Modesto City-County Airport (KMOD)
By John B, Loney, Jr.
October 23, 2005
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ABOUT THE AIRPORT:
Modesto Airport is owned jointly by the City of Modesto and Stanislaus County, and the airport is operated by the City of Modesto.
Modesto City-County Airport was first opened for general aviation operations in 1929. At first the airport located southeast of downtown Modesto was only 82 acres; but over the years, it grew to its present size of 450 acres. The airport started with only a single runway, but a second runway was added in the 1950s.
Originally, the airport was named Modesto Municipal Airport; and on May 25 1955 when Stanislaus County and the City of Modesto became partners in the airport, the airport was renamed Modesto City-County Airport. In October 1974, Harry Sham Field was added to the name to honor the airport manager that served between 1949 and 1968. During World War II, Modesto Airport was used as a military auxiliary air base to train U.S. Air Corps pilots.
Air carrier service was first offered to the community in 1946 when United Airlines opened its newly constructed terminal and began the Valley Queen service. Since 1946, Modesto has had continuous air service. United Airlines provided service with either DC-3s or B-737s until 1978 when the airline industry was deregulated. Since 1978, Modesto has had regional air carriers service to San Francisco bay area airports. Still today, United Airlines presence is in the community, as their United Express partner SkyWest Airlines offers daily service to SFO where a passenger can make a connection to their final destination.
On October 12, 1991, the Modesto City Council and Stanislaus Board of Supervisors rededicated the remodeled passenger terminal that was enlarged to 8,900 square feet. The remodeling project upgraded the building originally built by United Airlines.
In the 1990s, corporate and business aviation became the fastest growing segment of activity for the airport. Corporate jets provide their owners with convenient point-to-point service. In 2001, Modesto was the base for at least eight corporate jets. These aircraft have a combined appraised value of approximately $115.0 million, which brings the community approximately $1,115,000 in annual property taxes.
Airport Operational Statistics:
Aircraft based on the field: 176
Single engine airplanes: 148
Multi engine airplanes: 22
Jet airplanes: 2
Helicopters: 4
Aircraft operations: avg 251/day
Transient general aviation 51%
Local general aviation 31%
Air Taxi 18%
Military <1%
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ABOUT THE SCENERY:
Doing Modesto Airport presented some interesting problems. First of all, there was a good amount of information as to what was on the field, but I oculdn't find much on where they were located. From my research, I found that at least 6 fbo's existed on the field. I only found the location of one, Sky Trek Aviation and that was only the side of the field it was on. The others were place about where I thought they would most logically be. Many of FS9's parking assignments upon landing is pot luck to me. For instance, if you are flying a Cessna 182S that would represent a flying school aircraft, there is no guarantee you will be assigned to a parking space at the flying school in the scenery. So I tried something this time. I coupled the fbo's with a particular parking area. It will work like this. Westair operates a flying school at Modesto. If you are flying a Cessna 172SP and want to park at the Westair area, then when you contact ground control, request parking to the NW Parking. That will assign your parking space at Westair. Here is the fbo/parking arrangement:
Westair (Flight School) -NW Parking
Modesto Air Center (Flight School) -W Parking
Pacific Aircraft (Maintenence) -SW Parking
California Aero Sports (Flying Club?) -S Parking
Sky Trek Aviation (Business and Charters) -E Parking
Jolliff Aircraft (Maintenence) -SE Parking
There are a lot of parking spaces and I only used about 27 in the Flight Plans. There were a few more used by the default flight plans for KMOD. So, you can easily expand the flight plans to cover the other parking areas. There's more than 180 parking spaces.
I hope you enjoy this one. Happy landings!!!
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ABOUT THE AIRCRAFT:
The aircraft used for the scenery startup is the Beechcraft Queen Air B80.*****
The aircraft used in the flight plans are listed below:
AC# Type/Livery Zip File
1 Beechcraft Baron 58 default
2 Beechcraft King Air 350 default
20 Cessna Caravan 208 default
23 Cessna Skyhawk 172SP default
28 Cessna Skylane 182S default
44 Learjet 45 default
50 Mooney Bravo Retro default
52 Piper Cherokee 180 default
54 Piper Cub default
112 Embraer EMB-120/Skywest(Old Colors) Search SurClaro or SurClaro.com
113 Embraer EMB-120/Skywest(New Colors) Search SurClaro or SurClaro.com
128 Cessna Citation X ctnx04.zip
129 Cessna Skylane 182R RG c182rg04.zip
174 Beechcraft King Air B200 kab2004.zip
175 Beechjet 400A bj404.zip
178 Beechcraft King Air C90B kac90b.zip
180 Beechcraft Starship starshp.zip and starfix.zip
183 Aviat Husky aviat.zip
184 Bellanca Super Decathlon 8kcab.zip
185 Cessna 310 rlc_310q.zip
187 Cirrus SR20 gkcirr.zip and gkcir_04.zip
193 Pilatus PC-12 pc12comb.zip
212 Learjet 45/Del Monte Aviation dalear.zip
213 Gulfstream G100 g100moz4.zip
228 Hawker 800XP h8xp04.zip
247 Gulfstream V idgv2.zip
271 Beechcraft Duke B60 duke04.zip
***** This is an aircraft I created with FSDS2. You can download it from my website listed below. The aircraft is not available anywhere else.
