Mumbai Approach · 127.900
Real approach procedure, projected from published charts. Beam capture worked out from where the aircraft actually is. Crews that answer back in their own voices — and you issue every clearance out loud.
Runs in your browser · nothing to download · no signup · no aviation experience needed
How it works
The three ideas the job actually turns on, explained without jargon. About thirty seconds.
01
Airliners converge on one airport in cloud, at different heights, unable to see each other. Keeping them apart and in order is what an approach controller actually does all day.
Separation is checked continuously against the real standard: 3 NM or 1,000 ft.
02
The runway transmits an invisible ramp, and an aircraft can only catch it from below. Arrive above and it flies over the top, exactly as it would in reality.
Mumbai delivers arrivals at 2,600 ft because that is the published figure, taken from the chart.
03
The aircraft has to converge with the beam gradually or it crosses without locking on. Nothing is scripted — capture is worked out from where the aeroplane genuinely is.
10–14 miles out, within 30° of the runway heading, below the ramp. Miss any of the three and nothing happens.
Where to start
All of them free, and none of them need an account. Pick whichever describes you.
What is simulated
Every one of these is computed rather than staged, which is the whole difference between a simulator and a game that looks like one. How it understands you →
Localizer and glideslope capture are computed from the aircraft real position. A clearance issued from the wrong place fails, because the aeroplane genuinely was not in the beam.
Mumbai runway geometry, the ILS course, the platform altitude and the capture window are projected from the real approach plate rather than invented for play balance.
Hold the key and say it, as a controller does. Ordinary phrasing works, self-correction is understood, and every instruction is read back in the crew own voice.
Each flight carries a voice, an experience level and a temper. Workload, delay and fuel change how they sound and what they ask for. Ignore one and it will chase you.
Key up while a pilot is transmitting and you step on them, exactly as on a real VHF radio. Audio is filtered to a radio passband so the frequency sounds like one.
Aircraft burn fuel while they wait. Hold one too long and the crew declares minimum fuel, then diverts — every delay you give one aeroplane is paid for by another.
Reference
Everything a player asks before starting, and the numbers behind the simulation.
Speedbird 214, turn right heading 240Speedbird 214, descend and maintain 2600Speedbird 214, reduce speed 180 knotsSpeedbird 214, cleared ILS approach runway 27Speedbird 214, contact Mumbai Tower 118.100Digits are spoken individually — 240 is “two four zero” — and aviation pronunciation is accepted, so “tree” is 3, “fife” is 5 and “niner” is 9.
Questions
An air traffic control game puts you in charge of the airspace rather than flying an aircraft. You read a radar display, talk to pilots, and decide where every aircraft goes. In Talk to Tower you issue headings, altitudes, speeds, approach clearances, and handoffs while keeping aircraft separated from each other.
An approach controller owns a volume of airspace roughly 30 to 40 miles around one airport. Arriving aircraft enter that airspace high, fast, and not aligned with the runway. The controller turns, descends, and slows each one until it can intercept the runway ILS beam, arranges the arrivals into one evenly spaced stream, then transfers each aircraft to the Tower controller who issues the landing clearance.
The Instrument Landing System transmits two radio beams from the runway. The localizer indicates whether an aircraft is left or right of the runway centreline. The glideslope, normally angled at 3 degrees, indicates whether the aircraft is above or below the correct descent path. When an aircraft captures both beams, its autopilot follows them down to the runway.
The ILS beams are usable only from a narrow window: approximately 10 to 14 nautical miles from the runway, within about 30 degrees of the runway heading, and below the glideslope. An aircraft arriving too high or crossing the centreline at a steep angle passes through the beam without capturing it. Positioning aircraft inside that window is the controller core task.
A radar scope with the airport at the centre. Each moving symbol is a simulated airliner labelled with its callsign, altitude, and speed. A dashed line extending west of the airport is the ILS approach path for runway 27. You select an aircraft, then talk to it.
No. The guided training shift assumes you know nothing and explains each concept at the moment you first need it. The aviation logic is realistic, but the pacing and feedback are designed for a first-time player.
Yes. Talk to Tower is built around push-to-talk voice clearances and spoken pilot readbacks. Keyboard input is always available, so the complete game works if you would rather not speak or cannot grant microphone permission.
It is realistic about the part it simulates and honest about what it leaves out. Approach control at Mumbai is modelled from published charts: real callsigns, absolute headings, separation minima, and localizer and glideslope capture computed from the aircraft actual position rather than scripted. It does not simulate ground movement, taxiways, multiple runways or live weather, and Tower is still in development. If you want a full airport operation, a desktop simulator like Tower!3D covers more; if you want to control traffic by speaking, this is the only one that works that way.
It uses recognizable approach-control procedure: real callsigns, absolute headings, altitude and speed assignments, separation minima, localizer and glideslope capture, and Tower handoffs. Mumbai runway geometry and the ILS procedure are projected from published charts. It is a game and a training aid, not certified software, and is not for operational use.
The web beta is free to start and guest play requires no account. You can optionally create a controller account to keep career progress across supported devices.
The web game runs in modern desktop and mobile browsers, and the desktop version is a wide information-dense console. A dedicated Android build exists, with iOS planned; both use the same voice-first control concept.
Open an issue on the GitHub repository at github.com/aliacollins/talk-to-tower/issues. Bug reports, phraseology corrections from controllers, and airport requests are all welcome.
Take the frequency
Free, in your browser, nothing to download. The first shift talks you through all of it.