This Week's Meaningless Topic (#71) (Jan 15)

[Rodger Pettichord]

Hi all. When we lived in western Washington near Tacoma, I used to visit the Tacoma Narrows airport regularly to plane-watch. After we moved here to Spokane in eastern Washington, I discovered Felts Field and even got the chance to do some real-life touch and goes there (hired pilot). Thus, when Orbx came out with simulated versions of both, I was thrilled. Bought them both immediately as they came out, and still use them regularly and gratefully. Which brings us to this week's topic.

 

THIS WEEK'S MEANINGLESS TOPIC: which Orbx airports have been most personally meaningful to you?

[BradB]

Ditto for me - Felts (KSFF) .

[gumbypickett]

That would be Melbourne airport.

Many years ago as a youngster I would make several trips to

YMML, stay a week and spend about 3 or 4 days just

hanging around the airport plane spotting and taking photos.

Lots of fond memories.

cheers

Gumby

 

[gregmorin]

KBHB Bar Harbor Trenton Airport. Just down the road from me. According to Dan Downs log edit 3, I have 1825 visits to KBHB. My most used airport.

 

Greg

Edited January 15, 2022 by gregmorin

[W2DR]

Monterey - KMRY. Not only is it just a little bit north of one of the most scenic coastlines in the world, it's where I did my first flight and a PPL back in 1959.

[Sniper31]

Orbx has never developed an airport near me or one that is personal to me, so I can't really comment too much on this topic. That said, I've never been one who had this desire to see my house in the sim, or my local airport. What I enjoy is getting to discover places in the sim that I would most likely not ever get to experience in real life, and Orbx does accomplish that for me  

 

Landon

[adambar]

6 minutes ago, Sniper31 said:

Orbx has never developed an airport near me or one that is personal to me, so I can't really comment too much on this topic. That said, I've never been one who had this desire to see my house in the sim, or my local airport. What I enjoy is getting to discover places in the sim that I would most likely not ever get to experience in real life, and Orbx does accomplish that for me  

 

Landon

Same as Landon, but if I had to choose one, I would say the airports in the San Juan Island chain in the PNW. 

[John York]

Cardiff-I can see the runway and a parked aircraft across the Bristol Channel from my lounge window!

[boetie]

11 minutes ago, John York said:

Cardiff-I can see the runway and a parked aircraft across the Bristol Channel from my lounge window!

Lucky man John

[Stillwater]

Hard to find the best answer to this question, I´ve been waiting for many of them and enjoyed them so much. In the final round for my decision would be

- Porta Westfalica: I can nearly see the runway from my office, and the bar of the airport IS actually the terminal building.

- Melbourne: The airport where I first touched Australian ground. The first Orbx airport I purchased. A base for many lovely explorations.

[John Heaton]

2 actually - the first is Moorabbin (Melbourne) - a secondary airport - but one of the busiest in Australia

because it's a major GA base and a huge training ground- and this is where this bloke in his 30s learned how to fly

I even built a factory on the end of 33R and from my office - I could keep an eye on my own aircraft in the avatar

 

-- the second is here where I live on the Gold Coast which is my usual place to catch an aircraft to elsewhere

 

There are one or 2 others in Queensland  - The Sunshine Coast  - and Caloundra - where we built "Skyfoxes" and

both have recently been added on Central

Edited January 15, 2022 by John Heaton

[flyingfish55]

EGPH. Took my first commercial flight from there as well as my first flight in a GA aircraft. It's also the airport I normally use when travelling back and forth to see family up north. In fact my first flight was in a chipmunk at RAF Leuchars when I was in the Air Training Corps. I remember it vividly - that's when they had English Electric Lightings which patrolled the North Sea  and ensured the Russians stayed out of UK airspace They regularly went up in pairs around midnight which thrilled me as a youngster to hear them roar off into the distance. 

 

Edited January 15, 2022 by flyingfish55

[renault]

It is difficult to answer this question .... as others have mentioned. As Landon has mentioned Orbx has never developed an airport near me.

 

At the time of the following  (about 10 years ago) , I had only just begun to be acquainted with Orbx and had only made a few purchases.

 

We were on a holiday in Australia, and we just driving in the Hunter Valley when we went past Cessnock airport.

I was really taken with the architecture of the hanger building (it is quite unique) and mentioned that I had seen it somewhere before ,

but couldn't remember where.

 

When I got back home I looked up Cessnock at Orbx, had my aha  moment,  and thought this is as real as what I saw. 

