Ben-Gurion Tel-Aviv International Airport (LLBG)
Version 1.1 with the newly opened Terminal 3
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Ben-Gurion airport, named after the late Israeli first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, is the first airport ever built in Israel. It started with a landing strip near Lod, that was built during the First World War, in 1917, by the Turks (together with other two others at Tzemach in the north and Gaza in the south) to serve the bi plane fighter aircraft put at their disposal by the Germans. When Israel was declared a British Mandate after WW1 ended, the authorities, as part of a broad plan to lay down airports in Mandate-time (pre-State) Israel, decided to construct a modern airport at the site.
In 1935 work began on the infrastructure and in April 1937, four concrete runways were completed, each 800m long and 30m wide. Twin engine Dragon Rapid aircraft of the Egyptian MisrAir airline, used to land there, en route from Cairo to other destinations in the Middle East, Beirut and Baghdad. Other airlines were KLM, linking Western Europe with the Far East (Indonesia), using three engined Fokker airplanes. The Polish airline, LOT, consistently flying from Warsaw to Lod in Dakota DC3 aircraft and even the Czech airline operated a fixed route from Eastern Europe via Italy. One of the most significant routes was that of the British Imperial Airways airline, on the London to Bombay route, using large Hannibal and Atlanta aircraft.
In 1937, the construction of an aircraft workshop (hanger) was started, in preparation for the Hannibal aircraft which were to arrive from the British Imperial Airways. This workshop, that was built with the assistance of a German company, continues serving El Al's Boeing jets to this very day.
In December 1938, air force squadrons from Australia, Britain and the U.S.A. started
setting themselves up at the airport, on route to attack targets in occupied Europe.
In 1950, Arkia Airlines started operating internal flights from Lod to Eilat, Mahanayim and Haifa. During the winter of 1951/2, the passenger terminal was expanded by 36,000 sq. m. (about 387,500 sq. ft) and the main runway extended to 2,400 meters. The processing capacity of passengers at the terminal, at that time, increased to 100,000 passengers per month. In 1953 the Government Institute for Aircraft Repair (a.k.a. "Bedek") was established, which at the beginning of the 60s changed its name to Israel Aircraft Industries. At this institute, hundreds of civilian and military aircraft of Israeli and foreign entities were overhauled, inspected and repaired. In October 1955, an El Al Constellation aircraft took off for Nairobi and Johannesburg and thus inaugurated the first direct air link of its kind with the African continent.
Regular jet aircraft flights were inaugurated in April 1960, with BEA flights from London and Athens. In January 1961 El Al inaugurated the first jet route to New York using a chartered Boeing 707. The first Jumbo landed at the airport already in 1970. In the summer of 1971 El Al began employing wide bodied aircraft on its regular flights. During the 80s, passenger traffic at the airport increased, the terminal building was expanded, a new control tower was built and the communications and RADAR installations were improved.
In the wake of the increase in passengers and freight traffic at the airport, the Authority commenced organizing for the establishment of the new terminal that would provide passengers with the best available aviation services. In January 1994, the Government of Israel, headed by Yitzhak Rabin, took the decision for the establishment of Terminal 3, within the framework of gearing up for the third millennium. The terminal, with 24 Jetways, was opened on November the 2nd 2004.
Ben-Gurion has three asphalt runways; 12-30 (3,112 x 45 meter), 08-26 (3,657X45 meters) and 03-21 (2,020 X 45 meters). 12-30 and 08-26 are CAT II. Terminal 3 is supported by aircraft parking aprons of a total area of 165 acres. In addition there are 72 acres of taxiways and other aprons J, L, B.
The Scenery
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The scenery was made with three design tools; gmax for specially made structures and surfaces, AFCAD 2.21 for the visual elements of the airport layout (runways, taxiways, aprons and lighting) and Rwy12 Object Placer for all other objects that could be added from various libraries. Since Rwy12 objects are all done by gmax the scenery was tested to be frame rate efficient on different systems.
You can use the scenery without having Rwy12 Object Placer program installed on your computer, because all relevant files are included in the scenery download.
The specially made structures are based on available photos and are not accurate to exact shape and measurements, but I hope that will not reduce your enjoyment. In future version I hope to correct some of the buildings.
Installation
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The scenery
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1. Unzip the download file LLBG2004_1.1 to any folder of your choice
2. You will find in the folder an AFCAD file AF2_LLBG_Natbag2004.bgl. Copy this file to your C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9\Addon Scenery\scenery folder. Make sure you dont have any other LLBG AF2-AFCAD installed there (AI traffic AFCAD files for LLBG, that came with programs such as Ultimate Traffic will not create conflicts with the new AFCAD). Warning; The scenery will not show properly without the new LLBG2004_1.1 AFCAD file.
