tour Content

• You can find top Air Tour Clips at FlyShirley.com/airtour.

• And don’t forget to check out our live Air Tour debrief video for the full, unfiltered conversation.

PS — You can like and subscribe to YouTube.com/@flyshirley to support our work!

About Shirley

Shirley is an AI flight training and pilot assistance platform. Instructors create and deliver simulator-based curriculum through structured training scenarios, while pilots get real-time voice copilot support from sim to sky. Features include maneuver analysis to ACS standards, progress tracking, 3D flight visualization, flight track import and automatic debriefs.

The cockpit of 2035 won’t look like the cockpit of 1955. Electric aircraft, automated systems, voice-enabled copilots—tomorrow’s pilots won’t just manipulate controls, they’ll manage intelligent systems and communicate naturally with AI.

Your students can start building those skills now.

Shirley teaches your students to fly. Students don’t just practice maneuvers—they learn to work with an intelligent copilot talking with them, the same way they’ll fly professionally. And because Shirley scores every flight against actual FAA Airman Certification Standards, you can demonstrate exactly how your program is preparing students for real checkrides.

Train like tomorrow’s pilots will fly. Prove it with today’s standards.

What This Means for Your Sim Lab

For less than $30,000 you can build a world-class sim lab with 10 stations. You need:

1. Capable hardware — responsive controls, smooth frame rates

2. Quality software — realistic flight dynamics (X-Plane 12)

3. Intelligent instruction — AI coaching that adapts to each student

The first two are commodity. Off-the-shelf gear outperforms most “turnkey” packages at a fraction of the cost. The third is what actually differentiates your program.

Two Hardware Paths

The Essentials (~$2,135/station)

Everything a student needs to learn fundamentals with proper controls and a machine that won’t bottleneck their experience. If you’re not worried about VR in the future, your costs could be much less.

Cessna-Style Realism (~$2,650/station)

Controls that feel like what students will eventually fly. Proper rudder coordination from day one.

Why Laptops?

We recommend gaming laptops over desktops for most STEM labs:

• Fewer cables, fewer fidgety bits — simpler setup, less to break

• Built-in display — one less thing to buy, secure, and manage

• Portability — bring stations to competitions, demos, or career fairs

• Modern performance — vapor chamber cooling means today’s gaming laptops match desktop performance, drive multiple monitors, and offer a VR upgrade pathway

• Security — Kensington lock slots let you cable them down

MnDOT ran their Oshkosh booth on laptops with Shirley and VR. Handled it beautifully.

If you prefer towers, an Alienware Aurora (~$1,500) will do the job—just budget for monitors and accessories.

Adding an External Monitor

A widescreen external monitor (~$210) is a great upgrade:

• Pop out the G1000 — In X-Plane, click the avionics panel, press the window button, drag to your external display. Students get a dedicated instrument view.

• Keep Shirley visible — instructor interface on one screen, outside view on the other

• Widen your field of view — X-Plane lets you expand lateral FOV for better situational awareness

As mentioned before, you can also ultimately go the VR route.

But it’s not required to start. The laptop’s built-in display works great, and you can add monitors later as budget allows. No vendor lock-in means you upgrade on your timeline.

Add Shirley: Individualized Training That Proves ROI

Every student gets their own account. Every flight is scored against FAA ACS standards. Progress is tracked over time—by student, by maneuver, by your whole program.

$10/student/month. $100 for a full instructional year.

Students can:

• Practice at school during lab time

• Continue at home as homework (ATC calls, procedures, ground school—no extra hardware needed)

• See their own improvement over time

• Get real-time coaching tailored to their skill level

When budget season comes around, you’ll have the data: “Here’s exactly how our students would perform on actual FAA practical exams.”

A 10-Station Lab: Three Ways

That $22,850 could fund scholarships, field trips, or actual flight hours for your top students.

And here’s the real kicker: the “budget” setups have *better specs* than “Turnkey” packages. 32GB RAM vs 8GB. Modern GPUs vs the GTX 1630. Vapor chamber cooling. Portability. And a clear upgrade path as AI and simulation technology evolves—no vendor lock-in.

The Full Picture: Hardware + Shirley

Note: We offer pre-purchase discounts that work flexibly with grants—let’s talk.

Quick Setup Tips

Don’t let anyone tell you that you need VR or triple monitors for students to learn VFR maneuvers. On an all-in-one stick:

• Map “Glance left” / “Glance right” / “3D Cockpit (aka Reset View)” to thumb switches

• Use trigger for Brakes

• Use the slider as Throttle

• Put Trim on base buttons

• Shirley handles Flaps by voice command

Simple, effective, and students focus on flying—not fiddling with hardware.

Recommended Gear

Flight Controls

• Thrustmaster T.16000M FCS — $60

• Honeycomb Alpha Lite Yoke — $200

• Logitech Throttle Quadrant — $50

• Honeycomb Charlie Rudder Pedals — $300

Computers

• Razer Blade 16 (32GB) — $2,000 (our top pick, Kensington slot)

• Razer Blade 18 — $3,100 (with larger display)

• HP OMEN Gaming Laptop 16” — $1,200 (no Kensington slot and questionable for VR – but great price)

• Alienware Aurora Desktop — $1,500 (if you prefer towers)

Software

• X-Plane 12 — $60

Audio

• USB Desktop Microphone — $15 (green/red mute indicator—great for classrooms)

• Gaming Headset with Mic — $40

Displays

• 34” Acer Curved Monitor — $210

Tip: Starting with just a laptop display? You can overlay captions for Shirley using Google Chrome’s Built-In Live Captions feature.

