allardjd 1,853 Posted September 18, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 18, 2012 9/16-17/12 Airport Diagrams New: ZMUB Buyant-Ukhaa - Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia KOLM Olympia - Olympia, Washington - US YFRT Forrest - Forrest, Western Australia - Australia Updated: None These were actually done yesterday but I got wrapped around the axle on a couple of other projects and never got the opportunity to write up the descriptions. Today was similarly busy, so I haven't done any new ones today. I consider myself lucky to have found the time to document these today, much less do new ones. Some days are like that and busy is good. I can't imagine sitting around being bored. I'm not too sure if there will be time for any airport diagrams tomorrow or not. I have a new beta assignment but, having signed an NDA, my lips are sealed. ----- Alright, with no further ado, let's talk about Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, whose airport is named Buyant-Ukhaa, upon which the ICAO has bestowed ZMUB. By the way, that's the FSX spelling of both names. I've seen other versions of the city name, at least. Off the bat, Wiki tells me the airport has been re-named to Chinggis Khaan Intl - that's not the conventional spelling but I think you can figure out who they are referring to. I wonder what ol' Genghis/Chinggis would have said if someone had told him there would be an airport named for him one day - he'd probably have had you burned at the stake as a sorcerer? Once again, Microsoft either didn't get the memo on the name change or got it too late. This airport comes from my national capitals list, of course. Annual pax traffic volume here is around 900,000 at the most recent count and has a strong positive trend. Number of operations is about 12,000. the airport has two strips, one paved at about 10,200' and the other grass, a mere 8,000' - both are quite wide, 197 and 164 feet, respectively. There's a large ramp and generic terminal building in FSX that shows only two jetways. The taxiway network is fairly simple and straightforward but does include a nearly full-length parallel taxiway. The grass strip is almost parallel with the main runway. There is an ILS to one end of the paved runway and an LOM at the marker, supporting it. A VOR/DME is not far off the field. There are three non-precision approaches listed to round out the one ILS. Radio frequencies in FSX are sparse, just a tower and an approach frequency. In Google Earth it looks just like it does in FSX, right down to the two jetways. Almost a million pax a year through two jetways - they must have to replace the grass mats pretty often. ----- KOLM is Olympia airport (or Olympia Regional, outside FSX) in Olympia, Washington (state of, not DC, of course). This is from the state capitals list. Wiki says that this field served as a satellite of McChord Field (which is now McChord AFB) during WWII, but doesn't say to what use it was put - quite likely training. The current stats show about 75K operations per year. Sadly, the Olympia Brewery ("It's the Water") for which the city is famous, was closed in 2003. The current owner still markets Olympia beer, but it's now made in Irwindale, California, presumably with a different source of water. As I see relatively frequently, there are the remains of an additional runway visible in the Google Earth shot, some of which is shown as a taxiway in FSX and some of which isn't shown at all. The markings visible in GE bear out the taxiway portion in FSX and the rest, not shown in the sim, is marked with Xs. There is an additional taxiway - a major one - shown in GE that's not in FSX at all. It's at right angles to and comes off the Runway 17 threshold, going both ways. West of Rwy 17 there is a very large turnout on the north side of it but with some odd striping and or barriers in two rows. What I first took to be shadows cast by them are not since they are not parallel - runoff stains? Looking at the FAA diagram doesn't help much. What is shown in FSX as taxiway B is apparently now taxiway A in the real world and the new taxiway is now designated B. There are a few other subtle taxiway differences at the north end of the field between FSX and the GE and FAA renditions. I just don't know what all that's about, but since it's not in FSX I guess we don't have to worry about it. We live in our own little world, after all. In FSX, KOLM has two runways crossing at 90 degrees, but not quite bisecting one another equally. Runway lengths are modest at 5,400 and 4,150. One end of the longer one has an ILS. The field is towered and lighted and has a couple of other approaches published in FSX besides the ILS, including a VOR A. There's a VOR with DME on the field and an NDB about 15 miles away. This one had no custom buildings but did require a second plate for taxiway labeling. ----- YFRT is Forrest airport in Forrest, Western Australia, Australia and this one definitely did NOT come from a list of capitals. Wiki describes Forrest as a "tiny hamlet". Google earth pretty much bears that out - Forrest is so small that I can't pick it out, though some of the nearby terrain is in the GE low-res - you'd have a hard time picking Adelaide out at that resolution. GE shows mostly what FSX has, one building and a tiny ramp at the south end of a pair of paved, crossing runways. The runways are in the 4,000' + class. The field is lighted and has a MS fuel pump but has no published radio frequencies or approaches. There is an NDB a little over a mile away and, having found that, you should be able to see the field from there. If not, the WX is too bad or your eyesight too poor to be fooling around un-supervised out there anyway. ----- John - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - If you'd like to subscribe (free) and have all new and updated airport diagram files e-mailed to you, contact me at allardjd@earthlink.net with a Subject Line of "Airport Diagram Subscription". - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted September 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2012 9/18/12 Airport Diagrams New: SBFN Fernando De Noronha - Fernando De Noronh, Brazil FDMS Matsapha Intl - Manzini, Swaziland Updated: KJNX Johnston Co - Smithfield, North Carolina - US (updated) Current Airport Diagram Stats @ Mutley’s Hangar: Uploads 1,411; downloads 1,829 Despite competing projects, I managed to get a full set of airport diagrams out today and then some. I'm working on an entirely new technique for creating them, suggested by a user and did some work on a fourth while exploring that methodology. That airport is not ready for prime time just yet. I'm not certain yet if the new methods are going to work out but they do show some promise. Like most new and different things, some parts of it are definitely better and some seem to go the other way. It remains to be seen how it shakes out. ----- SBFN, Fernando De Noronha airport is on the island of the same name. It's part of a small archipelago about 220 miles off the eastern tip of Brazil - the islands are Brazilian territory. The airport came into being around 1934. The US Army began using it in WWII to support the heavy trans-Atlantic air traffic on the Natal-Dakar route, doing a brisk business in transiting aircraft, cargo and personnel. In 1944 the Navy took it over briefly but it reverted to Brazilian control soon after the war. The island upon which this airport is situated is, from the GE view, about one runway wide by maybe six runways long. No wonder the navaids are so close. This island and this airport were the primary base for the search and rescue efforts for Air France 447 a few years ago, being considerably closer to the crash site than anyplace on the mainland. SBFN has a single 6,100' runway. There's a small ramp on a pair of taxiway stubs near the west end. It's non-towered but has lights. There are published approaches but all are non-precision. An NDB lies on the field and a VOR/DME is about a mile and a half away. ----- Looking very much like a mirror image of SBFM, FDMS, Matsapha Intl, is the primary airport serving, Manzini, the capital of Swaziland. The airport layout is uncannily like a reversed version of the one above, but is about a third larger and has a few more niceties. According to Wiki, this airport is to be taken over by the local military but that hasn't happened as yet because of delays in the construction of the new replacement airport. Hopefully the army will be patient with them. Like it's cousin in Brazil, this is a