3. Copy sk_LLBG_2004 folder to your add-on sceneries folder C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9\Addon Scenery
4. To activate the scenery start FS2004 and go to SETTINGS\Scenery Library\Add Area\Addon Scenery. Double click on Addon Scenery and browse to sk_LLBG_2004. Double click on the folder and then click OK. Exit FS2004. Next time you start the simulator the scenery will be there.
To get a full flying experience from and to Ben-Gurion, I recommend to install the following add-on sceneries that will give you a great look on Tel-Aviv and the immediate surroundings of LLBG, with the real landscape; towns and villages, forests, coast lines, roads and highways, road junctions, etc. (file names are for SurClaro.com downloads, but you can find the sceneries on SurClaro too)
1. Metropolitan Tel-Aviv by Seev Kahn (isrtv_01.zip)
2. Jerusalem and Judea by Seev Kahn (isjrs01.zip)
3. Tel-Aviv VFR Photoreal V2 by Alexander Lawrence (tlvphot2.zip)
4. I recommend to use LightWeight Mesh by Svante Wendel for the whole area (eurmed-1.zip). The above mentioned add-on sceneries are adjusted to this mesh.
Un-Installation
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To uninstall the scenery delete it from FS2004 (same way as you installed it but chose Delete Area). Then delete all LLBG files you installed on your C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9.
Increase Frame Rate
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As said above the scenery was done with gmax (both Rwy12 library objects and the specially made structures) and is very efficient on the frame rate side. It was also tested on several systems and found to be working well on a whole range of machines. Still, if for some reason, you want to delete any objects browse to sk_LLBG_2004 folder and add a .BAK (dot BAK) suffix to the BGL files you want to eliminate. They are named according to their function. Dont mark Rwy12 library files with a .BAK.
AI traffic and fly on-line
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In reality LLBG has over 150 apron parkings and gates. The scenery AFCAD file activates for AI traffic only 38 of them (24 in terminal 3, 4 in the W and E parking of terminal 3, 4 in J+L, 4 in B and 2 for G\A parking). That number is over and enough to simulate a very active airport, either with the default AI traffic or add-on programs such as Ultimate Traffic. Some of the gates are dedicated to certain airlines and therefore will not show any traffic with the default AI traffic.
The scenery was designed in cooperation with VATIL (the Israeli VATSIM devision) to enable controlled on-line flying. You can download LLBG charts and other data from http://www.vatil.org/ . Hopefully by the time this scenery is available the charts will be updated to reflect the new terminal.
Charts
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As said above, you can download LLBG sharts from VATIL, but for convenience I added two charts to this download (with small images in this document too); an airport diagram and an instrument approach chart.
Copyrights
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1. The scenery is a FREEWARE. It is forbidden to use it, or part of it, in any commercial package or activity, without the consent of the author (Seev Kahn)
2. The scenery was tested on several systems and was found to work without problems in FS2004, but there is no warranty either expressed or implied covering this product.
3. If you have questions or comments please post them in Rwy12 forum http://www.rwy12.com/portal/ or contact me by e-mail zeevkahn@hotmail.com.
Acknowledgments and thanks:
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1. to Discreet the creators of the great 3D gmax design program.
2. to Lee Swordy for his outstanding AFCAD program. Without the visual elements of his program the scenery could not have been made.
3. to Microsoft for their wonderful FS2004.
4. to all contributors of Rwy12 Object Placer Libraries that I used for this scenery. Without their dedication and creativity I could not make the scenery;
- Jetways by Shehryar Ansari and Bill Sieffert (who converted the files for Rwy12)
- GA-Hangers by Stephen Legg
- FenceLib by Shehryar Ansari
- 500D and 206B Choppers by Allen Richards and Chris O'Donnell (who converted the files for Rwy12)
- ESDG_RampLightSet by Bill Leaming, Adam, "abent" Dick "Rumbaflappy" and Arno Gerretsen.
- People by Geoff Williams and Martin Strong
- Rwy12 Team for the Following libraries; Trees, Navaids, Vehicles, Buildings, Refuellers, Static G\A aircraft, Static B747 and the specially made libraries for this scenery LLBG Hangers, signs and ground signs.
5. To all supporters of the sim community in Israel who assisted me in advise and testing of the scenery, especially; Kobi David Division Director of Vatil, the Israeli division of Vatsim - who spent a lot of hours assisting me and is the driving force behind the scenery, Ilan Jonas, Ran Finkels, Alon Smolarski, Shadi Abu-Ahmed, Aviv Giladi, Israel Roth, Ittai Arnon, Ilan Brosh, Levon Melik, and Jonathan Perlmuter.