These guys are incredibly good 

 

And as they say, the rest is history

Cheers

 

[wain71]

not really any Orbx to near to me, you could say Cardiff, Pilot plus's Bristol is my closest, I have bought that for various sims and pass it a lot, sadly haven't used it since 2019. This what I like about the sim world though is I visit so many place in the virtual world and get to see places I don't feel I am ever going to get to......

 

It has no personal meaning reality, but KORS was the first time I discovered Orbx, I have this for every sim since it came out, I love the look of the area but have no clue what it's like for real....also some of the Orbx airports and regions has made me look at the history of some of the areas and cities around the world...

[larryisenor]

High River Alberta. A number of years ago we bought a scenic flight around Calgary at a silent auction. After taking off from Springbank Airport we did touch and goes at Okotoks and High River. We did the touch and go on the North-South gravel runway at High River and it very interesting when the pilot realized how short it was. He turned the controls over to me and I flew most of the way back to Calgary International where he landed the plane. When developing the Global Freeware Airports, I asked the developer Vlad Maly for permission to use his models for this and his other 2 Calgary area airports (Claresholm and Airdrie). He had no problem and we often talked by e-mail about airport design. I always think of him when flying over these airports and occasionally recreate the flight of many years ago.

Larry

[TerribleT]

All the PNG stuff, some of which I aviated in and out of as pilot or PAX, some of which I helped build or maintain AND the NT stuff for the same reasons - to a lesser extent the rest of the OZ stuff.

[Rob Abernathy]

Probably KRDD Redding, CA as it was one of Jarrad Marshall's projects, is only 4 miles from my house, and I got to take all  the picture for him to use in building my home airport.   KORS is a favorite and I've been there numerous times too.

[boetie]

For me it would be Brisbane as it has been the starting point of numerous international family holidays. It's a one hour drive up the M1 and the long stay carpark has hosted our car many a time

[lifejogger]

None in MSFS.  Orbx has a lot of great airports but none that are close to where I live.  

[Ken Q]

None near where I live, either.  My closest airport, and one that I visit from time to time, in Farmingdale Republic (KFRG).  I consider this my " Home Airport," though I haven't flown out of it much for some time.  I has never gotten the Orbx treatment.  However some years ago Neil Hill corrected it to make it conform to "Vector." (New Highway cut right across the ramp and through the American Air Power Museum).  While at it he made other changes so it's almost an Orbx Freeware upgrade.

 

However, for the last couple of years I've been flying around the West Coast to make use of PilotEdge. There are two airports that meet Rodgers criteria, although I've never seen them in person.  They resonate with me because of their historical associations, and the fact that they are so beautifully done by Orbx.

 

1.  Pearson Field, Vancouver, WA.  (KVUO) The oldest airport still active in the U.S. built on the storied site of Fort Vancouver, which started as a fur trading outpost.  This is especially interesting for me; I have spent my career in a living history museum, much of it as a hatter. Often forgotten is the fact that the principle purpose of the early fur trade was to supply the raw material for hat manufacturing (beaver fur).  A reconstruction of the original fort has been constructed on the airport property, just north of the west end of the runway.  This is nicely done in the Orbx scenery.  But there is more.  The trading post morphed into an army base before becoming an airport.  Then during WW2 the river bank was developed into a ship yard run by Kaiser.  Kaiser developed prefab construction techniques.  They built LSTs and other ships.  

 

Acadia Press has a nice little illustrated history in the "Images of America" series.

 

2.  The other one is Blue Canyon Nyack Airport in Emigrant Gap, CA. (KBLU) This field overlooks Donner Pass, one of the passes through th Sierra Nevada  Range.  Flying through the canyons from Reno to Blue Canyon, you'd fly over Truckee airport, then a long lake once known as Truckee Lake.  It was here that the Donner  Party, A group of emigrants from Illinois, were trapped by an early season snow storm.  They remained trapped through the bitter winter of 1846-1847.  Many died, and in the end the survivors resorted to cannibalism.  The story is told in the Best Land Under Heaven by Michael Wallis.

 

[Rodger Pettichord]

 Ken mentioned "Pearson Field, Vancouver, WA.  (KVUO) The oldest airport still active in the U.S. built on the storied site of Fort Vancouver, which started as a fur trading outpost." Brings back a memory. In the early 1960s, I worked on the landscaping crew at Fort Vancouver Army Post. The base was rumored to be a last stop for mediocre officers prior to retirement. I can't confirm that, but I can say we picked up five full garbage cans of whiskey bottles from the officers club every week. There were only a handful of officers on the base, but they sure were a thirsty lot.