ATC Simulator: Voice Control

ATC Simulator: Voice Control is an air traffic control simulator you play by talking. Two seats share one radio: the approach radar, where you vector arrivals onto the ILS, and a 3D tower cab, where you work the runway from the window.

Key the mic and say what an air traffic controller would say: "Lufthansa four zero one, descend and maintain five thousand, cleared ILS runway two five right." There are no menus and no list of commands. The game works out what you said, the pilot reads it back, and the aircraft flies it.

The pilots follow your instructions, question a clearance that does not add up, and ask you to say again. Their voices come from your phone's own speech engine, played through a radio chain with the bandpass and grit of a VHF frequency. Up to five voices, no server to wait for, and they still speak offline.

The tower cab is a 3D view out of the window. Six aircraft types, from a Cessna 172 to a 747, taxi, roll and rotate in front of you, past a terminal building, lit runway edges and taxiway signs. Set the time of day to day, dawn, dusk or night, or let it follow your clock: the sun moves through the shift and the field lights come on after dark.

"Runway two five right, wind two five zero at eight, cleared for takeoff." Line departures up in the gaps between arrivals, clear a landing while the aircraft ahead is still rolling clear, and send an arrival around when the gap gets too small. Ground traffic taxis out and back in, and every runway crossing needs a clearance from you.

Emergencies arrive without warning. While you are lining arrivals up on the glideslope, a call comes in: "Pan pan, pan pan, passenger with a suspected heart attack, request priority." That aircraft needs the shortest track to the runway, and you are scored on how quickly you re-sequence everything else around it.

On the approach radar:

- Headings, altitudes, speeds and holds
- ILS intercepts, vectors to final, sequencing and runway changes
- Handoffs, minimum fuel, fuel emergencies and medical priority
- An arrival ladder: every arrival in order, miles to run and the gap ahead

In the tower cab:

- Line up and wait, takeoff and landing clearances, go-arounds
- Runway crossings: "cross runway" and "hold short" are your calls
- The departure queue: flight strips you drag to set the order
- A ground radar for low visibility, with taxiways, runways and stands named
- A runway incursion alert when an aircraft enters a runway in use

Both seats share two airports, including San Francisco International, three difficulty levels, and shifts that run as long as you keep working them. Each airport has its approach plate, and tapping anything on it explains it.

The whole game is built on FAA Order JO 7110.65, and the order ships inside the app. Every transmission, yours and the pilots', follows standard phraseology, and the handbook opens the rule behind any instruction you just gave. Ground school starts at the phonetic alphabet and works up to the runway: thirteen chapters with voiced radio examples and a glossary, searchable in the app. Eighteen guided shifts take you through the job, twelve on the approach scope and six in the cab.

The game plays without a connection: the simulation, the scoring, the training shifts, the handbook and the pilot voices all run on the phone. Speech recognition needs a connection unless your phone has an offline English speech pack. A touch command board and a text box for typed transmissions work either way.

No ads, and no account to create. Not affiliated with the FAA, and not for real-world training.