Plane Parade
Eight airports. Eighty-four shifts. One very long day.
The Plane Parade career is a promotion ladder. You start at a country airfield with one runway and four aeroplanes, and you finish above the Arctic Circle with four runways, thirty aeroplanes, snow, sea fog and a supersonic jet on final. Every one of the 84 shifts was hand-tuned, and each airport is a fresh assignment with its own checklist, its own shop and its own promotion certificate.
| Assignment | Shifts | Traffic | Runways | Gates | Conditions | Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Stevens Point Municipal | 7 | 4–13 | 1–2 | 1 | Clear skies, daylight | Free |
| 2. Pinecrest Regional | 8 | 9–14 | 2–4 | 3–4 | Clear skies, colour-matched gates | Free |
| 3. Lakeside Municipal | 9 | 12–16 | 2–3 | 3–4 | Clear skies, heavy jet traffic | Free |
| 4. Snowline Alpine | 10 | 14–18 | 3 | 3–4 | Snow closes runways | Career Pack |
| 5. Sunbay Coastal | 11 | 16–20 | 3 | 4 | Sea fog closes runways | Career Pack |
| 6. High Mesa Regional | 12 | 18–24 | 3–4 | 4 | Clear skies, relentless volume | Career Pack |
| 7. Metro Grand International | 13 | 20–26 | 3–4 | 4 | Dusk into true night, fog | Career Pack |
| 8. Aurora Polar International | 14 | 22–30 | 4 | 4 | Snow and fog, supersonic traffic | Polar Finale |
The postings, one at a time
1 · Stevens Point Municipal Airport
7 shifts, from “Stevens Point” to “Final Approach.” Your first tower. One runway, one gate, four little propeller planes and a tutorial that teaches you by handing you exactly one new idea at a time. By the last shift the same field is running two runways and thirteen aircraft including impatient business jets, and you have already learned to buy a second gate before you think you need it.
2 · Pinecrest Regional Airport
8 shifts, “The Big Leagues” to “Graduation Run.” The promotion that changes the game. Regional jets and narrow-body airliners start arriving, the field grows to as many as four runways and four gates, and gates begin demanding a specific carrier’s colours. Colour matching is where combo cash goes from nice to necessary.
3 · Lakeside Municipal Airport
9 shifts, “Lakeside Arrival” to “Festival Finale.” Up to sixteen aircraft on a field with fewer runways than you would like. This is where the interesting toys reach the shop: the Paint Shop for manufacturing gate matches, the Fuel Truck that refuels at the stand, and a Charter Contract that adds quick little Dragonfly rotorcraft to your traffic.
4 · Snowline Alpine Airport
10 shifts, “Thin Air” to “Summit Send-off.” Wide-body heavies and the first weather in the career. Snow settles over a runway and closes it until it melts off, which on a three-runway field with eighteen planes inbound is exactly as bad as it sounds. The Snow Plow appears in the shop the same day.
5 · Sunbay Coastal Airport
11 shifts, “Harbor Lights” to “Bay Day Finale.” Sea fog rolls in off the water and shuts a strip until it lifts. Helicopters join the mix, needing almost no runway at all. The shop opens up the counters you have been waiting for: Fog Fans, the five-slot Tower Link board, and the VIP hold over stand whose pampered passengers barely lose patience and tip on the way out.
6 · High Mesa Regional Airport
12 shifts, “Mesa Heat” to “Mesa Grande.” No weather. No darkness. No mercy. High Mesa is the volume assignment: up to twenty-four aircraft per shift on a field of four runways and four gates, where the only thing standing between you and a Gold Wing is how cleanly you can read a board and how long you can hold two combo chains open at once.
7 · Metro Grand International
13 shifts, “City of Lights” to “Grand Central Air.” The night assignment, and the prettiest thing in the game. The sun tracks down and across the city skyline over consecutive shifts, crosses the horizon, and by the fourth shift you are working in true darkness — runway edge lights, taxiway lamps, blinking aircraft nav lights, and fog that you now have to spot by what it hides.
8 · Aurora Polar International
14 shifts, “Top of the World” to “Controller of the Year.” Everything at once: snow and fog on the same field, four runways, four gates, up to thirty aircraft, and supersonic darts with enormous fares and passengers who wait for nobody. Finish it and the game has one more thing for you — Overtime, an endless-pressure mode that sits outside the career for controllers who cannot put the headset down.
What you are chasing on every shift
Bronze Wing
Clear the shift. Hit the goal score before the clock runs out and the box on the clipboard gets its tick.
Silver Wing
Clear it without losing a single aircraft. Every plane that gives up and leaves costs you this one.
Gold Wing
Clear it clean and beat the Chief score. Gold on every shift at an airport earns a Promotion, and a printable certificate with your name on it. All eight Promotions makes you Controller of the Year.
Start at Stevens Point. It is free.
Three airports and 24 shifts, with every mechanic switched on and no ads anywhere in sight.
iPhone and iPad · iOS 16 or later