@THAC
Via post on page 54:
TRAINING
Ex1, Ex2, Ex3: as mentioned above, these three are training exercises. You're introduced to the rules and some characteristics of the test, which very briefly sounded like this:
-You'll be given four aircrafts, colored green, which are under your control;
-Apart from "your" aircrafts there will be some traffic that you can't control, as these planes will be colored grey. They will pass through the radar screen without changing their altitudes and headings;
-All aircrafts (controlled and uncontrolled ones) are moving with the same speed, so you can change only the heading and the flight level of the ones under your control;
-The information for the aircrafts' headings and altitudes are given with small numbers next to the green squares that represent each particular aircraft.
-The aim is to get all of your aircrafts through the checkpoints in the correct order, avoiding conflicts. Checkpoints are named CP1, CP2, CP3, CP4 and this is the order you should follow with any of your aircrafts;
-The six small vertically arranged circles on the left of the screen represent the exercise you're currently on;
-The buttons on the right side of the screen are named "LEFT", "RIGHT", "ALT" and "SUM". The LEFT/RIGHT buttons are used to change the heading of a particular aircraft (Clicking RIGHT and entering 315 will make the aircraft turn right to heading 315);
-The ALT button on the screen is used to change the altitude of a particular aircraft. You're only allowed to use three altitude levels 100, 200 and 300;
-You have a conflict when both of these conditions are present: two aircrafts are flying at the same altitude and are less than 2.5NM apart;
That's pretty much all with the exception of the SUM button (we will talk about it in Ex6).
TEST
Ex4: the first one of the evaluated exercises. The aim is to guide your four aircrafts through four checkpoints in the correct order. There is no uncontrolled traffic. Your priorities will be in this order of importance:
1)Avoid conflicts;
2)Use less commands;
3)Pass checkpoints accurately.
Ex5: absolutely the same as Ex4 with the same priorities, but this time you have uncontrolled traffic, which makes it more difficult because you have
to avoid conflicts with more aircrafts.
Ex6: includes Ex5, but there is an extra task. You have to put your headphones on. While guiding aircrafts through the checkpoints you'll have to listen to a long sequence of letters and numbers and calculate the sum of the last two numbers you hear. If the sequence goes like this "M K 5 J 3 6 N P Q 8", you'll firstly have to sum 5+3, then 3+6, after that 6+8. The sum has to be entered, using the SUM button on the right side of the screen.
...and last, but not least, some pieces of advice from me:
-When doing Ex5 and Ex6 make sure you keep a fair amount of distance between your aircrafts, because it gets pretty nasty when you are controlling two aircrafts at different altitudes close to each other and you have to dodge two uncontrolled ones, heading your way, again flying at different altitudes. Remember, you can only fly at three altitude levels (100, 200 or 300)!
-When doing Ex4, Ex5 and Ex6 keep in mind the turning radius of your aircrafts (which is one and the same for all of them).
-Keep in mind your priorities!!! The most important one is to AVOID CONFLICTS and, God forbid, collisions. The second is to use less heading and altitude changes. The least important is to pass the checkpoints accurately (there is a certain distance within which you can pass the checkpoint).