one-runway affair, but is over 8,500' long X 148' wide. It's towered and lighted and has an ILS to one end and a VORDME approach to the other end. There is an LOM on the ILS end and a couple of other NDBs on the extended centerline, at distances out to almost ten miles. There is a VOR/DME nearby as well. The ramp lies at one end, well off the runway. It is connected by two taxiway stubs with the non-traditional designators EAST and WEST. GE shows a much shorter parallel runway, marked with closed Xs, lying next to the current one. Judging from the runway length and the layout of the taxiways, the runway shown in FSX is the longer, current one. FSX has no hint of the closed runway. This is one of only three airports in Swaziland in FSX, though Wiki lists a dozen. I guess we'll get the rest when the MS Flight DLC for Swaziland comes out. What's that? Oh, yeah, I forgot, they went belly up, didn't they? ----- I was due to do an update today and the oldest airport diagram turned out to be KJNX, Johnston Co, in Smithfield, North Carolina. As noted the other day, this one really didn't look too bad so I'm beginning to think that I've driven out most of the most atrocious of my previous efforts. Wiki doesn't seem to have a page for this one, surprisingly. It's not THAT small. In terms of complexity it's actually the best of the three I did today. It, like the others, has a single paved runway and a ramp off to the side, close to one end and connected to the runway by a pair of taxiways. This one, however also has a parallel taxiway to the far end as well as a very nice mid-field turn-around loop. There's a second small ramp at approximately mid-field too at this one. In GE that ramp and the things around it kind of have the look of an FBO and a nest of T-hangars, but most of that is not in FSX, just the ramp and a couple of buildings. Though this airport is non-towered, there is a Remote Clearance Delivery frequency listed in FSX. It shows as being lighted and there is even an ILS to one end. There are also a couple of NDB approaches listed and two nearby NDBs. The nearest VOR is somewhere beyond the 20 NM radius I use for inclusion of such things. The runway is about three paces longer than 5,500' and is 100' wide. ----- John - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - If you'd like to subscribe (free) and have all new and updated airport diagram files e-mailed to you, contact me at allardjd@earthlink.net with a Subject Line of "Airport Diagram Subscription". - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted September 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 20, 2012 9/19/12 Airport Diagrams New: CYHM Hamilton - Hamilton, Ontario - Canada KLAN Capital City - Lansing, Michigan - US 6I4 Boone Co - Lebanon, Indiana - US UADD Aulie-Ata - Taraz, Kazakhstan Updated: None Current Airport Diagram Stats @ Mutley’s Hangar: Uploads 1,415; downloads 1,833 The first order of business tonight is an announcement, which you may have already seen posted at in the Mutley's Hangar News and Announcement sub-forum. I'm being joined in the production of airport plates by MH member Quickmarch. He's a Canadian, a retired engineer, but operates from a yacht in the South Pacific - currently Brisbane, if I remember correctly. He's a former real-world aviator of some considerable experience and knows his way around airports, charts, and from all indications, computers as well. I've been working with him for about a week and he pretty much knows everything I know about making airport diagrams. He's also made some suggestions for improvements which I've pretty much adopted. The most visible of these are... We'll now be using a leading zero on runways numbered from 1 to 9. That will appear in the runway labeling on the diagrams and also in the runway table, the mini-ILS table, where present, and in certain notes and labels associated with LOMs and LMMs. -For consistency with multi-plate diagrams, a "1 of 1" label will be included on one-plate diagrams. The column label for runway dimensions in the runway table will now say "Dims", vs. the former "Dim", which was technically incorrect. March has also got both of us exploring the possible use of a MS Word Template for improving the creation of the plates. The jury is still out on that - MS Word and its Text Boxes are pretty powerful but don't always behave predictably when near the edges of the document. We'll see how that shakes out but there will be no difference in the plates themselves if this comes to fruition - it will only change the method of creating them. Anyway, welcome aboard to Quickmarch and I look forward to his help in swelling the population of airport diagrams we are making available to all of you. His first effort, CYHM, Hamilton, Ontario is included in this batch. ----- I'll lead off today with Quickmarch's first airport diagram, CYHM. He's done a very nice job with it but sweated over it for several days, using it as a stalking horse to learn the ins and outs of the various software packages we use to produce these. I'm very pleased and impressed with what he's produced and I hope that he is too. This is a fairly major airport, with a pair of crossing runways. One is a few feet shy of 10,000' and is 200' wide. That's a fair-sized patch in anyone's book. It started life in 1940 as Mount Hope Airport, an RCAF field. It was a training base in WWII, operating Tiger Moth's, Fleet Finches and Avro Ansons. Interestingly, the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum is located here. It looks in GE a lot like March's diagram, but with perhaps a bit more of buildings and pavements at the south ramp area. Not bothering to cut his teeth on an easy one, March picked an airport that has a large lozenge shaped terminal building that had to be brought in from an FSX screenshot. That's on the plate and looks just like it ought to. The field is, of course, towered and lighted and has one ILS and about eight other approaches published for it in FSX, including a localizer backcourse approach, which you don't find all up and down the block. Three NDBs guide the birds to roost here, along with the localizer and glideslope. ----- No prizes for guessing which list KLAN, Capital City airport, in Lansing, Michigan comes from. This is the capital of my original home state, by the way. I lived there (Michigan, but not Lansing) for my whole life, except my Navy time, until migrating to Florida after retirement. I've actually flown into this airport in the RW in a C-152 and made a rather dramatic arrival when the controller "forgot" about me. He actually admitted it out loud on the tower frequency, something that would never happen today. Anyway, he had me way too high and in too close, requiring what I'll simply call a "maximum effort descent", with my wife screaming in the right seat most of the way down. With full flaps and a hard slip that thing will REALLY come down pretty fast with an IAS of a mere 65 knots and a windshield full of ground. All was well but it was - - - let's just call it dramatic and leave it at that. He offered me a go-around but I was pretty confident it could be done. This airport seems to be the recipient of a rather controversial ICAO code and I'm frankly a little surprised that there haven't been protests of one sort or another over it - that's KLAN, as in "Ku Klux Klan". Them's fightin' words these days in many circles, though for most aviators, I'm sure it's just another airport code, as it should be. Like many we've seen recently, this airport has had a name change since FSX was published - it's now known as Capital Region International Airport. It serves Lansing, the state capital of Michigan. Annual passenger volume is around 350,000 and annual aircraft operations were about 43,000. The airport opened for business in 1928. During WWII a civilian pilot training program was run there, by private companies, presumably preparing young men for becoming aviation cadets in the military. The airport has three runways, two parallel, and one of them much smaller than the other. The third runway lies across the big one and joins one end of the smaller parallel runway - at least in FSX it does. GE shows nothing but grass between the ends of runways 24 and 10L, but in FSX that whole area between the two runway ends is shown as paved. The taxiway configuration there is quite a bit different too, between FSX and GE. In FSX there's a complex terminal building and a handful of other non-stock buildings whose shapes have been brought in. There are enough taxiways that I used a