Friends,

It’s official: VATRadar has landed on the App Store! 🎉

After almost four years of TestFlight builds, VATRadar is now widely available for all to use. Get it on the App Store, or head over to the Download page for the details. VATRadar needs iOS 26 or iPadOS 26 or later.

Moving from TestFlight to the App Store version

If you’ve been flying with the TestFlight beta, please switch to the App Store version before Thursday, September 10 at 1600Z. That’s when the beta closes, and the TestFlight build will stop working after that, so you’ll need to have moved by then to keep using VATRadar.

The switch takes a minute. Open VATRadar on the App Store on the iPhone or iPad that has the beta installed. Because the TestFlight build is on your device, the App Store offers to replace it with the release version. Accept, wait for the download to finish, and that’s it. Your login and your settings carry over, so there’s nothing to set up again. I switched my own phone this way to make sure.

What’s in the box

  • My Flight: sign in with your VATSIM account and VATRadar picks up your flight automatically, with altitude, heading, speeds, transponder codes, airports, route and remaining distance
  • Controllers and airports: see who is online, then open any airport for its controllers, live ATIS, the current METAR, runways and published frequencies
  • Pilots: everyone connected right now, searchable by callsign, CID or name
  • Events: browse upcoming events, read the briefing and favorite the ones you plan to fly
  • Push notifications: event reminders, VATSIM private messages including a controller’s contact me, and SELCAL alerts, the latter two via the vPilot Push Notification Plugin
  • Network stats: connected clients, pilots, controllers by position, ATIS stations and prefiled flight plans
  • Accessible by design: VoiceOver is how I use the app every day, and it works with Larger Text, Bold Text, increased contrast, Voice Control and Dark Mode

Free, and staying that way

VATRadar is free, with no ads, no in-app purchases and no subscriptions, and I want to keep it that way. Running the server behind it does cost money every month, so if you’d like to help with that, you can now support VATRadar on Patreon. Entirely optional, and very much appreciated.

Thank you

None of this would have happened without everyone who installed the beta, reported bugs, suggested features and kept nudging me along over the years. Thank you, all of you.

If you run into anything that doesn’t work as it should, the support page explains how to reach me.

Happy flying!

Cheers, Rob