Catalina Airport (KAVX) is situated on Santa Catalina Island and is known as the ‘Airport in the Sky’ due to its elevation at 1,602ft (488m) above sea level. The airport is located six miles (10km or 5 NM) northwest of Avalon, or to position it in relation to the mainland of the USA, it is off Long Beach, California. The airport originally opened as ‘Buffalo Springs Airport’ in the late 1930s; prior to this time, the island was accessible only to amphibious aircraft.
The runway was built by blasting away the tops of two mountains and using the 200,000 truckloads of rock to fill the gap between them. A scheduled passenger service was briefly provided by United Airlines in DC-3s, but this was discontinued; it is, however, used for airfreight from the mainland, with supplies being delivered via a Douglas DC-3 aircraft daily.
Don’t be fooled by the long disused refuelling equipment located on the pavement in front of the terminal building - no fuel is actually available. It does, however, sell buffalo burgers!
The SIM720 airport download has been created to replicate the real world site, featuring high quality bespoke models, custom photo-real textures and hand placement of buildings. The package includes many additional ambient features as objects seen in the real airport have been modelled and positioned, allowing you to immerse yourself in a realistic flight simulation environment that greatly adds to the experience of pilots using the airport. In addition custom made static aircraft are included that give the airport an authentic working feel.
The Catalina Airport download has been designed to be highly compatible and it includes photoreal blending with Default, Orbx and MegaSceneryEarth. It is also DX10 compatible.
Features
- Photo-real layout and textures (30cm resolution within airport boundaries and 60cm resolution outside the boundaries)
- High-res ground polygon
- Hand placed hi-res buildings within airport boundaries
- Extensive library of airport clutter
- Accurate taxiway lanes
- Custom made static aircraft
- Custom night-lighting and improved runway lights
- 3D grass
- Compatible with Default, Orbx and MegaSceneryEarth
