Landings and Departures

Most of your score, and most of your trouble, happens within ten miles of the runway. Here is how to run a tidy final and a flowing departure queue.

The anatomy of a landing

1. Descend early. Arrivals check in high. Step them down toward a few thousand feet above the field while they are still far out.
2. Slow them down. Speed near the arrival's minimum makes the turn to final much easier to judge.
3. Vector to the centerline. Aim the aircraft to meet the runway's extended centerline at a shallow angle, ideally 30 to 45 degrees, several miles out.
4. Intercept LOC. Within about 10 NM and 45 degrees of the final course, the intercept command locks the aircraft onto the centerline. If you get "unable", you are too far out or too misaligned; fix the geometry and try again.
5. Clear to Land. Once it is tracking the runway and descending, issue the clearance. The aircraft flies the touchdown and clears the runway.

If it all goes wrong, climb the aircraft away, re-vector, and try again. There is no shame in a go-around; there is a penalty for a crash.

The lazy (smart) options

• Pattern does steps 1 to 5 by itself: the aircraft flies downwind, base, and final for the nearest active runway and lands.
• Approach (at airports with published approaches) flies the charted route to the runway.
• A conditional clearance sets the whole descent up in one instruction: "cross the fix at or below 5,000, then heading toward final".

You still own separation while these run, and any vector you issue takes over immediately.

Runways and wind

The active runway follows the wind: aircraft land and depart into it. When the wind shifts, the active runway can change. Arrivals already established get a grace period, but aircraft intercepting a retired runway will be sent around or need your help. Check the runway highlight after every wind warning.

Some airports have parallel or crossing runways. Use them: split arrivals and departures, but never clear an aircraft onto a runway another one is using.

Departures

Departures spawn at the gate or hold short and appear in the Ready for Departure list. The flow:

1. Tap the banner entry to send the aircraft to the runway.
2. Select it and Clear for Takeoff when the runway is clear, and no arrival is on short final.
3. After rotation, it flies its departure. Some airports publish departure procedures (SIDs); those aircraft navigate themselves out. Others need a Direct To or heading toward their exit fix.
4. On transitions and overflights, the goal is to get the aircraft to its named exit point and out of your airspace cleanly.

A queued departure waits as long as you need. Arrivals cannot wait forever: they are burning fuel. When in doubt, land the arrival first.

Helicopters

Helicopters land on helipads, not runways. Get one close to its pad (within about 1.5 NM) and it takes over, descends, and settles onto the pad by itself. Helicopters can be commanded down to 200 ft, hover in place, and in city airspace must respect controlled zones.