ATC X - commands

Versione italiana

Before you can give a command to a plane, you have to select it. You can do this by clicking on its icon on the radar, or by clicking on the corresponding row in the table with all the scheduled flights. The direction and quota commands are always directed to the selected plane (or to the first plane if more than one is selected). Direction commands can be given using this pad:

The columns on the left and on the right cause the selected plane to turn the chosen angle to the left or to the right. Remeber that direction commands are relative to the direction the plane is currently heading. So if the plane is heading North, a 90º left turn will eventually head it to West, but if the plane is heading South, the same command will eventually head it to East. The D: cmd column in the scheduled flights table shows the direction the plane will head to upon completion of the command.
The middle column contains three buttons. The first (labelled ^) tells the selected plane to ignore any previous commands and to keep going to its current direction, i.e. the D: cmd column of the table becomes equal to the D: now column. The button labelled "O" tells the plane to perform a loop or a ring: first tell the plane to turn left or right with any of the eight direction buttons, then press the "O" button and at the end the plane will head to its current direction, but after having performed a 360º loop clockwise (turning right) or counter-clockwise (turning left). The button labelled "L" is the "Land" button: press it when the plane is heading to its final airport and its final quota is set to 1; pressing the "Land" button will cause the plane to automatically land to its final airport without needing further intervention from you. This button isn't effective if the final airport isn't in the trajectory of the plane (after all previous commands have been completed) or if the plane isn't going to quota 1. Be careful: the "Land" button causes the plane to land even if it's not aligned to the airport direction, causing it to crash!
The quota commands are given through this pad:

You simply click on the quota you want the plane to go to, from 0 to 8. Quota 0 is used to manually land a plane (without the "Land" button): this is useful if you want to temporary stop a plane in an airport different to its final destination (this costs points, though); if you accidentally land a plane outside an airport, it will crash.

Some habit is necessary to properly predict the trajectory of a plane. Let's suppose the plane is heading East. We give it the command to do a 180º left turn. You can see in the following the effect of this command:

1. initial condition: the plane is heading East; we give it the command to turn left by 180º; the D: cmd column of the table now points to W followed by the quota of the plane; the D: now column points to E followed by the quota of the plane.
2. second step: the countdown timer has gone to zero, the radar has been refreshed; now the D: cmd column always points W, but the D: now columns points NE, since a fist left turn by 45º has been performed. This is the situation:
3. third step: upon the subsequent radar refresh, D: cmd is always unchanged, but D: now now heads North, since a further left turn by 45º has been performed. This is the new situation:
4. fourth step: now D: now points to NW. This is the situation:
5. last step: D: now eventually points to W, as D: cmd; the 180º left turn command has completed its execution:

Delayed commands