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The radar screen

Beginner

Everything you control happens inside one circle of sky around one airport.

Step 2 of 5 · Learn to control

Your sector, and how far you see

Section titled “Your sector, and how far you see”
Airport Controlled sector SSR ring · 100 NM PSR ring · +100 NM Arrival route
The sector you control, with the two coverage rings that let you see traffic coming.

The sector is the circle. Every aircraft inside it is yours to instruct. Its edge reaches out to where arrivals begin their published arrival routes.

Beyond it are two coverage rings — SSR at 100 NM out, and PSR a further 100 NM beyond that. Aircraft appear there long before they reach you, which is the point: you get to plan before you have to act.

The game picks the sector for you. Some community airports define their own.

Reading a label

Section titled “Reading a label”

Every target carries a label — its datablock. This is the single most important thing to be able to read at a glance.

IBE1234 100 ↓ 137 312 RULOS 248 220 CS — callsign CFL · arrow · AFL cleared level, climbing or descending, level now GS · WPT ground speed, cleared waypoint IAS · IRT airspeed now, speed target Shaded cells are clickable — they open the AFL, WPT and IRT popups.
The default label. Three of its cells are buttons.

Two things to take from it:

  • Cleared versus actual. The left column is what you told it to do; the right column is what it is doing now. When those two disagree, the aircraft is still moving toward your clearance.
  • Three cells are clickable. AFL, WPT and IRT open the altitude, lateral and speed menus. That is how you fly the whole game without speaking, if you want.

The altitude menu labels the level you assign as CFL (cleared flight level). AFL remains the aircraft’s actual flight level.

You can drag a label out of the way with right-drag, and the game repositions labels automatically to stop them overlapping.

Which aircraft will listen to you

Section titled “Which aircraft will listen to you”
Not yours on radar, won't listen Assumed yours to instruct Handed off someone else's now middle-click "contact tower" Instruct an aircraft you have not assumed and COM answers SYS: The aircraft is not assumed.
Assume an aircraft before you instruct it, hand it off when you are finished.

An aircraft on your screen is not automatically yours. Middle-click it to assume it — that is you taking control. Until you do, it ignores you, and the COM panel tells you so in plain words.

The outer PSR shows a symbol first, and SSR adds a partial label. An inbound may call just outside your sector. It still needs your middle-click before it accepts an instruction. Accepting it cancels any extra check-in waiting to play. Not in 0.6.1.24

External ATC brings an inbound down before it calls. If middle-click says it has not contacted your sector, wait for the initial call — even when it is holding at the last route fix. It keeps descending until it is both near enough and inside your sector’s altitude band; only then can you assume it. Not in 0.6.1.24

When the aircraft is finished with you — landing, or leaving your airspace — you hand it off with contact tower or contact center.

What else is on the screen

Section titled “What else is on the screen”

Waypoints, airways, runways, procedures and airspace boundaries can all be drawn on the radar, and you choose which. Those layer controls live in the bottom bar — The simulator screen covers them.

For a first session you do not need any of them.