Quick Start

Welcome to the tower. Flatout ATC puts you in the controller's seat: aircraft check in, and you guide every one of them to a safe landing, departure, or handoff. This page gets you controlling traffic in a few minutes.

1. Learn the ropes (3 minutes)

From the home screen, open Flight Academy. It teaches the game in 12 short, focused lessons: your first landing, vectoring, altitude, speed, holds, and more. Each lesson takes about a minute.

Prefer to learn by doing? Play the Tutorial level instead. A coach walks you through four guided phases with one aircraft at a time: an arrival, a helicopter, an overflight, and a (forgiving) emergency.

2. Your first shift

1. Pick a level. Start with a Free level such as the Tutorial or an early career airport. Choose Novice difficulty.
2. Tap an aircraft on the radar to select it. Its data tag shows callsign, altitude, and speed.
3. Give commands. A command menu appears when an aircraft is selected. The essentials:
   • Turn Left / Turn Right: drag the compass to a heading.
   • Change Altitude: climb or descend in 1,000 ft steps.
   • Set Speed: slow arrivals down as they get close.
4. Land an arrival. Steer it toward the runway, then:
   • Tap Intercept LOC and pick the runway. The aircraft joins the runway centerline on its own.
   • Once it is established and low, tap Clear to Land. The aircraft handles the touchdown.
   • Shortcut: Pattern tells the aircraft to fly a full traffic pattern and land itself. Great while you are learning.
5. Release departures. Departures wait until you send them: tap the Ready for Departure banner to line one up, then Clear for Takeoff.

3. Win the level

Each scenario has a goal, shown at the top of the screen: handle a set number of aircraft with a minimum success rate. Land your arrivals, get departures out, and keep everyone separated. Finish the goal and you earn wings for that difficulty, a score, and progress toward the next stage.

A few survival tips

• Slow is smooth. Reduce arrival speed early. Fast aircraft eat up airspace quickly.
• One thing at a time. Use the speed button (1x, 2x, 4x, 8x) to slow the simulation down while you think.
• Separation first. Two aircraft too close at the same altitude is a conflict. A 1,000 ft altitude split resolves almost anything.
• Watch the wind. The active runway can change when the wind shifts. The highlighted runway is the one in use.

When you are ready for more, read the rest of this guide, starting with Reading the Radar.