First Catch
Be the first to photograph an aircraft that isn’t in the library. That photo adds 10¢ to your balance. One aircraft, one reward, even if the tail number changes later.
The map marks fields where aircraft still have no photo.
Your whole folder can go in. Duplicates skip. A stopped upload resumes.
A verified first photo is credited. Cash is a separate request.
$42,186.90
421,869 registered civil aircraft still have no photograph. At 10¢ each, that is the figure above if every one is later verified. It is not cash on hand, and there is no funded pool. Counted 2026-09-28 21:04 UTC.
Upload Studio takes a folder, not one photo at a time. Duplicates of a file you already sent are skipped. If an original stops partway, drop the folder again and it resumes. Each original can be up to 80 MB. A large catalogue is accepted in waves of about 1,200 new photos a minute, and the studio keeps progress for a 10,000-photo library. They do not all publish in the same second.
Open Upload Studio10 new aircraft × 10¢ = $1.00. 100 × 10¢ = $10.00, which is the usual point where a payout can be requested. That is arithmetic. It is not what someone has already been paid.
Photograph the whole aircraft when you can. A clipped wingtip or tail is fine when about 80% of the aircraft is still visible and we can tell which one it is. A tight crop of one piece does not earn. A close call is reviewed by a person instead of an automatic no. Civil aircraft can qualify, including ones whose registration is old, when the identity checks out. Military aircraft without a civil record do not.
The 10¢ is a credit on your balance after the catch checks out. A payout is separate: you ask for it, and money moves only after it is approved. Uploading does not send cash by itself. New catches can be credited now.
The aircraft library has 954,521 records. 532,169 have a registration. 422,352 do not, so they cannot be a tail to catch.
18,701 already have a photograph. 435,811 deregistered records with no photo are history, not open catches. A retired aircraft can still qualify later, once its identity is checked. 19,685 military-source records are outside this offer. Placeholder country codes are left out too.
That leaves 475,066 registered civil rows with no photograph. Repeat serials in the same country are the same aircraft, so the open hunt is 421,869 aircraft, not a round 500,000. The old public total only counted aircraft that had a home airport on the map. Aircraft without a home field are in this number; the map simply cannot drop a pin for them.
You keep the copyright. Join before you upload if you want the 10¢. Other photos are welcome and unpaid. A payout is normally requested at $10 and is approved before it is sent.
Read the full terms