second plate to label them. The largest runway is about 7,200 X 150 feet and it has ILSs at both ends and an LOM guiding traffic in to one of them. There are a few other approaches listed in FSX as well. It is, of course a lighted, towered airport. ----- 6I4 is Boone Co airport, in Lebanon, Indiana. As you might expect from most any airport with a 3-character ICAO code, this is not all that much of an airport. The stats say it has about 6,700 GA operations per year. The single runway lies N-S and is 3,600' X only 30', which probably tends to quickly separate the groupies from the rock stars in any kind of crosswind. It's non-towered but lighted, with no published approaches. There are navaids in the vicinity but none on or directly associated with this field. There's a paved ramp at the south end and the buildings shown in FSX, small T-hangars mostly, look pretty much like they do in GE but the rest of the ramp area is not quite the same. I guess this place's claim to fame is a 0.0 magnetic variation, which they may well lose as Mother Nature continues to march the magnetic north pole steadily toward Russia. ----- UADD, Aulie-Ata airport is, they say, in Taraz, Kazakhstan. That's not the capital and this airport came from a non-specific list. This is yet another airport that's suffered a name change or two. It's now Taraz airport or Jambyl airport, depending on who in Kazakhstan you ask, I guess. I asked Wiki and they can't decide, though they do say definitely that it's not what FSX says it is. From the GE shot, there's a lot more to the place than FSX gives us. Microsoft provided two parallel runways, very close together, one paved and one grass. There's a MS fuel pump and a control tower too. As for physical facilities, that's all there is in FSX, not even so much as a ramp or taxiway. Looking at the real deal in GE it looks much more like a conventional airport with a parallel taxiway, big ramps and two areas that seem to be dispersal pads for military helicopters, quite possibly MI-24 Hinds, but it's hard to be sure. There are large civil AC there too, some looking a bit like Eastern bloc 4-engine turboprops (but not Bears). It's an interesting place with many large cylindrical objects stored in pits near the parallel taxiway - too big to be bombs - more like propane tanks, but probably a hundred of them in various sizes. This airport screams military to me looking at it in GE and it's a pity that it's so sparse in FSX. This might be a fun one for someone to make some decent scenery for. Back to FSX, the paved runway does have one ILS and a pair of NDBs off each end. The two leading to the ILS end are co-located with marker beacons, making them an LOM and an LMM. Oddly, even though there's an ILS and the MS runway data includes the particulars for it, the approaches list is empty and does not show the ILS at all. Another of life's little mysteries. ----- John - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - If you'd like to subscribe (free) and have all new and updated airport diagram files e-mailed to you, contact me at allardjd@earthlink.net with a Subject Line of "Airport Diagram Subscription". - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted September 21, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 21, 2012 9/20/12 Airport Diagrams New: CYCD Nanaimo - British Columbia - Canada TVSV E T Joshua - Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines KDSM Des Moines Intl - Des Moines, Iowa - US CYAX Lac Du Bonnet - Lac Du Bonnet, Manitoba - Canada Updated: None Current Airport Diagram Stats @ Mutley’s Hangar: Uploads 1,419; downloads 1,833 Oops - I should have done an update in today's batch, but got out of sync. Since the oldest ones are now not looking too bad I guess there's no harm done. Quickmarch's second airport diagram is in here tonight. It's CYCD. He knocked it out in a day after just learning how so I'm pretty impressed. It looks just like mine. I'm going to be making an effort to keep the "story" part of this e-mail a little shorter. I'm spending too much time on that and I'm not sure anyone really reads it anyway. ----- CYCD is Nanaimo - British Columbia - Canada. The town is the same name as the airport. There isn't much of interest in the Wiki article, but the airport does have scheduled pax service. No pax volume stats were given but the airport has about 32,000 operations annually. I can't see much of any significant differences between the plate and what's in Google Earth except possibly more going on around the ramp. It was probably a hard decision for whoever created these airports for FSX to figure where to stop with modeling what lies near the ramp. If it's not specifically related to the airport, and sometimes even if it is, they left it out. Some of that may have been added since FSX was built anyway. This is a very wide paved runway, just short of 5,000' but 200' wide. It has a pretty long displaced threshold at the south end so the pavement is even longer. This airport is not towered, but is lighted. There are no published approaches in FSX either, though I suspect there must be some in the RW if the airlines are flying in there. There is an NDB nearby and there's a DME on the field with a number in the ID. I'll bet that's fun when the Morse plays - the letters are hard enough. Usually when we see a stand-alone DME in FS, it's an artifact of a real-world TACAN transmitter and those are military. Wiki doesn't say anything about this being, now or formerly, a military field and I can't see anything in the GE shot that has that smell, so I don't quite know what's up with that. It's there though. ----- Number two on our list today was a pretty easy one, TVSV, E T Joshua airport in Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. This one came from the national capitals list. Wiki doesn't have too much to say about the airport, except that a second one is under construction on the island and they will both operate. The other one is not yet complete. St Vincent and the Grenadines are in the Windward Islands chain that marks the east end of the Caribbean, this group being about three-quarters of the way down the chain. Venezuela lies to the south, around 200 miles away, with other islands between. The airport has a single runway almost 4,700 long and about 150' wide. It has a tower and is lighted. There's a mid-field ramp on a pair of taxiway stubs - no parallel taxiway and no turnarounds, but with a runway that wide, only the largest AC are going to feel the pinch making a turn on the runway to back-taxi. There are no published approaches but it has an NDB and a DME in the near distance - very near, at less than a mile. The FSX version is a pretty good match for what I see in GE. ----- The next one was the hardest of the bunch today and literally took longer than the other two I did combined. KDSM Des Moines Intl in Des Moines, Iowa came from the state capitals list today. It's a good sized city with a good sized airport. This one required a second plate to cover the taxiway labeling and had a half-dozen or so library object buildings, including a complex terminal. It has a pair of crossing runways, almost at right angles. Both are listed at 8,996' X 150' and there are ILSs to three of the ends - one is a Cat. III. KDSM is rated by Wiki as the 85th busiest airport in the US based on pax traffic, which amounts to around 900,000 per year. The airport is home to a fighter wing of the Iowa Air National Guard. I can easily pick out the military installation at the field but there's nothing winged in sight there except three static displays out near the gate, one a P-51 Mustang. I can't make out what the other two are but one may be an F-4. They look like cold-war era jet types, anyway. There are four big ramp areas there and they seem to sort out as military, GA, commercial and cargo. There seems to be a big cargo operation there - I see purple tails. As for airport facilities, besides the aforementioned ILSs there are about a dozen others. Runway 31 has a LOM at the outer marker and there's a VOR/DME about six miles away too. ----- Last, and quite possibly least is CYAX, Lac Du Bonnet airport in Lac Du Bonnet, Manitoba, in the Great White North. Wiki has about a two-line description of it, which adds nothing to our knowledge of the airport. In GE it kind of has the look of one of those housing developments with a runway. I can see small taxiways running every which way among small, house-looking buildings - those may even be the infamous ones that get bigger or smaller depending on