Island

Every flight starts on a dirt strip cut into the fields. That's home: R resets you there, and H hands over to the return-to-home autopilot, which flies the wing back toward it. Press Space and the launcher runs down the strip and throws the wing at flying speed, with a few spectators watching from the grass.

Over the climb-out stand two green start arches, one for each course. Fly through one and that course's lap begins. There's no race mode to pick: every launch is free flight until you thread an arch. If the keys are new to you, the how-to-play guide covers the launch, every control and radio setup.

Climb out and the island opens into a patchwork of crop fields, tree lines and dirt roads, with hamlets and farmsteads along the roads. The ground started as Copernicus satellite elevation data of real rolling farmland, reshaped into this island, so the hills have long shoulders and gentle saddles and the valleys drain somewhere sensible. How it's built covers the pipeline.

It's low-pass country. Drop to a couple of metres and follow a field edge with the tree line going past your wingtip, then hop into the next field. The ground really rolls, so holding a low line takes steady pitch work, not just flying level.

The big lake lies north-east of the strip, with a low island off its centre, a jetty and motorboats cutting wakes across it. Two hot-air balloons hang on tethers above it. A smaller lake to the south-west has its own jetty and boats.

Water is the classic low-pass test: there's nothing to hop over, only a flat surface and your height judgement. Chase a boat down its wake a metre off the water, or set up a low pass along a jetty.

A river winds across the island from west to east, south of the strip, with boats working its western channel. The stone bridge is a gap with hard edges: come in straight and wings level, and don't correct at the last moment. River Run crosses it twice; ducking under its arch is an optional line, never a required one.

Just downstream of the bridge the banks rise into a gorge, a narrow cut where the walls choose your line for you. Go in with speed and commit, because you can't change your mind halfway.

East of the big lake a cliff-faced escarpment stands over the fields. Four wind turbines line its crest and a waterfall pours off its face. The turbines are there to be slalomed, and because they stand on high ground you arrive with height to spend; dive off the ridge shoulder and you carry that speed down to the river. Windmill Run takes exactly that line.

Two separate rail loops run through the farmland, one south of the river and one across the north-west. Each carries two long freight trains at about 120 km/h, smoke trailing from the locomotive. Spot the smoke, plan an intercept, drop in behind a train and hold formation just above the wagons as the line curves through the fields. It's the gentlest formation flying on the island, because a train never turns unexpectedly.

A biplane and a Spitfire fly low circuits over the farmland either side of the strip. Joining one and holding station on its wing is a real test of throttle control. The biplane cruises at 130 to 180 km/h, which the Nanawing One, the Morok UAV and the Sukhoi S-70 Okhotnik can all match (the Spectre tops out at 100 km/h); the Spitfire runs at 250 to 360 km/h, so take the Sukhoi S-70 Okhotnik for that one.

On the ground, off-road trucks run the dirt roads between the villages, a twistier moving target than the trains.

Windmill Run is the grand tour: up the launch corridor, along a tree-lined leg, across the big lake under the balloons, under the turbine ridge, then down to the river gorge and through the bridge gap. River Run stays low down the river valley to a turn gate by the stone bridge and back. Race rivals, on by default in Settings, puts five replay aircraft flying recorded pilot lines on the course with you.

Finished laps go on the live leaderboard for their course and wing, under the pilot name you set in the Hangar; there's no account. Medal times to beat:

• Windmill RunBronze 1:40Silver 1:20Gold 1:05Author 0:55
• River RunBronze 3:25Silver 2:35Gold 2:05Author 1:45