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I spent over 3 years in Panama City Florida, stationed at Tyndall AFB, and sky-diving at Fannin Field (KPFN). Flew into and out of Fannin for years, but haven't been in that neck of the woods far a very long time. So I was surprised when I looked up KPFN in FSX (and found it), and then searching for approach charts, found out that it has been "decommissioned" and replaced by Northwest Florida Beaches International (KECP). WOW! What happened?

 

So I went up on Google EArth and scoped it out. Sure enough, there was this airport with one very long (10,000') runway, 16/34, out in the sticks. And since I had wanted to fly into the area using FSX, I had to find the scenery for this spot. I have looked up several scenery files for it, but the best one I could find looks like someone dropped a scenery file in the middle of a swamp. What I'm asking here is if someone, anyone, knows of a good rendition of this airport for FSX. Any goood airport designers out there?

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I don't know of any personally. The only freeware I see is KECP Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport by Robert Touchtone. I would gather that's the one you had too though. 

http://198.143.185.238//1/browse-Scenery-63-64

 

Maybe, hopefully, someone here might have some payware choices for you.

 

 

 

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I found two freeware versions of KPFN for FSX, but both of them are called "Panama Bay - Bay County International Airport" rather than Fannin Field.

 

http://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/10507/afcad-file-for-kpfn/

 

http://www.fs2000.org/downloads/doc_details/9560

 

And since both of them only are AFCAD-updates I doubt that they will help much with the surrounding scenery....

 

As for payware I have no ideas.. The only general scenery over Florida I know of is from MegaSceneryEarth.com, but that doesn't cover the Panama City area, but only as far north as Crystal River (roughly) on the western coast and Daytona Beach (roughly) on the Atlantic coast.

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You might find this interesting if you like old maps and info about Fannin Field.

http://www.airfields-freeman.com/FL/Airfields_FL_Tallahassee.htm

http://home.comcast.net/~wewajoe/bayhistory/Airport.htm

 

I nearly flipped out when I opened the first link, and found the Blountstown airport right on top. I did a lot of skydiving in the area while I was stationed at Tyndall AFB, and started jumping at Fannin Field in 1965. The drop zone was right at the end of 32, just off to the left. We rented Cessna 172s and 182s from Sowell. BUt after awhile we lost the DZ there and started looking for jump sites elsewhere. We jumped at the MIlton T field for awhile and then moved to Blountstown where a local doctor had a Cherokee 235 that we jumped. HArd to believe that you could skydive a low-wing aircraft, but we did it, even crawling out on the right wing sometimes. At the time, it was nothing but swamp and woods to the east, and we had one of our students go deep into the woods. We ended up walking and wading through swamp for hours before we found her.

 

I was surprised to find out Fannin was abandoned. It was a fair-sized airport very close to everything. The new airport seems to be one long runway out in the middle of nowhere. Sounds like some kind of political move to me. I'll check out the other airport textures. I found and installed the Rob Touchtone setup.

 

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I'm getting ready to purchase the new MegaScenery Earth 2.0 Florida scenery (being released today), for $39.95! Since I do almost all of my flying withn the confines of my state, I figured this would be a great buy. At 25.5 Gb, it's gonna be a lengthy download, but I have a hi-speed broadband connection, so it shouldn't take me more than a few days. :faint: Actually, probably about 5-7 hours at worst. It will be nice to fly up there in the Panhandle and see both the old Fannin Field and the new KECP field.

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If you look at the Blountstown runway, you'll note the rows of pines growing at the NW end - that was a treee farm, and the trees were planted right up to the end of the runway. We were putting on a skydiving exhibition on June 2, 1968, and we were jumping out of a Piper Tri-Pacer, the Cherokee 235 and an Aeronca. Having made one of the first jumps of the day, I was all packed up and waiting for the next lift, when a local guy named Johnny decided to put on a spontaneous air show in the Aeronca, and I went along for the ride. Johnny had done a number of rolls inverted in the plane (which was NOT made for inverted flight) when the engine stopped due to fuel starvation. No sweat - we were at around 1000' right over the airport, and that little plane glides like a dream.

 

Only problem was, Johnny misjudged the approach and the height (about 10-15') of the baby pines at the end of the runway, and the gear clipped the tops of the trees, and we flipped upside-down and crashed inverted on the runway. Although we were both belted in, Johnny hit the panel and got a nasty gash on his forehead. When everyone came running up to the plane to see if we were okay, Johnny was bleeding all over the place, and both of us were laughing like maniacs! We actually dragged ourselves out of the plane, and everyone flipped the Aeronca back over onto its gear. Didn't even break the wood prop, but put a few holes in the fuselage and wing fabric covering.

 

What a memory! Sorry it isn't about simming, but that one site just brought me back, and I had to look at my logbooks.

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Superb Gary, we love to hear about stuff like this.

 

I am glad you and Johnny walked away from the landing, any landing you walk away is a good one. I can't say I have ever landed inverted before!

 

PS Aren't those sites like the one you linked to fascinating  :thum:

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Hi Gary,

I had a similar experience the other day downloading another state, the problem was their servers were really slow at the time.  

I may have to get this one  ^_^

 

I downloaded the REX Essentials w/Overdrive from the Flightsim Shop, and it took me 37 hours. No joke! It took off at first, and as it continued, it got slower and slower. Fortunately, I had nothing better to do, so I walked away from it, went to bed, got up the next day and went to work, and when I got home, it was still downloading. And I have a 10 Mbit connection.

 

Learned one thing - just because you have a broadband connection doesn't mean you'll have fast d/l's. If the server on the other end is hosed, all the broadband in the world ain't gonna help you.

 

Love your site up here, Mutley! And the maps you continually send out - I'm a new subscriber. Keep up the great work!

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