Managing the Approach: Speed, Traffic, Flaps, and Gear

Somewhere around round 3 or 4, Sky Team changes. The early slack is gone. Planes sit in the spaces you are about to fly through, the airport is close enough to count to, and every system you have not built is a job still waiting for the final round. This lesson is about that middle stretch: the traffic, your speed, and the order you build your gear and flaps.

Count spaces and rounds

Every briefing should start with two numbers: how many spaces until the airport, and how many rounds until the airplane picture shows in the altitude screen. The game lasts 7 rounds, and in the last one you do not move along the track at all, because your speed is checked against the Brakes instead.

If the spaces left are more than the rounds left, you are behind and need some 2-space rounds. If they are fewer, you are ahead and can afford 0-space rounds. Reaching the airport early is survivable: you circle in a holding pattern and stop moving forward. Arriving late is a crash short of the runway.

Traffic sets the speed limit

You may not move forward while a plane sits in your Current Position. Planes further ahead block you only when you would fly through them: if you move 2 spaces and a plane sits in the next space, the move takes you into it.

So the Radio is really a speed tool. Clear the plane in front of you, and you are free to move. A die of 1 on the Radio clears your own space, which is often the plane that matters most. The Co-Pilot has two Radio spaces and the Pilot has one, so traffic tends to be the Co-Pilot’s job, and the briefing is the place to agree on which plane goes first.

When the sky ahead is empty, speed matters less. The rulebook’s tips point out that you can then play your first die somewhere else and let the Engines take care of themselves.

Speed is two dice and two markers

Your speed is the sum of the two Engines dice. The blue and orange Aerodynamics markers turn that sum into a move:

• below the blue marker: stay put,
• between the markers: move 1 space,
• above the orange marker: move 2 spaces.

At setup, a total of 4 or less keeps you in place and a total of 9 or more moves you 2. Those thresholds do not stay there. Every Landing Gear pushes the blue marker up, and every Flap pushes the orange marker up.

Landing Gear makes slowing down easy

Each Landing Gear moves the blue marker one space. With all three down, a total of 7 or less keeps you in place. That is the tool for a crowded approach: if planes are stacked ahead and you want to stay still while the Radio clears them, lower the gear. The rulebook says exactly this: when the airport is crowded and you want to move 0 spaces, the Landing Gear helps.

Landing Gear can go down in any order, and each space takes a pair of numbers: 1 or 2, 3 or 4, 5 or 6. That makes it one of the easiest places for the Pilot to use an awkward die.

Flaps make speeding up hard

Each Flap moves the orange marker one space. With all four out, the marker sits just past 12, which no two dice can beat, so 2-space rounds are gone for good. The rulebook’s warning is short: if you need to move 2 spaces, do not deploy your flaps too soon.

Flaps also have to go in order, and the later spaces want high numbers: 4 or 5, then 5 or 6. A Co-Pilot who waits too long may need two high dice in the last rounds, when the Axis and Engines also want them.

Build in the order the track asks

Put those facts together and a simple rule appears:

• Behind, or a long empty track: gear first, flaps late. You keep the 2-space rounds.
• Ahead, or a crowded track: flaps and gear both early. You make standing still easy while the Radio works.
• Either way: have at least most of the gear and flaps green before the last round, because the final round has little room to finish them.

Brakes belong here too

The Brakes only matter in the final round, but they are built before it. They go in order, 2 then 4 then 6, all by the Pilot, and each one needs that exact number. A Pilot who rolls a 2 in round 4 and has nothing urgent for it should think about the first brake. Waiting for the last round to build all three almost never works.

Reading the middle rounds

By now the silence should feel more natural. A Co-Pilot who skips the Flaps for a round while holding high dice is saying “we still need distance.” A Pilot who drops gear on a 1 is saying “I want us to slow down.” Read the panel the way you would read a friend’s face.

The midgame is also where crews start to blame each other. Our guide to co-op games without a quarterback problem has a few ways to keep it friendly.