Plane Finder now with alerts!

We have been very busy at pinkfroot testing our alerts feature for our iOS apps and we are pleased to say that it has been released today!  

Here is a quick rundown so that you can see what it looks like and how to configure it to get some cool alerts!  We have been playing around with it for a few weeks now and have noticed some really nice things happening!  This is a rundown on the iPhone version but the screens are almost identical in the iPad version.

When you go into the Settings screen you will notice a new "Manage Alerts" section at the top.  Here is a list of my current alerts I have setup and I will also then show you how to add a new one also!

My alerts are as follows, you can also set some up like this and also create many more yourself:

• 7700 squawk alert - as you may have seen from our Twitter account these are an aircraft that has declared and emergency.
• 7600 squawk alert - this is when an aircraft has lost radio comms with ATC
• BOE airline alert - this will alert when any aircraft uses the BOE code in their flight number.  This is useful for catching those sneaky Boeing test flights
• B78 Aircraft Type alert - this is to catch all of the Boeing 787 aircraft up in the sky
• B748 Aircraft Type alert - this is to catch all of the new B747-8i and B747-8F aircraft
• N757AF Aircraft Registration alert - this is a fun one, it is Donald Trumps Boeing 757
• 7500 Squawk alert - a very rare one but nice to have in there just in case, this is in the event of a hijack!
• A3ST Aircraft Type alert - this is to catch the Airbus Beluga flights!  Amazing aircraft!

To delete any of these just swipe along and hit the delete button.  To add a new one click the plus button in the top right.

This is the screen where you can create all sorts of alerts.  As you can see we currently have 4 types of alerts that you can setup.

• Squawk - this will match a full or part squawk code. i.e. 7700 will match that code or if you used 40 you would get alerts for all squawks containing "40" within it!
• Type - this will match full or part aircraft type i.e. to get the Boeing 737-800 enter B738 into this box.  However if you wanted all of the Boeing 737 range enter B73 into the box. Be careful as doing this will probably trigger a lot of alerts for you!
• Airline - this is where you can enter an airline or even a full flight number to be alerted on.  i.e. entering VIR200 will alert for all of the Virgin Atlantic 200 flights, however entering just VIR will alert on all Virgin Atlantic aircraft.
• Reg - This is where you can enter a specific aircraft registration if you know it so that you can be alerted on it. i.e. G-WAFU will alert when that aircraft is up and flying.

By default these alerts are triggered anywhere on the map but you can create region specific ones.  For example if you wanted to only be alerted to A380 aircraft coming into the Los Angeles area then setup your alert as you normally would but select the location control and then zoom the map to the area you want, in this case the LA area.  Here is a screenshot showing this example.

There is one further way to add alerts and that is from the Aircraft details that you are used to seeing.  There is now a new icon on the toolbar (an alarm clock) and clicking that will take you to the alert creation screen with some details pre-populated.

You still have the same options for the location but you can set up an alert based on that aircraft's registration, flight number (which will probably alert on a different aircraft next time), or the hex code for those who really need the info.

Hopefully this has provided you with a quick overview.  Any troubles with it please do get in touch with us via the "Contact Us" link on this website.  If there is something that we have missed too then let us know and we can work on this for a future version.

Also a big thank you to those that helped test it in the field :-)

And if you don't already have the app....download it here.....http://bit.ly/PFinder