Pilot selection tests include dual-axis compensatory tracking tasks that measure your ability to simultaneously suppress lateral and vertical deviations while sustained concentration and fine-motor precision are under pressure. This exercise simulates that challenge using a classic instrument-approach display: keep the localiser and glideslope needles centred as independent random disturbances push them off course.
Loading exercise...
This measures dual-axis compensatory tracking and fine-motor coordination: keeping the localiser and glideslope needles centred at once while a continuous disturbance pushes each off course. Holding two independent axes together is the split-attention control demand behind flying an instrument approach by hand.
Tracking one axis is straightforward; tracking two independent axes simultaneously requires divided attention and fine-motor coordination between both hands or both fingers. Selection batteries specifically target this split-attention demand because it predicts how well pilots manage multiple flight parameters at once.
White bar = LOC (left/right). Amber bar = GS (up/down). Green crosshair = target. When a needle reaches 95% deflection it turns red as a pegged-approach warning. Your score keeps accumulating during a peg, so fast recovery is always worth the effort.
On-site selection systems run tasks like this on calibrated joysticks, rudder pedals and custom response panels that no browser exercise can replicate, so treat this as training for the underlying control skill rather than a replica of any machine. One practical tip from candidates who have sat the real assessments: practise with a mouse or a gamepad, not a laptop trackpad. A trackpad makes smooth, continuous two-axis control far harder than the real test ever would.
Aptitude tests get you through selection. The EASA ATPL theory exams come next, and SkyStudy is built for that phase.
SkyStudy is built for EASA ATPL exam preparation, with an ATPL question bank, timed mock exams, spaced repetition and analytics across every subject. Free to start, no card needed.