Separate ATC Positions: Ground / Tower / Approach Training Modes

I tried the Airport Control 27 demo and really liked it. The game has a lot of potential, especially for players who want realistic ATC rather than a simple traffic-management game.

There is one thing that, in my opinion, could significantly improve both training and long-term gameplay.

At the moment, Approach, Tower, and Ground responsibilities are effectively combined into one controller position. For an experienced player this creates an interesting workload, but for a beginner it means learning several fundamentally different jobs at the same time.

These are not simply three levels of the same task.

Approach requires thinking about sequencing, spacing, speed, altitude and future runway demand.

Tower requires managing runway occupancy, departures, arrivals, go-arounds, crossings and immediate separation around the airport.

Ground requires a completely different mental model: taxi routing, pushback, holding points, conflicting taxi paths, runway crossings and congestion on the surface.

When all three are introduced simultaneously, a new player is not only learning ATC procedures — they are constantly switching between three different control loops.

That makes it harder to build basic skills and, more importantly, harder to understand WHY a situation went wrong.

I think Airport Control 27 would benefit enormously from a proper Controller Position / Training Mode.

Ground Control Only

The player controls:

pushback
engine start where applicable
taxi routes
holding points
runway crossings
surface conflicts
sequencing aircraft toward departure queues

AI controls Tower and Approach.

This would allow players to practice ground movement for as long as they want until taxiway layouts, conflict prediction and routing become automatic.

Tower Only

The player controls:

takeoff clearances
landing clearances
line up and wait
runway crossings
runway occupancy
departure/arrival sequencing
go-arounds and immediate runway conflicts

AI controls Ground and Approach.

This would let players develop the ability to "see" runway capacity and future conflicts without simultaneously managing an entire airport surface.

Approach Only

The player controls:

arrival sequencing
headings
altitude
speed
spacing
approach clearance
feeding aircraft into the runway arrival stream

AI handles Tower and Ground.

This would allow players to learn traffic flow and anticipation instead of constantly jumping between radar and taxiways.

Combined Positions

After that, players could combine positions:

Ground + Tower

Tower + Approach

Ground + Tower + Approach

And finally the existing full-control mode.

The important point is that this should not be a simplified arcade mode.

The procedures, aircraft behavior, separation requirements and realism could remain exactly the same.

Only the division of responsibility would change.

That distinction is important.

Reducing traffic or removing procedures teaches the player a simplified version of the game.

Separating controller positions lets the player learn the real system one subsystem at a time.

There could even be a natural training progression:

Ground → Tower → Approach → combined positions → full airport operations

But I would strongly recommend keeping these positions available as permanent game modes rather than making them short tutorials.

A player should be able to spend several hours working only Ground Control if that is what they want to practice.

The same system could later become the foundation for multiplayer:

Player 1 — Ground
Player 2 — Tower
Player 3 — Approach

The AI could automatically occupy any unassigned positions.

That would mean the same architecture works for:

beginners
solo players
advanced players
training
multiplayer

It would also allow very useful custom setups.

For example:

Player: Tower
AI: Ground + Approach

Player: Ground + Tower
AI: Approach

or eventually:

Player 1: Ground
Player 2: Tower
AI: Approach

Another very useful addition would be a short post-session analysis showing where conflicts originated.

For example:

"Arrival sequence became unstable 4 minutes earlier because spacing between AAL123 and UAL456 was insufficient."

or:

"Departure queue blocked Taxiway B after three aircraft were sent toward the same holding point."

That would teach players to recognize causes instead of only reacting to consequences.

For a realistic simulator, I think this is especially important: ATC skill is largely about developing anticipation.

You eventually stop seeing individual aircraft.

You start seeing what the airport is going to look like several minutes from now.

Airport Control 27 already has the systems needed to make that interesting. Allowing players to train Ground, Tower and Approach separately would give them a much better path toward mastering the full simulation.

Please keep the current combined mode — it is challenging and fun.

Just give us the ability to learn the airport one controller position at a time before somebody hands us the entire airspace, runway system and taxi network on the first day. :)