WORK IN PROGRESS

In 2022, a multi-year project began at KDLH to replace taxiways and bring them up to current FAA Standards, and create a lot more GA Hangar space, plus the addition of a new Control Tower.

From our perspective, the Project Start date is 5/20/24 and the first release will be 2.0, date to be announced. (1.9)

Version 2.0 - FIXES ILS Approaches to 9-27 

• Corrects the positioning of the ILS Systems that was screwing up both Glide Slope and Locallizer.
• Corrects Edge Lighting issues around A2 and A3
• Improves Terminal Building Ground Parking .. removed blocks of cars, added parking lines, added cars.

 

Version 1.9 - Based on Google Earth Satellite Images from October 2024

• All the edge lighting has been hand positioned.
• Aprons redrawn to match situation on date above.
• FedEx ATR aircraft and temporary parking position created.
• Revised Intersections A4 and C
• Helipads repainted. (There is an issue with these as Projected Meshes, so currently scenery objects)
• Taxi Signs should now display correctly for US airports.

 

 

Update 1.5.0 December 2, 2022 (Beta)

There are now over 40 models attached to this Airport.

Thanks to a user who works at the Airport, the following changes have been made.

• AAR Hangar no longer has Airliners parked outside, and the signage has gone.  More work will be done on this hangar when it has new signage.
• Hangar 101 was sadly demolished under an emergency order after it partially collapsed in a bad storm.  Our airport has been revised to show this.
• FedEx have added an extension to their facility and revised the taxi path for the ATR 42-300 aircraft that acts as a Feeder to Minneapolis.  Finding no suitable models on line, the new model seen in this version is the Author's first attempt at an aircraft.  It will disappear at 7:30 in the evening and reappear at 8:30 in the morning.
• The Terminal Building has been better anchored to the ground.  It has a habit of leaping in the air when an aircraft approached.
• The Beacon is now a library object and uses a bright emitter rather than an actual spot or point light.  It will switch on if the weather gets wet or snowy, even during the day.
• Whilst it has been possible to stop rain and snow falling inside open hangars, a known bug in the Environmental Occluder provided by Asobo, causes any occluded Object seen from within another occluded object, to shed all the beautiful atmospheric effects.  Approaching the airport, the hangars with Occlusion would appear as clear when nothing else, including the runway was visible.  The current solution has been to fit automatic doors to the open hangars, which will close when the rainfall or snowfall exceeds 5mm/Hr.  The doors can sometimes be forced opened by hiding the 2nd Yoke in the aircraft - if so equipped.
• The Cirrus Factory should have only SR-22 and SF-50 aircraft on the apron around it.  No SF-50 exists in the current Asobo library, so this has been downloaded from SketchFab.com and modified to sit as a static object in red and green liveries.  Attribution for this model is:
  "CIRRUS vision sf50 jet" (https://skfb.ly/6CxvT) by Game_-_Tester is licensed under CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).
• Airport Services have been modified so that Small GA parking spaces will get a Marshaller, Medium GA a Marshaller and a push back person and Gate aircraft the normal services.  

 

Update 1.3.0 July 1, 2022

There are now over 25 Custom Models of Hangars and buildings, plus an animated  beacon and lots little features that have been tweaked.

 

The :

AAR Hangar Complex has been modeled as if it is active, though that is not the case.

 Terminal Glass, Jetway Connections and levels hopefully more accurate. 

 

The Distance Remaining Signage is now double sided, and the radar dome has been modeled, since it is one of those things a pilot might notice.  Distance remaining signs are now on both runways.

 

Street lighting, car park lighting and apron lighting has been improved, and car park markings have also been modeled.

 

There are still at least 25 buildings that can be added, but most of them are inside the Military Part of the Airport.  We have tried to model those that most pilots will see whilst taxing around.

 

Known issues:

 

Whilst Flags have been positioned in the appropriate places, their size seems to be fixed at 25ft.  For some unknown reason, SimObjects such as these are not scaling.

 

The Animated Beacon spins regardless of the time of day, and the beacon light (Asobo) remains on in the day.  The spotlight however switches off.

 

A few of the more complex buildings now use LOD’s.  Hopefully users will not be made aware.

 

Additional Credits:

 

All of the textures used have come from free online sources:

Textures.com, 

MyFreeTextures.Com, 

FreeStockTextures,

Colinj - MSFS 2020 object library for one of the Radio Towers from Flightsim.to

 

Many thanks to these sources for making this possible.

