Every time you go offline and then come back again, check the store immediately. The second highest unlocked plane will be free with a video right when you get back. Sometimes you’ll be able to watch two video ads in a row for two of the plane before the video ad button goes away. Also, when you get back, you’ll often get an instant offer for a free upgrade to a purchased plane. The upgrades can be up to 3-4 or even more levels, so always take the upgrade offer when you see it.
This is true no matter how long you stay offline for, just as long as you were offline long enough to get some sort of offline income. So shut the game down and then let it sit for a minute or two, then open it and play it again, and look for the video offer inside of your store, and repeat this as often as you can.
Don’t be afraid to go for older planes in the store, even older planes than the ones that currently come out of your standard boxes, if you need to get multiples of a specific plane in order to finish a quest for gems. Say, for example, you need 100 level seven planes. Buy level seven planes until they get too expensive. Then buy level six planes and merge them until they get too expensive. Then buy level five planes and merge them until they get too expensive. Do these to complete the tougher quests without having to spend much cash.
When you see the UFO, tap on the popcorn icon in the bottom right corner of the screen first in order to get 2 1/2 minutes worth of double speed. Then, tap the UFO for the chance to get the 5x earnings for a span of 50 seconds. If you do this and you get the sixty second bonus, then you’ll end up with one straight minute where you have 10x your normal income. Make sure ALL of your planes are out on the track when you have this bonus.
If you want to win the tournament, then your starting point will be to unlock the Level 30 Plane once. By then, even your starting boxes will have sky-high levels of planes, so once you get there, it will be easier to get multiple Level 30 planes. Fill up your entire apron with the level 30 planes. Then send them out onto the track, fill the track to its capacity, and spam 2x speed and 5x earnings bonuses as much as possible.
Your tournament rank will update every time you either restart the game after some time offline or after you watch an ad video. The tournament rank will update in real time this way, and the more your income is, the faster you’ll see yourself race up the charts, although as you get to the top with the elite players, this will tend to slow down as well.