BeyondATC has released a major update to its experimental branch, Version 1.8.0, which represents a deep structural rethink of how the program handles aircraft flow and voice communication. With this update, the team is preparing the ground for its 1.0 release (it’s still considered to be in “early access” after all) and the eventual arrival of VFR support.
The most significant change in this update is the complete rewrite of the arrival sequencer. For a long time, flight simmers have dealt with “conga lines” or erratic traffic spacing when approaching busy airports. The developer says this new system uses a “compression inversion” algorithm to manage traffic from over 100 miles out.
By modeling these conversion points early, the ATC can now issue speed instructions to both the player and AI traffic to ensure everyone stays safely spaced. This addresses a common community frustration where aircraft would often “bunch up” on short final, leading to frequent go-arounds or unrealistic spacing.
Combined with this is “Vectoring v3,” a rebuild of the navigation logic that now accounts for wind, terrain, and even pilot reaction time. The goal here is to provide more accurate, minimal instructions that can adapt in real time if the situation changes. It’s a move that places BeyondATC in closer competition with human-led ATC services like VATSIM by attempting to mimic the proactive nature of a real controller.
The end of “Basic” voices?
BeyondATC is also changing its strategy regarding voice technology. The update introduces a significant expansion of the local voice model, adding a breadth of accents that were previously only available in the cloud-based “Premium” tier.
The developer mentions that these local voices will eventually replace the “Basic” voices, which are slated for deprecation. This is a smart move for long-term sustainability. By moving the heavy lifting to the user’s hardware without needing an external executable, the program reduces its reliance on cloud costs while offering users a more varied and stable audio experience. The UK mapping, in particular, has been updated to better distinguish between English, Irish, and Scottish accents.
Faster taxiing and smarter ground ops
On the ground, the update targets the “stop-and-start” nature of virtual taxiing. A full rework of the taxi pathing algorithm and runway queue handling aims to make airport movement faster and more stable.
- Smarter holds: Ground control will no longer tell you to stop and start constantly if you are simply following another aircraft in a queue.
- Inactive runways: If you need to cross a runway that isn’t being used for arrivals or departures, the hold-short instruction is now removed, streamlining the trip to the gate.
- Dynamic braking: After you land, your aircraft’s braking force will now scale based on how close the next arriving flight is, allowing for a longer, more natural rollout when the sky is clear.
This experimental build will likely remain in testing for several weeks before migrating to the main Early Access branch. Once these core systems are stable, the team says they will begin replacing the experimental branch with the first stage of VFR features, marking the next major milestone in the journey toward a 1.0 release.
BeyondATC is available as a one-time purchase, currently priced at $29.99 for the Base Pack. This includes the core program, all future updates, and unlimited use of the “Basic” voice models.
For those who want to try the features in this Version 1.8.0 update right now, you will need the Supporter Pack ($59.99).This tier exists to help fund the project and grants exclusive access to the Experimental branch, where these new arrival and voice technologies are currently being tested.
The developer says that all features currently in the experimental branch will eventually migrate to the standard Early Access branch for all users once they are deemed stable.
Major Version 1.8.0 Experimental – Release Notes:
⚙️ Core Refactors and Stability
- New feature: Complete rewrite of the arrival sequencer. It is a new system that uses a “compression inversion” algorithm to model non-deterministic conversion points along flight tracks. In simple terms this will sequence aircraft from over 100+ miles out to ensure they arrive nicely spaced out. The player and traffic will now receive speed instructions if the the system detects a collision based on airframe characteristics and stage of flight. This is still a work in progress, but represents a massive step up from the previous system.
- New feature: Complete rebuild of the vectoring system (v3). This is the most advanced and complex vector system yet – taking wind, terrain, drift and reaction time into consideration to produce minimal commanded accurate vector instructions. Paths can rebuild themselves in real time to match changing situations.
- Complete rework of the Comms platform with an emphasis on stability.
- Complete rework of speech recognition; added semantic cognate token matching for much more accurate readback handling.
- Added layered fallback handling for bad microphone transcriptions – automatically grant readbacks when it’s detected the transcription was corrupted.