whether you're pushing or pulling the yoke. There were a bunch of small generic-type buildings shown in FSX but they were outside the airport flatten area and were not connected by taxiways in FSX, so I left them out of the diagram. Let someone who makes scenery enhance all that. The airport has one runway, 3,600' X 75'. It is lighted but has no tower and no published approaches in FSX. There's a small ramp and the ubiquitous MS fuel pump is there, but no buildings are shown near the ramp. GE seems to show some but it's a low-res area, so it's hard to say - it may just be residual snowdrifts for all I can tell. There is an NDB on the field - another case of having a numeric digit in the ID to foul up aviators like me who never bothered to learn the Morse numbers. There's really not much more to be said about this one. ----- John - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - If you'd like to subscribe (free) and have all new and updated airport diagram files e-mailed to you, contact me at allardjd@earthlink.net with a Subject Line of "Airport Diagram Subscription". - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted September 22, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2012 9/21/12 Airport Diagrams New: CYVT Buffalo Narrows - Saskatchewan, Canada CJF3 Ile-A-La-Crosse - Saskatchewan, Canada L05 Kern Valley - Kernville, California - US Updated: KHKY Hickory Regl - Hickory, North Carolina - US (updated) Current Airport Diagram Stats @ Mutley’s Hangar: Uploads 1,422; downloads 1,837 OK, I made up for yesterday and did an update today. Quickmarch did two today, the two Canadian airports on the list. He's asked me for a list to work from and I've filtered out all the Canadian airports in my lists and sent them to him - almost 500, but about 50 of those are already done. He'll be working on those but is also free to take on any others that might cross his bow and pique his interest. I would not be too surprised to see some Australian airports from him one day soon, since that's where he is at the moment. Thanks to March's two, we have four for you today. I only managed two, one the update. It was just that kind of day. ----- March's first today, and the larger of the two he did, is CYVT Buffalo Narrows in Saskatchewan, Canada. Wiki doesn't have much to say about it other than the bare facts of its location, but does mention that Voyage Air maintains a base there. They are the very innovative converters of Otters and Beavers to turbine engines. I don't think this is their main works, but they do have something here. GE shows the airport almost covering a small peninsula in Churchill Lake and though it's nearly surrounded by water and services Beavers, there is no water runway designated and no obvious seaplane dock showing. There is a small dock facility near one end but it doesn't appear to be for planes and at any rate, FSX has not designated any water runways for us. Of course if you're a seaplane driver, you may not care all that much whether someone has staked one out for you ahead of time or not. FSX and GE match up pretty well on this place. The airport has two paved runways, crossing at an oblique angle near the end of each. One is near enough to 5,000', the other less than half of that. Non-towered and lighted, it does have a nearby NDB and has five published approaches, all non-precision and one of them an NDB Circle-to-Land approach. ----- March's #2 airport today is CJF3, Ile-A-La-Crosse, again in Saskatchewan, Canada. You might expect with that name that it would be in Quebec, but no, it's Saskatchewan. It could be that the Quebec folks raised a fuss and made the rest of Canada hang French names on some things, but that's only speculation on my part. This one is definitely the lesser of the two airports he chose for today. It's a gravel strip with a small ramp on a stub near one end - those are gravel too. There's nary a square foot of concrete or asphalt anywhere in sight. Wiki gives this airport the honor of having a page of its own but is mighty sparse on information. Geographically its not very far from the one above, only about 30 miles to the SE from CYVT. GE shows it looking exactly like March's diagram so I guess both he and FSX got it right. I'm thinking this is the kind of place that probably hasn't changed much since FSX came out. There are no buildings and there's no MS fuel pump; no tower; no published approaches. It does show as lighted in FSX, so I guess that's something. The gravel runway is 3,900 X 75. ----- My first one today is L05, Kern Valley, in Kernville, California. I swear I did not deliberately pick an easy one; it just happened to be this airport's turn on the list. I really do adhere to that regimen pretty religiously, mostly in fear that if I begin to avoid the hard ones I'll end up with a bow wave of them that I'll never work through. I take them as they come off the lists, which I mostly randomize before beginning to use them. This is a GA airport lying at about 2,600' MSL, in the hills above Los Angeles, not far from Isabella Lake, which appears to be one of the reservoirs feeding the thirsty city below. It seems to be in a valley with hills nearby in most every direction, so if you fly in there, be sharp. I see peaks 600' higher than the runway within a runway length of the field. Since it has no published approaches I'm going to hazard a guess that this is not only a VFR-only airport, there probably aren't very many guys fudging on that either. It's non-towered, unlighted, has no approaches in FSX and no navaids show up within 20 NM. The single runway is paved and is 3,500' X 50'. There is a fuel pump and a pretty good sized ramp with about ten generic FS buildings and a helipad, which I often fail to mention. ----- My second and last one today (OK, tonight) is an update of KHKY, Hickory Regl. in Hickory, North Carolina. This is the largest of the four we did today, with a pair of runways in a Y-configuration, the longest at about 6,400'. Both are 150' wide. Uniquely in this batch, Wiki has a pretty extensive article about it. They report about 40,000 annual operations. There are no pax stats given and there is apparently no commercial air service there at present. Established by the civil authorities in 1940 - there's timing for you - Hickory Airport was used for military training during WWII then reverted to civil use. Unlike many airports of this size we see, there doesn't appear in the GE satellite shots to be much in the way of commercial activity on the fringes of this airport. It has good facilities, with an ILS to one end of the big runway and an LOM to mark the way. There's also a VOR/DME about ten miles away. It is towered and lighted and there are about a dozen approaches, including the ILS. ----- John - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - If you'd like to subscribe (free) and have all new and updated airport diagram files e-mailed to you, contact me at allardjd@earthlink.net with a Subject Line of "Airport Diagram Subscription". - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted September 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2012 9/22/12 Airport Diagrams New: CYQI Yarmouth - Yarmouth, Nova Scotia - Canada FEFF M'poko - Bangui, Central African Republic KSAF Santa Fe Mun - Santa Fe, New Mexico - US Updated: None Current Airport Diagram Stats @ Mutley’s Hangar: Uploads 1,425; downloads 1,842 Quickmarch produced a plate today with no help - I uploaded it to the MH File Library about two minutes after seeing it for the first time - it was that good. By George, I think he's got it. Yes, I only did two myself but with my new partner engaged we still gave you a full bag of three new ones today. It seems as if my plate is pretty full these days and I'm very grateful that he's joined the team on these. ----- March's airport today was CYQI, Yarmouth, in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. I think he did a bang-up job on it. Wiki reports that this field was first established in 1936 as a home base for Maritime patrol planes. It was partitioned and half was used for British Commonwealth Air Training during the war. A Naval air gunnery training school was established there too. As was the case with most of the wartime bases, Yarmouth was turned over to civil authorities after the cessation of hostilities. The field is located pretty much on the western tip of Nova Scotia, not much more than a runway length from the water. It is currently served by a commuter airline but no pax volume stats are given. In FSX and in GE the