ATC Drills

Spatial and traffic picture

Reading a small plan view: which aircraft is closest to the centre, which is highest, which pair is closing, and which pair will be inside 3 nautical miles and 1,000 feet if nobody turns. North is up. Altitude is in feet, shown on the label as flight level hundreds.

Picture check (free)Closing headings (paid)Separation conflict (paid)Dense picture (paid)

This variant is in the paid set. The free drill on this page stays open.

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How to read the scope

The centre is the field. Rings are only a scale. The line on each target is its heading, not a history trail. The number after the callsign is the altitude in hundreds of feet, so 120 is 12,000 feet. The free drill does not move the targets: you are judging the picture you were given. Paid drills ask about motion: a closing pair, or a pair that will lose separation inside two minutes.

Answer the question that is written, not the aircraft that looks busiest. Keys 1 to 4 pick an answer. If two targets look close, use the altitude. A pair 2 miles apart and 4,000 feet apart is not a conflict under this rule.

Practice past the free drill

One free drill in each family stays free. Paid drills are the harder variants.

Email the day-by-day plan: ATC aptitude test prep plan, 4 weeks. The buy button stays the main action.

Questions people ask

What does the spatial drill train?

Reading a small plan view: which aircraft is closest to the centre, which is highest, which pair is closing, and which pair will be inside 3 nautical miles and 1,000 feet if nobody turns. North is up. Altitude is in feet, shown on the label as flight level hundreds.

Is this a radar simulation from a real unit?

No. The aircraft are invented for the question. Tracks are straight and speeds are constant so the geometry has one answer. A real sector is messier, and the selection tests do not publish their pictures.

Why is separation 3 miles and 1,000 feet?

Those are familiar en-route numbers, used here as a clear rule for the puzzle. A selection test may use a different rule. The skill is noticing the pair that breaks the rule you were given.

Spatial drill: traffic picture, altitude, and separation