| Ramona airport (ICAO:KRNM) is a public airport is 40 minutes from downtown San Diego and the beach in California. The airport is mostly used for general aviation, the California Department of Foresty and United States Forest Service (USFS) jointly operate a fire attack base.
As all of my MSFS mod, this small scenery is made from a pilot-eyes perspective. In real, I flew there several time from Montgomery, for pattern training and visit the Plus One Club house. I'm an amateur scenery developer. This mod is made with 99% of MSFS default objects library and feature massive number of details all around the platform. More than 600 objects have been added to the default scenery.
Features
- All airport buildings have been replaced: hangars, FBO's, Air Attack Base, Classic Rotors museum, all external fences and gates, fuel island, executive hangar, airport beacon...
- All new and very specific taxiway signs (look a the blue one at the Air Attack Base)
- Adjustement of all taxiway lines
- FBO's Chuck Hall Aviation, CruiseAir Aviation and Pacific Exec Aviation rebuild
- Replacement of 90% autogen buildings by MSFS Library. Very few are the AI autogenerated buildings by Shark.AI / MSFS engine. All others have been replaced by a more appropriate one from the MSFS library (see remark below).
- 600+ objects to create life: objects from library but also handmade signs and banner on buildings. Caution: due to the vaste amount of detail, this scenery may impact your fps.
- Custom made Control Tower build by BullfrogSim
- Reveal of all helipads (including the north helipad not open to pub ;) reserved for Air Attack Base
- Reveal of Segmented Circle/Windsock south side close to CruiseAir
- Reveal of Compass Rose
- Redesign of Fire Attack Base apron with trace of fire retardand. This scenery can't wait for a Grumman S2 Tracker!
- Replacement of windsocks
- Replacement of PAPI (2 lights, P2L)
History of the airport and background
In 1943 the U.S. Navy built a small, dusty airstrip at what is now the Ramona Airport. In 1956, the facility was conveyed to San Diego County and the airport has now grown to become the aviation center for community service to San Diego's inland and mountain communities. The Ramona Airport is the third busiest facility in the County’s system.
The Ramona Air Attack Base is located in the CAL FIRE San Diego Unit and was established in 1957 by the then California Division of Forestry, making it the oldest Air Attack Base in the Department’s system. In 1960, the US Forest Service set up and operated from Ramona, separate from CDF, until 1966 when the agencies integrated and Ramona became a jointly operated base. Ramona responds to an average of 450 calls per year. On average, the base pumps 850,000 gallons of retardant a year. Ramona has a possible peak output of 250,000 gallons of retardant each day. The base’s direct protection area encompasses over 1.4 million acres for CAL FIRE, 300,000 for the US Forest Service, and covers all of San Diego County.
Uncomplicated airspace, available services, ideal climate and proximity to North County business and recreation centers make Ramona Airport an ideal destination for work or pleasure. Serving every type of aircraft from home-built experimental to corporate jets, the Ramona Airport is home to a fully staffed air traffic control tower, three full-service Fixed Base Operators (FBOs) (Pacific Exec Aviation, Chuck Hall Aviation and CruiseAir Aviation) an avionics center, an aircraft service center, nine aviation businesses, a full-time airport manager and the world's only helicopter museum with operational helicopters (Classic Rotors).
How to install? Unzip the file into your Community folder. Keep the folder structure from the zip (\AirportServices \ContentInfo, \MaterialLibs, \scenery, layout.json and manifest.json at the root directory). Once installed go to KRNM as usual, the scenery is overlayed over the existing default one.
If you love the San Diego area, you should also consider my other sceneries:
- KMYF Montgomery Field : https://flightsim.to/file/5856/montgomery-gibbs-exec-airport-taxiway-fix-and-many-more
- KSEE Gillespie : https://flightsim.to/file/36679/gillespie-field-ksee
- KSDM Brown Field: https://flightsim.to/file/38035/brown-field-muni-kdsm
- KOKB Oceanside: https://flightsim.to/file/37328/oceanside-box-maxwell-memorial-airfield-kokb
- The Bush Trip "San Diego VFR Transition" : https://flightsim.to/file/6276/vfr-transitions-at-san-diego
Remarks
- You need to have World Update II (USA) installed. As the main building behind the tank of the Air Attack Base, as well as long hangars on west side, are building from Friday Harbor (KFHR) free scenery from Microsoft/Asobo.
- A big thank you to Bullfrogsim for allowing me to use his fully customized control tower!
gryper
I just noticed as I was descending into KRNM from the northwest, the ATIS frequency is picking up KSEE Gillespie Field instead of KRNM. But ATC at KRNM works ok afaik. I use both of your airports KRNM and KSEE.
vbazillio 18 day(s) ago
Thanks, will investigate.
vbazillio 17 day(s) ago
Just did a test approaching from North West. I picked the correct ATIS of Ramona 132.025... Don't what happened on your setup ;( If set to 125.45, I get Gillespie ATIS.
gryper 17 day(s) ago
I think I got the freq from Navigraph airport data app for VR and manually dialed it in now that I think about it. Maybe they are conflicting. I'll check again... Thanks.
gryper 17 day(s) ago
Navigraph says the ASOS freq is 125.45 and the ATIS Freq for KRNM is 132.025
I started out over Oceanside about 5000 heading southeast toward KRNM.
If I bring up in in-sim radio menu, it says "TUNE AUTOMATED WEATHER FOR KRNM 125.45" (giving me the ASOS freq).
If I manually dial in 132.025, I get nothing.