 

One Final Shout Out goes to Chris DeYoe of MyPhysicalWorld for his detailed Blender/MSFS Tutorials on YouTube.  Without his measured delivery of countless hints, tips and examples, these models might never have happened.

 

 

Update 1.2.1 - March 15, 2022

- Monaco Air FBO custom object added along with it's custom night lighting.

Update version 1.2 - February 4, 2022

About the airport:

Duluth International Airport is a large airport in north east Minnesota.  It has multiple uses and as such has large facilities.  It has two runways (9-27 is the main runway at 10,591' and 3-21 is the crosswind runway at 5719').  The airport has a fairly new terminal with four gates.  It is the home of the Cirrus aircraft company located on the southwest side of the field.  The 148th Fighter Wing of the Air National Guard is also located on the northeast side of the field which currently flies F-16's.  It has numerous other purposes with Lake Superior College having a hangar on the field as well as the FBO and private hangars.  I have also seen the Commemorative Air Force wing and EAA also has a presence on the field.  Northwest Airlines in their final days built a maintenance hangar on the north side of the field which had been used up until recently for various aircraft maintenance.  

As this airport has significant activity, there are instrument approaches to all runways.  Arresting wire markings were added but are not simulated.

Notes

- Replaced the majority of AI hangars with stock models

- Custom models added for the Terminal, Control Tower (v1.1), Lake Superior College and Cirrus Design

- Night Lighting added

- Scenery objects placed throughout the airfield

- Line markings added where appropriate (especially on the ANG side of the field)

- Some new parking positions added allowing you to spawn in most useful locations on the field

- Fixed some taxiway light issues

- Relocated the beacon to the appropriate location

Required libraries

 - Special thanks to Windhover for uploading his open hangars.  A couple have been placed on the field by the tower including a parking position in one of them

- totof aircraft library - This is where the Cirrus scenery object is from.  With this library installed, you will get many Cirrus aircraft by the Cirrus hangar on the ramp waiting for delivery - https://flightsim.to/file/17182/totof-aircraft-library-v1-1

- Windy Things - Flags on the field - https://flightsim.to/file/14024/windy-things

- EDHK Lights and Objects - This is used in numerous locations to add much brighter lights - https://flightsim.to/file/2549/edhk-lights-pack

- UK2000 scenery - Installed via the marketplace -> search for free objects.  You should see the UK2000 Common LIbrary UK2000 Scenery.  This has many various objects used throughout the field including the rotating radar which is north of the main runway.

As always, enjoy flying in Minnesota!

 

Version 1.1 update

UPDATE to connomar's Version1.0

In Version 1.0, the changes were largely taxiways, taxisigns, VASI and no changes to the AI produced models that Asobo had placed.  We are working on a much more comprehensive update, which will attempt to make this a far more realistic interpretation of the field, but one glaring issue has always been the skyscraper control tower, that really isn't.

This version, to be known as 1.1.0 replaces the Control Tower building with what will hopefully be seen as far closer to the real thing.  There are still issues with it, but the learning curve is steep, and I am on the beginning of it.  The lights I have added to the building do not turn off, and at present seep through a solid object.  The glass doesn't look quite right, but hopefully that will get corrected in a later revision.

Connomar will be working on the terminal next, hoping to get something that looks much closer to the real thing.

Installation

Please delete the original from the Community Folder, and unzip this version into its place.  Whilst frowned upon by some, the library needed to make the taxi signs double sided is included in the zip file.

MSFS 2024

A lot of work will be needed to make our airports fully compliant with 2024, but that doesn't mean the 2020 versions can't be used.  At the time of writing, 12/13/2024, there seems to be an issue with the Community folder.  I would recommend that you create a folder with all the packages you want to put in the community folder before you do anything else.  If you already have packages in the Community Folder, then I found moving it and then populating it with all the packages before running MSFS 2024 worked.

2020 Static aircraft will not show up in 2024.  The ATR at FedEx is my own model, so that will appear between 8:30am and 7:00pm.

 

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KDLH - Duluth International Airport - Duluth, Minnesota

Enhance Duluth International Airport with this beta add-on, incorporating updates from a multi-year project to modernize taxiways and introduce new GA Hangar spaces. Delve into a detailed rendition featuring over 40 models, including changes such as enhanced hangars, airport services modifications, and improved lighting elements. Stay tuned for upcoming releases to further refine this evolving airport scenery.

Version History