Flightradar24 | Flight Tracker

I have had this app for a few years now. When it first came out, it was the best of the three top flight tracker apps. It was so because the app combined flight GPS beacon-equipped aircraft tracking as well as radar tracking for those aircraft that was either not equipped with these beacons or those which the pilot chose not to activate their beacon or whom turned off their unique ID so they could fly around without anyone knowing who they are. That is, after all, how the app got its name. Over the last year there have been more and more aircraft flying nearby that do not show up on this app. About the only thing that does anymore is commercial airliners and many, but not all, private single engine prop planes. Bottom line, this app has devolved into a waste of money. Why irresponsible? It is clear that the app owner has decided to shift away from a priority of providing a service to the subscriber for a fee to a business model that is little more than a means of selling the subscriber out to anyone who will pay for their app to be used for data mining, largely Google & Facebook. I do not appreciate being used and my privacy being grossly invaded. It is sickening to see app owners lower themselves to crawl in the Google and facebook gutter of slime. I give it two stars only because it does track some aircraft and has some nice features coupled with that. It’s just too bad that they went to the dark side.

I will say I have been using this App for 3+ years, and I have recently just gotten a subscription. I do have suggestions for improvement starting with model variety, in specific for General Aviation and Helicopters. I do believe the model variety is very well put together for the 3D view, especially because of the most recent update implementing Infinite Flight Models(Well Done!). I came up with an idea that for helicopters, All of the helicopters in 3-D view are EC-135s, though I’ve observed on particular models like the Bell 407(B407), EC-130(EC30), Bell 412, EC-145(EC45) have their models on display on their previews, which I would like to see these models being used for their own 3-D view. There could also be more additions to expand the model pool like MD500(H500) and others. Another idea in mind, is the opportunity to allow the Aviation community to make liveries for specific aircraft, which must be approved by both the owner and the development team. This way, the model variety can stand out much further especially for popular tracked aircraft like YouTubers and any individual aircraft. (Examples; Bell 407(Med-Trans), JA789A ANA 777(BB-8 Livery), Custom private owned 3D Cessna 172)

Heads up I’m an airplane enthusiast. I love this app so dam much and I use it just about every weekend. I go to my nearest plane spotting location and use this app to see the planes on final approach and the ones on that taxiway too. This app is basically what makes plane spotting enjoyable. I do have some complaints though. For some reason there is this glitch where when a plane lands on this app, occasionally it will keep going beyond the runway even though the plane is safe in real life. It’s not that big of a deal, but I do find it kinda annoying when you are trying to find realism in the app. I also think that the prices for the memberships are reasonable, but it would be really awesome if it were a bit lower. But overall this is a great app and I totally recommend it to just about anyone who has somewhat of an interest in planes. I use it to watch my relatives fly out over the radar and like to think about what they are doing on the flight. I would love to see at least one more perk added to the basic membership just to make things better. But yes I love just about everything about this app.