ICAO: KPIE, this beautifully located medium sized airport on Florida’s West Coast is perfect for all types aviation! Home to a U.S. Coast Guard station unit, an Allegiant airlines base, and a U.S. Air National Guard Blackhawk Squadron; this airport offers picturesque view for all sim pilots alike. Want a challenge?
Land parallel to the Bayside Bridge while completing the NORTH BAY VISUAL approach into RWY18, all while also avoiding TPA’s class Bravo airspace!
Select from over 60 Allegiant routes across the U.S. to some other previous Verticalsim airports. Take your Comanche on a sight seeing tour across the Clearwater/St.Pete area! Fancy a private jet flight? PIE’s many FBO’s will service you! Take a vacation down to Clearwater now!
FEATURES
Terminal w/simple interior for maximum performance
Verticalsim's penultimate airport, Provo, set a new bar for this developer. A bar which St. Pete/Clearwater exceeds. The only thing it lacks when compared to Provo is a fully-modelled, super-detailed terminal interior, but that's more a testament to how good Provo's is, rather than any real criticism of St. Pete's.
The building textures are, as always fantastic. Ground textures too, though some of the ground markings are a little lower-res than I'd expect.
Landside detail is fantastic. This used to be an area of weakness for Verticalsim but that changed with Provo, and this scenery continues the positive trend. Tons of high-quality static vehicles, custom-modelled roads, signs and vegetation, plus a custom bridge a short distance away from the airport. At the opposite end of the runway (36 end), there's more custom modelling that includes various hotels, shops, restaurants and warehouses. It really does make the RWY36 approach that bit more special!
Static aircraft-wise we get a handful of nicely-detailed Allegiant A320s, conveniently placed out of the way of AI traffic and GSX. They closely match their FSLTL/FS Traffic counterparts so won't ever look out of place.
As I said, the only complaint I have is the resolution of some of the ground markings, but that doesn't detract from the overall enjoyment of the product. Highly recommended, particularly if you're into replicating real-world Allegiant routes.