airport is in an asymmetric T-configuration, one runway capping the other but not exactly centered on it. The longer is a bit short of 6,000' - both are 150' wide. There is no control tower but plenty of Center frequencies listed - three of them. The long runway has an ILS to one end and there are a number of other approaches listed in FSX, including a Localizer Backcourse approach which includes a Locator beacon (co-located NDB and Outer Marker) on the backcourse end. This is only the second one of those I've seen, the other being at KJEF a couple of weeks ago. Of navaids, besides the Backcourse locator, there is a VOR/DME on the field and another NDB out on the primary end of the runway, where the ILS brings you home. Looking closely at GE, there are the remnants of another runway, almost N-S. Part of that is shown as apron in FSX and adjacent to that is a huge ramp area with a half-dozen very large concrete pads adjacent and a handful of smaller ones nearby, most likely the footprint of the former military presence. There is one small building on one of them, with a bunch of shipping containers nearby but that building is not shown in FSX. Some old taxiways can be seen in GE as well, and those are not shown in FSX. ----- FEFF M'poko airport in Bangui, Central African Republic was my first airport today. If you guessed that this is from the national capitals list you'd be right. Banqui is the capital. There's very little information in Wiki about it, but there is a list of airlines and connections given - among entries you might have heard of are Air France, and a number of the larger African-based airlines. Available destinations include Paris, Addis Ababa, Casablanca and Brazzaville. The airport itself has two parallel runways, very close together. One is asphalt (8,570 X 148) and one grass (6,562 X 164). There are three rather long taxiway stubs off the paved runway leading to a sort of Three Bears collection of ramps, one each of Papa, Mama and Baby bear sizes. The Mama Bear ramp appears to be the main commercial terminal, with military (an educated guess) at Papa and GA at the Baby Bear ramp. One end of the paved runway offers a Cat. II ILS and there are another ten or so non-precision approaches available, supported by an LOM, an LMM and another nearby NDB. There's also a VOR/DME barely a runway length out on the approach to the ILS end. It looks like a hard place to get lost if you've got an eye on the panel. The field has a tower, the only listed radio frequency, and is lighted. ----- KSAF, Santa Fe Mun in Santa Fe, New Mexico was my second one today, this from the state capitals list. It was a little more work than the other one, with a small handful of custom building footprints to import (not that you can tell - they're pretty near rectangular) and a second plate required for the taxiways. KSAF has three runways, a big one that's over 8,300 X 150 and another pair that are each around 6,300' long. The long one and one of the short ones are 150' wide - the second short one is only 75' wide. Wiki gives the stats as about 43,000 pax boardings in their best year but the stats are pretty noisy, probably from commercial air service providers setting up and folding their respective tents as the business climate dictates. Aircraft operations are given as 78,000 per year, so either the load factor is REALLY poor or there's a lot going on here that doesn't involve passenger flights. I find no evidence of current or former military presence here and the operations stats only list military flights as accounting for 6% of the volume. By the looks of the GE shot they're doing a huge business in GA, everything from small singles through bizjets - there are well over 50 in sight and probably may more hangared away here and there or out and about somewhere doing what AC are supposed to do. The field is towered and lighted with a good taxiway network - there are taxiways to five of the six runway ends. One ILS is here and a dozen or more other published approaches. There's an LOM supporting the ILS and a VOR/DME less than five miles away. ----- John - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - If you'd like to subscribe (free) and have all new and updated airport diagram files e-mailed to you, contact me at allardjd@earthlink.net with a Subject Line of "Airport Diagram Subscription". - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted September 24, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2012 9/23/12 Airport Diagrams New: CYAV St Andrews - Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada 5NK Naknek - Naknek, Alaska - US KMFR Rogue Valley Intl-Medford - Medford, Oregon - US Updated: MYGF Grand Bahama Intl - Freeport, Bahamas (updated) Current Airport Diagram Stats @ Mutley’s Hangar: Uploads 1,428; downloads 1,845 Mr. Quickmarch has another one for us and he's getting better and better at producing them. I got this one pretty early in the day, meaning earlier in the evening for him. I think I've finally got my brain wrapped around the time difference between he and I and I take the earlier arrival to mean fewer struggles at his end. I did my usual three today after a day or two resting on my laurels with fewer done. That means you get four today, though one is an update. ----- CYAV, St Andrews, which is in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is the one March fired my way today and it looks nice - a very well done effort. Looking it up in Wiki I find an entry but not a lot of information. Though it lies fairly close to Winnipeg and the big international there, it seems this place is not just a quiet backwater airport where the grass growing or the snow accumulating is the most exciting thing happening. Even though it's just a GA airport with no scheduled pax service, CYAV was Canada's 16th busiest airport in 2011, based on the number of aircraft operations. In FSX CYAV is a pretty building-rich location, all generic, stock FS buildings, however. There appear to be about 40 of them and they mirror those I can see in Google Earth fairly well. Though Wiki doesn't say so, this may be a wartime airport. The three runways, and the remnants of a fourth that is visible in both FSX and GE, seem to have that kind of layout to them. The closed one is marked with Xs in GE but in FSX it's just unmarked apron space - FSX can't seem to mimic that ratty, down-in-the-mouth look that disused runways and taxiways soon take on. The three current runways are all on the short side, the longest being under 3,100'. It is a towered and lighted field, however and has a full suite of radio frequencies listed. Of approaches and navaids they weren't' quite so blessed - one published NDB approach is about the extent of it. The NDB is on the field so that must make things easy, or at least easier. Oddly, some of the taxiways have letter designators and some are numbered. We don't usually see both on the same airport. ----- My first effort today was an easy one, cranked out while I was still getting caffeinated. It's 5NK Naknek, in Naknek, Alaska. To give you an idea of the place, I can do no better than this quote, lifted from the Wiki article for the airport - "...this airport had 161 commercial passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008, an increase of 53% from the 105 enplanements in 2007." Obviously, business is booming. I'm guessing that charters accounted for those numbers, not any kind of scheduled service. The airport has a pair of gravel runways, one of which essentially splits the main parking apron in two, and one water runway. That split apron is not quite so regular and well defined in the GE view as it is in FSX, so I guess in the real world it's not so odd as it looks in the sim. It is a compact place and gives the impression that you need to look both ways before stepping off the doorstep of a building or you might get your nose removed by a wingtip going by. The gravel runways are short, both under 2,000' and the water one is only a thousand longer. The water strip is in an adjacent lake with some beaching space along the banks next to the airport. There are a surprising number of aircraft visible, about 40 in the GE picture with probably a few more hidden away in the few hangars there, but not a twin in the pack. The only radio frequencies listed are CTAF and MULTICOMMs; there are no published approaches but it is lighted, both gravel runways, and there are navaids, both VOR and NDB variety, within ten miles. There is an MS fuel pump here and a fair number of generic FS buildings - 20 or so. If