So You Want to Be a Captain: A Free Aviation Adventure Game

A funny, old-school point-and-click adventure about a student pilot, a cursed windsock and an airport with a moat.

How to play

Pick a class: the Airline Cadet does things by the book, the Bush Pilot improvises with duct tape, and the Corporate Smoothie solves everything with paperwork and charm.
Click to walk. Use the four verbs (Walk, Look, Hand, Talk) from the icon bar at the top. Tab or right-click cycles verbs; arrow keys and WASD walk. On a phone, use the buttons below the screen.
Earn your student certificate, make your first solo flight and track down the three pieces of the stolen Windsock of Ages. Score up to 500 points for puzzles, side quests, hidden jokes and skills that grow with use.
The game has a day and a night; shops and people keep hours. You can die, always in a funny way, and you can always restore. It autosaves when you change rooms (F5 saves, F7 restores).

Why pilots like it

The jokes come from people who have sat through a briefing: the crosswind that is always at ninety degrees, the examiner who says "that is… an answer", the flight plan that was never closed. An unclosed flight plan keeps the system searching, which is the idea at the heart of the plot.

Late in the adventure you find a battered orange box with a note that says "TRAFFIC!". A portable ADS-B receiver shows nearby aircraft on a tablet, which is exactly what you need in fog. See how ADS-B actually works.

Questions pilots ask

Is So You Want to Be a Captain free?

Yes. It runs in your browser on a computer, tablet or phone. There is nothing to install and no account is needed.

How long does the game take?

A first run takes several hours. There are 500 points to find and three classes with different solutions to the big puzzles.

Do I need to know how to fly?

No. Pilots catch the jokes about checklists and examiners, but every puzzle is solvable from the clues in the game.

Is my progress saved?

Yes. It autosaves when you change rooms, has three manual save slots and keeps them in your browser.

More games

Squawk 1200, a side-scrolling Cessna adventure
Crosswind, land in the same wind that cursed Spielburg
Holding Pattern, enter and fly the racetrack
Ground School, a pilot's quiz for the written exam
All Stratux Arcade games