Nevada County Airport (KGOO) sits in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Grass Valley, California, roughly midway between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. It is one of those quietly significant general aviation facilities that carries more history than its modest size might suggest. Despite its character and history, Nevada County Airport has long remained underrepresented in Microsoft Flight Simulator's default scenery. Developer Nandengo12 has spent several months addressing that, releasing a comprehensive scenery upgrade for both MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024, part of an ongoing effort to bring the airports of California's Gold Country region up to a higher standard of fidelity.
The add-on was built entirely within Microsoft's SDK using a combination of custom objects and library assets, and the scope of work is considerable. At the heart of the upgrade are custom-built airport structures, including the main FBO building, several of the more prominent hangars, and key elements of the Cal-Fire air attack base — all modelled to give an accurate general impression of the real facility. The fuel station, airfield signage, and various ramp details have also been addressed. Static Cal-Fire aircraft, generously contributed by Flyin' J Simulations, add further operational atmosphere to the base.
Beyond the airport boundary, Nandengo12 has added the Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, a notable real-world landmark sitting alongside Highway 49 on the approach to runway 7. The runway 25 end sees added detail across the skypark homes, private hangars, and municipal facilities that characterise that part of the field, while similar treatment has been applied to the municipal buildings south of the airfield. Vegetation has been given attention throughout, with over a hundred individual pine trees and pine stands placed in prominent positions visible from the ramp, along with dedicated vegetation definition areas where ortho imagery showed tree coverage that the simulator's autogen had failed to populate.
The taxiway system has been fully rebuilt to correct inaccurate default markings, lighting, and naming, and terraforming around the FBO and Cal-Fire base has been corrected to better match real-world terrain. Twenty GA parking positions are distributed across the five ramps, supplemented by two vehicle start points and a dedicated helicopter start. Night lighting has been added to the FBO area, the Cal-Fire base, and other appropriate locations.
There are a few practical points worth noting before downloading. The add-on requires Nandengo12's California GA library (updated at minimum to the June 2023 version), as well as the free UK2000 Common Library for certain ramp objects and portable buildings. A number of MSFS dependency packages are also needed for fencing, lighting, and navaid features — specifically KCGX, KFHR, KNKX, KSEZ, KFFA, PAVD, and EDLP.
Installation is straightforward — unzip the downloaded file and place the folder into your MSFS Community folder. This is a freeware release, and if you find yourself appreciating the level of care and research that has gone into KGOO — months of work covering everything from historical context to individual pine tree placement — it is well worth considering a donation to Nandengo12 through the add-on page to support continued development of the Gold Country airport series. You can find the add-on at 👉 (KGOO) Nevada County Airport, Grass Valley, CA.