Radar vectoring: an ATC practice game

A radar exercise: you vector traffic through its gates in order and out by the correct exit, giving headings by typing, clicking or voice, while keeping every pair of targets apart. STCA warns of converging targets, and three merges ends the run. There are four levels, from one aircraft at a time to nine.

Why it matters for ATC selection

Many ATC selection processes include work samples or simulations, where candidates handle simplified traffic. This game practises the core of those exercises: planning headings ahead and keeping traffic separated.

How the practice works

• The dashed line is your sector boundary. Traffic appears outside it, so you can see it coming, and enters through an entry gate (a pair of hollow green triangles). Under each target, line 1 is the callsign and line 2 the route: the gates to fly through, in order, then the exit.
• Gates are pairs of orange cones. Fly each aircraft between its cones, in the order shown, then out of the sector through its exit gate (a pair of solid green triangles). Entry and exit gates are separate, so outbound and inbound traffic don't meet. Leaving the sector anywhere else counts as a missed exit.
• Each aircraft checks in on your frequency as it passes its entry gate; until then you can't give it instructions. Give headings by clicking a target, choosing Left, Right or Fly hdg and typing the heading (Fly hdg turns the aircraft the shortest way onto the heading); by typing the full instruction; or by voice (hold the button or the ` key). Spoken readbacks can be switched off at the top of the screen.
• The full rules are shown before you start.

The radar games are part of full access. Every practice item is original. Full access adds feedback on where you lost marks and how to improve.

Tips

• Give each aircraft one heading per gate and one for the exit, worked out before you transmit.
• Resolve converging tracks early. Don't wait for the alert.
• Scan the whole picture between instructions, not just the aircraft you are working.