*In remembrance: This scenery and any future work I share with this wonderful community is dedicated to my late brother who we suddenly lost in February 2020. You are deeply missed by all of us. My (HIO) Portland-Hillsboro Airport scenery in honor of him, his life achievements, and to his family. This is for you. You are deeply missed by all of us.
HIO | Portland-Hillsboro Airport
Portland-Hillsboro Airport is one of three local Airports in the Portland-metropolitan area; all three are managed and maintained by the Port of Portland. It is the second busiest airport in Oregon, serving the needs of the public for general aviation and corporate flights in and out of the airport.
HIO is also the home to several aviation school facilities at the airport, assisting as a local hub for new student pilots.
Over the years it has grown more popular as an alternative landing destination for sports teams, high profile celebrities, and politicians. This is due to its out of the way location, and its smaller and more discrete size. Compared to KPDX (Portland Internatinal Airport), the state's largest airport, KHIO is a much more accessible option for traffic flying into the metro area. This also makes it a great training opportunity for real-world pilots to practice their ATC communication skills with the professional friendly staffed tower but in a less congested airspace
Notice: To the best of my knowledge and ability, I have included only stock MSFS2020 library objects. If I have mistakenly included objects from other 3rd party scenery, please notify me and I will gladly remove it and have it replaced with stock library objects.
Giving Thanks:
I’d like to give thank both Patrick Konsor and HailStorm32 who deserve credit because when doing my initial research, I found two KHIO projects for MSFS2020 in the GitHub Repo. These projects were both worked on in 2020 and 2021 but for reasons unknown, neither of them uploaded their airport scenery to Flightsim.to. Patrick even kindly included a copy of his source package in his distributed download. Their versions were both very well done and helped my vision greatly.
DISCLAIMER: I did not copy any aspect of either Patrick Konsor’s or Hailstorm32’s original work or design into my project. I inspected both projects for studying purposes ONLY! I drew the most inspiration from Patrick’s work but everything you’ll find inside this scenery package for KHIO, I designed and created myself.
Included in the package:
- This scenery uses my own materialLib custom ground paint textures I made specifically for the project.
I replaced several buildings and included additional scenery elements to enhance the look of the airport using MSFS2020 stock library objects. These are temporary placeholders only. This is an ongoing development project. Eventually, these buildings, other objects, and more textures will be replaced with detailed 3d buildings to replicate this airfield and the surrounding area as close to the real-world Portland-Hillsboro Airport counterpart as possible. - Custom designed documentation with helpful airport information like airfield layout, an up-to-date taxiway map, tie-down apron locations, windsock placements and other useful information has been included for user convenience.
Source Data:
I would also like to thank the Port of Portland and ODOT for all their extremely useful reports I used for my main reference data source.
A Note About My Reaearch Sources:
The FAA strongly encourages airports to submit a new master plan every seven to 10 years. The last HIO master plan report submitted for review by the Port of Portland; it was first published and released to the public in 2016-2017. This report is a future projection planning assessment guide to better aid real world airport developers over the next 20 years of planning and acts as a future forecast of the airport.
*A revised version of the HIO Master Plan was updated and published for public record in 2020. It is the confirmed and finalized report to be used for the next 20-year projections master plan and includes the estimated funding.
For Those I Learned From:
Finally, I would like to thank all of the amazing content creators I follow who devote their free time to teach novice community members like me how to use the MSFS2020 SDK kit and other scenery development tools like, Blender to create scenery for the community.
In no particular order: BenneyBoy444, Patriot Six, Flying Theston, Federico Pinotti, Jonx Simulations, S17, and Rotornut44
I would like to give a very special thanks to Christhopher from the youtube channal, "MyPhysical World". For whatever reason, your teaching style resonated with me. You managed to get me unstuck several times when I was at my wits end. Somehow, I was able to push past certain concepts and issues I don’t think I would have figured it out without your videos.
HIO | Portland-Hillsboro Airport
NOTAMS:
KHIO is located 15 miles SW of Portland on 900 acres of land. This airport is notoriously known in the Pacific Northwest and across the country as being an extremely challenging airport for pilots who are not familiar with the airfield or newer and less experienced pilots due to its unusual runway and taxiway layout. As a result, the Portland-Hillsboro Airport leads the Pacific Northwest in close calls and safety risks resulting from higher-than-normal runway incursions.
Important! Special Scenery Limitations:
Users who use my scenery package may experience an audible warning telling you that your aircraft doesn’t fit in the currently chosen parking spot. This is especially true when parking in parking spots 6 through 29 at the –terminal East Tie-Down Apron. (*In Game Name: SE Ramp Parking. See Reference map for more details)
The reason for this warning is due to the way MSFS2020 SDK determines the size of the aircraft parking spots. Currently it uses the wingspan to determine whether the size of the aircraft is small, medium, or large.
