In Sky Team, two players work together as pilot and co-pilot and share a control panel with the instruments needed to fly the plane with the challenge of a successful landing. There are many details to be managed correctly. The plane’s axis, engines, and communications with traffic controllers and other planes all play crucial roles in a safe landing. As the pilot team nears the airport, the flaps must be slowly deployed and the landing gear lowered at the correct time, as speed is affected by its drag. With an imminent landing, altitude needs to be decreased at the correct speed, so the airport is not approached too late or too soon. Finally, landing with the plane level and applying brakes at the right time is crucial for a smooth landing!
To start, the pilot team sets up their first game of Sky
Team with an approach to the Montreal airport. Some cockpit controls
are accessible to both players and others are split between the players. For example, the pilot controls the landing gear while the co-pilot
controls the wing flaps, but they both adjust the plane’s speed and brakes. Each player has a set of four dice with the
pilot’s color blue and the co-pilot’s color orange. Both pilots roll their dice and take turns
placing all four dice each round on various areas of the control panel, working
together to safely land the plane over seven rounds and win the game!
Once players are ready for more challenges, they can play with the other 10 airport runway approach tracks. Also included are 21 different game scenarios to provide more fun challenges! Sky Team can be intense to play when circumstances are not optimal. You may crash and burn sometimes, but getting back in the cockpit and working together can be exhilarating. Playing this game is the closest I will ever get to piloting a plane, and it is a nice addition to my gameplay rotation. It can be played in 20 minutes—depending on how seriously you take each landing! ~Marsha