Flying in Area00 is about making sorties. Area00 is not a flight simulator, you do not have to worry about keeping your aircraft speed, heading, level, etc. In Area00 it is all about where you fly and the combat you are engaged in. Your primary concern is to find and engage your target, and not get shot down while flying your sortie.

You are always flying in one of the nine airspace sectors of a wing, represented by the nine-squares on the map in your cockpit. The sortie starts from take-off and ends with a landing or a crash. During each sortie, you can navigate sectors of one wing, and move between wings. A sortie can thus last anywhere from one second to many minutes.

To start flying your sortie. You have a choice between the commands "Scout", "Patrol", "Repeat" depending on your mission and destination: one of the wings.

• Scout: your mission is to scout a wing: fly to selected wing's airspace.
• Patrol: your mission is to patrol your wing: fly in your own airspace.
• Repeat: repeat your last mission: fly to the last wing you were flying over.

"Scout" takes you to your selected destination: one of the wings. This is called Scouting because you are looking for targets of that wing or targets flying over that wing. To select your destination wing to "Scout" you have several options:

• Left-side menu under Missions: Fly
  • NEWBIE: If you are in the Newbie School wing, Fly will by default "Scout" the Newbie School's own airspace and is therefore the same as "Patrol". This is because in Newbie School, your sole mission is to destroy the School's dummy targets first before you can leave Newbie School and Scout other wings. When you have left Newbie School, "Fly" gives you the same Scouting options as the regular gameservers, see below.
  • REGULAR: On regular gameservers, Fly takes you to the Mission Computer. On this page you can select which wing to "Scout".
• Top dropdown menu View: Wing List
  This will show a list of all the scoutable and protected wings in the game.
  • Unprotected wings show the "Scout" link. Click it if your mission is to scout that wing.
• Other
  "Scout" is also available from several other pages on which wings or players are listed, the ones you will use the most are:
  • "Wing Office > Enemies/Allies" to scout the wing of your enemy or ally
  • "Online Pilots" to scout the wing of a certain pilot

"Patrol" means you will take-off and stay in your own airspace. This is called Patrolling because you are generally on the look for targets that pose a threat to your wing.

On successful take-off, you are now in the sector of your defensive disposition. By default this is the middle sector, unless your wing's commander, vice commander or tactical officer moved you to another sector. Because you are in friendly airspace, you only need to worry about bogeys and enemies that are scouting your wing. You can now navigate to all sectors of the wing, land or scout another wing without having to take-off again.

While patrolling, you can also use "Refuel" if your wing has purchased the KC-135 airborne tanker. This is slightly more expensive than ground refuelling, but saves you fuel spend for landing and take-off.

"Patrol" only works if you are at your base. When you are airborne over a different wing, your cockpit has a button to "Return" to your own airspace for patrolling or refuelling.

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"Repeat" means you will take-off and fly to the same wing as the wing you were flying over before. This is called Repeat because you are repeating your last mission, even though your aircraft, armament and objectives may be completely different. If your last mission was "Patrol" or you did "Return" before landing, "Repeat" will be the same as "Patrol". If on your last sortie, you hit "Land" when you were on a "Scout" mission over a different wing, "Repeat" will be the same as clicking "Scout" for the same wing.

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Whether you are going to "Scout" or "Patrol", you will automatically take-off. No skill or action is required. Of course the take-off will only happen if you and your aircraft can take-off. Furthermore if you are going to "Scout" another wing, you will only take-off if you are allowed to scout that wing. Before take-off, your aircraft is automatically fuelled to the point where fuel tanks are full or maximum take-off weight is reached.

• Take-off requirements:
  • Your pilot is not in hospital, not in prison, not frozen by staff.
  • Your aircraft is on the runway, ie. you have bought or taken an aircraft out of the shelters.
  • Your aircraft is not under repairs.
  • Your aircraft is not overweight, ie. you have enough thrust to carry the weight of the aircraft, equipment, fuel and armament.
    things to check:
    • one or more engines are equipped and not broken
    • buy/equip or repair equipment which increases thrust
    • change armament or fly with less fuel by emptying fuel tank before adding weapons.

When you are airborne you can navigate between sectors by clicking on the map in your cockpit. When you stay in a sector without performing any actions other than refreshing your radar, you will not use fuel. But when you navigate to another sector fuel is consumed.

If you are in hostile airspace, over neutral wing or enemy wing, each time you navigate between sectors the air defenses (both air and surface) will try to engage your aircraft.

To navigate back to your own wing use "Return" (see next) or as previously described scout another wing while remaining airborne.

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If you are over a different wing than your own, you can return to your own airspace without landing by clicking "Return". This is for when your "Scramble Light" indicates that there is a bogey over your wing, you want to refuel without landing, or if you want to be in friendly airspace after disengage a fight to read your combat news.

The game will automatically return you to your own airspace if the wing you are trying to navigate has been destroyed.

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When you are airborne over your own wing, regardless of sector you are in, by clicking "Refuel" you can refuel in air if your wing has purchased the KC-135 tanker as Wing Equipment and you have enough credits to pay for it.

When you are not airborne, the "Refuel" button in your cockpit will trigger ground crew refueling. Which is the same as refueling your aircraft from the Armament or Aircraft Status pages.

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Whether you are in your own airspace or flying over another wing, the cockpit "Land" button immediately lands your plane.

Your "Landing" will be an emergency landing and may damage your aircraft:
• If the sector of your defensive disposition (your sector) lacks a runway and your aircraft is not capable of "Vertical Take-off and Landing" (VTOL).
  
• If you have run out of fuel and you are forced to "Land".