Questions about outfitting your lab? We’ve supported STEM outreach for BETA Technologies and worked with programs from MnDOT to high school aviation academies. Schedule a call and we’ll walk through your specific setup.

Loading the Correct Starting Position

When starting X-Plane 12:

1. Select the ALIA-250 aircraft

2. Choose KBTV (Burlington International Airport, Vermont)

3. Select the Beta Tech Alia Charging Pad as your starting location (Ramp Start)

This will place you at the dedicated ALIA charging pad rather than the default ramp location.

Situation File (.sit)

If you’d like to save this configuration for quick access, you can create a situation file:

1. Set up your aircraft at the Beta Tech Alia Charging Pad as described above

2. Go to File → Save Flight in X-Plane (as “Situation”)

3. Name it something like “ALIA KBTV Charging Pad”

4. Next time, load this .sit file from File → Load Situation

Recommended Flight Challenge

Once you’re set up, try the A250 Familiarization Flight challenge on Shirley:

https://airplane.team/fly/c/2-a250

This challenge demonstrates convention and demo operations where multiple pilots are waiting to fly. Shirley walks trainees through step-by-step, and they don’t even need to say a word!

Controller Setup

For the best experience, use a quality joystick/yoke:

• Thrustmaster T.16000M FCS — ~$60, excellent precision, great price

• Logitech 3D Extreme Pro — Budget option (discontinued, but good value if you can find one; note: has some stick slop)

Configure your controller in X-Plane’s Settings → Joystick. You may want to create a dedicated profile for the ALIA-250.

Here’s our recommended setup:

Launch Shirley

Once you’re positioned at the charging pad and your controls are configured, launch Shirley at https://FlyShirley.com/fly and you’re ready to fly!

After you’re down, use Shirley’s smart logbook tools to review your flight and see how you did. ✈️

Have a great flight!

A Voice You Know and Trust

The headline feature of Shirley 2.0 is our brand new voice system, featuring none other than Austin Meyer, the legendary creator of X-Plane! That's right – your AI copilot can now guide you through your flights with Austin's unmistakable voice. And for those feeling a bit adventurous, we even added a spooky Vampire Shirley voice option just in time for Halloween! 🎃

But it's not just about new voices. We've completely rebuilt Shirley's conversation system from the ground up. The result? A more natural, responsive, and intelligent copilot that knows when to speak up and when to let you focus on flying. Plus, we're working on a new feature that will enable Shirley to proactively alert you during key moments of your flight.

Enhanced Aircraft Awareness

With our new profiles system, Shirley is now more integrated with your cockpit than ever before. Your AI copilot sits right beside you, seeing the same instruments and helping you configure your aircraft with unprecedented precision. We've ensured full support for all default X-Plane aircraft, and we're actively rolling out integration with popular third-party aircraft.

Making Waves in STEM Education

Last weekend, Shirley made a splash at Tech Jam in Vermont, where we collaborated with BETA Technologies to showcase the future of flight training. Shirley successfully ran missions for a constant stream of attendees with minimal instructor intervention – a testament to how far our AI technology has come.

This achievement points to something bigger: the future of aviation education. We're excited about the possibilities this opens up for STEM programs, making aviation education more accessible to students everywhere. By bridging the gap between simulation and real flight, we're helping create more efficient pathways from sim to sky.

Looking Ahead

While Shirley 2.0 is our biggest update yet, it's still just the beginning. We're continuously working on new features and improvements to make your virtual flying experience even better. Join our growing community of aviation enthusiasts on Discord to be the first to know about upcoming updates and share your own Shirley stories.

We're transforming how pilots interact with their virtual cockpit, and Shirley 2.0 is leading the charge. With a completely revamped voice system and enhanced aircraft awareness, your AI copilot is more capable, more natural, and more integrated than ever before.

Ready to experience Shirley 2.0 for yourself? Head over to FlyShirley.com to start your journey with your new AI copilot. Whether you're a student pilot, a seasoned aviator, or somewhere in between, Shirley 2.0 is ready to help you reach new heights.

Safe flying! 🛫

Demonstrating Shirley’s Capabilities

Thanks to our friends at BETA Technologies, we had the unique opportunity to demonstrate Shirley's instructional abilities using their XPlane-based VR training platforms. Over the course of the weekend hundreds of attendees, from wide-eyed kids to seasoned pilots, stepping into the virtual cockpit of the ALIA-250 with Shirley as their copilot.

They got they opportunity to experience Shirley’s real-time, personalized instruction. By tapping into the simulator's data stream, Shirley offered guidance based on each user's actual altitude, airspeed, and vertical speed. From hovering and takeoff to cruise and landing, Shirley walked each participant through a flight profile, adjusting the instruction to the individual’s experience level and needs.

Advancing Flight Training Accessibility

This event was a glimpse into the future of flight training. Seeing our vision materialize before our eyes has energized our team and reaffirmed our commitment to make flight training more accessible and engaging.

As her son took off and cruised around virtual Washington D.C., one parent asked “is it really that easy to just hop in a go?” Well maybe not that easy, but with Shirley, we hope to make it easier.

In the coming weeks, users can expect even more improvements to Shirley's capabilities. We're focused on enhancing our AI Copilot's awareness and feedback mechanisms, aiming to create the most advanced and capable at-home training aid and simulator copilot.

