For those who are interested, Paul Freeman maintains an excellent site called “Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields”:
http://www.airfieldsfreeman.com/
As the name suggests, it’s a repository of ex-airstrips that have fallen into dis-use (or have completely dissappeaed) over the years in the United States. Because MSFS utilizes photo-based scenery for essentially all of the world, it means that many of these ex-airstrips can be found and landed at. As an example, I decided to check out an old strip in northern Maine, Estcourt Station:
http://www.airfieldsfreeman.com/ME/Airfields_ME_N.htm#escourt
Besides giving us some interesting details of the history, Paul also provides the exact co-ordinates for each strip he writes about, so you can plug them into your flight planner and away you go. I decided to fly from the nearest airport, which in this case was Rivière-du-Loup (CYRI), about 25 miles away. I’ve provided some screen shots of the overfly, approach, and parking area of the abandoned airstrip (the close proximity of the trees to the wing tips made for a fun landing!). There are many, many ex airfields to explore, so fill your boots.
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Great resource! Thanks for that.
This kind of exploration is what MSFS2020 is really good at, if you can work about the zillions of trees!
Can heartily recommend a similar site for European airfields that follows on from Paul’s site - https://www.forgottenairfields.com/
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I love this and can’t wait to explore this some more. Thanks for the link!
Off the top of my head, I know of an interesting one next to Stone Mountain in Georgia… Britt Memorial (00A). It’s now the home of an RC plane club. More info here.
Edit: Just realized my link to Britt Mem was from the same site you linked!
Thanks very much. One of my hobbies is WW2 history with a focus on air battles like the Battle of Britain. I love finding and landing on the old UK fields in MSFS and reading some of the interesting but sad history. More recently, I have discovered many old fields on Pacific Islands. Now you have given me the USA. Great stuff. Cheers.
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Off the top of my head, I know of an interesting one next to Stone Mountain in Georgia… Britt Memorial (00A). It’s now the home of an RC plane club.
I did a quick fly-in to the RC strip, from the conveniently located Lt World Airport (00GA). It was another tight fit, but what a great location next to Stone Mountain (I never knew that Atlanta had their own Ayers Rock!)
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Thanks so much for posting these!
As a kid, my father and I used to hike up Stone Mountain a few times a year. He used to be quite the adventurer, and we would go off-the-path to look for Civil War relics. Never found anything. In highschool, we would get drunk and go to the laser show that was projected on the face of the mountain. Good memories.
Would love to see the laser show as a POI addon that appears every Friday night. Also, some little RC planes buzzing around the abandoned strip!
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I love exploring Abandoned Airports / Airfields. I am going to do a photo and video serie of it in MSFS so I will be posting it in here.
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Flyvestation Værløse ((West of Copenhagen Denmark) is a good one to check out. It’s in an area that has photogrammetry to the east, west, and south. The runway is long and the overall airfield is in such good condition it could be tagged as an official one and no one would notice. I’ve done multiple landings and the runway is very smooth. Check it out yourself.
Depart from UL Flyveklubben Albatros (EK66) and it’s just northeast. Not even 5 minutes away. You can depart in a spitfire but it’d be hard to land where you depart, but you can land at the abandoned airfield with ease.
It was established as a result of the 1909 Defense Settlement in the years 1910-12 a tent camp for from the Army. However, it was not until the period 1934 to the outbreak of war in 1940 that the camp was developed into an airfield.
9 April 1940 at At 5:25, Værløselejren, which at the time housed Copenhagen’s air defense, was attacked by a squadron of German Messerschmitt Bf 110 long-range fighters. During approx. three quarter past five attack waves more than 90% of the camp’s aircraft ready for departure were destroyed.
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Maybe of some interest for friends of abandoned airfields and STOL bushflights: I spent the holidays creating a map of the abandoned cropdusting airstrips in eastern germany:
They’re lots of fun to fly with the Got friends Wilga.
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