Armilla is one of the oldest airfields in Spain and it´s located next to Granada, in the heart of Sierra Nevada mountains. This base is currently not existing in game. Armilla is the homebase of Air Force Wing 78 that includes the Air Force helicopter school and Patrulla ASPA, which is one of the very few helicopter aerobatic teams in the world. Wing 78 operates Sikorsky S-76 and Colibri helicopters. S-76s also perform SAR missions as a secondary task while their main purpose is the helicopter school. S-76s are being replaced by H135s during 2023 as they are at the end of their lifespan. Base is prepared for fixed wing operations as well and even to receive cargo airplanes using south apron for that purpose, where you will find a parking position for heavy helicopters and cargo. Main runway is often used as FATO by helicopter formations and a VFR helipad located directly on north taxiway is also available. Patrulla ASPA uses the northernmost portion of north apron while helicopter school uses the other portion of north apron. The school has an additional set of 6 dedicated shorter runways/aprons, a small cargo apron and several helipads to the west of main runway. There´s a specific non-paved taxiway circuit that connects them with main aprons. Base also has a small museum, a fuel depot and one ammunition storage bunker located to the south of aprons.
Complete features list of the addon is the following:
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Accurate representation of base layout and its key areas, including the preserved monuments existing in the real base, which include a biplane.
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ERSI satellite textures used for the whole base (area is currently blurried in game) with color tone adaptation and lots of corrections to better match the surrounding original areas.
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Sloped terrain, runways, aprons and taxiways following the real base terrain elevation.
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Main runway, aprons, VFR helipad at north taxiway and all parking positions included.
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School area including:
- Dedicated IFR runway 18A-36A (apron A).
- A set of 5 additional aprons with parkings and helipads (aprons B to F).
- Dedicated non paved W1/W2 taxiways.
- IFR helipad next to runways and 2 more helipads between W1/W2 taxiways.
- Cargo apron to the west of runways.
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Open hangar with parking position inside at south apron. Doors are closed automatically at dusk.
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Gear failure platform (pile of tires) to the south of control tower.
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Calibration compass rose to the south of fuel depot.
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Working TACAN (TGR 78X), which is configured as VORTAC in game (TGR 113.10) to allow its usage as VOR on standard helicopters.
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PAPI on runway 36 and VFR helipad only (according to latest charts).
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Lights, taxiway signs and gable cones.
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Fuel box and ground services included to take advantage of all game features. In real base they just use a fuel truck.
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Several preserved monuments including a biplane at the museum area.
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Custom vegetation and multiple small details added such as static helicopters, marshallers, working crews and decoration.
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As a bonus three visual landmarks outside base perimeter are included: gas station, water tower and comms antenna.
NOTES:
In order to allow PAPI installation a invisible runway 02-20 had to be added to VFR TLOF to match the real airport procedures. This is a MSFS constraint as helipads don´t support PAPI without a runway yet and it will be removed as soon as helipads support PAPI.
Due to MSFS ATC limitations tower will not assign a helipad for landing but always a runway. So when main runway 18-36 is assigned you can still land at VFR TLOF if you want. On the other hand when school runway 18A-36A is assigned you can use any of the school area helipads as well as A to F aprons and the school cargo apron to land. You can also request a different runway to ATC when it´s assigned to you, except runway 02-20 as it´s too small for ATC to use it. The gear failure platform can be used at any time in case of emergencies.
KNOWN ISSUE:
As original base area is deleted on default game some autogen buildings will not be created in the streets next to base perimeter. Currently it´s not possible to create custom autogen definitions on editor to correct that issue as those buildings are injected via scripts by game engine directly.
Airport does not include any custom approach, as most operations are visual or are supported by Armilla TACAN and the nearby Granada NDB. You can find the official charts here: AIP España
The addon requires official game content from several airport addons. Therefore you need to install the World Updates and the 40th anniversary content as well.
You can download the addon here:
