Rats, not my luck this weekend. At least spring is starting down there so should be a lot more opportunities coming up.
I’ll suggest that there’s probably a real surge of flying as the weather becomes increasingly tenable. To catch up for all the resupply, and remove all the garbage, of the no-flying winter months. Then it’ll settle down to whatever is the steady weekly cadence.
So if I was hunting Antarctica flying, I might favor working it diligently now, not 3 months from nw.
I read somewhere that regular flights to Antarctica start Nov 2.
Good to know, I appreciate the advice!
Also, dang if this isn’t one of the things I love about the Dope. I’m playing a silly little game on my phone and a freaking pilot (well retired but still) drops in regularly to give insight and some little tips.
Hydro-forming bush master 2000 with 17.89 rarity up in Louisiana.
Wow, that beats my Zenair Ch-620 Gemini with a measly rarity of 17.57.
Thanks for the heads-up @liirogue .
There’s a 747-300 flying east past Moscow. There’s only one of it, and it’s possibly the rarest card you need for the Heavyweight trophy.
Missed it, but appreciate the heads-up @blue_infinity.
Interesting. So SkyCards (or their fleet info source) says there’s only 747-300 left anywhere? It was one of their less popular variants, but still that surprises me a bit.
Then again, I’m out to pasture and individual people typically have longer careers than individual airplanes.
Planespotters.net shows it’s the only active 747-300, and Reddit threads from at least two years ago say the same thing.
It’s busy at work so I haven’t had much spare time to kill playing. But I did happen to accomplish a few things. I randomly checked McMurdo on Tuesday evening just as a plane landed and turned its transponder on, so that resulted in the penguin and continental drifter trophies. I also finished up the widget (1k Delta aircraft) and tulip (1k United aircraft) trophies.
Still haven’t made it across the pond though!
For somebody who joined the game kinda recently you’ve been busy. Congrats.
What do they call the trophies for the other 2 large US passenger airlines: American and Southwest? Or freight outfits FedEx and UPS for that matter?
Importer/Exporter for the big freight companies.
I thought Widget (Delta) was formerly 1,200 needed; did I misremember?
It’s been 1,000 since I started playing, but that’s only been since sometime in August.
The Importer/Exporter trophy is 600 aircraft combined from FedEx, UPS & DHL. I see so many Amazon Prime flights I’m rather surprised they don’t have their own trophy.
American trophy is Astrojet (also 1k) and Heart for SW (only 500 for them though). I finished those at the end of last month I think.
The format of the game works well for me when I’m busy at work and just need a ~2 minute break. Since you only get 5 photos every 20 minutes, it’s easy to pick up and put back down. I don’t have 30 minute chunks in the day to make it worth paying 75 coins for unlimited photos for 30 minutes very often (although it does happen).
Amazon’s own carrier Prime Air is ~1/10th the size of FedEx alone. Prime flies more in the daytime than the other folks do. Also depending on which airports you hang out at, Prime may have more of a base there, whereas FedEx & UPS are more concentrated at their hubs.
Lastly, the big freight outfits have a large portion of their operation running internationally. If you’re staying domestic you won’t see all that. Prime Air has some international, but as best I can WAG, the proportion is a bunch less.
So that may be some of the cause of your overrepresentation of Prime.
Google AI's list of freight outfits by fleet size
The top US freight airlines by fleet size are dominated by global integrators like FedEx and UPS, alongside major ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance, and insurance) operators and regional feeder lines. [1, 2]
The top 10 largest American cargo airlines by fleet size based on mainline and dedicated freighter operations are detailed below:
| Rank | Freight Airline | Approximate Fleet Size | Primary Focus / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | FedEx Express | 650–680+ | The largest cargo airline in the world. Fleet includes a massive mix of mainline jets (Boeing 777F, 767F, MD-11F) and hundreds of small turboprop feeder aircraft. |
| 2 | UPS Airlines | 290–300 | The second-largest operator globally, heavily utilizing Boeing 747-8F, 767F, and Airbus A300 freighters out of its central Worldport hub. |
| 3 | Atlas Air | 95–110 | A premier ACMI provider operating the world’s largest fleet of Boeing 747 freighters. They fly extensive global routes for DHL, Amazon, and the US military. |
| 4 | Amazon Air | 70–90 | Amazon’s dedicated private cargo network (operating as Prime Air). They lease and contract their fleet out to ACMI partners like ATI, Sun Country, and Atlas. |
| 5 | Ameriflight | 65–70 | The nation’s largest regional feeder cargo airline. They operate small turboprops (like the Beechcraft 1900 and Fairchild Metroliner) connecting smaller communities to major integrator hubs. |
| 6 | Air Transport International (ATI) | 50 | A subsidiary of Air Transport Services Group (ATSG) operating an all-Boeing fleet. ATI is a primary contractor handling heavy domestic and international flying for Amazon Air. |
| 7 | Kalitta Air | 35–40 | A major long-haul ACMI cargo carrier flying Boeing 747-400F and 777F aircraft on global routes, including extensive contracts for DHL Express. |
| 8 | ABX Air | 25–30 | Another major subsidiary of ATSG that primarily operates Boeing 767 freighters for customers like DHL and Amazon. |
| 9 | National Airlines | 10–15 | A global cargo specialist operating a fleet of Boeing 747-400 freighters, focusing heavily on commercial charters, military logistics, and ad-hoc cargo missions. |
| 10 | Western Global Airlines | 10–15 | A low-cost, on-demand ACMI cargo specialist utilizing a fleet of Boeing 747-400F and McDonnell Douglas MD-11 freighters. |
(Note: Fleet sizes fluctuate due to ongoing fleet modernizations, such as the gradual retirement of older MD-11 platforms across the industry, and changes in contracted feeder agreements). [1, 2]
I am really surprised Prime Air is less than 100 aircraft. But you are definitely right that they seem more active during the day, and I think a lot fly over me due to my location (OKC).
So while my local airport has nothing like the activity you see at a DFW or NYC, there’s an awful lot just randomly passing by overhead. But it’s also not a location where paying 75 coins for 30 minutes unlimited usually makes sense, there just isn’t the volume of aircraft to make that feasible.
You can also do Profile → Aircraft to see what SkyCards has in their database. There’s a search bar at the top that makes it easier. On the aircrafts page, scroll down for the “observed aircraft” item.
If you scroll down further, you’ll see what you’ve caught as well as a heat map for where that aircraft is most often seen.
There’s also Profile → Fleets where you can see the size of each carrier. I don’t see Amazon Air (or Amazon Prime Air, etc.). Maybe these are rolled into operators (Atlas, ATI, etc.) since owner and operator are different entities.
From this view you can see that SkyCards has 1600 aircraft for United and 807 for Southwest which gives some context as to what percentage of planes you need to catch for the trophies.
FlightRadar24 respects the Limiting Aircraft Data Displayed (LADD) program and SkyCards has it’s own filtering so you never see everything in the game.
There are 4 Grob G-120’s outside Nantes if anyone needs one for the rare trophy:
I’ve been looking for one for a while, but I guess I never checked Nantes. I’m down to 3 missing.
Does anyone have a trick to find a gyrocopter for today’s task? Preferably in North America?
Here is one north of Denver
Thanks for trying, I didn’t move quickly enough.