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Small Airports

Bomber_12th

Bomber_12th

SOH-CM-2025
One of my favorite, among many, aspects of this sim, and what I really have been eager to show, is the portrayal of the small airports (those that in all prior sims would have just been a green rectangle, and that is if they were portrayed in the sim at all).

Here is just a quick, small sampling from a little area of upstate New York. None of these airports are hand-made and there are many thousands like these all around the US and the rest of the planet (whether there in the GPS/map or not).

No matter how small the airport is, if there are buildings there they are very likely to be depicted in the sim, including the correct roof colors and sometimes even the correct wall colors. The AI-generated buildings are always highly detailed and with their own specular and reflective features. The tree lines are almost always cut down on either end of the grass field airports as well. And of course when you get down on the deck, you will always see the volumetric grass, brush, etc. Because all of the airports blend naturally in with their surroundings, they can be just as challenging to spot from the air as in reality too.

All of these airports shown here do show up in the GPS/map, even this small ultralight field with just a narrow strip of grass:









 
KARA in New Iberia, LA is the airfield from which I first learned to fly back in 1965. It is a former Navy Air Station and has an 8000' runway. I use it as my home air field. For me, at least, the main hangers are not shown. The tower is just a generic white concrete tower.

I am rather disappointed. I went to the airport, took pictures, and did my own version of the airport for P3D. After I get more comfortable with this sim, I plan on reading the SDK and figuring out how to port my version over to MSFS.
 
Yeah, there are close to 20 fairly substantial airports I have reported through Zendesk that are still missing buildings/hangars. As long as they're reported, there is hope that they will be fixed in the many future updates planned.

Here are some more small airports, this time in Minnesota. It is really cool when there is even an aircraft or two parked at these small grass strips.





One of my favorite hangouts, Battle Lake.





Stanton, which was used for primary flight training during WWII and today is quite the hub for pilot training, including sport, glider and taildragger.



 
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