FAMET Almagro (LEAO), named Coronel Sanchez Bilbao base, is the Spanish Army Helicopter Forces base located near Ciudad Real, in the heart of Spain. This base is currently not existing in game. It´s the homebase of BHELA I attack helicopter squadrons and was formerly operating the iconic Bolkows, in both the anti-tank and long skids with gun on the belly versions. Nowadays they have been replaced by the most advanced Tiger helicopters.
IMPORTANT: the real airport ICAO (LEAO) is wrongly assigned to another airfield in game, so addon uses the custom LEXO code instead to prevent conflicts. Addon will be updated when this is fixed by Asobo.
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 helicopter monument at the base main square.
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ERSI satellite textures used for the whole base (area is currently blurried in game) with color tone adaptation to better match the original surrounding areas.
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Sloped terrain and apron following the real base terrain elevation.
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Two open hangars with parking positions inside. East side hangar doors open automatically when approaching them.
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Complete refurbished apron, including the new west maintenance hangar area, all parking positions and the 3 TLOFS according to the latest airport charts. During refurbishing a portion of the original apron and several parking positions were removed and a car parking lot was installed there.
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Airport rotating beacon, PAPI and TLOF lights included (O and E TLOFS only). C FATO has just perimeter lights to ease the helipad operations in game, although real airport has no lights at all on C. Taxiway lights and signs also added to ease ground movements.
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Additional non paved FATO placed to the north of main helipads (it appears to be the old field runway but nowadays is just rough terrain). Base also contains a gravel circuit so both areas can be used for landing or helicopter formation training purposes. In real life several helicopters can use the standard FATO areas at the same time taking part of the taxiways for that purpose.
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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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Multiple small details added such as static helicopters, marshallers, working crews and decoration.
NOTE: in order to allow PAPI installation two small invisible runways 09-27 A and B had to be added to O and E TLOFS instead of helipads to match the real airport procedures. This is a MSFS constraint as helipads don´t support PAPI without a runway yet and they will be removed as soon as helipads support PAPI.
Airport does not include any custom approach, as most operations are visual or are supported by nearby Almagro 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 file here:
Cheers