Opened in 1924, DumDum Airport, later renamed as Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, is one of the oldest Airport not only in India but in entire South East Asia. Situated within the city limits of the Kolkata, it is presently served by domestic airlines like Air India, IndiGo, GoAir, Vistara, SpiceJet, Air Asia India as well as international carriers like Emirates, Fly Dubai, Saudi Air, Cathay Pacific, Biman Bangladesh, Bhutan Airlines, Druk Air etc.
But its past is even more interesting than its present. Throughout its history, it has been served by the iconic airlines like KLM, BOAC, later British Airways, Lufthansa, Air France, Japan Airlines, Quantas, Swiss Air, Alitalia, SAS and Pan-Am. It has played important role in WW2 and hosted planes like B24 liberator, C47 Dakota, deHaviland Comet (first jet powered civilian aircraft) etc as well as people like Amelia Earhart (1937).
For an airport with such rich history and relevant present, it is unfortunate that it’s represented in MSFS in a very sad state. Way too low number or parking spots, incorrect taxiway names, almost no night lighting etc. are the major issues with the default scenery. So, I created this mod with the plan to mitigate some of those issues to best of my abilities. Having a family with an infant and a full-time day job takes most of the time I have, on top of that I am not really an airport developer, I don’t have 3d modelling and texturing skills, I'd rather be flying the planes than make airports. But this being my home airport, and nobody else having made it for me, I decided to give it a try. The first attempt failed miserably, but I believe the second attempt yielded a result which can be a base for further improvements. So I am sharing this mod and plan to improve it as and when my time allows.
I followed the airport information available on https://aim-india.aai.aero/ for reference. I have not visited the airport personally (I know, ironic), so cannot comment on how accurate this rendition is.
Features:
14-09-2022 (v0.5)
- Added all parking spots as seen in parking charts. There are some caveats though. See known issues.
- Correct taxiway network and naming along with signage as per aerodrome charts.
- Custom taxiway marking (this is a bit of personal taste and may not be accurate). Modified from stock asobo textures.
- Guard lights (wig wags), stop bars, centerline and edge lights as specified in airport information text.
- Runway lights as specified in airport information text (although there may be some inaccuracy due to me not understanding the meaning of certain terms)
- Some much needed apron lights so that it looks like an airport at night. Uses stock models and currently there is no plans for creating custom models.
21-11-2022 (v0.8)
- Added various static objects like GSE equipment, static airplanes etc. around the airport apron to make it look a bit more lively.
- Placed some hangar objects with open doors and static aircrafts inside them for a better immersion.
- Added custom modeled glass walled jetway with lights and stand numbers (credits to OltcitRoom youtube channel for creating an awesome tutorial about how to do it in blender.)
- Added a lot of different ground markings like taxiway designators and parking spot designators.
- Added red striped safety areas (don't know what they are actually called) near the jetways.
- Placed a lot of ground textures (mostly stock materials) to make the aprons look a bit "not brand new".
- Added RESA area at the end of the runways according to the aerodrome chart.
29-12-2022 (v0.8.1)
- No new features in this minor patch.
- Minor bug fixes related to AI traffic and some other things. Details in changelog. Should have been out earlier but this have been a very busy and stressfull December for me.
Dependencies:
- FSLTL base package (injector not needed but recommended) (for static aircrafts) (not available in flightsim.to, download from FBW installer)
- AIG (Models only, controller not needed) (Indian carriers like IndiGo, SpiceJet, AirIndia, Vistara, GoAir, AirAsia etc.) (for static aircrafts) (not available from flightsim.to, download from AIG AI manager)
- MSFS 2020 object library with 200+ models from towers hangars to cones (v14 adds fences) by colinj
- Superspud Airport Asset Library by superspud
- SDR Scenery Pack V1.5 by Blinn
- totof library object V5 by Totof33120
- TurtleTank's Scenery Developer Objects and Material Library by TurtleTank1997
Known Issues:
- This airport has a number of parking spots which are either two small parking spots or one big parking spot, i.e suitable for either 2 B737/A320s or 1 B777. This type of config causes an issue in MSFS related to jetways. As MSFS has no option to have a single jetway serve more than one parking spots, currently some of the parking spots even if near jetways are marked as ramp and jetways cannot be used by them.
- Sometimes on parking spots meant for larger planes (stand 55-61, NOT the L/R ones), if a smaller plane like A320/B737 is parked, the jetway may not work.
- On some gates with some planes, GSX asks if user wants to move airplane to default postiton. Not sure why this happens and it does not happen with all airplanes. I faced the issue with PMDG 737 and LSH MaddogX but did not happen with FBW A32NX / Fenix A320 / A310. On selecting "no" GSX proceeds normally with aircraft at the same position jetways work without any issues, on selecting "yes" the plane is warped a bit forward/backward automatically and then GSX proceeds normally, here also jetways work normally. So this is upto you. This will depend on the type of the aircraft, so if jetways doesn't work for some aircrafts, try the other option and jetways may work.
