Flatout ATC vs Approach
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Flatout ATC
Experience the thrill of air traffic control at real-world airports. Manage aircraft, sequence departures, and ensure safe landings. Features a new career campaign with seasons and live traffic simulation.
- Vector arrivals and departures
- Clear approaches
- Career campaign with seasons
- Live traffic simulation
- Real airport environments
- Search and rescue missions
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Flatout ATC puts you in the tower. Vector arrivals, sequence departures, clear approaches, and keep every aircraft safely separated across real airports from New York to Tokyo. NEW IN 3.0: THE WATCH A career campaign told in seasons. Step into the tower as a new controller and earn your place shift by shift, with a full cast, a story that carries across episodes, and a debrief after every shift. - Season 1: First Watch. Seven episodes. Your first solo, your first radio failure, your first engine-out. - Season 2: The Incident Desk. Seven episodes of search and rescue, including a cooperative multi-aircraft rescue. REAL CONTROL - Tap an aircraft to give it a heading, altitude, or speed. - Clear published approaches and issue crossing restrictions like a real controller. - Fly search and rescue: follow the signal, hold a steady hover to hoist, and beat the survival clock. LIVE TRAFFIC Work a shift against real aircraft flying right now over New York, London, Atlanta, Paris, and Tokyo, streamed from live ADS-B data. One free live shift every day. NO ADS Every advert was removed. No interruptions, no rewarded videos, just you and the airspace. A WHOLE WORLD Dozens of real airports with satellite-accurate runways, published procedures, 3D terrain and towers, weather you can fly around, helicopters, and a daily challenge. THE LOGBOOK Every level you clear writes a permanent record you can look back on. Already own the Full Game? You keep the base game and every season, free, forever.
Approach
Experience realistic flight landings with intuitive tilt controls. Master 32 challenging approaches across 10 real-world airports with various aircraft. Improve your skills with detailed scoring and replay options.
- Intuitive tilt controls for flight simulation
- 32 handcrafted landing approaches
- 10 real-world airport scenarios
- Multiple aircraft types
- Detailed landing performance scoring
- Replay landing sequences
- Offline play
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Forty seconds. One runway. Land the plane. Tilt your iPhone or iPad like a control column, guide the aircraft through the approach rings, and put it down where it counts. Every landing is graded, every mistake is yours, and every good arrival earns a better rank. FLY 32 HANDCRAFTED APPROACHES Take four increasingly demanding aircraft—from a nimble turboprop to a jumbo jet—into 32 focused landing scenarios. Ten real-world airports include island strips, mountain runways, steep approaches and city turns. LAND, LEARN, IMPROVE Your report scores touchdown softness, centreline, crab angle, speed, touchdown zone, wings level, rollout, rings and pace. Earn up to three stars, then replay the landing from beside the runway to see what worked. TILT CONTROLS, BUILT FOR PLAY Bank and pitch by tilting the device. Work the throttle, flaps, gear, rudder, brakes and reverse thrust by touch. Tap the artificial horizon at any time to re-centre the controls, and choose Gentle, Standard or Sharp tilt sensitivity. ARCADE FLYING WITH REAL CONSEQUENCES Wind, gusts, stalls, flap failures, engine failures, short runways and rising terrain keep every final different—without turning the game into a cockpit manual. The complete Turboprop chapter and the opening flights of every other chapter are free: 15 of 32 levels. One optional non-consumable purchase unlocks the remaining 17. No ads. No subscriptions. No account required. Plays offline.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Approach at 5.0 against Flatout ATC's 4.4. Approach also leads on iOS requirement (16.0 vs 26.1). Flatout ATC's advantage is monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 9 days). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Flatout ATC sells 4 one-off in-app purchases and Approach sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Approach holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Flatout ATC has 43 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Flatout ATC ships an update every 3 days, Approach every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on November 12, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Flatout ATC | Approach |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (43 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 69.2% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 43 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days — better | Every 9 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.1 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 564 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Craig Kennedy | Rakesh Wimmer |
In-app purchases
Flatout ATC
- The Watch — Season One$2.99
- Season 2: The Incident Desk$2.99
- Season 3: The Crossing$2.99
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- Base Game Unlock$4.99
Approach
- Unlock All Levels$1.99