Join Us at FlyShirley.com

As always, we take feedback from our users very seriously and use it to help drive our development. Thank you to all who have already provided us with requests and recommendations for improvements. If you haven't experienced Shirley yet, we invite you to visit FlyShirley.com and discover how our AI Copilot can enhance your flight simulation experience.

As we continue developing FlyShirley.com, we're excited about the advancements in flight training and simulation. Whether you're an experienced pilot looking to refine your skills or a newcomer ready to start your aviation journey, Shirley is here to assist you at every step.

Try Shirley for Yourself!

We extend our thanks to BETA Technologies for providing their VR simulators, offering an incredibly immersive platform for Shirley to shine. We're also grateful to the organizers and volunteers of Green Mountain Aviation Field Days for the opportunity to share our technology and passion for aviation. It was an incredible weekend!

Safe Flying!

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At FlyShirley.com, we're always listening to our users and pushing the boundaries of what's possible in flight simulation. Today, we're excited to announce a series of game-changing updates to Shirley, our AI copilot, that will take your virtual flying experience to new heights. From enhanced controls to real-time maneuver analysis, these new features are set to transform the way you train and interact with your flight simulator.

Mute at Your Command

First up, we're introducing a feature that many of you have been shouting for – a mute button for Shirley. We know that sometimes you need a moment of silence to focus, and now you can have it with a simple voice command. Just say "mute," and Shirley will zip it! When you're ready for Shirley's assistance again, simply say "unmute" or click the checkbox in the interface. It's that easy!

Now Shirley won’t interrupt you if you are having a conversation with your kid or dog or hamster… or yourself. Or if you are trying to feature Shirley in a video or tutorial and want to explain to your audience how awesome the product is (we don’t need Shirley getting a big head). And when you’re ready to get back to it, it’s as easy as saying “unmute” or clicking the check box to wake him up.

This feature came directly from user feedback, proving once again that at FlyShirley.com, we don't just listen to our customers – we act on their suggestions. Keep those ideas coming, pilots!

Voice-Controlled Sim Interactions

Remember when we said Shirley was your AI copilot? Well, we meant it, and now we're taking it to the next level. With our latest update, you can interact with X-Plane using voice commands through Shirley. Want to set the flaps? Just tell Shirley. Tired of right clicking and hoping your incessant clicking on the gear handle actually raises the gear during the after takeoff check? So are we. Now you can just tell Shirley to do it for you. My personal favorite: You can ask Shirley to change the time of day. You can change the time to 0100Z, then ask Shirley to turn on the landing lights for you, all without ever having to take your hands off the yoke.

This leap forward brings us one step closer to creating a truly immersive, hands-free flying experience. It's not just about convenience; it's about realism. Real pilots communicate with their copilots (and most real copilots actually do things), and now you can have that same experience in your sim!

Private Pilot Maneuvers: Training Reimagined

As we continue in our goal to bridge the gap between sim and sky by lowering the cost and accessibility barriers to training, we're thrilled to introduce Shirley's new Private Pilot Maneuvers training course. This isn't just another set of tutorials – it's a revolutionary, interactive approach to flight training that sets us apart from the competition.

We know. Plenty of other companies offer a list of similar training topics. But the days of watching animated videos are behind you. We believe the best way to learn is to DO! That’s where sims come in. But without feedback, you could easily develop poor habits that translate to the aircraft. So we’ve reimagined the way you learn by leveraging the personalization and interactive abilities you know and love from Shirley.

Imagine performing a steep turn and getting feedback on your bank angle, altitude control, and coordination. Did you maintain a 45 degree bank angle? Maybe you rolled out too early or gained too much altitude. Now Shirley helps you review the maneuvers so you can get better.

Simply complete the maneuver and ask Shirley for a debrief. You’ll receive customized feedback on your performance and tips to improve based on graphs of your actual telemetry data and flight path during the maneuver.

Get pushed by the crosswind on that turn about a point? Shirley will (probably) tell you to increase your bank angle in that phase of the turn. Can’t say for sure, as Shirley will tailor the tips to your performance, just like a real instructor!

The best part? Shirley can even tell you if your maneuver would have passed an FAA checkride based on Airman Certification Standards (ACS). It's like having a virtual examiner right there in the cockpit with you, helping you prepare for the real thing.

This level of analysis and feedback is exactly like the feedback you would receive during an initial or recurrent training session for a Part 121 or Part 135 operation, and is invaluable for student pilots and those looking to sharpen their skills. It ensures you're not just going through the motions, but truly understanding and mastering these critical maneuvers.

Currently, Shirley can analyze your performance in turns about a point, S-turns, rectangular courses, and slow flight, providing instant, actionable feedback to help you improve. And, as always, we will keep adding new features.

Try the new features at FlyShirley.com

Bringing It All Together

These updates represent a significant leap forward in our mission to create the most comprehensive, realistic, and user-friendly flight training tool on the market. Whether you're a student pilot preparing for your checkride, a seasoned aviator looking to stay sharp, or a flight sim enthusiast seeking the most immersive experience possible, Shirley has something for you.

The mute function gives you control over your learning environment. The voice-controlled sim interactions bring a new level of realism to your virtual cockpit. And the maneuver analysis... well, that's game-changing.

We’ve come a long way, and are proud of the improvements we continue to offer our current and future customers. At FlyShirley.com, we're not just enriching flight simulation – we're revolutionizing flight training. With these new features, Shirley is more than just an AI copilot; Shirley is your personal flight instructor, ready to help you achieve your aviation goals.

