Flight Control strategy: Maximize Points

This guide will teach you how to rival the best of the best in Firemint's game, Flight Control. The game concept is simple - land the planes on the respective runways. As time goes on, more and more planes appear on the screen requiring precise coordination of landings and making sure no aircraft crash into each other.

As of 1.3, Firemint has released two additional maps to play on with (in my opinion) slightly harder difficulty levels than the first map. However, other than more types of airplanes and different "airport" layouts, the strategies remain the same. While this guide will cover the first map, you can apply the same concepts to the others.

Here are some strategies to use while playing:

Concentration!

Always maintain concentration on the game. One small distraction could spell the death of hundreds of virtual people riding in those red/blue/yellow planes and helicopters.

Know the aircraft spawn points

Every type of aircraft can only spawn at certain points of each map. Knowing which one is coming before they actually appear on the screen is a great advantage since you can decide how and when to move away aircraft around that area. The following is an image courtesy of Firemint that shows not only the spawn points of the first map, but also possible collision points that many aircraft are likely to cross over:

Land aircraft as fast as possible

As your score gets higher, more and more aircraft will start appearing on the screen. This will eventually cause you to crash two of them out of sheer numbers. Always land each aircraft ASAP. The only reason you will keep an aircraft flying around is to wait for the runway to clear.

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line

This obvious statement is imperative to follow. Don't bother wasting time making giant curved paths for your aircraft. As soon as they appear on the screen, a straight path should be made to their respective runway. You might be wondering, "what if the plane appears on the other side of the map from where the runway entrance is?". The answer is the bold text above - just draw a straight path to the runway entrance even though realistically it's impossible to land. It's possible in this game because the aircraft here are special which leads us to...

Flight Control aircraft can make 180 degree turns in the same position!

The planes can literally turn around completely while in the same position. Use this to your advantage everywhere. The red and yellow ones take advantage of this a lot since you can have them fly from any point in the map to the runway entrance and it doesn't matter what direction they're facing, they'll immediately do a quick turn to the correct direction to enter the runway. You can pretty much have them fly down the other side of the runway and have it to do a 180 as soon as it reaches the entry point.

Land fast jets before slower ones

The faster jets are harder to control due to their speed and should be given priority to land over slower jets. Obviously if there is a slower jet next to the runway, land it first, but generally, land the big fast ones first when there is an option. You can have the waiting planes do a holding pattern (circle) around the entrance while the big one lands.

Stay away from the edges of the screen!

Despite the fact that there are fixed spawn points for all the aircraft, it is still inadvisable to keep aircraft near the edges. Even if you are a flight control master, it's pretty much an unnecessary risk, since if there's trouble elsewhere on the map and you leave it near the edge, an inopportune plane might spawn right at that time causing game over.

By following the strategies above, and lots of patience, you can achieve scores in the several hundreds (and even higher). As your score grows, there comes a point where the difficulty levels off and doesn't increase anymore. I believe this is around the 100th plane, but someone correct me if I'm wrong. In any case, if you are able to reach 100, you should be good enough to go far beyond that as well.

The biggest cause of crashes is loss of concentration - so go find yourself a quiet spot where you'll be undisturbed and land those planes!

• Firemint for making the most addicting game I have on my iPhone
• Firemint again for providing the great image above
• You for reading this!