Re: Santa Barbara County - Update: The End.

[threestooges]

Welcome to Goleta. Interesting take on the area around the airfield. Slightly offset from its real-world counter part, but Isla Vista (college town of RL) looks nice down in the left. The golf course reminds me of an old 9-hole place by the airport in Reno. Sadly it's no longer there, but I remember rounds where you'd be teeing off next to a plane touching down (and hoping you didn't hit your ball over onto the runway, heh heh). Low density and warehouse stores. Reminds me of the area quite well. Great to see what you've been up to as always.
-Matt

[Tomas Neto]

Fantastic aerial view, my friend!!! Great update!!!

[RickD]

Santa Barbara Airport (ICAO: KSBA) is a public airport located 7 miles west of downtown Santa Barbara. It is adjacent to the city of Goleta. However, the land the airport sits on was annexed to the city of Santa Barbara by a 7 mile long, 300 feet wide corridor, most of which lies under the Pacific Ocean.


20.1

For a metropolitan area the size of (fictional) Santa Barbara County the airport is rather small. This is mainly due to its location between two major international airports (LA and San Francisco). There is just no need for a third major airport.
But KSBA is an important regional hub and provides frequent connection to many cities in the US (including LA, San Francisco, Seattle, New York City, Chicago, Miami and Anchorage) and even to Vancouver, Canada which makes it an international airport nonetheless.

20.2

The airport has one terminal building which has reached capacity with increasing passenger numbers over the past years.
The airport is served by the regional commuter rail SBlink and public busses. Exress shuttle busses provide direct connection to downtown Santa Barbara and Goleta without intermediate stops.

20.3

The entrance area to the terminal (arrival and departure). The maximum parking time of 5 minutes is strictly enforced.

20.4

The main taxi stand and bus stop.

20.5

Airport circle. The rail line passes under the runways.

20.6

Plenty of parking space is available around the terminal. But the closer the more expensive it is.

20.7

The bigger planes can be accessed conveniently through passenger bridges.

20.8


20.9


20.10


20.11

Passengers have to walk up to the smaller planes.

20.12

Regional jets waiting for passengers.

20.13

Parked business jets.

20.14

The Hangars are rented mostly by big companies to park their company jets.

20.15

Santa Barbara Aviation Club. You can take lessons in the flight school and scenic flights for tourists are offered.

20.16

Runways 18R/36L and 18L/36R are the shorter ones with 4,183 feet. They are used by smaller aircraft.

20.17

Planes fly very low over the freeway here. There are gates that close the road in case of an emergency. Yellow flashing lights warn drivers about approaching and departing planes. The area in front of the runways is owned by the airport. It is not allowed to build there. It is a safety zone in case a plane can not make it in the air.
What you can not see very well in the picture is that the whole airport area sits on a plateau a few meters higher than the road. So I guess it is not too dangerous.

20.18

South end of the runway.

20.19

There are steep cliffs to the Pacific Ocean. Not much room to overshoot.

20.20

Runway 9/27 is 6.052ft long and 150ft wide. Medium sized passenger jets land here. The runway is still too short for large jumbo jets. There are no expansion plans as there is currently no need for bigger planes to land.
I did some research on required runway lenght. According to my research a 737 or A320 could probably land on this runway but not take off. At least not loaded with passengers. Any experts reading? Should I make the runway longer?

20.21

No trees are allowed close to the runway.

20.22

Est side of the large runway.

20.23

Here the three runways and the taxiways intersect. This is a bottleneck that limits the number of landings and departures.

20.24

Planes on the large runway.

25

ready for takeoff

26

Just landed.

Replies

io_bg, marsh, canyonjumper, cubby420, art128, Tomas Neto:
Thanks guys. Glad you like it.

jgehrts:

I absolutely, positively love this MD.  I stumbled across it and think the detail is excellent.  Awesome work.

Welcome to my MD. I hope you'll come back.

threestooges:

Interesting take on the area around the airfield. Slightly offset from its real-world counter part,

Thanks, Matt. I actually modeled the airport after google earth images of the real Santa Barbara Airport. Well, at least the runways and taxiways. But it was not possible to do an exact replica as it is slightly rotated in an angle that SC4 does not support.
I don't expect to see FARwy (Fractional Angle Runways) soon.