Ready to experience the future of flight simulation? Head over to FlyShirley.com and try out these exciting new features for yourself.

Safe Flying!

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Still, Shirley is an advanced program and therefore requires some nuance in the way it takes in information. For those non-programmers out there, that can be a little daunting. Even with a handy guide, when you see “JSON” you might say “J-what?” And even for those with some programming experience, we admit that creating a JSON in the correct format can be time consuming.

So we are here to help!

Using AI to help you use AI…

Here’s the bottom line: you can use the incredible power of generative AI to help you build challenges quickly! We’ve been testing this out ourselves for a few months, but one of our rather ingenuitive Discord members figured this out on his own, so we thought it time to help other users by providing a quick guide. So here goes:

Step 1: Choose your fighter

AI development is moving at breakneck speed. It’s rather stunning. This is in large part to increasing competition. There are many providers. Open AI’s ChatGPT is by far the most common name, but Anthropic’s Claude and Meta’s Llama are growing in popularity. You can use any provider. Since ChatGPT is most common, though, we will use that to illustrate.

Step 2: Provide some examples

To break it down Barney style, ChatGPT works basically by predicting the next word in any given response. By providing it examples of the type of response you want, you help tailor the predictions and produce responses that are tailored to your needs. In this case, you can provide it with examples of JSON files used for Challenges. And here’s the best part: if you have a subscription, you already have access to two example JSONs! Just click “Let’s Fly” and click on the STOL Challenge and ALIA-250 Challenge

You can then click on “Show Challenge JSON.”

Voila! There’s the JSON format.

Now you can copy and paste the JSON into a note or word doc and upload it to ChatGPT as an attachment.

The more examples you add, the better, but amazingly, two will provide some pretty good results.

3. Write a prompt

Now you need to tell ChatGPT what to do. This is where the fun of interacting with generative AI really begins.

First you want to provide it some context about how to use the examples, then you want to provide it a description of the challenge you want it to make. Something like:

4. Hit Enter

And let generative AI go to work. Using a similar prompt as above, you should receive a JSON file in your response for a smoothest landing challenge.

5. Refine

It may not be perfect at first! The more detail you include in the prompt, the better results it will produce. You can even upload Alex’s instructions or Challenges Specification to help nudge ChatGPT in the right direction. Remember, generative AI produces unique results each time. You may need to refine the results with further prompts. With some practice, you will become proficient and ultimately can create some amazing challenges!

6. Upload Your Challenge!

Once you feel good about your generated challenge, you can click this link to create your own challenge or navigate at the site:

Just paste your Challenge into the window.

If there are errors in your JSON, you will get a warning message at the bottom of the window:

You can ask ChatGPT to fix those, too!

7. Try it out!

You just created your very own Challenge! Give it try by hitting out favorite button “Start your call!” Shirley’s sweet voice will be waiting for you, ready to guide you through the Challenge you made. You can go back and make small tweaks, or do it all over and create an entirely new Challenge!

And most importantly, HAVE FUN flying with Shirley!

Keep us updated!

We would love for you to share the Challenges you make on our Discord, or by emailing them to us at contact@airplane.team. If you want, we can attribute the Challenge to you. And if we really like it, we may even feature it on our site (with your permission, of course).

So get to it! Experiment with AI and the amazing features of FlyShirley.com’s Challenges feature. It’s just one more way to make your experience truly unique and interactive while learning how to use AI!

If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment on this post or reach out to us at contact@airplane.team or on our Discord. We love hearing from customers and would be more than happy to walk you through this process in greater detail!

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FlyShirley.com is not one of those companies. A couple of minutes interacting with Shirley, and there is no denying that each response is unique, personalized, and generated with extremely low latency using the most advanced AI available today.

Still, Shirley is not immune from criticism. Some have claimed that Shirley is just the next evolution of “children of the magenta,” and another way pilots will become over-reliant on technology. What if Shirley tells you to turn left instead of right?

Quite frankly, we understand the hesitation. FlyShirley.com was founded by two pilots! We both understand the importance of proper planning, knowing your aircraft, understanding flight regulations, and the deadly consequences if you don’t.

That’s why we want to acknowledge these concerns. We have them too! They are the main reason we are starting with simulators—controlled environments with no risk of injury—so that we can work through these challenges and provide an extremely accurate product for in-flight contexts.

But today I want to respond to one comment we have received that, as a pilot, particularly bothers me. It was something along the lines of:

“[The team at Shirley] seems to be advocating something that suggests that there is no need for detailed preflight planning.”

We are not.

One day, Shirley will be available in real aircraft to help pilots in many of the same ways that it can be used currently in simulators. For example “where is the closest airfield?” Or “what’s my best glide?” Or “set up the ILS 13L at JFK.”

Despite these amazing abilities, we would never suggest that Shirley replaces thorough preflight planning. It cannot. Preflight planning is vital.

But here’s the reality: no amount of planning can ever fully prepare a pilot for the unexpected.

And the unexpected is more common than you think.

ATC: “Hate to ruin your plans…”

Case in point: Last week I was flying into Reno, Nevada (KRNO) in a Global 6500, one of the most advanced business jets in the world. Based on our weather briefing and preflight planning, we planned to land to the south, so we set up for an arrival via a GPS waypoint we included in our flight plan. We began our descent and headed toward the waypoint.

