I use Flightaware on my iPhone as I am outside a lot and it makes it handy. Over the past week I have noticed that when I open up Flightaware my screen is relatively blank. By that I mean there are aircraft images but no information displayed.
Is anyone else having a similar problem? 
On your map options, see if “inbound”, “outbound”, and “vicinity” are all checked. Options are found when you click on the orange + in the top right hand corner.
Edit: Assuming he is not using the FA app, since he doesn’t make mention of it.
Can your little iphone handle FA.