Flightcontrol is without doubt one of the most addictive games for the iPhone. Besides that it is also very popular.
I’ve been playing it quite a bit lately and think I have some do’s and dont’s if you want to improve your topscore.
First of al to make something clear: No I’m not one of those guys who have a topscore of around4,3823,075 landings. My current topscore at the moment of writing the article is 638 landings, which brings me to the top 4% of players and being a “Test Pilot”
My latest stats can be found here: Flight Control Profile for PaulWillen
1) ALWAYS give a plane a landing route:
Because you want to land the planes as quickly as possible it is good to give all the planes – every time you change it’s direction – a landing route. If a plane has a landing route the color changes to white. The more planes on the screen, the harder the game gets, so landing those planes quickly is really important.
2) Helicopters cannot crash each other.
When a helicopter enters the screen, directly point it to it’s landing platform. From now don’t change the helicopters route anymore, unless REALLY necessary. Helicopters cannot crash each other when they are directly routed towards the landing platform. Your only concern on helicopters is that other planes don’t crash into.
3) If possible don’t cross the landing routes.
Crossing a landing route means a potential crash. Try avoiding this as much as possible. In the above picture you see I gave the small yellow plane (above the helicopter platfrom) an alternative route, because it is very likely to hit one of the helicopters.
4) Learn which plane-type enters the screen on what position.
There are 16 positions where planes enter the screen. (4 on each side); Learn which plane-type enters the screen on what place. Knowing which plane-type enters the screen gives a lot of advantage, since you can give it a landing route directly!
5) Use the runway as a flightroute.
Mainly the large jumbo-jets entering the screen from the right can use the runway as a flight route. Actually the runways are a relative large part of the screen, which can and should be used as a flight route. Try avoiding the landing places of the runways as a flightroute, since those areas are danger zones for a potential crash.
6) Faster planes should land first.
The Jumbo-Jets are faster planes and are therefore more likely to crash. So if you have the possibility to land the Jumbo-jet before the other pink planes, do it.
7) Leave enough space on several routes.
This is mainly for the long, slow helicopters entering the screen from the left. Since you’re able to route jumbo jets from the right directly over the runway, make sure you have enough place for the jumbo jet’s right wing. Give these helicopters a very slightly curved route towards the landing platform.
8 ) Avoid the edges
Before a plane enters the screen a red exclamation mark is shown on the place where the plane enters the screen. Planes enter the screen from the edges. When another plane is near the edge where the plane enters the screen you don’t have a lot of time to change it’s direction.
9) Redirect only one plane if two planes almost crash.
It makes no sense to redirect both planes when they are almost crashing. If possible make sure the one which is nearest to the landing place doesn’t get redirected. In that case you make sure the other plane (which you aren’t redirecting) lands and gives the other plane more space to land. In the above sceen I redirected the top yellow plane, so that it lands between the other two planes.
10) Don’t keep your hand over the screen.
Make sure you have a clean view of the screen all the time. A lot of my crashes are from the Jumbo-jets crashing into a yellow plane on the bottom right of the screen. Because the jumbo-jet’s move fast you only have a few seconds to give them a good route. If you hold your right hand slightly over the screen, you’ll easily overlook the planes on the right side of the screen. Lefties must watch out not keeping their left had over the screen.
Final thoughts
I hope these tips are usefull and will help you to improve your top-score. If you have any other tips or tricks please post them in the comments.
Also if this article helped you improving your top score please let me know 
