I love Gaya’s work, always detailed and wonderful to look at. This small airport is really nice and the short runway is fun to land at with a 737 and equivalent.
Aerosoft airports are often a bit overrated, but this one is really worth it, huge, detailed, lots of animated elements inside (it’s great to see people moving in the terminals).
I’ll add my ones later on. But as a short answer in the interim, I would say anything by Pyreegue is more than worth the outlay. Fantastic attention to detail, and they crucially seem to have mastered the art of optimising the scenery so it has little to no effect on framerates.
I’ve been thinking about getting Wellington, or Auckland, for a while. NZA Simulations do some great stuff as well as Flightbeam, and I really like flying around New Zealand, it’s beautiful. I often fly across the sea from Lord Howe Island, another great bit of scenery.
Yeah I got Edinburgh and the detail is on another level entirely. I see ALL their work is of similar standard. And indeed the performance impact considering the poly count on show is incredible. However, I don’t really feel that having SO MUCH internal detail is so worth it. I had a “walk around” once, and doubt I will again! Still nice to know it’s there. I suppose
A couple that I can think of, off the top of my head, that I really like;
Munich/EDDM/Germany/Simwings/Payware
Aesthetically, it’s not the most beautiful in the world. But Simwings are exceptionally good at what they do. It’s a vast airport, and it’s been modelled exceptionally well here. And Munich is special to me, it’s one of my favourite places.
Another one I like, for personal reasons as much as quality. It’s a great airport, lovely approach, the weather is consistently great, and the airport has been really well modelled.
Clearly a lot of thought went into picking this spot as a good place for STOL activities. A good range of environments within easy reach from flats to valleys to snow covered peaks and the city of Vancouver not too far away. Some cool details for the main hangar areas and apparently 40 “unmarked” STOL landing sites but I’ve yet to find any lol. I have a PLN file to help me now but not got around to it yet.
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Johnson Creek// 3U2 // USA // Creative Mesh // Payware
Download: MSFS Marketplace
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Thomas Creek// 2U8 // USA // Creative Mesh // Payware
Download: MSFS Marketplace
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Mahoney Creek / Cougar Ranch (D47)// 0U3 // USA // Creative Mesh // Payware
Download: MSFS Marketplace
A nice set of 4 fields with some OK detailing but the locations and approaches are awesome which puts them on my list.
I concur, regarding Thomas Creek. It’s really good. Quite a challenge too as it’s in the middle of a steep valley, if memory serves me right. Although I may be thinking about Johnson Creek
Many of my favs are already mentioned above and I feel like we have many great European airports so I won’t repeat any selections there (EGAA, EGPH, EBBR, EDDK, LGAV are prob. my top 5). I wish there were more truly great airports in:
Japan (except for Narita, Japan is lacking top tier airports)
California (where I live, although we might finally get a great one with iniBuilds KLAX coming soon)
Anyway, the place I fly the most outside Europe is New Zealand. I never tire of the scenery and NZWN (my fav airport there for airlines) really completed the puzzle for me as I’ve installed every payware (and freeware) airport in NZ. So to compliment the list…
Nelson // NZNS // NZ // NZA Simulations // Payware
One of my first payware airports (back on xbox days) and still a fav. The airport is small but architecturally interesting and wonderfully modeled inside and out. Plus all of the surrounding detail and Air New Zealand planes (my fav livery) scattered about. Until we get a Dash-8, I do fictional airline ops out of NZNS with 737-600 and Bae 146-300 (both have classic ANZ liveries) or just GA flying.
One of the most beautiful areas in the world and this adds not only a few small airports (with amazing detail inside terminals and hangars) but small huts, etc. scattered about to visit. Take your time to wander around with the drone camera, there’s a lot there.
Varies // NZ // NZA Simulations // Freeware
Some you download direct from NZA and some from flightsim.to. They are all free and vary in size but rival many payware airports in quality.
Please do repeat them. I want to count votes so the list will filter to popular ones being at the top eventually. Is it those you mentioned? I only see LGAV already listed.
If you want, just write the ICAO’s without a description unless you want to. Or don’t mention them. Up to you.
But just to reiterate for everyone: I totally do want repeats as that is semi-the-point of the list.
I guess when the thread gets longer we will get more repeats via new posts as nobody will cross check all previous posts, so whatever
Sorry for not formatting, but my top-used addon airport has to be the TCNM/TFFG package from Airworthy Designs. I got mine from the Marketplace, but you can find it on other payware sites as well. Not only is the airport well-done, but the world famous Maho Beach and Sunset Bar and Grill are also highly detailed.
Sorry, I just meant really all of the NZA freeware airports. Perhaps not worth adding to the list as I can’t really name a specific one I’d put on my favs. I don’t have time right now to do full format for others so I’ll do brief:
NZWN - While I like NZAA, this takes it to another level and is probably my fav. place to land an airline. I like these smaller airports where it’s so small you don’t need to look at taxi map to find your gate.
EGAA/EGPH (Pyreegue) - I put this as a pair because I often fly between the 2 for short airline ops. Both have the same features I love - smaller airport, great detail inside and out. EGPH has probably the nicest tower (esp. at night) I’ve seen. I love EGAA as well for airlines (and dev. even has an official GSX profile that works perfectly).
EBBR/EDDK (Aerosoft) - I pair these together as well as they are perfect short airline flight. Both feature their custom VGDS and have detailed interiors you can see from the gate with people moving, plus full details throughout the entire airport grounds.
LGAV (FlyTampa) - Moving elements (flags, people) really add to a great airport with full detail including the Ikea! I hope MS does a world update for Greece and then I’d fly there more.
KLAS (FlyTampe) - It’s the Las Vegas scenery that really puts this over the top. Coming into an approach to 8L/8R at night/dusk with the strip lit up is really something. Just flying down the strip in a GA plane at night is incredible.
Sorry don’t have time for better formatting at the moment.
A stunning airport, with a challenging VOR NDB approach, 50 feet over a beach. Very similar to Maho Beach in St Maarten. The airport and surrounding scenery have been very well modelled;
Mentioned before earlier in the thread. My new favourite, just a stunning airport, another lovely scenic approach over the coast, it can also be exceptionally challenging as the weather in Wellington is frequently awful, and so it can definitely be testing to land there.
