OpenGeofiction
Hi all,
There are some great resources hidden away in the OGF wiki, but a lot of them can be kind of hard to find. So I’m thinking I’d like to occasionally share links to some of the resources here, so that anyone who doesn’t know about them can go check them out. And anyone who can contribute additional insight, or discussion, or ask questions, can do so here… or in the wiki.
The first one I’d like to share is Making realistic airports, which has great advice about where to put airports, how to arrange runways, how many runways to build and how long they should be, and what other facilities are needed at an airport. As usual, one of the best pieces of advice is to look at real world maps for examples.
I actually had to rework my first international airport on OGF because I didn’t realize that planes land into the wind and take off into the wind, which means it’s not a good idea to have a runway that backs up against a mountain. It was also a huge challenge to position the airport near the city, but in such a way that the flight paths weren’t too disturbing for the residents below. I’m also probably guilty of some “overdone airports,” which seem to be common in OGF, with many more runways than you’d typically find in the real world.
In fact, after re-reading this article, I think I need to go redo some of my airports…
Link to the article: Making realistic airports
Discussion
Comment from Ernestpkirby on 7 September 2015 at 18:55
Looking at my main airport…
Well, 2/3 isn’t bad, right? :P
(one of my 3 runways ends abruptly at a road. Perhaps I’ll go fix that now )
Comment from Sarepava on 7 September 2015 at 23:15
Well, be careful things don’t go the other way and we end up with 100 identical perfect airports! There are plenty of quirks in the real world - taxiways that cross public roads, public roads crossing the main runway (Gibraltar), runways with a gradient (French Alps, Himalayas), runways ending at a public road and beach giving rise to ‘fence surfing’ (Caribbean), airports with difficult approaches because there’s nowhere else to build (St Bartholomy, Tegucigalpa, London City, old Hong Kong), runways out on viaducts over the sea (Canary Islands), amphibious seaplane bases, short runways which can only be used by specialised aircraft types, grass and dirt runways. The world needs small regional airports and local airfields too, so don’t just add huge intercontinental terminals to the map.
Comment from Luciano on 8 September 2015 at 00:07
Seconding @Sarepava’s comment… I have been focused on trying to map minor airports, general aviation and military and private ones.
http://opengeofiction.net/wiki/index.php/Airports_in_the_Ardisphere
I am particularly pleased with this general aviation airport at Aquisgrán:
http://opengeofiction.net/relation/18639
Of my major airports, I have deliberately done some with major constraints, like the legacy “downtown” riverside airport at Cerro y Casa, unable to expand and with clearly awkward approaches:
http://opengeofiction.net/relation/8028
Comment from isleño on 8 September 2015 at 01:28
Definitely agree the world needs small regional airports and local airfields. It seems like we have lots of big airports with lots of extra runways. It would be great to see more small airports and airfields.
I do think we should be sure to make a distinction between a “quirky” airport and one that just doesn’t make sense. A quirky airport is typically quirky for a reason, whereas my original airport had a runway going straight into a hillside for no good reason. There was plenty of room to build the runway at a different angle, or put the airport in a different spot. Realistically, my airport never would have been built the way it was. The problem was I just never really thought much about airports before, and fixing it taught me a lot about how they work.
Comment from Demuth on 27 September 2015 at 09:44
My thanks also for all who put the how-to together. I guess I also need to check out some of my big airports in particular for illogical runways (like a forest or worse, a terminal in the way of a proper landing).