[Nardo69]

The airport is an ... airport. Not quite my terrain as you might know ... 

The cliffs at the end of the runways reminds me of the old airport of Malta. Just the Maltese cliff is much higher there. Dunno though if this was the reason that they built a new one ... 

I would have put that railway line in a trench though building a real (Maxis) tunnel under the runway. You could have use this station and built a second exit to the parking lot with NAM puzzles.

[Sciurus]

It's just wonderful, but I wondered... how do you access to the golf?

Guillaume

[Tomas Neto]

Wow..., the Santa Barbara Airport is fantastic, awesome!!! Great update my friend!!! 

[nbvc]

Great work with the airport.

[marsh]

Very nice airport. I love it.  I agree with nardo about the rail. It could be a lot better as a sunken rail. And it could be easily done since the rest of the rail is a viaduct at the moment, although it is a viaduct as to not interrupt traffic. It could ultimitly work either way... 

,marsh 

[daryl7478]

Nice airport there! I know there are some international routes there, but why is there a turboprop ANA? Aren't those supposed to be for domestic Japanese flights? How can that small plane go all the way across the Pacific?

[threestooges]

In all the time I lived there, I don't think I ever noticed the two north/south runways, just the east/west one. Would be nice if the real was was connected to the rail though. Then again, I never flew out of there either. Usually we'd make the run down to LA and go from there. With the current placement of the airport, I'll be interested to see where you fit the university in, if you do plan to include one around there. Nice work on the details of the airport too. I've always liked being able to walk out onto the tarmac. A few airports here still do that, and it's a nice step back in time to be able to. Looking forward to what's next, as always.
-Matt

[Kevin1a]

It looks very good.  A small airport kind of like the one where I live, but with a lot less room for expansion.  Seems to be very well connected transitwise, though I do hate to see surface lots.

[Girafe]

Cute small Airport  so tiny that planes are bigger than runways 

[RickD]

Hi all, I am stepping in here to answer a few comments I found very interesting. I am no airport expert so I need to learn.

Nardo69:

I would have put that railway line in a trench though building a real (Maxis) tunnel under the runway. You could have use this station and built a second exit to the parking lot with NAM puzzles.

Believe it or not, this was my first design but somehow it did not work out. I must say, I grew some grey hair figuring out all the airport pieces so I wasn't patient enough.


Sciurus:

It's just wonderful, but I wondered... how do you access to the golf?

There is actually a road (you can see it in pic 20.22), well a dirt road. But those rich golf playing people shurely can afford a Hummer. Okay, I will have it paved so that they can take their sports cars and limousines to the country club.


daryl7478

Nice airport there! I know there are some international routes there, but why is there a turboprop ANA? Aren't those supposed to be for domestic Japanese flights? How can that small plane go all the way across the Pacific?

Uhm, err ... tail wind? Fold in the spacetime continuum? The stupid MD author thinking ANA stood for something like American National Air? Well, who knows. 

threestooges:

I'll be interested to see where you fit the university in, if you do plan to include one around there.

Yes, I chose to relocate it further to the west, right in the next tile.

I've always liked being able to walk out onto the tarmac. A few airports here still do that, and it's a nice step back in time to be able to.

It is fun as long as it is not raining. I know some smaller airports where this setup is still common.

Girafe:

so tiny that planes are bigger than runways

That bothers me, too.  Are there wider modular runways available? I could not find any. In my opinion the runway needs to be three tiles wide.

[solsystem]

Very nice pictures.  I am not a expert for airports (still using the maxis airports), but it looks good for me. I like the area between the railway station and the terminal building.

[kwakelaar]

Nice work on your airport, living close to an airport myself I feel sorry for the poor folks living in the neighbourhood between the two runways

[art128]

Beautiful airport there ! The golf here doesn't look out of place. Great work with the airport plateau and its surrounding areas.

Take care,
-Arthur.

[kalvar]

I really like this mega airport, all the details make it look so real.

[canyonjumper]

Awesome update Raphael! It's an awesome airport, and I wish that the one I'm working on comes out even half as good

                      Your friend,
                            Jordan

[EDGE4194]

Raphael- I have to agree that you did an awesome job with the airport. I know that I don't have patience and have been afraid to attempt an airport. I am tempted again after seeing yours. 

[Haljackey]

Very cool! I like the runway design and the roundabout... awesome placement!