I had to characterize it, I'd have to say that it's busy but primitive GA field, which in that part of the world probably supports a good amount of bush flying. ----- KMFR, Rogue Valley Intl-Medford airport, in Medford, Oregon came off the top of one of my non-specific lists next. It turned into a two-plater, having a pair of runways and a fairly complex taxiway network. It also had a couple of non-generic buildings to bring into the plot and some interesting approaches. It's a decent sized airport and Wiki says it's the third busiest in Oregon with about 300K pax served in a recent year. Interestingly, one accident with a fatality is listed - in 2008 an arriving US Airways plane struck and killed a coyote. They don't say so but apparently the Road Runner he was chasing escaped - they almost always do. I didn't shed a tear over this, since we all know from the cartoons that coyotes have an infinite capability to be reincarnated from these events, no matter how bad they seem to be. The airport has a pair of runways, one over 8,800 X 150. That one has an ILS at one end. Looking at Google Earth it matches up pretty will with the exception of a new looking parking apron and some FBO looking structures nearby on the side opposite the rest of the facilities. If that's what it is, it's a high end one, with parking set up only for about four pretty good sized airplanes. There are three twins parked there in the picture, two of which give the appearance of being turboprops. None of that is in FSX. The field has a control tower and is lighted. There is a decent list of published approaches, but it's an odd list at that. The weirdest of all is a Localizer Backcourse approach to a Circle-to-Land procedure. I just had to look up the real-world chart for that one. The FAA calls it LOC/DME BC-B. Just when you think you've seen it all... You fly an ILS back course to the airport (over some terrain, I might add). Two of the transitions are on 24 NM DME arcs, which I suppose are probably easier to fly than the 10 NM ones. The lineup seems to match up right to Runway 32 and why that's not listed as a separate option in the table is a mystery to me. In any case, the feds were not willing to give a different MDA or minimums for that option. In addition to the Backcourse CTL, there are several other Circle-to-Land procedures, fully five of the nine published approaches are to "R00" a sure sign that it's a Circle-to-Land procedure. I suspect that terrain accounts for this, but don't know for a fact. The one approach plate I looked at had three shades of brown on it and I could pick out a peak that was over 6,300' higher than the airport elevation. I think this place qualifies as "interesting" if the WX isn't severe clear. The ILS runway has a LOM and there's another NDB, much closer in, out in that direction as well. A VOR/DME is nearby too. ----- The final one in this batch is the update to MYGF, Grand Bahama Intl, in Freeport, Bahamas. I did the original in August 2009 and though it doesn't look too bad, there is a lot more data going into the current plates, so this one got a polishing up. The most interesting thing about it in the Wiki article is a listing of crashes at or near MYGF - I'll leave it to you to look them up and read them if you're interested. No coyotes were involved, however. The buildings look nice but the ramp and taxiways have a really ratty appearance with black stains of various sizes all over the place. I wouldn't be surprised there's a sign there or a note on the charts to the effect that leaky airplanes are welcome. This is a fully equipped international airport with one long runway, at a bit over 11,200'. It is, of course, towered and lighted. There's an ILS to one end only but a total of ten approaches are available. The facilities all lie at one end, the one that would require back-taxiing after landing from the ILS. There is a mid field turnoff to an angling taxiway back to the ramp but if you roll past that you'll have to turn on the runway or go to the far end to use the turnout pad there. There's an LOM supporting the ILS, a VOR/DME on the field and an NDB out on the non-ILS end. ----- John - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - If you'd like to subscribe (free) and have all new and updated airport diagram files e-mailed to you, contact me at allardjd@earthlink.net with a Subject Line of "Airport Diagram Subscription". - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted September 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 25, 2012 9/24/12 Airport Diagrams New: HDAM Ambouli - Djibouti, Djibouti KALB Albany Intl - Albany, New York - US KDYB Summerville - Summerville, South Carolina - US Updated: None Current Airport Diagram Stats @ Mutley’s Hangar: Uploads 1,431; downloads 1,846 I'm afraid this is going to have to be shorter than normal tonight - life intervenes. (Who said "Hooray"?) I managed three airports today, all new ones. ----- The first is today is HDAM, Ambouli, in Djibouti, Djibouti. I had to look to see which subforum to put it in. I had the idea it was one of the Persian Gulf states but it turns out to be in the Horn of Africa - glad I looked. I'm reliably informed that this is a joint civil-military field, serving Djibouti, which is the capital of - - - you guessed it - Djibouti. Not only is the Djibouti Air Force there, it seems that the French Air Force has a permanent footprint as well, as does the United States armed forces, in the form of Camp Lemonnier, on the SE side of the airport. This is a large international airport, with only one runway about 10,300 feet long. There's a very large ramp and if the scale of the buildings in FSX is any indicator this is a pretty big place - or the buildings are on the small side. It's towered, lighted and has one ILS plus a handful of other approaches and navaids. Other than that there's nothing all that interesting about it. This one came off the national capitals list. ----- From the state capitals list I offer up to you KALB, Albany Intl, in Albany, New York. For the non-US folks reading this, no, the capital of the Empire State is not in the city with the Empire State building, but is instead in Albany. This was the most complex airport I diagrammed today, if not the largest, and turned into a two-plater to accommodate the taxiway labels. It's two crossing runways are in the 7,000' + range and there are ILSs to both ends of the N-S one. It's pretty well equipped with published approaches, COM radio services and navaids. There's a nice custom terminal building that ended up rendering pretty well in the diagram - some times they end up looking kind of sad but this one seems to look much like it belongs there. One of KALB's claims to fame is that Albany International was the first municipal airport in the US, beginning in 1908 on a polo field. It's been in use since, but with a few temporary closures in the 30s and 40s. There is no mention of any military use of the field, past or current. ----- KDYB, Summerville airport, in Summerville, South Carolina is the last one tonight. Wiki has no listing for it except a place in the list of airports in South Carolina so I don't have much in the way of history or particulars beyond what I see in FSX. It's a smallish field with one 3,700' asphalt runway, a full length parallel taxiway and a small ramp with four buildings - you have to look pretty hard to see the fourth one, however. There is an NDB on the field and a published NDB approach here, but it's the only one. There is a VOR/DME about 15 miles away. It's non-towered, of course, but is lighted. ----- John - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - If you'd like to subscribe (free) and have all new and updated airport diagram files e-mailed to you, contact me at allardjd@earthlink.net with a Subject Line of "Airport Diagram Subscription". - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted September 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 26, 2012 9/25/12 Airport Diagrams New: CYZT Port Hardy - Port Hardy, British Columbia, Canada KSYR Syracuse Hancock Intl - Syracuse, New York - US Updated: None Current Airport Diagram Stats @ Mutley’s Hangar: Uploads 1,433; downloads 1,846 We only have two for you today, one each from Quickmarch and from me. The next one that I should have done is an update and turns out to be a pretty intense one, KFLL - Ft Lauderdale-Hollywood Intl, not far north of Miami. I ran out of day before I had a chance to get into it. Tomorrow's another day. I've noted a slight issue with a beta