Hot Air vs Ultramagic FlightPack
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Hot Air
This app serves as a comprehensive flight companion for hot air balloon pilots. It offers features like live tracking, flight recording, navigation, and wind profiling, all tailored for ballooning. It supports pilots from students to commercial operators for planning, execution, and post-flight analysis.
- Live tracking on maps
- Wind profiling by altitude
- Waypoint navigation
- Automatic flight recording
- Custom map overlays
- Offline map caching
- Real-time flight sharing
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Hot Air is a complete balloon flight companion, built by balloon pilots for balloon pilots. From preflight planning to postflight review, it delivers live tracking, flight recording, waypoint navigation, wind profiling, and more — all designed specifically for the unique needs of hot air ballooning. Whether you’re a student pilot, a commercial operator, or flying for fun, Hot Air helps you stay organized, informed, and connected. Features include: • Live tracking on street or satellite maps • Wind profiling by altitude during climb and descent • Waypoint navigation with bearing, distance, and estimated time • Automatic flight recording with 3D export support • Custom map overlays (KML/KMZ) • Offline-capable with map caching • Real-time flight sharing with crew or friends • Detailed flight logs for crew, passengers, propane, and temperature • Flight summaries and totals for logs or checkrides • Interactive map history of takeoffs and landings • Export to HTML, KML, or GPX • Payload calculator for accurate weight and balance • Integrated weather data and forecasts • Improved UTM 4x4 waypoint format support Additional features: • Real-time heading projection • Built-in data backup and restore • Localized in English, French, Czech, and Slovak • Fully optimized for iPhone and iPad (portrait and landscape) Note: Continued use of GPS can reduce battery life. Use an external battery for longer flights.
Ultramagic FlightPack
This navigation app provides hot air balloon pilots with real-time flight tracking, offline maps, and essential tools like a load calculator and weather forecasts. It helps pilots monitor wind layers, share their progress, and log flights efficiently.
- GPS track with altitude-based color coding
- Real-time pilot and crew tracking
- Offline worldwide maps (OSM & Google)
- Auto landing detection
- KML overlay support
- Integrated flight logbook
- Load calculator
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FlightPack is a complete easy-to-use solution designed for hot air balloon pilots. FlightPack is a flight tracking app with offline maps, overlays, load calculator, weather forecast, logbook and other unique features. The track color changes at different altitudes showing the winds layers and your crew will see your track in real-time in a webpage! Main Features: • GPS track with different colors depending on the altitude. This helps identify the winds layers. • Your crew will see your track in real-time in the webpage www.flightpacktracker.com • See other pilots tracks in real-time while you fly. Their tracks colors will indicate their winds. • Free maps worldwide (OSM) for offline use during flight. Google Maps is also available. • Optimized for low power. You can turn off your screen while your flight is being recorded (the last screen shown needs to be the app). • Auto landing detection if you forget to stop the track. • Start recording before you start flying. Track can be automatically trimmed to obtain reliable flight duration data. • KML overlays can be used to map out electric lines, Prohibited Zones (PZs), targets... You can create them with Google Earth. • Vertical velocity and precise altitude for devices with barometer. • Weather map with forecast and wind status at different altitudes. • Share your track easily in Facebook, Twitter... • Load calculator with user defined balloons. • All integrated in a flight logbook with search capabilities. Database can be exported in Excel compatible format. All your data can be transferred and backed up. *Requires iOS 14 or higher and GPS capable devices. *Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life. Please report any issues and suggestions to flightpack@ultramagic.com. Have a good flight!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Ultramagic FlightPack at none against Hot Air's 4. Ultramagic FlightPack also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 90%). Hot Air's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs every 5 weeks) and ratings volume (578 vs 2). On price, rating, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Hot Air costs $9.99 and Ultramagic FlightPack $9.99 up front. Hot Air sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per year. Ultramagic FlightPack asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Hot Air against 5.0 for Ultramagic FlightPack. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Hot Air has 578 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 90% of Hot Air's written reviews are positive against 100% of Ultramagic FlightPack's.
Hot Air ships an update every 5 days, Ultramagic FlightPack every 5 weeks. Both last shipped on November 1, 2026.
| Parameter | Hot Air | Ultramagic FlightPack |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.99 | $9.99 |
| Rating | 4.9 (578 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 90.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 578 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days — better | Every 5 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #106 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.5 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 129 MB | 16 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Cato Technologies LLC | Ultramagic Balloons |
Customer experience
Hot Air
Ultramagic FlightPack
Bugs and requests
Hot Air
Reported bugs
3 issues- App crashing after latest update
- Freezing when switching to camera
- Flight tracking not syncing to logbook
Requested features
5 requests- Option to disable Glympse sharing
- Ability to switch between mph and knots
- More customization options for overlays and pins
- Flight data sync between iPhone and iPad
- Playback capability for past flights
Ultramagic FlightPack
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Hot Air
- Offline Maps$2.991 Year
- Pro$3.991 Month
- Pro$24.991 Year
- Offline Map Subscription$2.99
Ultramagic FlightPack
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Hot Air free?
Is Ultramagic FlightPack free?
Which has better reviews, Hot Air or Ultramagic FlightPack?
Do Hot Air or Ultramagic FlightPack have ads?
Which is updated more often, Hot Air or Ultramagic FlightPack?
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