Of course, you can exchange the aircraft for ones you like. There is a copy of the flight plans source file included.
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THANKS TO:
All of my Flight Sim Fans for using my sceneries.
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INSTALLATION:
Author's Note:
After receiving many emails, I find that I am a little off the beaten path. My FS file structure is not the default setup. So as you read these instructions, keep in mind that most of the files will work from anywhere as long as FS knows where they are. If your file structure is C:\Programs Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9\ it's ok. Just place or check to verify that certain files are in certain folders. I will refer to the above structure as the DEFAULT FILE STRUCTURE, and the following file structure as MY FILE STRUCTURE. Which is: D:\fs2004\ and my scenery files are in D:\fs2k4_scenery\.
I have it this way because I've also done scenery for fs2002 and I didn't want to get the two versions mixed up. (Bet'cha can't guess what the folder name for the fs2002 scenery is). So in explaining where the files go, I'll try not to confuse anyone, but if I do, please contact me for clarification.
AFTER UNZIPPING THE FILE kmod_v1.ZIP TO A TEMPORARY FOLDER, HOPEFULLY, YOU ARE READING THIS README FILE.
If you don't have them already, download Lee Swordy's Traffic Tools v2x and AFCAD2x. Follow the instructions from the files and install them onto your system. While you're at it, download the texture files necessary for this scenery and put them into the main FS texture folder. They are: ASDv2.1, Nova, Nova Gold and NovaSim textures, plus my own custom textures. All are available for free at my website, www.lfssd.net (the "l" is an L, not a one). You also should download Rwy12 objects/textures. You don't need the complete Rwy12 program. (See the Rwy12 open letter on SurClaro or SurClaro.com search file rwy12_-_open_letter.zip)
Using the folders switch, unzip the file kmodscen.zip to the drive where you have your FS. Using your file manager (Windows Explorer) check to make sure that all the files are in their proper folder.
C:\My Documents\Flight Simulator Files should have the .FLT and .WX files (This is for the Windows XP users.) For all other OS the .FLT and .WX files are under the main FS folder. (I think)
Drive:\FS9 folder\Addon Scenery\scenery should have AF2_*.bgl (Refer to Default file structure if different)
Drive:\FS9 folder\Scenery\World\scenery should have TrafficModesto.bgl
Drive:\fs2k4_scenery or Addon Scenery folder\KMOD\scenery should have the kmod_*.bgl scenery files (The KMOD folder can also go under the Addon Scenery folder if you wish)
Drive:\FS9 folder\Texture should have the following textures:
The ASDv2.1, Nova, NovaGold and NovaSim texture sets. With this download, the textures in the KMOD/texture folder can be moved to the FS main texture folder if you wish.
If you have Lago's FSE 2004, then check the following:
Drive:\FS9 folder\Lago\FSE\Data\should have Modesto.SE2 for static scenery and
Drive:\FS9 folder\Lago\Common\Tracks\should have Modesto.OSC For dynamic scenery
Drive:\FS9 folder\KMOD\xml\contains the Rwy12 xml files for those who need the source files for the Rwy12 objects. If you do not wish to change any of the Rwy12 objects, you can delete these files.
I added textures for this scenery to the texture folder under the scenery folder (KMOD\texture). You can move them to the main FS texture folder. If it asks you if you want to overwrite you already have them and you can delete these if you wish.
Activating the scenery in FS9:
1. Start FS
2. At the Menu, select Settings
3. Then select Scenery Library
4. Select Add Area
5. Go to where you have the scenery folder in the file structure and just open the scenery name folder ie; (KMOD) Then click OK
6. Set the priority using the "D" Key or the Move Down button or the "U" Key or the Move Up Button
7. Click OK
8. Close FS and re-start
9. At the menu select "Select a Flight"
10. Scroll down to your flight, hightlight and click FLY NOW
You're at the airport of your choice. Go fly.
You should be ready to fly. Happy landings!
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Legal stuff. Copyright and Distribution
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This scenery is freeware. Copyright John B. Loney, Jr. Feel free to add or change this scenery. Especially if you know a more accurate placement of items. You do not have my permission to make any monetary gain from this scenery. It started out as freeware and it shall remain freeware.
- The author's rights and wishes concerning this archive must be
respected.
Copyright 2005 by John B. Loney, Jr. All Rights Reserved.
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Disclaimer
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I do not accept any responsibility for any damage to any system as a result of running this scenery.
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Contact:
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As usual, I welcome any comments. I will try to answer as many as I can.