Less than 10 NM from the initial waypoint for the arrival, approach control cleared us for a different arrival, because the airfield had just switched the runway in use (they were now landing to the north). At Mach 0.80, 10 NM goes quick. Thankfully, I was in a dual pilot cockpit. As the pilot not flying, I quickly searched for and programmed the new arrival, executing the route change just seconds before we hit the initial waypoint and, thankfully, set us up for a turn to the follow on waypoint required for the new arrival procedure. Had I been a few seconds slower, we may have drifted off course and, possibly, been kindly ordered to call a phone number upon landing.

So it all worked out… this time… in VMC… with one of the most advanced FMS setups available… with two pilots.

Now imagine the same scenario but with a single pilot flying a 1970s Cessna 172 equipped with a Garmin 430 and steam gauges flying in turbulent IMC.

It certainly would be nice if that single pilot could simply say “load the WINRZ ONE arrival at KRNO" without even taking their hands off the controls, wouldn’t it?

We think so, too! That’s why we are working hard to develop Shirley for use in aircraft, to make pilots all over the world safer when the unexpected makes its inevitable appearance. Because these unexpected changes and stressful workloads fog the pilot’s most valuable tool: their mind. Suddenly wrote memory items become fuzzy, logic starts to waiver, and decision making becomes downright difficult. But what if Shirley, with access and a human-like understanding of the entire POH, was there to lend a hand?

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So what’s the point?

Shirley will never replace thorough planning. But it can certainly supplement it.

Do your flight planning like you life depends on it, because it does. But when you find yourself in a stressful, high workload situation, you won’t have to fear with Shirley at your side. You can focus on flying while your AI Copilot helps you overcome those last minute, unpredictable changes just like a real copilot.

This is just one example of the many ways in which Shirley will make you a safer pilot, and it’s all thanks to the amazing advances in AI. And while we understand your hesitation, AI will continue to become more prevalent in our daily lives and, yes, the flight deck. So how can you start preparing for the next generation of flying? You can start practicing now! As part of our Sim to Sky approach, Shirley is already available for use in at home simulators so that pilots can begin interacting with Shirley and understanding how to leverage this amazing technology.

Still skeptical? Head over to FlyShirley.com to try it out yourself. We know you’ll be amazed at the capabilities Shirley offers.

In the meantime, stay on your toes (but off those toe breaks) and, we insist, do thorough preflight planning!

Safe Flying!

Learn more at FlyShirley.com

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The Power of Chair Flying, Amplified

Traditional chair flying relies heavily on a student's imagination and recall. While valuable, it has limitations. It's easy to forget steps, misremember procedures, or simply run out of scenarios to practice. This is where FlyShirley's AI copilot, Shirley, comes into play.

Imagine having a knowledgeable, patient, and always-available copilot right there with you as you mentally rehearse your flights. No more making up scenarios yourself (and inevitably practicing the same maneuver over and over). You can now train at home just like you would with an instructor. That's exactly what Shirley offers.

And while Shirley has the amazing capability of connecting to X-Plane 12.1 or following along with you in other sims, you actually don’t need to be connected to a simulator at all. Whether you're sitting at your desk, relaxing on your couch, or even during your commute, Shirley is ready to guide you through any procedure or scenario you want to practice.

Interactive Learning at Your Fingertips

FlyShirley.com takes chair flying to a whole new level by making it interactive and dynamic. Here's how:

1. Realistic Scenarios: Shirley can set up complex scenarios for you to work through. Want to practice handling an engine failure on takeoff? Just ask, and Shirley will walk you through it step-by-step.

2. Instant Feedback: Make a mistake in your mental rehearsal? Shirley will catch it and provide immediate correction, ensuring you're always practicing the right way.

3. Adaptive Difficulty: As you improve, Shirley can increase the complexity of scenarios, keeping you challenged and engaged. Plus, using the Pilot’s Notes feature, Shirley can keep track of your own comments and help you review them at the end of your session.

4. Comprehensive Coverage: From basic maneuvers to advanced emergency procedures, Shirley covers the entire spectrum of flight training topics.

Bridging the Gap Between Study and Flight

One of the biggest challenges student pilots face is translating book knowledge into practical skills in the cockpit. FlyShirley helps bridge this gap by providing a realistic, interactive experience that closely mimics actual flight conditions.

By regularly practicing with Shirley, students can:

- Reinforce their understanding of procedures and checklists

- Improve their decision-making skills in various flight scenarios

- Build muscle memory for critical actions, even when not in a physical cockpit

- Gain confidence in their abilities before stepping into a real aircraft

Cost-Effective and Time-Efficient

Let's face it - flight training is expensive. Every minute in the air costs money, and time spent relearning forgotten procedures or correcting mistakes adds up quickly. By utilizing FlyShirley for chair flying sessions, students can maximize the effectiveness of their actual flight time.

At just $10 per month, FlyShirley.com offers an incredibly cost-effective way to supplement your flight training. It's like having a personal flight instructor available 24/7, ready to help you practice and improve at your convenience.

Start Flying with Shirley!

The Future of Flight Training

As we move further into the digital age, tools like FlyShirley are becoming increasingly crucial and prevalent in pilot education. By combining the traditional wisdom of chair flying with state-of-the-art AI technology, we're creating more proficient, confident, and safer pilots.

Whether you're just starting your flight training journey or you're a seasoned pilot looking to stay sharp, FlyShirley.com offers an unparalleled resource for practice and improvement. It's not just about making flight training more accessible and affordable - it's about revolutionizing how we approach pilot education altogether.

Ready to take your chair flying to new heights? Visit FlyShirley.com today and experience the future of flight training for yourself. With Shirley as your AI copilot, the sky's no longer the limit - it's just the beginning.

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In fact, the idea for Shirley was born out of the most serious of goals: to make pilots safer.

The idea is simple, but two-fold. First, use technology to improve flight training and, as a result, produce more competent, proficient pilots from the start. Second, adapt that same technology for use in a real airplane

to help pilots in high workload environments. At FlyShirley.com, we are leveraging the most advanced developments in Artificial Intelligence to do this efficiently and cost effectively.

Training

The Problem

The financial barriers to flight training are undeniable. According to AOPA, Students can expect to dish out between $6,000 and $20,000 to obtain their private pilot certificate (you do it for anywhere near $6k, give me a call… I want to shake your hand). And that’s just for a PPL!

In this pricing paradigm, prospective students are left with few options. Mainstream advice to afford this first step on a long road of becoming a professional pilot is to work multiple jobs, take out loans, finance training, compete for scholarships… even mow lawns?

Instead of accepting the status quo of just making do (which many potential pilots simply cannot), we decided to focus on making flight training more accessible, both in terms of time and money.

While we know Shirley will never replace flight training, Shirley can certainly augment flight training. Imagine the very common case of a student pilot learning to fly on weekends (we’ll assume they are spending Monday-Friday mowing lawns). On one Saturday, the student learns about a power-on stall. The lesson ends, the student mows some more lawns, and they return the following Saturday. They go back up with their instructor (charging $80/hour) and get ready to review a power-on stall. Here’s the problem: our hardworking lawn mower forgets how to set up for the power-on stall. So instead of spending the rest of lesson working on crosswind landings, they spend time redoing power-on stalls again and again. Pressed for time, the instructor only has time to demonstrate the crosswind landing technique once when they land and close out the training flight.

And the next week, the cycle repeats.

If you’ve ever flown, you know what I’m talking about. It’s painful, frustrating and, at ~$200-$300/hour, expensive!

So what’s a student pilot to do? The common advice:

“Do all your training as fast as possible.”

“Study often, do all your training quickly, and chair fly.”

“Watch videos from Sporty’s, Kings, [insert antiquated, overpriced online training services here]”

Again… come on.

The Solution

FlyShirley.com is changing that. With an aviation-specific AI agent—an AI Copilot—students can finally practice at home effectively.

Shirley is interactive:

Pilots can get realistic instruction and real-time feedback from Shirley when connected to X-Plane 12.1 (and soon MSFS) just like they would from a real instructor. No more PowerPoints or videos. Learn by doing.

Shirley is smart:

Thanks to a knowledgeable development team and careful engineering, Shirley’s knowledge base is focused on aviation, ensuring accurate information. It provides specific training modules to help student pilots review and learn in a logical flow.

Shirley is accessible:

You can use Shirley with X-Plane1, Microsoft Flight Simulator, or no simulator at all! Login to Shirley, start a call, and ask questions. It’s that simple. You can use Shirley on a desktop, laptop, tablet or phone. Long drive to the airfield? Ask Shirley to help you review procedures and study for your written on the way.

Shirley is affordable:

$10/month. Enough said.

FlyShirley.com uses the latest technology available to make all this possible, providing state of the art service for general aviation student pilots. With Shirley, our lawn mower can review with realistic feedback throughout the week from the comfort of his home, arriving prepared to progress during his in-flight training. He’ll cut cost, speed up his training, and be a more proficient pilot. And when he makes a career out of flying (ya know… because he could actually afford to finish his training), his commercial sim training will integrate Shirley too…

Sign up at FlyShirley.com

In Flight

As we learn more about how student and professional pilots use Shirley in simulators, we gain a better understanding of the demands and capabilities required of an inflight AI Copilot. This will allows us to adapt Shirley for use in real planes.

One day, Shirley will be used to help pilots pull up approach plates, find frequencies, receive weather, run checklists, and even navigate. These features will prove critical in times of high workload, like unexpected weather, emergency procedures, diversions, or even a simple runway change.

A New Era in Aviation

Shirley won’t change everything, but Shirley will change a lot. About how we learn, how we train, and how we fly.

The team at FlyShirley.com will make flying more accessible. We’ll help solve the pilot shortage. We’ll improve training. And we will make pilots safer. With Shirley, we are going to change the aviation industry.

And yes. We’re serious…

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FlyShirley.com was founded by two pilots who wanted to create an AI copilot to help pilots fly safer.

As our founder, Alex List, explained at our debut at FSExpo24, that’s no easy feat, which is why we started with flight simulators.

Flight sims are an amazing way to experience the thrill of flying from the comfort of home, and they are shockingly realistic. More importantly, the flight sim community is extremely passionate, knowledgable, and skeptical. That’s exactly what we want:

Ask questions.

Test Shirley.

How can you stump Shirley?

Can you stump Shirley!?

(feel free take that as a challenge…)

User Experience

Still, we know that if you’ve never interacted with an AI agent like Shirley, it can be daunting. What do you say? How can you use it? Where do you even start?

So we are here to help. FlyShirley's AI copilot is designed to be intuitive and user-friendly. You interact with Shirley through voice commands, creating a natural, hands-free experience that doesn't detract from the act of flying. Currently, you can connect Shirley with X-Plane 12.1, allowing Shirley to see real-time flight data and provide contextually relevant assistance. And, yes, similar connection ability will be available soon with Microsoft Flight Simulator.

As one user noted, "It's like having a knowledgeable friend in the cockpit with you, ready to answer any question about your airplane or the flight." This sentiment encapsulates the value Shirley brings to casual flight simulation – a blend of companionship, information, and enhanced realism.

Key Features for Casual Simmers

FlyShirley offers significant benefits to casual simmers. Here are a few key features and capabilities:

Interactive Cockpit Companion

Shirley serves as an always-available copilot, ready to engage in conversation about the flight, aircraft, or surroundings. This interactive element adds a new layer of immersion to the simulation experience, making solo flights feel more dynamic and realistic (not to mention less lonely).

“Hey Shirley, where should we fly today?”

On-Demand Information

You can ask Shirley about various aspects of their flight, from aircraft specifications to geographic details of the areas they're flying over. Trust me when I say that this instant access to information is something real-world pilots would love! Imagine the POH on demand… no more ctrl+f or flipping pages to find that pesky limit.

Oh yeah…You can even ask about favorite restaurants near your favorite airport. We’ve tried, it works!

“Hey Shirley, what’s best glide in this Piper Cub?”

Enhanced Realism

What’s the point of that sweet simulator cockpit that feels like the real thing if you don’t operate like you’re flying the real thing? For those who enjoy flying like a real pilot, Shirley can help with checklist procedures just like a real FO, simulate various scenarios including emergency situations, and help you work through challenges like weather or malfunctions. All airline pilots fly with a copilot, now you can too!

“Let’s run the before starting engine checklist.”

Real-World Weather Information

Understanding and reacting to weather conditions is a crucial part of flying. Shirley can pull real-time, real-world METAR data for any given airport and can help you make informed decisions during your virtual flights. No more made up ATIS.

“What’s the weather at KJFK?”

Navigation

Shirley can help you navigate and maintain (or regain) situational awareness, especially when connect to XPlane 12.1. Even when you’re not connected, tell Shirely where you are and where you’d like to go, and Shirley will help you get there! Great if you’re trying to explore without having to pull up that MFD or if you find yourself a little turned around.

“Hey Shirley, what’s the closest airfield to my current position”

Aircraft Familiarization

So. Many. Buttons. When exploring new aircraft in the simulator, Shirley can provide valuable information about systems, cockpit layouts, and performance characteristics. This feature allows you to confidently expand your virtual hangar and try new flying experiences.

“What’s this red knob on the center console and what does it do?”

Gradual Skill Improvement

So maybe you’re not training for a real check ride. We get that. It’s expensive (though FlyShirley.com is making it cheaper…). Still, casual users can benefit from Shirley's knowledge. Through natural conversation and assistance during flights, you can gradually improve their understanding of aviation concepts and procedures in these super-realistic virtual environments.

“Can you help me practice my crosswind landing?”

Customized Challenges

Flying A to B can get a little dull. That’s why FlyShirley.com now offers a Challenges feature, where you can create, share, and attempt unique flight scenarios. This community-driven content keeps the simulation experience fresh and engaging, providing new goals and experiences for casual flyers.

Getting Started

Head over to FlyShirley.com and sign up for your free trial period. We know that after a few minutes of experiencing the benefits of an AI copilot firsthand with Shirley, you’ll love it. We did.

After the trial period, FlyShirley.com is available for just $10 a month! You’ll get access to everything Shirley has to offer for the casual simmer and the latest updates to its capabilities. We’re constantly working on new features!

FlyShirley.com represents a significant advancement in flight simulation technology. By providing an interactive, knowledgeable companion for virtual flights, it enhances the experience for casual users, making each flight more engaging and informative. Whether you're a long-time flight sim enthusiast or just starting your virtual flying journey, Shirley offers a unique way to enrich your experience.

To stay updated on the latest features offered from FlyShirley.com, be sure to subscribe to this Substack and join our Discord.

Safe Flying!

Learn More at FlyShirley.com

We truly want to be your AI copilot from sim to sky! But that’s no small task.

You see, if it’s not fun, then what sets us apart from all the other boring flight training articles, overpriced tutorial videos and monotonous how-to slide decks already on the market? If its not engaging, interactive, and fun, what’s the point?!

Well, so far, we think we are doing a pretty good job. And we think you’ll agree.

YouTuber Swiss001 seems to!

Check out his latest video here.

This video is the perfect example of how we expected—and didn’t expect—Shirley to be used!

And that’s great!

In the video you’ll see him ask Shirley about checklists. He does a cockpit familiarization (with a very adaptable Shirley), asks about takeoff performance, and runs through an engine out procedure! He even tests Shirley a bit by asking him questions straight from the POH. All the while, Shirley responds quickly, intelligently, and with a bit of humor. This is a great example of how FlyShirley.com can help with flight training.

These capabilities are at the heart of Shirley. A knowledgeable AI copilot that provides accurate, personalized information quickly.

But of course, we want it to be engaging. We want folks to enjoy using Shirley, and we knew that, like any technology, users would experiment with and use Shirley in ways we never anticipated.

That’s why, while a bit silly, we are thrilled to watch Swiss001 ask Shirley about loneliness or for help flying a glider behind a Tomcat fighter jet! And to hear Shirley’s response!

That personalization… that personality… is all part of the experience.

So from the development team: Don’t be afraid to have fun with Shirley!

It is an amazing training tool, quick reference, and fun copilot. Each response from Shirley is completely unique and tailored to your current position, situation, and question.

For even more fun, try your hand at creating a unique Challenge to share with friends. Maybe something like “Butteriest Landing…”

Learn More at FlyShirley.com!