- Complete rework for runway queue handling; improved queuing from planes coming from multiple directions onto the same runway
- Full rework of the taxi pathing algorithm, should be much faster, more stable and produce far better results.
- Rework for taxi path phrasing, long repetitive readbacks should be much shorter now.
- Full rework for traffic data functions with a focus on stability and performance.
- Runway data completely rewritten to use mid points and non-sim data for length and extended thresholds, giving much more reliable runway positioning and allowing aircraft to take off from any entry point in an extended threshold.
- Takeoff queue handling significantly reworked – you’ll be handed to tower as soon as you’re in the queue, and can end up deep in the queue on busy days without issues.
🗣️ Local Voice Model
- New feature: Local voice accents added! The model is still being trained but you have the same breadth of accents now that premium voices have all locally, with no cloud features or downtime and lightning fast generation time with minimal performance overhead.
- The local voice model no longer relies on an external exe which should lead to more stability.
- UK voice mapping updated to balance male/female ratio and better segment English, Irish, and Scottish accents in line with premium voices.
- Standardized speech speeds across US, UK, and accent models with additional pauses, particularly for ATIS.
- VC++ redistributable added to the installer process for local voice support (silent install if needed).
🛫 Departure, Gate and Runway Handling
- Improved SID altitude handling [#11394807]
- Tower/Ground will no longer constantly tell you to start and stop taxi when in a queue or heading in the same direction as the aircraft in front — only triggers when converging from different taxiway directions.
- When crossing a completely inactive runway (no departures or arrivals either end), hold short instructions are removed and the crossing is included in the taxi instruction.
- Fixed backtrack runway departures being triggered when landing aircraft are on short final, with longer clearance windows for backtrack departures.
- Backtracking aircraft are now always cleared for takeoff once the backtrack is complete rather than being told to hold short.
- Departure runway selection improved based on taxi route and busyness.
🛬 Arrival and Sequencing
- Reduced approach aircraft distances that block takeoffs for better flow with faster runway clearing.
- Resume speed releases at/before IAF/IF
- Braking force after landing now scales based on proximity of following approaches so a longer runout when nothing is behind.
✈️ CPDLC
- Multiple CPDLC API reliability improvements and fixes.
🅿️ Gate and Parking
- Gate designators (empty, C, L, R) now treated as a group — prevents parking on empty/C while also using L or R, but allows L and R together.
⚙️ General Improvements
- Reworked how ground speed of traffic is calculated, using wind values at the player aircraft rather than unreliable sim data, with improved TAS calculation at higher altitudes.
- Allow scenery that only exposes one start on a runway to work (Flightbeam KDEN 25 for example).
- On departure a runway change request will be granted to any active departure runway even if our logic says it is too short for the player aircraft.
- Ensure a runway is always available that suits the player’s aircraft size.
- Latest AIRAC and airline data.
🐞 Bug Fixes
- Large number of fixes for stuck traffic in taxi, on runways, and during pushback
- Finally fully fix the vectors after altitude change bug
- Fixed clearance being given when an aircraft is on very short final
- Fix AI ATC repeating calls [#22278488]
- Fix historic METAR not loading over weekends [#44165420]
- Fix traffic receiving the same instruction repeatedly [#82442706]
- Fix departure runway changes not being possible at airports without a clearance frequency
- Fix “Request departure” display hanging or not responding
- Fix aircraft sometimes being deleted because they can’t find a runway exit even though one exists.
- Fix DECTalk ATIS saying “period” after runways when arrival/departure runway set are the same
- Fix LLM query for next waypoint sometimes returning the previous waypoint
- Fix fatal crash in enroute traffic data generation
- Fix tug spline fatal crash
- Fixed altitude readbacks being rejected even when spoken correctly (FL100, FL200, FL300, FL400)
- Fixed taxi readbacks being rejected when route has separate number and letter taxiways (e.g., “2, C”)
- Fixed frequency readback failing when speech recognition fuses digits with callsign
🛬 Airport Ops Updates
- Improvements for: EBCI, EFHK, ESMT, KBZN, KDBL, KDFW, KOSH, KSAT, KSDF, LFKJ, LICJ, LOWI, OMDB, RCTP, RPLL
