Ketchikan International Airport (PAKT) is a state-owned, public-use airport located one nautical mile (2 km) west of the central business district of Ketchikan, Alaska. The airport has no direct road access to the outside world nor to the airport so passengers must take a seven-minute ferry ride across the water to get to the airport from the town.
Features:
The most detailed replica of airport buildings and vehicles
Detailed mesh for the airport area
Custom surroundings
All materials converted and reworked for full PBR
Shading and occlusion (texture baking) effects on all airport buildings
High-resolution building textures
Use of native, highly efficient gITF models
Custom orthophoto for the airport and surrounding areas
Excellent little airport with really nice area scenery of the surrounding village, piers and landscape. While I agree that some of the textures could be improved, it's still a very nice bit of model-building overall. My one substantive complaint is that the two ends of the runway are reversed when displayed on the MSFS World Map. That is, the southeast-facing runway is labeled on the World Map as Runway 29, and the northwest-facing runway is labeled as Runway 11. If you're starting cold & dark at a gate or ramp, this is no big deal. But if you spawn on a runway for a quick VFR flight or to test a new aircraft, this is confusing and should be corrected.
What stands out with this airport is the amount of detail all around the airport itself, as well as very nice looking buildings and textures in daytime.
The biggest let-down for me are the ground textures on the apron, taxiways and runway. While they do have nice-looking effects on them, the textures themselves are a bit artificial looking in places and not always true to life. For example the two stands at the terminal building do not have yellow lines as they should, those are interrupted by concrete textures. Also the red markings on the apron are default and do not get covered by snow, and do have too much saturation.
Also the terrain textures next to the taxiways and runway are lacking a bit of detail and structure, I would have hoped that these do get some more detail and depth to them.
And while I do not mind at all that such a small terminal building does not have a 3D interior, the night lighting for its windows is very low quality, overly bright (overexposed photo) and revealing a flat interior with an odd geometry. If those textures were kept much more subtle with the over-exposure removed, it would have looked a lot less distracting.
A really cool scenery which got even better with the lastest update. If you are into Alaska or even into Alaska Bush People, this is a must have. It is frame rate friendly and has some fine modelling and nice texturing, I definitely recommend it.
A great little airport if you're into Alaska, remote locations and just generally very athmospheric locations. Northern Sky Studio has done a great job bringing this airport to life and I couldn't recommend it more. In my opinion, it's especially great if you're into GA or smaller regional jet flights and/or bush flying in the area. Throw a little snow on the ground in the midst of winter as well and you're really going to be in for a treat!
Can't really provide much in light of downsides, the airport itself and everything surrounding it is great quality and has had great detail put in, and as far as I can tell a good attempt was made to beautify the other side of the river as well. If anything could be improved, it would be the marina on the other side of the airport, the default Microsoft semi visible docks just don't do the area service. But in all fairness, this is generally well beyond the scope of the airport, it would just be a nice cherry on top. :)
All in all, a great product, will give some serious purpose to those Alaska airline liveries :) Highly recommended!
Nicely done. Terminal and buildings are excellent, very much payware quality. Love the raised runway and much lower ramp area, just like in real life. Ferry was a nice touch. However I didn't care for the off green grass and bush texture along the sides of the runway, just doesn't blend well with the stock terrain and trees. Would recommend for all Alaska Fliers.