Flight Control iPhone Game Tips

Flight Control is an addictive and fun iPhone game that provides hours of entertainment.  This hub attempts to describe some of the tactics I've used to obtain my best high scores.  Many of these ideas are not by own but I've tried all of these tips and they work!  I hope you find them as useful as I have.

Use "straight in" landing paths whenever possible.  This has several benefits over swooping, curved paths: aircraft get on the ground in the shortest amount of time, aircraft get away from the edges of the screen and it is easier to sequence many aircraft onto the runway when they don't curve unexpectedly.

The landing zones at then ends of the runways are highly congested but most of their length is free for incoming traffic.  Unlike in real life, you can direct planes down the "wrong way" of either runway and it will hook sharply at the landing zone.  It's even possible to land airplanes from both directions at once.  Try it out!

The edges of the screen are the most dangerous areas in the game.  You won't have much forewarning when a new aircraft is entering your airspace so you're best off getting aircraft away from the edges and heading towards the landing zones.  See tip 1.

I'm not alone in finding the game much easier to play when the screen is rotated 180 degrees. Why? Probably because I'm right handed and I play with my right index finger.  When the screen is right side up, my finger often obscures the propellor landing zone.  When flipped, the games feel a lot less hectic.

Land your jumbo jets before other jets.  If you must route a fast jumbo-jet behind a regular jet, give it plenty of space or you will spend way too much attention trying to slow down the jumbo-jet.

During periods of intense congestion, scribble back and forth in a small area to route aircraft into a temporary holding pattern.  I find that 4 short squiggles are a good hold that should last 15 to 20 seconds, an eternity during a busy period of the game. 

There are many benefits to this approach: you will use much less real estate than a racetrack holding pattern like is used in real life and you can draw these squiggles super fast and move your attention elsewhere.  

Then when the landing zones free up, you can come back and send the holding aircraft in for landing.

I'll be adding many more tips and some screenshots to illustrate these tactics.  

And if you have any tips of your own, please leave a comment!