openScope: Air Traffic Control: a close look, tips and whether it is worth your time
If you like games that tax your head rather than your reflexes — planning, sequencing and a steady hand — take a look at this one. Here is everything you need before the first launch: the gist, the controls and some working techniques.
What this game is
openScope is an open-source air traffic control simulator. You are the controller over a live airport: arrivals, departures and overflights move across the scopes while real weather, fixes and procedures set the scene. The physics are grown-up: aeroplanes are inertial, they do not brake, and they do exactly what you say — a collision or an aircraft leaving your control ends the shift.
How to play, in short
Click or tap an aircraft to select it, then type a command into the bar below — heading, altitude, speed, a direct vector, an approach or a landing clearance. The pilots read back what you ordered. Points climb with every completed flight: a plane you land scores, a plane you release scores too. Choose from eight airports with real runways and procedures, and if it is your first time at the console the airport guide and the tutorial are right in the menu.
Controls
Mouse and touch: select an aircraft with a click or tap, type a command — for example "DAL123 fph" (fly runway heading) or "cl30" (climb to 3000 feet) — and press ENTER; wheel or pinch zooms, pause and airport switch sit at the top. On a phone taps work like clicks.
A couple of tips
- Vector early: separate traffic by altitude while the planes are still far out — at the last moment a jet cannot turn any faster than your command reaches it.
- Trust the readback: if a pilot does not repeat your instruction, the command did not get through.
- Start at a small airport (Hamburg or San Juan, say) and move on to giants like Seattle once your hand is in.
A perfect game to find out whether you have the head for the calmest and the most nerve-wracking job in aviation. Ready to try it? "openScope: Air Traffic Control"