AI Assistant

Table of contents

  1. The AI Mascot
    1. Mascot Avatars
  2. The Chat Panel
    1. Pop-out Chat Window
  3. Talking to the Assistant (Push-to-Talk)
  4. What You Can Ask
    1. Weather
    2. Flight Assistance
    3. Aviation Knowledge
    4. FlyAround Help
  5. Rating AI Replies
  6. AI Credits
    1. When credits run out
  7. Customizing the AI Assistant
  8. Tips

The FlyAround AI Assistant is an intelligent in-app assistant that can answer aviation questions, provide real-time weather, assist with flight planning, and guide you through app features — through a natural chat interface, typed or spoken.

The AI Assistant is available on select subscription plans. AI features consume AI Credits from your monthly allowance.

The AI Mascot

The AI Assistant is represented by a mascot character — a small floating avatar on the right side of your screen.

Interaction How to
Move mascot Click and hold, then drag to any position on screen
Resize mascot Scroll the mouse wheel over the mascot
Open chat Click the mascot, or press Ctrl+I

Mascot Avatars

Choose between the mascot characters — Kika (classic) and Bouba (cap) — in Settings → AI Assistant.

The Chat Panel

Click the mascot avatar (or press Ctrl+I) to open the AI chat panel — a side drawer with your conversation history and a message box (“How can I help you?”). Press Enter to send, Shift+Enter for a new line.

The panel header shows your assistant’s name with a connection status icon (green = connected, amber = connecting, grey = disconnected — hover for the label) and two window controls:

Control What it does
Dock to the left / Dock to the right Flips the chat panel to the other edge of the screen. Your choice is remembered.
Open in a separate window Pops the chat out into its own window (desktop app only).

Pop-out Chat Window

The pop-out is a compact borderless window you can keep on a second monitor — drag its header to move it, and its size and position are remembered. Only one chat surface is active at a time: popping out closes the side panel, and Back to the side panel brings it back into the main window. While the chat is popped out, clicking the mascot focuses the pop-out window.

The assistant conversation may reset when the chat moves between the side panel and the pop-out window.

Talking to the Assistant (Push-to-Talk)

You can speak to the assistant instead of typing — hold the push-to-talk key, say your request, and release. The chat opens automatically and your sentence is posted as if you had typed it.

  1. Enable it under Settings → AI Assistant → Voice & Push-to-Talk (“Enable push-to-talk”).
  2. Set the Push-to-talk key (default Ctrl+T) — a keyboard chord or a joystick button.
  3. Pick your Microphone (or leave it on System default) and use Test microphone to verify the level bar moves as you speak.
  4. Optionally set the Recognition language — Follow app language (default), Auto-detect, or a specific locale.

While you hold the key, a floating pill at the bottom of the screen shows “Listening…” with a live transcript, then “Transcribing…” after you release. A chip on the pill shows who you are addressing — Assistant, ATC (a separate key; see ATC Communications) or First Officer (a third key that commands the FO and GSX ground services; see First Officer Voice Commands).

Speech recognition runs through the FlyAround voice service and requires an internet connection and available AI credits.

What You Can Ask

Weather

  • “What’s the weather at SFO?”
  • “Give me the METAR for EGLL”
  • “Is it safe to fly into KJFK right now?”

Flight Assistance

  • “What’s the best cruise altitude for a 500nm flight?”
  • “Help me plan a flight from KLAX to KSFO”
  • “What cost index should I use for a short-haul flight?”

Aviation Knowledge

  • “What does a pushback phase involve?”
  • “Explain weight and balance”
  • “What is an OFP?”

FlyAround Help

  • “How do I add an aircraft to my hangar?”
  • “How do I complete a flight?”
  • “Where is my logbook?”

Rating AI Replies

Assistant replies show small thumbs up / thumbs down buttons underneath (“Good response” / “Bad response”). A thumbs up sends immediately; a thumbs down opens a “What went wrong?” dialog where you can optionally describe the problem before sending. Your feedback helps improve the assistant — each reply can be rated once.

AI Credits

AI-powered features — realistic crew voices, AI checklists, push-to-talk speech recognition, and ATC voice — draw from a monthly AI Credits allowance included with your plan.

  • The AI Credits card on your Profile page shows a meter (“{remaining} of {total} monthly credits remaining”), any top-up balance, and the renewal date.
  • Your monthly allowance resets each billing cycle and does not roll over. Top-up credits (purchased on my.flysim.io) never expire and are used only after the monthly allowance runs out.
  • A warning appears when you are running low.

When credits run out

“You’re out of AI credits. Crew voice switches to the standard voice and AI checklists pause until your credits renew.”

Feature Behavior at zero credits
Crew voices Keep speaking, but switch to the standard (non-premium) voice
AI checklists Paused until credits renew
Push-to-talk speech recognition Unavailable

An Out of AI credits dialog appears when an AI action is refused, with an Upgrade (trial) or Buy credits (paid plans) button.

Customizing the AI Assistant

Open Settings → AI Assistant:

  • Assistant Name — Give your AI a custom name (default: “FlyAround AI”)
  • Mascot — Select which mascot character to display
  • Voice & Push-to-Talk — Enable voice input, set keys, microphone, and recognition language

Crew voice options (realistic AI crew voices, crew voice gender, voice volumes) live in the System → Voices and Sound settings — see Settings.

Tips

  • Include ICAO codes in weather questions for precise results (e.g., EGLL not Heathrow)
  • The AI remembers context within the current session — follow-up questions work naturally
  • Use it during flight planning for quick weather or route advice without switching apps
  • Bind push-to-talk to a spare joystick button so you can query the assistant hands-on-yoke