Take off, fly, and land it softly

How to fly

Flight is a free light-aircraft flight simulator you can play in your browser — no download and no account. You fly a four-seat, high-wing, single-engine trainer on twelve delivery missions: mail to a village, medicines to a clinic, firefighters to a camp in the forest, a donor heart through a thunderstorm. Each one takes you from one airport to another in its own landscape — farmland, lakes, the coast, a desert, a forest on fire, the polar snow, islands at sea, a red-rock canyon, the mountains, sea cliffs — and each is harder than the last. Land on the destination's runway and stop on it to deliver; then the next mission opens.

Missions, weather and fuel

• The mission panel above the view says what you carry and where, the weather and the wind, and ticks off each step: take off, fly there, land, stop to unload. Pick any mission you have opened from its list.
• Weather gets worse as you go: haze, low cloud, rain, heat thermals, wildfire smoke, snow and fog, showers, a thunderstorm. The wind drifts you off your track, gusts and turbulence bump you about, and wind shear can shove you sideways and down without warning. Downdrafts lurk near mountains and on the final approach to the storm mission.
• Difficult airports: a runway that starts right at the shore, a short strip on a small island, runways on top of a mesa and a sea cliff — land short and you hit the cliff.
• Fuel is only what the mission needs, with a margin that shrinks mission by mission. Wander about, or go round too many times, and the engine stops — then you glide.

The map

Under the controls is a moving map: the route (magenta), the final approach into the destination's runway (dotted), the track you have flown (blue), your aircraft, the airports, water, mesas and mountains with their heights, towns, fires and downdrafts. Zoom with the + and − buttons or the mouse wheel; drag it to look around; Follow keeps it on your aircraft, Track up turns it with your heading, and Whole route shows both airports. The GPS on the instrument panel gives the distance, bearing and time to the destination, the wind and how long the fuel lasts; a magenta mark on the heading indicator and a diamond in the view point the way.

Taking off

1. Release the parking brake (B) — the PARK BRK lamp goes out.
2. Open the throttle all the way (hold +, or drag the throttle).
3. Keep straight with the rudder (Q, E). At 55 knots on the airspeed indicator, ease back on the yoke (↓) and she flies.
4. Climb at about 75 knots: if the speed drops, lower the nose; if it climbs too fast, raise it.

Press C, or the View button, to switch between the cockpit and an outside camera behind the aircraft; the instruments stay under both. Then turn towards the magenta mark on the heading indicator and climb to a safe height — higher than the mesas and mountains on your way.

The instruments

• Airspeed in knots, with the white flap arc, the green normal range, the yellow caution range and the red never-exceed line.
• Attitude indicator — the artificial horizon: pitch and bank at a glance.
• Altimeter — the long hand is hundreds of feet, the short one thousands.
• Turn coordinator — wings on the L or R mark is a standard-rate turn; keep the ball in the middle with the rudder.
• Heading indicator and the magnetic compass on the glare shield.
• Vertical speed in hundreds of feet a minute, the tachometer, fuel, the flap position, and the warning lamps — including the stall warning, with its horn.

Landing

Line up with the runway a few miles out — the dotted line on the map shows the final approach — slow to about 65 knots, put the flaps down (F) a notch at a time, and let her descend at 300–500 feet a minute. Just above the runway, close the throttle and gently raise the nose (the flare) so she settles onto the wheels. Then brake (Space). A touchdown under 120 ft/min is a butter landing; the centreline earns a bonus. Too hard, too steeply banked, nose first — or a field at speed — and it is a crash. Stall below about 50 knots clean (44 with full flaps) and the nose drops: lower it further and add power to recover.

Frequently asked questions

Is Flight free?

Yes. It is free to play with no sign-up, no download and no in-game purchases.

Is my progress saved?

The missions you have opened and your best score on each are kept in this browser on this device; nothing is sent anywhere. Your career score is the best of each mission added up.

How realistic is it?

The flight model works from real aerodynamics — lift and drag from the angle of attack and the flaps, thinning air with height, thrust that fades with speed — and the aircraft stalls, climbs, cruises and glides at speeds close to a real trainer's. It is a game, not a flight-training device.