The first-flight guide

A few small inputs.
A little more confidence.

You stand beside the runway and watch the aircraft from the ground. Start with calm weather and wide, gentle circuits. Keep the model close enough to see which way it is pointing.

1. Choose your first aircraft

Start with Sky Surfer X8, the foam pusher for gentle circuits, hand launches and belly landings. It is the first-flight choice in the eight-aircraft Hangar.

NanaJet is a fast EDF sport jet with retractable wheels and flaps. Build confidence with the trainer before taking it up. It needs speed and room for its runway approach.

Nana3D is a small, lightweight foam plane for slow aerobatics and prop-hanging, with fixed wheels and large control surfaces. Start in calm air and use small inputs. Its keyboard expo softens small corrections; your radio manages its own expo and trims. Both NanaJet and Nana3D are for experienced pilots.

NanaTrainer: A high-wing runway trainer with steerable nose wheel and landing flaps. Practise circuits, gentle approaches and touch-and-goes.

NanaSoar: A three-metre electric sailplane with a folding propeller and crow brakes. Climb under power, then practise soaring and quiet approaches.

NanaEdge: A two-metre petrol aerobat with a 35 cc engine and tailwheel. Fly flowing loops, knife-edge passes and large aerobatic manoeuvres.

NanaDelta: A broad 1.5 m pusher wing with combined pitch-and-roll elevons. Hand-launch, bank to turn and finish with a smooth belly landing.

NanaRacer: A compact four-channel electric racer. Build confidence with broad passes before trying tight racing turns and fast power-off approaches.

2. Learn the keyboard

• S or ↓: pull the nose up. W or ↑: lower it.
• A / D or ← / →: roll left / right.
• Q / E: rudder left / right. Use these to steer on the runway.
• = / −: increase / decrease throttle. Shift / Ctrl also work; = / − avoid browser shortcut combinations.
• Space: hand-launch, or begin taxiing on a wheeled model. R: reset.
• Esc: open Controls or return to the flight. T: toggle tracking. Hold Z to zoom.
• V: enter or leave fullscreen. The game opens fullscreen when you click Play or Start flying. A reminder at the top shows how to leave; you can keep flying in the window afterwards.

Tap for small corrections; hold for full control. Release to centre the stick, then use the opposite roll key to level the wings. The controls act on the aircraft: when it flies towards you, its right is your left.

B switches wingtip smoke on or off; M mutes sound. On NanaJet, G retracts or extends the landing gear in flight, and F cycles flaps through up, take-off and landing. These shortcuts stay visible beside the flying view. In Controls, use Gear & flaps to assign a two-position gear switch and a three-position flap switch on your radio, or push-buttons on a controller. Your flight-stick calibration stays as it is.

On NanaTrainer, F cycles flaps. On NanaSoar it cycles crow brakes: inner flaps down and outer ailerons up for the approach. Neither uses the gear key.

3. Or connect your RC radio

Connect a compatible transmitter in USB joystick mode, then open Controls in the Hangar. Choose the device and follow the calibration wizard to identify the axes, directions, centres and travel. Check all four channel indicators before flying. Optional trim buttons can be assigned during setup or from Controls. A gamepad connects the same way: choose it in Controls and follow the same wizard.

If the device is absent, check its USB mode and data cable, then move a stick or press a button to wake the browser’s controller connection. Disconnecting the radio pauses the game. Keyboard remains available.

4. Launch, then make a gentle circuit

For a hand-launched aircraft, set some power and press Space. Let it build speed before asking for a steep climb. For NanaJet, Nana3D, NanaTrainer or NanaEdge, press Space to begin taxiing, add power, keep straight with rudder, then gently pull up as speed builds. The runway runs left-to-right across your view.

Bank a little to start turning, use a little pitch to hold the turn, then roll the wings level again. A stall warning means ease back pressure and allow the wing to regain flying speed.

5. Settle the controls

Controls contains expo and trims. Expo softens small stick movements, and it applies to keyboard flying only: a transmitter supplies its own expo and trim in its channels, so the simulator never reshapes calibrated radio input a second time. A fully held keyboard key still reaches full authority. Trims shift the neutral position. Values are saved separately for each aircraft and each physics model.

Pitch trim: 1 / 2. Roll: 3 / 4. Rudder: 5 / 6. Throttle: 7 / 8. The first key reduces the axis and the second increases it; the visible scale shows the result. The cruise preset supplies estimated steady-flight surface trims. It does not hold altitude automatically.

B switches between the two trial physics models. Both are still under comparison; aircraft tuning is not a measured guarantee of real-world behaviour.

6. Bring it home

The windsock streams downwind; line up into the wind along the grassy strip. Reduce power and make small corrections. Near the ground, gently raise the nose to slow the descent without climbing away or stalling. Keep the wings level.

The landing card explains whether the touchdown was gentle, rough or a crash, and the likely damage. These are provisional training estimates. After an undamaged wheeled landing, add power to taxi and take off from the same spot. Hand-launched models need a fresh launch.

Browser and offline play

Use a computer or large tablet with a keyboard, gamepad or USB RC radio, and a browser with WebGL2 and WebAssembly. Phone-sized screens can browse the site but can't launch the simulator. Touch flight controls are not available. If performance is low, choose a lighter graphics setting in the Hangar. After a complete online load, wait for Settings to show offline storage is ready. Keep the browser’s site data for offline play. Close old game tabs and reopen when an update is ready.