A Pokédex for the aircraft you spot. Photograph a plane — Pspotting reads the
registration off the hull, names the airline and type, puts a rough value and a rarity
on it, and files the card in your scrapbook.
Status: private beta | v1.0.0 |
iPhone & iPad via TestFlight, iOS 18+ | Sign in with Apple |
your photos stay on the device.
Every spot, in orderTail number, airline, rarity and the day you caught it.
02 · The card
The full identAirline, type, registration, MSN, engines, built year, value — with a confidence dot on each.
03 · Collection
Fill the gridTypes and airlines as locked slots. Catch one and it lights up with its livery.
04 · Stats
Where you rankPoints, spotter rank, rarity mix, countries, and your most valuable catch.
Screenshots from the current TestFlight build, running on iPhone 17 Pro.
The ID card
Photo in, card out
Each spot becomes a share card — the photo, the registration in big type, airline and
type, where and when, a rough value, and a rarity tier worth points. One tap sends it
to Messages or anywhere else as an image.
Base tier is the airframe type. Quad- and tri-jets bump it up a tier; anything
military, government or royal jumps two. An An-124 in the wild is a legendary.
How it reads a plane
1
Read the registrationOn-device text recognition scans the hull — tail fin, rear fuselage, nose-gear door, under the wing — wherever the reg is painted.
2
Look it upThe tail number goes against a ~630,000-airframe database (OpenSky + Mictronics) for the operator, exact type, serial, engines and build year.
3
Fill the gapsIf the database is thin, a vision model reads the livery and titles for the airline and type — never guessed past what's visible.
4
Place itThe photo's EXIF date and GPS set when and where; the nearest airport is matched from an open dataset.
5
Value & rankA curated cost table plus age depreciation gives a rough value; a rarity table plus modifiers gives the tier and points.
Full-res photos never leave the phone. Only a small thumbnail and the card data sync, so your scrapbook is there on a new device.
What is this
Pspotting is a small iOS game for plane spotters. No leaderboards, no feed —
just you, a camera, and a growing book of the aircraft you've personally caught.
Capture or import — shoot a plane or pull one from your camera roll; EXIF sets the time and place
Automatic ident — registration → airframe database → livery reading, with a confidence dot on every field
Editable cards — fix anything by hand; a re-run keeps your corrections
Collection & stats — Pokédex grids for types and airlines, spotter ranks, rarity mix, a country wall
Share sheet — send a photo straight from Photos into Pspotting to queue an ident
Works offline — spots queue on the device and identify when you're back on signal
Early build — expect a rough edge here and there. Tell me when you hit one.
