Right Seat, an AI first officer for the iFly 737 MAX 8

Listen to a real flight.

Bali to Kota Kinabalu, 9 November 2026: a test flight in the iFly 737 MAX 8. These are excerpts from its own log, and every line Sam speaks here is the app’s audio from that flight. Nothing was scripted for this page.

Captain
Alright, FMC. Get that set up.
Sam
Setting up the FMC on my side.
Sam types the position, route, departure, arrival, performance and takeoff pages on his own CDU, checking each entry on the screen. Twenty-four seconds later:
Sam
Load figures are in. Zero fuel weight 143.0, plan 140.2. Fuel 18.5, takeoff weight about 161.1, CG 21.8. That’s 2,800 pounds more than the plan. Put the new zero fuel weight in the FMC?

Line 1 of 4

Sam’s voice is AI-generated. The captain’s, controller’s and cabin crew’s lines are shown as text only. ATC and the cabin voice on this flight came from SayIntentions, a separate product.

No phrase list to learn.

Hold push-to-talk and say what you’d say to a colleague. Standard calls are understood at once on your own PC. Anything else goes to an AI that can see the whole cockpit: every switch, both CDU screens, your flight plan and the weather.

And it works the other way round. Talking about something isn’t a command, and a question is always answered, never executed.

You saySam

“Flaps five.”Moves the lever, watches it get there, then reads it back.

“Set up the FMC.”Fills in every preflight page from your SimBrief plan and presses EXEC.

“How’s the weather at the alternate?”Answers from the plan and the current METAR.

“What’s the missed approach on the ILS zero two?”Reads it from the aircraft’s own navdata.

“Flaps thirty, landing checklist.”Does the first, then starts the second.

“You have control.”Flies ATC’s clearances on the autopilot and configures for the approach.

“We already put the gear down.”Nothing. You were talking, not asking.

The first officer's seat of the iFly 737 MAX 8 with nobody in it. — The right seat without Right Seat.

You can watch him work.

Sam isn’t a voice in your headset. He’s in the seat: a fully animated first officer whose hand goes to the actual control before it moves.

He reaches for 99 switches, knobs and levers, each with its own motion: a flick, a push, a twist with finger and thumb, a grip on a lever. He takes the checklist card out and reads from it, looks at the item he’s calling, and turns to you when you key the mic.

Sam's hand closing on the landing gear lever on the centre panel of the 737. — “Gear down.” His hand is on the lever before the lever moves.

Sam's hand holding the laminated normal checklist card by its corner in front of the instrument panel. — He takes the checklist card out, reads from it, and puts it away when the checklist is complete.

Close-up of Sam's face while speaking, boom microphone at his mouth. — His mouth follows the sound of his own voice. He blinks, glances at the engine display during a start, and nods on “check”.

He only reads back what’s true.

The quickest way to stop trusting a virtual first officer is to hear “gear down” and find the gear still up. Sam looks at the switch first, sends the command, watches the aircraft respond, and only then reads it back.

When something doesn’t take, he tells you: “Landing lights didn’t change. Check it, please.”

What you can count on

Read-backs: only once the switch has moved
Checklists: checked against the real cockpit
Wrong items: he waits, or fixes them if you ask
Gear up, no positive rate: refused
Flaps above placard speed: refused
Guarded switches, FMC changes: confirmed with you first
Authority: advise, commands or flows: you choose

Gate to gate, the way a crew flies it.

Each flow runs at its moment in the flight, without being asked, and its checklist is offered when it’s done. You fly; he does the first officer’s half.

At the gate

Greets you once the plan is loaded. Runs the power-up and preflight flows, sets up the FMC from your SimBrief plan, gets the IFR clearance and sets the squawk and initial altitude. Reads you the load figures against the plan.
Start and taxi

Starts the engines and calls the start. Asks for pushback and taxi. Then calls the turns along the cleared route, and Hold short! if you’re rolling toward a runway without a clearance.
Takeoff and climb

Eighty knots. V one. Rotate. Gear up on positive rate, flaps on schedule, the after takeoff flow, landing lights at ten thousand, altimeters to standard, and a check-in with every new controller.
Cruise

Fuel checks against the plan at its waypoints. Calls for icing and turbulence. The cabin rings to offer drinks. Now and then, something for you to decide.
Descent and approach

Briefs the arrival with its restrictions and your own habits as threats. Tunes the ILS, sets minimums, watches the crossing restrictions, and calls Stable at a thousand feet, or Unstable, go around.
Landing to shutdown

Speedbrakes up. Reversers normal. Sixty knots. After landing flow, taxi-in calls to your gate, shutdown and secure, and then the debrief.

He operates the FMC

On his own CDU, the right one. He types each entry, checks it on the screen and presses EXEC when the light comes on. Fields you’ve filled are left alone.

POS INITreference airport, IRS position
RTEactivated and executed
DEP / ARRrunway, SID, STAR, approach
PERF INITweights, reserves, cruise wind, cost index
N1 LIMITassumed temperature, derate
TAKEOFF REFflaps, CG, V1 148, VR 150, V2 156

Values from the 9 November flight. Later on: direct-to, deleting a waypoint and closing a discontinuity, each left at MOD for you to execute.

