In this game, you are an air traffic controller at a busy airport: you guide incoming planes safely to the runways, by giving heading, altitude and speed instructions while monitoring the radar screen. For every plane that lands safely, you score points. As long as you make no mistakes, your score and the amount of traffic will keep rising. Find out how many flights you can manage to control at a time. Or, you can choose to limit the traffic rate at a lower level, for a relaxed gameplay.

The graphics are simple, just like a real tracon radar display, but the underlying mechanics are detailed and polished. Compared to other games in the genre, this game combines the realism of hardcore simulators, with the ease of use of arcade ATC games.

The sim includes 9 airports, each with a scenario and unlimited random traffic, providing many hours of gameplay.

AIRPORTS

• Amsterdam (EHAM)
• Atlanta (KATL)
• Frankfurt (EDDF)
• London (EGLL)
• Paris (LFPG)
• New York (KJFK)
• Tokyo (RJTT)
• Toronto (CYYZ)
• Sydney (YSSY)
• Option to add your own airports by editing text files. See the website for instructions.

KEY FEATURES

• 9 large airports, each with multiple runway configurations
• realistic plane behavior
• adaptive, randomly generated traffic
• pilot speech
• easy to play, by mouse or keyboard

REALISM

• wind and storms
• go-arounds
• restricted areas
• parallel approaches
• occasional emergencies
• secondary nearby airports
• wake turbulence
• delays
• holdings

Although the controls are relatively easy, this game may have a learning curve if you’re unfamiliar with aviation. For example, this is how an ILS approach works: