The tablet in the cockpit has been reworked. Everything it does is now split into two views: Pilot, for flying the aircraft, and Instructor — the IOS, or Instructor Operating Station — for setting up what you fly.

We wanted a clearer line between the functions used to operate a flight and those used to build training scenarios. With a view of its own for each, what you need is easier to find.

The Pilot side

Pilot holds the functions you need to conduct a flight, the same ones as before: the basic session setup, aircraft loading, ground services and the performance calculators. If you have flown here previously, nothing here will need relearning — it has simply stopped sharing a screen with the training controls.

The Instructor side

Instructor holds everything to do with simulator training, across six tabs.

WX (Weather) sets the conditions. Pick one of the ready presets, or build your own.

POS (Position) moves the aircraft — put it on a ten-mile final and fly the approach again, rather than flying the whole sector to get there. The freeze functions live here too: freeze the simulator, or freeze the fuel flow.

FAIL (Failures) switches on faults, for when you want to practise malfunctions rather than avoid them.

AC (Aircraft) takes the configuration further: engine type, switching ROW/ROPS on, and so on.

TFC (Traffic) builds and triggers TCAS avoidance scenarios.

SIT (Situations) is where situations are saved and loaded. You can load a ready-made scenario, or save the aircraft's current state and position into a slot of your own. Loading has three modes: the whole situation, so the aircraft returns to where it was when you saved; the configuration only, leaving the aircraft where it is; or just the MCDU configuration, leaving everything else untouched.

Why it matters

The point of all of this is repetition. The faster a situation can be set up, the more times you actually fly it. That is how you get more out of an hour in the cockpit.

Flying solo is always possible, but practice gets more efficient with a second pilot, or a third person on the jump seat running the Instructor side. Either way, nobody has to leave the cockpit to program a scenario.

These functions are automatically available to everyone who flies the simulator. If you have not flown here yet, the membership page explains how to get started.