He works the radio

With SayIntentions running, Sam handles ATC like a pilot monitoring does. You can take any call back by keying your own mic.

Requests the clearance, pushback, taxi and descent
Reads back every instruction
Tunes the next frequency and checks in
Sets the cleared altitude and squawk, or cross-checks yours
Offers to load the arrival or approach ATC gives you
Stops talking the moment ATC calls you

Radio work and the cabin crew’s voice need SayIntentions, sold separately. Everything else works without it.

A debrief worth sitting through.

The moment the wheels touch, the analysis is ready: the kind a training captain would give, from the flight’s own data.

The approach, all the way down. Stable or not from 1,000 feet to 50, against the glidepath, with a replay you can scrub.
The flare and touchdown. Seconds in the float, where the thrust came off, how far down the runway and how far off the centreline.
One or two things to work on. Each with a “Show me” that plays that moment back.
A career that builds. Ranks from New Captain to Check Captain, streaks, personal bests per airport, 22 badges, and a line check every ten flights.

Sam remembers. What keeps coming back in your landings turns up in his next approach briefing.

Real screens. Scroll inside.

Also on board.

Learn mode: New to the iFly? Say “teach me” and every flow becomes a lesson: what to set, where it is on the panel and why, with Sam watching the switches as you go. The FMC setup too.
Non-normal checklists: Fifteen of them, shortened for the sim. When a warning light stays on, Sam calls it and offers the checklist. Anything irreversible waits for your “confirmed”.
Cabin crew and announcements: Boarding complete, cabin secure, drinks in the cruise. Sam’s welcome, descent and arrival announcements are written fresh for each flight.
Go-arounds: “Go around, flaps fifteen”: TOGA, gear up on positive rate, the missed approach altitude, flaps on schedule, and the checklists come round again.
Briefings that cross-check: Takeoff and approach briefings read from the FMC, the plan and the cockpit, then tell you what doesn’t agree.
A sterile cockpit: Below ten thousand feet he keeps to operational talk. In the cruise there’s room for conversation, as much or as little as you set.
A screen in the sim: A toolbar panel with the active checklist, what’s next, the intercom log, the debrief and your career. Everything on it can also be done by voice.
It remembers the flight: Restart the app mid-flight and Sam picks up where you were: flows done, checklists read, minimums set.

Where it stands today.

Right Seat isn’t on sale yet. It’s being flown and tested on full flights, and each flight’s log is reviewed and turned into fixes before the next one. Everything on this page is working in the sim now.

The step after this is a private beta with a small group of iFly pilots. That’s what the list is for.

Before the beta opens

An installer and a setup wizard for any microphone and push-to-talk button
Steam and Microsoft Store installs of MSFS 2024
Testing on a range of graphics cards
Sam’s avatar checked in VR
The price, and how the AI is paid for

The price isn’t set. Help set it.

We’re deciding between a one-time purchase and a plan. The honest reason it’s a question: Sam’s voice and his answers run on cloud AI, which costs a little on every flight.

Tell us which you’d pick. It takes one tap, and it will shape the answer.

On the list you get the first invitations to the private beta.
You’ll hear the price before it’s public.
No payment details now, and you can leave the list with one click.

Questions.

What do I need to run it?

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 on PC, the iFly 737 MAX 8, a microphone and a spare button for push-to-talk. A SimBrief flight plan loaded through the iFly’s tablet gives Sam the numbers for the FMC, the briefings and the fuel checks. Speech recognition currently runs on an NVIDIA graphics card; the minimum specification will be settled during the beta.

Do I need SayIntentions?

No. Callouts, checklists, flows, the FMC, briefings, the avatar and the debrief all work without it. With SayIntentions running, Sam also works the radio, follows ATC’s clearances, calls your taxi route and the cabin crew speaks in its own voice.

Can Sam fly the aircraft?

Say “you have control” with the autopilot engaged and he becomes pilot flying: he flies ATC’s clearances on the mode control panel, manages flaps and gear on the approach, and asks for the controls back before the landing. He doesn’t land it. That part is yours.

Does it need an internet connection?

Speech recognition, callouts, checklists, flows and every cockpit action run on your PC. Sam’s voice and his answers to open questions use cloud AI, so those need a connection.

How is this different from other crew add-ons?

Three things. Sam checks the real cockpit before he reads anything back, so what he says is what the aircraft shows. He operates the FMC and the radio himself. And he debriefs every landing from its data, then carries what he learned about your flying into the next briefing.

Will it support other aircraft, or MSFS 2020?

The iFly 737 MAX 8 in MSFS 2024 comes first, because a first officer has to know one aircraft properly. More aircraft are planned after that. MSFS 2020 isn’t planned for the first release.

When can I get it, and what will it cost?

There’s no date and no price yet. The private beta comes first, and people on the list hear about both before anyone else.

Is Right Seat made by iFly?

No. Right Seat is made by Glareshield Studio, an independent developer. It isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by iFly, Microsoft, Boeing, SayIntentions, SimBrief or Navigraph.

The right seat isn’t empty anymore.

Listen to a real flight.

No phrase list to learn.

You can watch him work.

He only reads back what’s true.

Gate to gate, the way a crew flies it.

At the gate

Start and taxi

Takeoff and climb

Cruise

Descent and approach

Landing to shutdown