The game, briefly
A light aircraft simulator concerned with weather, terrain and fuel rather than combat, structured as a series of routes across mountain country where the interesting problem is always the air rather than the machine. It is slow, technical and unusually well documented in-game.
It is also the game in this bench most likely to be dismissed on input grounds by anyone reading only the headline number, which is why the headline number is the wrong one to read.
Input count
Two hundred and six bound actions, which is by far the largest list here. Peak simultaneous demand is four, which is below the bench median, and the reason for the gap is that almost nothing in this simulator happens at speed. You are setting a state, not executing a combination.
The design does two things that make the total manageable. First, the tutorial routes require only four bindings and the rest are introduced across roughly twenty hours. Second, every binding is discoverable from a searchable list that shows current assignment rather than defaults — trivial to implement and absent from most of the archive.
| Measure | Updraft Line | Bench 26 median |
|---|---|---|
| Bound actions | 206 | 19 |
| Required in first hour | 4 | 11 |
| Peak simultaneous | 4 | 4.5 |
| Sustained holds | 2 | 2.5 |
| Timing windows under 200 ms | 0 | 2 |
The rebinding audit
One hundred per cent, including the two sustained holds, both of which offer toggle alternatives. Multiple binding profiles can be saved and switched without restarting, which matters in a game likely to be played on more than one device.
The two holds — flap deployment and a trim adjustment — are the only actions in the game with any physical duration, and both are held for seconds rather than minutes. Compare Gantry Nine, which has seven holds, no toggles, and a lean that must be sustained through firefights lasting several minutes.
Two hundred and six bindings and zero locked ones. A large control surface is a design choice with real costs, but it is not the same failure as a small control surface you are forbidden to move.
What the binding screen does well
- Searchable list showing current assignment rather than factory default.
- Multiple named profiles, switchable in flight without restarting.
- Toggle alternative offered inline for both sustained holds.
- Unbound actions clearly marked rather than silently blank.
- Conflicts flagged with the conflicting action named.
Across four devices
Best on a flight stick, which is unsurprising, and genuinely good on a standard pad, which is not. The pad profile shipped by the developer uses a modifier shoulder to double the available bindings and is thoughtfully arranged; it is the only pad profile in this bench that reads as designed rather than generated.
On keyboard it is comprehensive and slightly overwhelming, as one would expect from two hundred bindings. On the adaptive switch box the flying itself is workable — the four core inputs assign cleanly — but the systems management beyond that becomes impractical, and the review says so rather than rounding it up.
| Device | Playable | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Flight stick | Fully | Clearly the intended device |
| Standard pad | Fully | Shipped profile is genuinely well designed |
| Keyboard and mouse | Fully | Comprehensive, heavy to learn |
| Adaptive switch box | Flying yes, systems no | Core four assign cleanly; deeper systems impractical |
Where it loses points
Route variety thins after about thirty hours, the weather model repeats a small number of patterns more often than it should, and the fuel economy is generous enough to remove the tension the rest of the design builds. None of that is an input problem.
Verdict
Eight point one. The most complicated control surface in twenty-six benches and one of the three least frustrating, which ought to end the argument that accessibility and depth are in tension. They are not in tension here, and the game is not simple.