If I let the KRNM ASOS weather message play through to the end, instead of looping back and repeating the message, it starts playing the weather for KSEE (which has a ATIS of 125.45).
I think you need to make it so KRNM plays the ATIS rather than the ASOS? But you said 132.025 plays the KRNM ATIS for you on your sim, so idk what the heck is going on.
Very strange.
InfiniteWisdom
Wonderful. Thank you!
Trustdesa
You know already all your work is 5 stars 😊
Sonosusto
Always 5 stars for you work. You make legit payware level freeware and its amazing. There are people who charge like 20 dollars for complete garbage and you blow them completely out of the water.
Sonosusto 2 month(s) ago
I'll put it this way. I have 3 tiers of quality with scenery. There is "ok" freeware, Decent Freeware that is better than default and then there's Payware/Detailed Freeware level. You are in the top, kind sir.
vbazillio 2 month(s) ago
Thank you very much!
ryu1940
I fly out of this place so much in the sim now thanks to you! Awesome work! This is one of my favorites because of the nice detail and the surrounding area is an area I love in real life. Thank you for making this and sharing it with us all!
CalsFM
I've been flying patterns all day here. It might be my new favorite GA field on all of flightsim.to. Great job.
PracticallyGeek
Fantastic work! Massive upgrade over the default airport, I've featured Ramona in my latest YouTube video.
https://youtu.be/75ECEmGLlwc
Keep up the great work 👍
ltjackson
Sweet little airport! Love the work you do!
bugdani
Il y a maintenant de beaux palmiers à Catalina, donc dispos....
leicar80
Very great work ! Thanks a lot
ElateBison
thanks for your great work
Sonosusto
Again, thanks for such a great airport. What bugs were fixed? I love it here and all of your scenery.
vbazillio 7 month(s) ago
Thank you. Regarding "bug", it's mainly something you won't even notice but grab my attention like fences not correctly placed or building from the library that where misplaced. No big deal. It was also a way for me to re-build the scenery with the latest 1.25.7 (SU9) and check that everything seem compiled ok.
Sonosusto 7 month(s) ago
Well, thanks again. Its amazing
Sonosusto
Yeah this has always been amazing since release and it keeps getting better.
Thank you for such fantastic work!
Take some money!
vbazillio 9 month(s) ago
I really appreciate your message. A big thank you!
Sonosusto 9 month(s) ago
Of course! Your work is amazing and you deserve it.
blondejfx
one of the best freeware GA sceneries around! great work
Rockfrog
As always, loving your work! There is a cart which mesh doesn't pop in at range: https://imgur.com/64tSa6J but does when you get closer: https://imgur.com/4dwMO78
vbazillio 9 month(s) ago
Thank you for you message! Glad you love my "work". I'm aware of this issue. I have no clue on how to fix it (if there's any). I'm that close to remove this object (picked from the MSFS library).
jonmkj
I have a floating "CHUCK HALL AVIATION" sign on one of the ramps. Appears I'm missing some of the T-hangars, plus the other building from the FHR library.
Edit: I do have the World Update with Friday Harbor installed.
vbazillio 10 month(s) ago
Thanks for the report. Will investigate.
vbazillio 10 month(s) ago
Could you confirm it's this building missing? https://i.imgur.com/lNFlx0c.jpeg
This building is picked directly from Microsoft KFHR. The other place where's there a "Chuck Hall Aviation" sign is the FBO itself and the main hangar is the default building.
This is an enigma for me 😉 Let me know if it's the building from the linked image of this message.
jonmkj 10 month(s) ago
Yes! That's the one. I'm missing all three of those T hangars plus another building nearby.
thtanner
Really enjoyable rendition of KRNM. I fly here often, and did my student towered solo here when I was training. Really is nice to have it in the sim. Please consider doing F70, and KHMT!
vbazillio 10 month(s) ago
Thank you! I'm happy to participate bringing back some great souvenirs 😉
Regarding French Valley, what about this already existing upgrade ? https://flightsim.to/file/9852/french-valley-airport-f70-scenery
thtanner 10 month(s) ago
Genuinely appreciate the response. I do currently use that scenery, and it is very usable upgrade, but your work here does have me a bit spoiled. I would definitely vote KHMT to keep with the CAL FIRE theme though! 😊
BigCow74
FYI, at certain distances there is a missing texture (it's showing as pink) on the vehicle parked next to the hanger under the "Ramona Air Attack Base / Aerial Firefighting Excellence Since 1967" sign. I noticed when I started cold and dark from Parking spot 5.
vbazillio 10 month(s) ago
Thank you dwweiche. I notice it as well and have... not a single clue on how to fix or workaround it. It's a MSFS default library object.
gryper 18 day(s) ago
Often times other freeware scenery in the Community folder will cause this. Try removing all other folders from the Community folder except KRNM and see if the issue persists.
jmknights93
I'm a little confused as in the dependencies tab it's linked to a bush trip addon?
vbazillio 11 month(s) ago
Sorry to have bring this confusion. Thank you for pointing it. Initially, I wanted to recommend to have the World Update 2 (USA) installed as some objects in my scenery are from this WU. On flightsim.to, I picked in the list the proposed "World Update 2" which is actually, as you write, a bush trip. Sorry about that! I removed this dependency and add an entry in the FAQ.
jmknights93 11 month(s) ago
Beautiful, love your work!
vbazillio 11 month(s) ago
Thank you!
HypePerformanceGroup
Great job on this, please keep showing some love to California...and maybe one day swing through Florida 😉
-Steve