Every Control Explained
Last updated 2026-08-23
There are two ways to give an aircraft an order, and they offer the same commands with the same icons.
The radial menu. Tap an aircraft on the radar and a ring of buttons opens around it. This is the normal way to command traffic on an iPad or a large phone.
The command strip. On a small phone, and whenever the 3D view is on, the same buttons appear as a strip across the bottom of the screen with the callsign at the top. Tap the cross beside the callsign to let the aircraft go.
You will never see all of these at once. The buttons offered depend on what that aircraft is doing at that moment: a plane waiting at the runway is only offered Takeoff, a plane on final is offered the things you can still do to a landing aircraft, and so on. If a button you expect is missing, the aircraft is in a state where the order would not make sense.
After you choose a control, most of them ask a follow up question, a heading, a runway, an altitude, a fix. Pick the answer and the pilot reads the clearance back to you.
Flying the aircraft
Turn Left and 
Turn Right
What it does. Opens the heading dial. Choosing Left or Right also tells the pilot which way to turn to get there, instead of taking the shortest way round.
When to use it. Any time you want the aircraft somewhere other than where it is pointed. Pick the side deliberately when the short way round would take the aircraft through traffic, through weather, or across a runway you are using.
Change Altitude
What it does. Opens the altitude picker. The aircraft climbs or descends at its normal rate until it reaches the level you gave it.
When to use it. To separate two aircraft that are close together, to start an arrival down towards the airport, or to get a departure up and out of the way. Vertical separation is usually the quickest way out of trouble.
Speed
What it does. Assigns a speed in knots.
When to use it. Mostly for spacing. Slowing the aircraft in front, or speeding up the one behind, is how you turn a bunched up line of arrivals into an evenly spaced one without vectoring anybody off course.
Direct
What it does. Sends the aircraft straight to a named point on the map. It turns towards it immediately and flies to it.
When to use it. When you want an aircraft routed somewhere specific rather than steered heading by heading, and for setting up a departure to leave through the right gate.
Hold
What it does. Parks the aircraft in a racetrack pattern at a fix until you give it something else to do. If the aircraft was on an approach, holding cancels the approach and climbs it away first.
When to use it. When you have run out of room and need to buy time. Better a holding aircraft than a rushed approach.
Getting them on the ground
These appear once an aircraft is in a position to be landed, and disappear again once it is committed to a procedure that lands itself.
Intercept LOC
What it does. You pick a runway, and the aircraft joins that runway's final approach course and tracks it in.
When to use it. The standard way to finish vectoring an arrival. Turn the aircraft onto a heading that closes on the final approach course at a sensible angle, then intercept. The pilot needs to be reasonably lined up already, so this is the last step of your vectoring, not a substitute for it.
Clear to Land
What it does. Clears the aircraft to land on the runway you choose.
When to use it. Once it is established on the approach and the runway ahead is clear. Remember that clearing an aircraft to land is a promise about the runway, so do not clear two onto the same one.
Approach
What it does. Assigns one of the airport's published approach procedures. The aircraft flies the whole procedure by itself and lands.
When to use it. When you want an arrival to look after itself, especially at a busy field where you would rather spend your attention elsewhere. It is also the realistic way in at airports with terrain, because the published procedure keeps the aircraft clear of it.
Pattern
What it does. Puts the aircraft into the traffic circuit for a runway, downwind, base, final, and it lands itself at the end of it.
When to use it. At smaller fields, and for anything you want tidily sequenced behind other traffic without vectoring it yourself.
STAR
What it does. Assigns a published arrival route, the standard road into the airport from the en route structure.
When to use it. For arrivals that are still a long way out. The route does the navigating, and you pick the aircraft up again when it is closer in. It only appears at airports that have published arrivals, and only for aircraft that would realistically fly one.
Clearance
What it does. A conditional clearance. Cross a named fix at a height you choose, then turn to a heading you choose.
When to use it. When you want to give one instruction now that covers the next few minutes, so you can stop thinking about that aircraft for a while. It is the single most useful button for reducing your own workload.
Departures and leaving your airspace
Takeoff
What it does. Clears an aircraft that is waiting at the runway to go.
When to use it. When the runway is free and nothing is about to land on it. This is the only button offered to an aircraft still on the ground.
Handoff
What it does. Hands the aircraft to the next controller and takes it off your board. Where the airport publishes departure gates, you choose which gate it leaves through.
When to use it. As soon as it is available for a departure that is on its way out. An aircraft that leaves your airspace without being handed off counts against you.
The button tells you why it is not available yet:
| What it says | What it means |
|---|---|
| Handoff | Ready. Hand it over. |
| Handoff, a number of miles | It is still inside the boundary ring drawn on the radar. That is how much further it has to fly. |
| Handoff, past a fix name | Fly it outbound past that exit fix and the handoff arms there, without waiting for the ring. |
| Handoff, descending | The next sector takes climbing or level traffic. Stop the descent and it becomes available. |
 With Center |
Already handed over. It is somebody else's aircraft now. |
Taking an order back
Cancel
What it does. Takes back a landing clearance or a procedure you assigned, and leaves the aircraft flying its present heading on your vectors.
When to use it. When you have changed your mind and simply want the aircraft back under your control. Cancelling a landing clearance counts as a go around, which is honest, because that is what it is. Cancelling a pattern or an approach before anything was cleared to land does not.
The Gauntlet's three extra verbs
These appear only in the Gauntlet, the ten rung check ride. They are the tools the examiner expects you to reach for.
Expedite
What it does. Doubles the aircraft's rate of climb or descent towards the level you already gave it.
When to use it. When a climb or descent is not happening fast enough to solve the problem in front of you.
Go Around
What it does. Breaks off the approach and climbs the aircraft away.
When to use it. When the runway will not be clear in time. Sending an aircraft around is a normal part of the job, but each one is counted, and every rung has a budget.
Sidestep
What it does. Moves the aircraft across to the parallel runway and clears it to land there instead.
When to use it. When the runway it is aimed at will not be free but the one beside it will. It saves the go around entirely.
Helicopters
Hover
What it does. Brings the helicopter to a stop in the air where it is.
When to use it. Over a helipad before landing on it, and over a survivor in a search and rescue mission, where a steady hover is what lets the winch work.
The rest of the strip
The heading dial
The dial that opens when you choose a turn. Drag the aim line to the heading you want, or tap a point on the compass. The line on the radar shows you where the aircraft will end up.
Approach Altitudes
On larger screens the command panel carries three one tap altitudes, 3000, 2000 and 1700 feet. They are the heights arrivals are usually given as they come down the approach, and they save you opening the picker.
Deselect
The cross beside the callsign. It lets the aircraft go without giving it anything, which is what you want after a look at its details.
If something is missing or looks wrong
Every button here is one an aircraft can be offered, but not every button is offered at every moment. If you expect one and it is not there, the aircraft is usually in a state where the order would not apply, and the greyed out Handoff pill above is the pattern the rest of them follow.
If you think a control is behaving wrongly, tell us. Settings has a way to reach the developer, and there is a developer board inside the game. Everything is read and answered.