Planned features:
- For now, I find the autogen buildings serviceable but I plan to add simple custom models for the Integrated terminal (currently in development), and may be old terminal and ATC tower. No timeline as of now as I am learning blender and texture creation, so progress is slow. Not even sure if I'll be able to do all those buildings. So don't hold your breath.
Special Thanks:
- rahulC (beta test and feedback)
- Kaalicharan (beta test and feedback)
- OltcitRoom YouTube channel for creating the jetway tutorial
- All the authors and contributors of the listed dependencies.
Note: Please expect and report bugs and I'll try to address them as possible.
Note: If you use RexSimulations global airport textures then some ground textures will look a bit different. Which one looks better is upto you and you need to enable or disable that addon based on your preference.
3 months ago
3 months ago
abhishek_dey
airxforxlife
5 months ago
5 months ago
abhishek_dey
sid767676
5 months ago
5 months ago
abhishek_dey
ADP9295
5 months ago
5 months ago
abhishek_dey
slavish
8 months ago
Flyhighs
Amazing!
11 months ago
VJC009
Awesome work done on ground textures !!
1 years ago
El_Hispano
Fantastic
1 years ago
Kedarinath
Thank you so so so much for this! You have made VECC a top destination for me again! Your efforts are simply stupendous, top-class airport designing. Now if only someone can collaborate and give some custom terminal model, then it'll be perfect. I'm going to share this wherever I can.
1 years ago
Thank you for the kind words. I believe a couple of people are working on getting some terminal building models done for this airport. I am not sure when will those be released or at what capacity, but when they do, I'll try my best to ensure compatibility. Also, I am playing around in blender myself and may be able to get something out myself, but that may take a very long time.
1 years ago
abhishek_dey
iceaxe
Hi Abhishek, Jetways are still not moving from there place , earlier it had "No Jetways here". Using GSX . Please check once, thanks for the work
1 years ago
Can you tell me which stands are you using and which aircraft? And also, when installing gsx, are you excluding the gsx jetways for vecc? Note that for stands 55 through 61 jetways are available only on left and center stands (i.e 55L and 55, 56L and 56 and so on), jetways are not available for right stands (i.e 55R, 56R and so on). It's mentioned in the known issues and is due to a limitation in MSFS.
1 years ago
abhishek_dey
CaptainAbeer
Many thanks, Abhishek for making this scenery. I was wondering why no one didn't make this important airport in India whereas many other small airports were completed. One issue, there are lights installed along the mid of the taxiway. That needs to be removed.
2 years ago
Those lights are replaced in the current development build that I am working on. Those are replaced by intermediate holding point lights (3 yellow lights) where there are taxiway holding points. These are done according to the publicly available document / chart for the aerodrome. Many other improvements will be included in the next update release.
Edit: I hope you are talking about the blue lights in the taxiway centerline. If you are talking about the green center line lights or any other lights, please let me know. The green centerline lights are placed according to the charts (mostly).
2 years ago
abhishek_dey
rajatsen389
Thanks for sharing the VECC airport. Please remove the trees from within the airport area. Also please remove the taxiway edge lights from the taxiway center line.
2 years ago
Can you tell me which trees are you taking about, may be a screenshot. I think there are no trees near runways but there may be other areas where i have left the trees. Since I haven't been to the airport, i don't really know what's supposed to be where. I am trying to use Google earth and charts. Even some areas, charts and Google earth data does not match. So please help me out here and I'll try to address your concern in one of the updates.
Edit: Never mind. Removed quite a lot of trees. Will be reflected in next update. But I may have to hide some imperfection with some suitable grass textures which the trees hid nicely before.
2 years ago
abhishek_dey
mayukhdeb0802
Great work and keep it up. I would like to note that there are taxiway edge lights on the taxiway center line.
2 years ago
I think I know which ones you mean. Are they all near the taxiway hold short lines (single dashed line)? Note that I am not talking about runway hold short or ILS hold short lines. I used a painted line with lights property, i think SDK adds those blue lights on those lines. If they are the raised lights, please let me know in which taxiway so that i can find that easily. I'll try to remove those in the next version.
2 years ago
abhishek_dey
lagesmanuna
Amazing. Long awaited. Thank you so much !! Please make it more detailed as you get some time. Amazing job !
2 years ago
I plan to do that. But as I already said that i really have very little time after my day job and taking care of family. Currently I am woking on adding some ground level clutter like ground service equipments scattered around, and some more ground markings. But it will take some time. Hoping to publish an update sometime in November. Thanks for the feedback. Please report any bugs that you find.
2 years ago
abhishek_dey
Flyhighs
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2 years ago
ikevqwovo