version of ADE that I've recently gone to, which is causing a minor display issue for my airport diagrams. I've reported it; Jon Masterson at Scruffy Duck has acknowledged receipt of my report but I don't have any idea what will come of this. March is using a different version of ADE and is unaffected by this. The issue has to do with the display of taxiway centerlines where they intersect one another, a runway or parking links. In those situations, the taxiway centerlines are blanked out and don't display on the image I capture for the diagrams. This is a cosmetic thing only, but if you notice some odd blank areas where things join up and it looks like there ought to be centerlines through the transition, you're right, something's amiss. If Jon can't get it fixed quickly I'll have to consider dropping back to an earlier version of ADE for a while. ----- March popped in this morning with a very nicely executed diagram for CYZT - Port Hardy airport in Port Hardy, British Columbia, which I got posted at MH right away. CYZT is near the north end of Vancouver Island and lies close to the water, which is Queen Charlotte Straight. March, who has been there in yachts, tells me the WX is generally pretty awful. Wiki is light on detail for this airport and it's in a GE low-res area, so the plate tells us most of what there is to know. It has three paved runways in an overlapping triangle configuration. The longest is 4,900' +. The N-S runway has a long displaced threshold at the south end. There's a decent looking ramp connected by taxiways at the west side and a handful of generic FS buildings. The airport shows in FSX as being non-towered, but lighted. Runway 11 has an ILS and there are two non-precision approaches as well. There's a VOR/DME on the field and an NDB about 3 miles out toward the approach end of runway 07. ----- Just by coincidence, and from a completely different list, the airport I diagrammed today is KSYR - Syracuse Hancock Intl, in Syracuse, New York. That happens to be another upstate New York city, not far from Albany (KALB), which I did yesterday. The two airports are only 104 NM apart. This one is listed as joint civil/military and though the military footprint isn't real obvious in the Google Earth shot, I did spot one lonely A-10 in the big complex on the south-center edge of the field, so I assume that's it. The layout is two large runways in a V, which cross near their extreme SE ends. There's a third, closed runway at the NW corner, smaller and shorter than the others. It shows in GE, with Xs, but it's obvious that in its day it was considerably longer. A large chunk has been cut off by the access roads to the mid-field terminal area. The custom terminal building in FSX came over quite well from the screenshot and is the most prominent item in the airport diagram, with two concourse fingers jutting into the main ramp. There appear to be about sixteen jetways connected to them - GE seems to be in agreement. There was only one other non-generic building on the field, a small one that won't be noticed much. The airport at this location originated from a USAAC bomber base which was given to the civil authorities just after WWII. This replaced an earlier Syracuse airport at another location. One interesting statistic from Wiki states that although the area receives an average 114 inches of snow each winter, the airport's total average annual closed time due to WX is less than 24 hours. I reckon they must have a plow or two there. In terms of volume, the stats say over 2 million pax per year and almost 110,000 aircraft operations, making it a fairly busy place. The two in-service runways are about 9,000 and 7,500 feet long. Runway 10/28 has ILSs at both ends and the Rwy 28 ILS is a Cat. II. It has an LOM at the marker and there's a VOR/DME about 5 miles off the field. Of approaches, FSX has thirteen for this field, including the two ILSs. The plate got pretty busy with text but I managed to fit it all in without making it look too bad and without having to fudge on the standard text font sizes I use. It did require a second plate to document the taxiway IDs, however. ----- John - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - If you'd like to subscribe (free) and have all new and updated airport diagram files e-mailed to you, contact me at allardjd@earthlink.net with a Subject Line of "Airport Diagram Subscription". - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted September 27, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2012 9/26/12 Airport Diagrams New: CYQD The Pas - The Pas, Manitoba, Canada Updated: KFLL Ft Lauderdale-Hollywood Intl - Ft Lauderdale, Florida - US (updated) Current Airport Diagram Stats @ Mutley’s Hangar: Uploads 1,434; downloads 1,846 Today is another light day - we only have two diagrams for you. Quickmarch has produced one again today and I did the other, however that one is the update to KFLL, that I mentioned yesterday. It's not a new airport in your collection, just a better version of one you already had. It looks like we're coming into a period of curtailed production, probably for about two weeks. Between now and the evening of October 5th, there will be a reduced output - not zero, but probably not the three a day we've been trying to maintain. The club newsletter is coming up and there are some other things on my plate that are competing for my attention, not least some beta testing for an NDA-protected product. From October 6th through about the 15th I'm going to be vacationing and I don't expect to have the software tools, the time, the inclination or even the Internet access to be producing airport diagrams. Quickmarch is sending his diagrams through me and I'm doing the posting. Any he does between now and the 5th will be posted the same day I receive them, but beyond that they'll just be backlogged until I can get back into the saddle. ----- March has done another great job with CYQD The Pas, at The Pas, Manitoba, Canada. He's been on the job for two weeks and is routinely producing diagrams I literally cannot distinguish from mine (except by looking at the e-mail address at the bottom-right). I had no idea about The Pas - There's an article in Wiki about it and I'll leave it to you to look it up and read it if you care to. Suffice to say it's about 400 miles NW of Winnipeg, so I'm thinking that there are only two seasons, Winter and three weeks of bad dog-sledding weather in August. Wiki has a page for the airport too (as well as the one for the city) but with only the bare statistics - almost 4,800 aircraft operations in 2010, for instance. In Google Earth it's way up in low-res country, so there's not too much to be gleaned from that source either. I do see, however, that there are two airports at The Pas, but since there's little additional information in our usual sources - that leaves us with FSX. The Pas has two runways, one paved and about 5,900 feet long. The other is gravel, considerably smaller and is closed. It's a non-towered field but shows as being lighted. There are FSS and Center frequencies listed and there are about four published approaches so IFR operations are supported, but there's no ILS. It has a VOR/DME on the field and an NDB very close by, abeam the field and less than a mile away. ----- My sole offering today is at the opposite end of the climate scale. It's the delayed update to KFLL, Ft Lauderdale-Hollywood Intl in Ft Lauderdale, Florida. This one was quite a project as it's quite an airport. It's only 21 miles from Miami and probably serves as a reliever airport for KMIA. Wiki says that the airport processed an incredible 23 million pax in 2011 and hosted well over a quarter million aircraft operations. That's a major airport any way you slice it. The airport has three runways in a reversed Z configuration, ranging from 9,000' to about 5,300', the larger two @ 150' wide. There's a great, sprawling terminal building at the east end with over thirty jetways and four other ramp areas of various sizes with buildings, some custom. In FSX this one holds my current record for the most MS refueling areas, a total of five, two of which are situated back to back. I'm pretty sure that's the most I've seen at one airport so far. FSX Comm frequencies are as thick as fleas on a hound dog and FSX approaches are not far behind with about sixteen. The two long runways show ILS data at both ends but don't be fooled - 09R and 13 are Localizer-only. Don't be snookered waiting for that glide slope flag to come alive - it won't, and you'll be high and fast