In the real-world, aircraft class size is determined by its weight instead. At real airports, aircraft are parked extremely close to each other, with only a few feet of separation between the next airplane’s wingtips. This tight configuration is practiced so it makes use of every inch of space on an apron in the most officiant way possible.
The method MSFS2020 uses to determine aircraft size posed one of my biggest challenges creating this scenery package, for me. When trying to fit the exact number of GA parking spots and their sizes into their positions. I had to decide on a radius size that would work in a way those parking spot radiuses didn’t overlap. Doing so would have resulted in conflict issues whenever MSFS2020 spawned AI generated aircraft into an open parking spot.
The solution I finally decided on for Class A sized GA aircraft parking spots in the 36.0 ft wingspan range like the Cessna 152s, and 172s or similar GA aircraft. I made those parking spots smaller with only a wingspan radius of 16.4 ft (5 m). The only noticeable downside is that users will hear MSFS2020 complain about it within the sim. This unfortunately does break some of the immersion. It is only intended to be a temporary solution so I could provide the scenery to the community sooner. I plan on trying to work on a better solution in a future update.
The Work Around:
In the meantime, for anyone annoyed by the warnings, a work around is to park in the medium sized parking spots used in the –Terminal East tie-down apron: Those parking spots are SE ramp parking 1 through 5 or SE ramp parking 33 through 36.
*An In Sim Apron Naming Table inside the Layout and Information PDF is included and can be found in the documentation folder of this package. It provides the SDK names I had to use when creating the scenery alongside the real world apron names used at (HIO)
Installation:
I did not use any 3rd party created scenery libraries when creating this scenery to simply the Installation process, so installing it should be strait forward and easy. Just unzip the package and place it in your community folder wherever you have MSFS2020 installed. In the future if I decide to use 3rd party object libraries more than likely I will have asked permission to use them in a way that I can give them their own GUID ID so I can easily distribute everything in own package rather than requiring users to download extra libraries packages.
KHIO Scenery Package Features List:
- Terraformed (HIO) airport to its correct elevation of 208 ft/63.4 m (surveyed)
- Removed the unusable concrete airstrip and added parallel RWY 13L-31R missing from the default MSFS2020 Portland-Hillsboro airport scenery
- Relocated all taxiways, taxiway paths, taxiway signs and taxiway markings to their correct and present-day locations
- Replaced all default MSFS2020 taxiway texture markings and painted lines with custom taxiway textures
- Updated traffic pattern direction flow on all existing runways to depict real airport counterpart operations flow
(ALL RUNWAYS) Updated and repositioned papi light systems into their correct locations.
(AIRPORT) Reshaped and realigned ground aprons to more accurate positions, sizes, shapes and colors.
(AIRPORT) Replaced and repositioned default edge lighting to replicate the real-world counterpart - Added and repositioned the correct number of windsocks around the airport.
(*Reference diagram information can be found in the documents folder included in this package) - Added current construction happening in the area on Taxiway Alpha in between Taxiway Gulf and the the fire station
- Added default “U.S. Customes Zone” with custom painted dashed service line texters onto the -Terminal East Tie-Down Apron
- Replaced the default Generated Control Tower with a Control Tower library object that closer resembles the color and shape of its real-world counter-part
- Moved the rotating beacon tower into its correct location
- Added an ILS antenna object
- Added localizer building and antenna objects that were missing
- Added airport perimeter fencing and security gates into correct positions
- Terraformed some areas and removed blocky generated trees from certain areas that broke our emersion experience
- (AIRPORT BUILDINGS) Replaced several default hangers and buildings including the Fire station and the main HIO FBO with default library hangers and objects
- Added a fuel station slot, apron and default library fuel station objects next to the infamous out of commission “Mushroom fuel station”
- Any other minor adjustments and bug fixes that I might have forgotten
Corrected Aircraft Parking Slots included in this release:
- Added the (HIO) GA parking lines found at the real-world –Terminal East Tie-down apron
- Added the correct parking slots to –Terminal East Tie-down apron, and –Terminal West Tie-down apron
- Recolored and resurfaced textures on –Terminal East Tie-down, –Terminal West Tie-down, Center Tie-Down, and other leaseholder aprons to those aprons found at its real-world counterpart
North FBO (HAI) Hillsboro Aviation Hangar Apron Additions:
- Added a default library building object into the existing default generated building to better resemble its real-world counterpart
- Added and recolored new default library apron ground textures to replicate its real-world counterpart
- Added Taxiway ID “L” and edge lighting
- Redesigned the entire complex and surrounding area to include a feature rich environment matching the most current aerial imagery data provided by Google, Bing, and other sources like ODOT.
