Backseater

Stop watching other people fly your jets.

Get out of the comments and into the cockpit.

Your favourite creators made you want to fly it. Backseater is a voice instructor for DCS World that teaches you the modules you already own: by voice, in the cockpit, one switch at a time. No manuals, no pausing a video every ten seconds.

Join the Discord Watch it fly

In testing now, with a small group of testers. Want in? Join the Discord. Free download at launch.

Start it

From a cold jet to engines running. Hold your push-to-talk key and ask; Backseater boxes each switch in your cockpit and moves on when it's really set.

Get there and back

TACAN, ILS and steerpoints, the nearest friendly field, whether your fuel gets you home, and landing guidance down to the runway.

Survive the fight

Bandit calls, missile warnings, and practice MiGs spawned by voice whenever you want a fight.

Made for the headset

In VR you can't glance at a manual, a kneeboard PDF or a second monitor. Backseater was built and flown in VR for exactly that reason: you never lift the headset.

The procedure is spoken, the switch you need is boxed in the cockpit in front of you, and the step moves on when you've set it. Lost a switch, a frequency or the way home? Hold the button and ask.

What it can do

Everything here has been flown in the cockpit, in VR. You talk; it answers out loud.

Teach you the jet

Help me start the jet, set up for takeoff, I want to land: it picks the right procedure for the jet you're in.
Cold start, taxi, takeoff, navigation, landing and shutdown as spoken walk-throughs, one action per step.
Each switch is boxed in your cockpit, and the step moves on only when the switch is really set.
Carrier launch and the Case I pattern in the Hornet, with calls around the boat.
Where's the battery switch? boxes it for you.
Air-to-air missiles step by step: AMRAAM, Sidewinder and Sparrow.
What's the key for gear up? answered from your own DCS install.

Get you home

Nearest friendly field gives bearing, distance and which way to turn.
Do I have enough fuel to get there? answered from your real fuel burn.
What's the TACAN for Kutaisi? then walks you through tuning it.
Call me at ten miles, bingo fuel and altitude alerts.
Landing guidance that waits for you to be in the right place for each step.
An ILS approach in the Viper, with a live check that the jet is really receiving the signal.

Keep you alive

A radar controller on the radio: picture and bogey dope, with every group named Alpha, Bravo, Charlie.
Missile launch warnings with the direction to look, time to impact, and Clear when you've beaten it.
Close-in calls by clock position when the fight is too fast for compass bearings.
Splash calls and a running kill count.
Your wingman's status, and orders to friendly flights: Eagle, engage Bravo.
A mission brief when you enter the cockpit, and what was that message? when DCS text flashes past.
Honest about what it knows: it reports only what your side's radars can see.

Build your own practice

Spawn opponents mid-flight: put two MiG-29s twenty miles east of me.
Or friends: spawn two Su-33s to escort me.
Build a whole mission by voice, sentence by sentence: flights, air defences, ships, weather. It reads each piece back before it builds, then saves a mission file.
A carrier-versus-carrier war that runs itself: scouts, strikes, intercepts, tankers.
Next run, give me four AMRAAMs and two Sidewinders changes your loadout.

Stay out of your way

Push-to-talk on a key or a joystick button. It only listens while you hold it.
Urgent calls cut in; routine calls wait. Quiet and resume when you want silence.
Separate voices for the instructor, the ground controller and the AWACS.
Louder, labels off, brief mode: settings by voice, no menus.
Runs on your own PC, offline. No account, no subscription.
DCS's own mission safety settings stay switched on, and it only ever edits missions it built itself.

What it supports

F-16C, F/A-18C	Fully supported: start-up, takeoff, navigation, landing, air-to-air. Carrier operations in the Hornet.
F-14B, MiG-19P, MiG-29	Start-up and takeoff.
AH-64D	Start-up.
Su-25T	Start-up and takeoff, by voice and keyboard. This is the jet that comes free with DCS World, so you can try Backseater without buying a module. It has no clickable cockpit, so there are no boxed switches.
Maps	Field and beacon data for Caucasus, Marianas, Afghanistan, Kola, Syria and the Persian Gulf.
Coming	Air-to-ground weapons and more jets, in free updates.