and in too close and will probably make a mess of your approach. (Does that sound like the voice of experience?) A good rule of thumb is that if you're not receiving the glide slope at twelve miles, there probably isn't one. Of course a decent airport diagram made from FS data with a mini-ILS table that shows "N"s in the GS column could save you all that trouble, but where in the world are you ever going to find anything like that? Obviously a place like this is going to have a tower and lights and all that kind of thing. There's also a VOR/DME on the airport property and an NDB out on the approach path to Runway 13. This airport has a pretty complex taxiway network with parallel taxiways full length and on both sides of all three runways. That forced me to a second plate for the taxiway labeling, which I keep separate so it doesn't compete with the other details in the main image. ----- John - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - If you'd like to subscribe (free) and have all new and updated airport diagram files e-mailed to you, contact me at allardjd@earthlink.net with a Subject Line of "Airport Diagram Subscription". - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted September 28, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2012 9/27/12 Airport Diagrams New: GVFM Francisco Mendes - Praia, Cape Verde KMPV Knapp State - Barre-Montpelier, Vermont - US Updated: None Current Airport Diagram Stats @ Mutley’s Hangar: Uploads 1,436; downloads 1,846 I have two for you today - all I could manage and probably one more than I should have with competing projects. The flight sim club dinner was tonight - I wouldn't have missed it for anything but it took a chunk out of the productive part of the day too. ----- GVFM, Francisco Mendes airport in Praia, Cape Verde came off the national capitals list today. What FSX refers to as Cape Verde is actually the Republic of Cape Verde and consists of about ten islands west of the coast of Africa. This particular airport is in the capital, Praia, which is on the island of Santiago. The airport is a relative newcomer to the aviation world, first opened in 1961. Interestingly, this airport has been "de-activated" in 2005 and was replaced by Praia International Airport, GVNP, which is not in FSX. Google Earth pretty much bears this out - the remnants of the old airport can be seen but it's obviously defunct, with major streets overlaid. The new airport appears to be just NE of the old one and can be seen in GE but GE does not recognized it as an airport entity and can't find the ICAO. In FSX GVFM is a pretty modest airport for a national capital. It's a single paved runway and got the minimalist treatment from Microsoft, showing only the runway, control tower and a fuel dock. There are no taxiways or ramps and the only building is the control tower. The runway shows as a modest 4,200' X 100' but the field is towered and lighted. There are no published approaches in FSX but there is an NDB on the field and a VOR/DME just off it. That VOR actually seems to lie abeam the center of the runway of the new airport. ----- The other airport I managed to diagram today was KMPV, Knapp State airport, with FSX listing the city location as Barre-Montpelier, VT and Wiki disagreeing, giving the city as Berlin, VT. We always go with FSX naturally, since that's what this chart series is about. Montpelier is, of course, the capital of Vermont and this airport came from the US state capitals list, which we're getting pretty close to exhausting - I think only about seven remain to be done. This is listed as a GA airport, though formerly had scheduled air service by Air New England. Traffic volume is given as about 32,000 operations per year. KMPV has two paved runways lying more or less in a very broad V pattern. The longest is a foot shy of 5,000' and is 150' wide. The other is about a thousand feet shorter and fifty narrower. The field is uncontrolled, but there are ATC frequencies listed for FSS and Center, as well as the usual UNICOM, CTAF, etc. The longer runway does have an ILS to one end and there are three non-precision approaches in FSX for the place as well. An NDB and a VOR/DME lie in the middling distance, not on or immediately adjacent to the field but near enough to be useful and probably play a role in the listed approaches. ----- John - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - If you'd like to subscribe (free) and have all new and updated airport diagram files e-mailed to you, contact me at allardjd@earthlink.net with a Subject Line of "Airport Diagram Subscription". - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Link to post Share on other sites
mutley 4,498 Posted September 28, 2012 Report Share Posted September 28, 2012 Hi John, It's great to see these keeping being uploaded. One thing I have always wondered is how you choose which one to do next other than requests for specific airports? Joe Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted September 28, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2012 I have four lists that I work in parallel; national capitals, state capitals; one that came from a decompiled traffic program flight plan file; one from who knows where - I've forgotten. The latter two are fairly long - thousands of lines. I've worked through all the former ATWC lists, various lists of the worlds busiest airports by various measures (AC operations, pax handled, most cargo, fastest growing, etc.). I'm always on the lookout for more lists and as I find them I capture them and squirrel them away to use as replacement lists when I exhaust one of the four current ones. My reserve stockpile is empty at the moment and am approaching the end of the US state capitals list, so need another list soon to replace that one when I empty it. Of the four current lists, I take one airport off each one in sequence, and every other day do an update of the oldest airport diagram in the collection to "drag up the tail" to current standards. I run most lists through a randomization routine when I first get them, except rallys and events like ATWC where I will do them in the event sequence so the earliest ones needed are the first ones done. Simple, really... John EDIT: I've also done Kieran's head-banger band (I've forgotten their name) World Tour Route and Tim's Tanzania Tour, both of the MEBARS and at least two of Andrew's Rallies. JDA Link to post Share on other sites
mutley 4,498 Posted September 28, 2012 Report Share Posted September 28, 2012 That will be Iron Maiden John! Well, you obviously given this a lot of thought, I hope you get the inspiration for another list soon. Joe Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted September 28, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2012 Mostly the lists just cross my bow by accident in my travels and when I see one that looks likely, I grab it and stash it away for future use. John Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted September 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 29, 2012 9/28/12 Airport Diagrams New: CYLH Lansdowne House - Lansdowne House, Ontario - Canada CZKE Kashechewan - Kashechewan, Ontario - Canada NZGS Gisborne - Gisborne, New Zealand Updated: EGPE Inverness - Inverness, UK (updated) Current Airport Diagram Stats @ Mutley’s Hangar: Uploads 1,439; downloads 1,846 I've run out of day with too much still to do, so am skipping the airport prose for tonight. Three new airports were posted today, the two Canadian ones done by Quickmarch. The Kiwi one is mine, as is the update to Inverness. John - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - If you'd like to subscribe (free) and have all new and updated airport diagram files e-mailed to you, contact me at allardjd@earthlink.net with a Subject Line of "Airport Diagram Subscription". - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted April 11, 2018 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2018 Note: While the data in this thread is still valid, the entire thing has been superseded by the Mutley's Hangar Airport Diagram Download Center. Top level is here... http://forum.mutleyshangar.com/index.php?/topic/23067-airport-diagram-download-center/ At this writing there are about 300 bundles available by country (by state/province in US, Canada, Australia) and something north of 7,400 airports diagrammed. Production continues and more airports are being added to the existing bundles every month. 3 Link to post Share on other sites
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