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The team at XPlane was extremely gracious in letting us share “the biggest stage in flight sims.” On Friday, founder Alex List wrapped up a day of exciting flight simulation and developer announcements by introducing the packed crowd to our exciting new product, FlyShirley.com. He explained how Shirley can enrich the flight simulation experience by offering an entirely new way of interacting with simulators. 

Opening up about how a recent aviation accident and loss of a friend inspired him to search for a new solution to help pilots fly safer, he shared his vision for how Shirley will help pilots fly smarter from sim to sky. From helping pilots find frequencies to providing guidance in IMC, he shared how Shirley will one day be used in real aircraft, but why it just made sense to launch with the enthusiastic and knowledgeable sim community. Check out a recap of Alex’s speech below:

The murmurs in the audience and spike in website traffic revealed that viewers were intrigued by the new technology and the new Challenges feature. And we don’t blame them! In addition to all the varied use cases, Shirley is just fun! Still, the team had one goal going into the expo: let people experience Shirley.

A new way to sim…

Let’s face it: AI can be weird. From deep fakes to hallucinations and advice to eat rocks, we understand the skepticism. Still, we know that when applied properly, AI can shift paradigms. Shirley, combined with XPlane 12.1’s new websocket feature, can completely change an otherwise silent and sometimes isolating sim experience. 

We knew that as soon as pilots and sim enthusiasts interacted with Shirley, they’d be hooked because, quite frankly, we are too! The capabilities of this new product are already mind-blowing, and as someone who uses it and develops it every day, FlyShirley constantly manages to surprise me. 

So, we thought, “Yeah, they may be nervous, they may feel awkward, but once they use it, they’ll love it.”

And we were right. 

It was amazing to see simmers, pilots, gamers and streamers of all ages and nationalities interact with Shirley using the new Challenges feature. Each time, the apprehension was palpable. But the STOL Challenge invited users in as a gateway to understand Shirley’s capabilities, and with every attempt, that apprehension transformed into awe… and massive smiles. 

It happened every time.

That’s because Shirley is unlike anything anyone in the flight simulation or aviation world has ever seen! It’s because Shirley is smart. Shirley is fast. And Shirley solves a problem that, until now, no other product has solved. Shirley has the potential to make flight training cheaper, faster, and—importantly—more fun! 

As customers began to understand that there is no one way to talk to Shirley, and that Shirley will respond intelligently no matter what you throw at it, I think they began to realize what Airplane Team knew all along—this could be huge. 

Whether you are using Shirley as a training aid, to build challenges and test your skills, or just as a friendly copilot while you fly smarter in the sim, the technology for Shirley is enriching because it is state of the art. We are using the most advanced AI technology available. Best of all, it’s getting better every day!

Airplane Team was thrilled and thankful by the enthusiastic feedback and warm embrace we received from the flight sim community. The suggestions and ideas we had from hobbyists, students, and industry leaders alike has provided even more motivation to make this product better for each and every user. 

If you haven’t already, head over to FlyShirley.com to sign up for a free trial and give Shirley a try yourself. Test out or build your own challenges, or just enjoy the feeling of flying with a copilot like the pros. And be sure to reach out to us at contact@airplane.team with questions or feedback. We love hearing from customers and can’t wait to see where Shirley takes all of us. 

Thanks again to everyone we met and who tried Shirley. We are truly grateful for the sim community, and can’t wait to see you in Providence next year.

Fly safe!

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Note: With the release of X-Plane 12.1.1, websocket support ships ON by default. This means you do not need to download a beta version of X-Plane, and you do not need to send it special launch arguments to connect with Shirley.

About X-Plane 12

X-Plane 12 is the world’s best flight simulator due to its accurate flight model and extensive community. FlyShirley.com supports X-Plane 12.1 directly from the browser.

You can download a demo here:

Once X-Plane 12.1.1 is officially released, none of this will be necessary :-)

Getting X-Plane 12.1.1+

First, you need to make sure you’re on at least X-Plane 12.1, ideally 12.1.1 and newer.

You’ll want to see that it’s 12.1.1 or greater in Settings → General → About X-Plane.

If not, run the X-Plane updater that should exist in your X-Plane folder, or follow any pop-ups in X-Plane itself.

Launching X-Plane with Websockets

This walks you through the X-Plane article on how to use command line arguments:
https://www.x-plane.com/kb/using-command-line-options/

And this next part is true until early July when the X-Plane 12.1.1 comes out

Windows:

It’s pretty easy to do this on Windows. The easiest way is to create a shortcut.

This can be done from the desktop by right clicking anywhere → new → shortcut [Microsoft Support Article].

Add these arguments to the Target field:

The other option is to follow the X-Plane command line instructions.

Mac OS-X:

You’ll need to open Terminal for this one:

Ready to Connect!

Now you should be able to connect to Shirley at https://airplane.team/fly:

Debugging:

If you’re having issues, you may need to restart X-Plane and fully start a flight before connecting.

We announced Shirley with Challenges at FSExpo 2024!

And it’s actually quite easy to build challenges!

This specification is from our Github where we have some extra examples as well.

On our Github you’ll find the most up-to-date Challenge Specification, which you use to create your own challenge JSON file https://airplane.team/fly/create — but follow the examples (or ask ChatGPT) and you’ll barely even realize you’re coding :-)

This was from our Github.

Give it a shot! And if you’re having any trouble, you can always join us over on our Discord.

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