Last updated on December 17th, 2025 at 02:42 pm
Approach Control – Adventure Game Review
Approach Control is a Adventure/Education/Simulation game from Big Fat Simulations Inc., first launched in 11th January 2013.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 18+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Approach Control Stand Out
Approach Control is a highly realistic air traffic control simulation, designed by real world air traffic controllers. It uses authentic pilot voices.
This app is designed to give aviation enthusiasts a taste of the world's greatest job. The radar behavior in this app is identical to that of real-world air traffic control radar screens, utilizing a 3-second sweep that air traffic controllers are accustomed to. Much work has been done to make such a complex job fit inside the palm of your hand.
You are the approach controller whose job is to manage arriving passenger jets at various busy airports. Establish arriving aircraft onto 'final approach' as safely and efficiently as possible. As in the real world of ATC, you must walk a very fine line between being cautious and being expeditious. A top notch air traffic controller knows how to bring planes in 'tight', without breaking the 'three mile rule'.
Keep all aircraft at least THREE MILES apart or at least 1000 FEET VERTICALLY apart. That's your job in a nutshell! Earn extra points by establishing the planes onto final approach without extra wasted space.
Air traffic controlling is achieved by assigning a mixture of three things: HEADING, SPEED, and ALTITUDE. Use these three tools to achieve safety and efficiency.
A successful air traffic controller must remain CALM, COOL and COLLECTED, known as the 'three C's'. Who knows, you may one day use these skills and apply for a real ATC job! Find out why real-world air traffic controllers have nerves of steel.
This Adventure game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Approach Control is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 12th October 2017
Recent improvements include:
This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.
Fixed availability of new levels 5 and 6.
Fixed stability issues.
Download & Availability
Approach Control is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Approach Control on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
If you add 1) real airports such as JFK or KLAX!) 2) make to we would can clear for ILS only in localizer. 3) add some real airlines with their callsign such as Delta (D) or Lufthansa (LH) for example – D137 or LH654 . The game will be so much better!!! And real people in aviation will give you 5 stars . And you will be rich.)))) good luck.
Doesnt correctly apply approved separation standards such as diverging separation but fun to play with. Also needs varying runway alignment.
The UI is greata nice presentation, easy to use and has a realistic feel. Issues that need work as of 1/2023: 1. User needs awareness of why game ended. It seems like if a threshold of errors is reached, the game ends, but why the game ends each time needs to be made apparent to the user. In current state, it feels like the game is crashing. 2. End game screen feels broken: user is presented with coaching/reinforcement, which is fine, but the try again/replay button doesnt work, so user experience is that the game is frozen. Only way to try again is to close app, and re-launch, which feels like a total loss of previous gameplay. Nevertheless, we keep playing, which says a lot.
Great to pass time, but needs to update based on 7110.65, passing or diverting and merging target procedures. Broke sep on aircraft over 30degrees diverting or paths wont intercept. But still fun.
This game is a lot of fun! But crashes after playing it for 10 mins or longer. Played on our ipad 2 and iPhone 6 and it crashes on both. Doesn't save your game either so you lose all your progress.
Great game to play. But crashes a lot and doesn't save the score.
Used to be a great game, but now it crashes ALL the time. Anything longer than about 10-15min and it crashes. An update would be nice…. How about some new scenarios too? Gets a little boring playing the same scenarios all the time.
Realistic radar, and challenging game play. We're in aviation, and find this game and Radar Chaos to be fun and realistic. The targets appear as they do on a controllers radar screen. Buy this and Radar Chaos. They're both fun, challenging, true to life, and cheap. Also, try Airport Madness. We killed 2 hours, and it seemed like 15 minutes. How much more of an endorsement would you need. 5 star plus.
Not bad, but need to incorporate divergence rules. We got annoyed when we got a deal for busting 1000/3 despite having diverging courses.
Realistic , challenging and fun but crashes regularly after prolonged play.
Being someone in aviation, we will say this is as close as you can get for iPhone TRACON simulation, the phraseology is a little wrong and for some reason the you have to force quit the game after each game, otherwise it's a great time passer that's a joy to play. Just need to fix the game over problem.
The app is in serious need of updates. It's a 4×3 aspect ration in a 16×9 world.
Found us a new favorite – this game is simple and difficult at the same time.
Ridiculously fun and challenging.
We realy like this air traffic controller.
It will be much better if the spacing is 3miles instead of 6miles, and be able to save the game.
Works fine on our old iPad running 5.x but just a black screen on iPad Air running 8.
Close, but if you are going to claim to be the most realistic, you should probably make it as real as possible. Where are the different planes? Different approach categories? Why am we allowed to clear a jet an ILS from a 180 degree heading out? They need a dogleg right? And there are rules for that too! Close, but no cigar.
Good simulation, but completely non-compatible with iOS multitasking: once you switch to another app for more than a few minutes, the game would restart, all scores reset…(( Quite annoying.
This was fun while it worked but is completely broken under IOS 8 – don't bother! It was buggy (pause wouldnt work correctly, could not save your game, would hang and reset) but manageable but now (as other reviews confirm) it just blank screens and nothing comes up. THere's better flight controller apps in the store – don't bother wiith this one.
Have had this app for years. App stopped working following iOS8 upgrade. What's up.
App won't even open. Just a blank screen. Was a fun game back when it worked.
Good practice for getting use the real thing. Very addictive game.
This game is one of the best games out there so far.
We really like the idea. But we would like to be able to save games. It would also be good to have a more interesting progression throughout the game.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.11
- Size: 26.06 MB
- iOS: 6.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: Big Fat Simulations Inc.
Last updated: 12th October 2017 | Genre: Adventure, Education | Developer: Big Fat Simulations Inc.