Sky Pilot

About Sky Pilot

Sky Pilot is a flight simulator built around the first thing every pilot learns: the circuit. You start lined up on runway 36 of a country airfield, with a control tower and hangars by the apron, patchwork farmland stretching to distant hills and two small towns for landmarks. The aeroplane is a light high-wing trainer, and it flies on a real aerodynamic model: the wing's lift comes from its angle of attack and stalls when pushed too far, drag rises as you pull harder, the propeller's thrust fades with speed, and banking turns the aeroplane at the rate the lift allows. You take off, fly through the rings that mark the upwind, crosswind, downwind and base legs, turn onto final, and land: on the runway, gently, with the wings level, then brake to a stop. Instruments show your airspeed in knots, altitude in feet, climb or sink rate, heading and an artificial horizon, and an arrow points to the next ring. Harder levels add more and smaller rings and a gusty crosswind that pushes you off the centreline, so you learn to crab into the wind. Every landing is graded by how softly you touched down and how close to the centreline and the touchdown zone you put it. A soft landing in the zone on the centreline earns three stars.