Phobos Designs has released a major update for their recently-released Boulder Municipal Airport (ICAO: KBDU) scenery for Microsoft Flight Simulator, offering simmers a scenic airfield just east of the great continental divide in the beautiful state of Colorado.
The freeware scenery was originally uploaded to Flightsim.to in late March, but was updated just last week to version 1.1, which the developer says “adds a larger amount of detail to the airport”, adding that the update “provides updates that have occurred while making v1.0 over the course of 4 months (various signage changes, new fence lines, building repaints, etc.) along with some new goodies.”
Scenery Features
The developer, Phobos Designs, notes that simmers can expect handcrafted buildings and infrastructure around the airport boundaries (this includes glider parking, trailers, and related equipment), high-resolution aerial imagery, custom runway, taxiway, and other surfaces markings, and nearby points of interest.
As mentioned, version 1.1 of Boulder Municipal Airport brought some additional improvements to the scenery, not the least of which includes more accurate signage at the airport, improved fencing, the addition of missing lighting posts, and improved vegetation to more accurately represent how the airport actually looks in reality.
The developer has also outlined some future plans in store for a later update. Of these, included is a PDF document outlining glider and general airport operations, performance and LOD (level of detail) improvements, expanded points of interest, and even added detail to the terminal interior.
About Boulder Municipal Airport
Boulder Municipal Airport is made up of predominantly general aviation air traffic (and as a side note, those interested in glider flying will be right at home at this airport), and serves as a regional hub for aerial firefighting, among other emergency services. It also serves as a gateway of sorts to the Rocky Mountain range, with the surrounding vistas drawing in sightseers from far and wide.
The airport sits at an elevation of 5,288 feet (728 meters), and has a runway that is 4,100 feet (or 1,250 meters) long.
The developer advises that virtual pilots be vigilant at the airport, “as calm eastern winds can shift suddenly to western, prompting a more difficult takeoff on 26G over the lake and trees with few opportunities for an emergency landing”, which surely adds a level of challenge and interest to this airport, which is located three miles northeast of the City of Boulder.
About The Developer
Not much is known about Phobos Designs, but the developer states that Boulder Municipal Airport is their first airport scenery pack. It is unclear at this time what further projects the developer seeks to work on, besides refining Boulder Municipal Airport, but as previously mentioned, further updates should be expected with this release.
“I’ve launched this in a state that I feel is a good representation of the airport, but there’s still more work to do,” the developer writes on the add-on’s download page.
There is no doubt about the fact that the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator has sparked a renaissance in scenery and aircraft development (if you need convincing, check out some of our reviews) in the flight simulation community, and more specifically, the release of gorgeous freeware scenery packages.