- Added the correct GA and corporate aircraft parking slots (accurate data found and provided by Port of Portland reports)
*Note: Parking Layout Information diagrams can be found in the documentation folder inside this package
Future Updates:
Not all parking aprons have been updated to the most recent and accurate number of aircraft parking spots provided by the current source data used to recreate the HIO scenery package. Only the -Terminal East Tie down Apron, -Terminal West Tie down Apron, the -Corporate Shuttle Apron and the North FBO Apron include their accurate parking spots available in version 1.0 of this scenery package. All remaining aprons will be up-to-date and accurate in next update.
My Story:
My story is not typical. So, my real name is Lonnie, and this adventure is new for me. Prior to taking on this project, I have been lucky enough to live a bit of a dream life in an industry where I have worked a successful 32-year career as a professional American Stand-up comedian touring all over the United States as well as international destinations across Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Japan, Thailand, and as far away as Bali, Indonesia.
I even was fortunate enough to receive a prime-time credit on NBC’s, “Last Comic Standing” several years back. I omitted my last name because my act is very much an adult themed act for mature audiences only. Feel free to look me up, if you are still interested but you’ve been properly warned. My act is not for everyone.
For my MSFS company name, I chose VPacSimulations because I wanted to incorporate my love for this hobby with my career which was something I knew I wanted to be when I was only nine years old. The initials for VPac stand for (Virtual Comedian and Pilot) My thinking behind it was to play off the well-known acronym, “PIC” or Pilot In Command.
I am brand-new to scenery development in MSFS2020 or any simulator for that matter but my love for this hobby dates all the back to 1998. It started from my fear of flying and also because my older brother was a well-respected head aircraft mechanic for Alaskan's Horizon Air, who later became a top engineer for G.E. I am also partially disabled, so, unfortunately, I will never have an opportunity to become a certified pilot. Simming has been my way of getting as close to the real action as I can get.
I began taking this hobby seriously between 2002 and 2004. Then around 2009-2010 when Flight Sim X had already launched and Microsoft decided to retire the project, I figured maybe it was also a good time for me to take a break and step away from the hobby. By this time, I had become quite busy touring, so the time to enjoy the hobby as I once did was no longer as easy. Timing is everything; it’s a saying drilled into the mindset of any decent performing comedian.
In 2017 I couldn’t resist the urge to return to the hobby. The biggest difference when I rejoined the community was age and maturity. Not to mention, I was making a decent living, and could finally invest in the hobby in ways I never could when I first fell in love with flight simming.
2017, Xplane 11 was arguably the best sim on the market, so I committed to relearning my skills using XP11. I still love XP11/12 to this day and that will never change. It has not lost my respect. I use each sim for different reasons. It’s our wonderful sim community that keeps me loyal to this amazing hobby.
Just before Covid exploded across the world in 2019, my older brother unexpectedly passed away in his sleep. This had no connection to Covid but losing my brother was one of the most devastating events in my life. Not to mention how much Covid impacted all our lives.
I caught Covid19 in October of 2019 several months before it became a global pandemic and I had a severe case of it, not even knowing what I was sick from, I remained very sick until almost the end of February 2020.
Covid changed the comedy industry dramatically. On top of that, here in the US, we became deeply polarized which forever changed the political climate at the time. It’s still divided to this day. While I continue to perform, my career has certainly taken a significant hit.
The comedy industry has been slower to recover than other industries. I will eventually bounce back, and I am trying to save up to make a move to the east coast to relaunch it in an entirely new market I’ve never been exposed to, and honestly, that is an existing prospect I am looking forward to.
Until then, I figured why not do something I have always wanted to do which in return can also give back to the community. After years of procrastination and a lack of confidence, I finally took the plunge with this project.
This is my very first official project. I have completed one other smaller project, a custom livery for the Rims Rocket C172, but it was for my own personal use. I think a preview of it is in one of the preview screenshots. Perhaps after I redo it, I will share the livery or if enough people have interest, I’ll redesign it.
KHIO really needed some love and attention that has never been shared on FlightSim.To. This project is far from complete. It will be an ongoing development project. My plan: eventually bring this project to commercial level quality.
My goal is to have it ready for the market at the launch of Version 2.0. Until then everything from this initial release to version 1.9+ will be free and even if when my loftier goals are met, and I successfully release a 2.0 commercial version to the marketplace; all iterations here will remain free for the community. I truly hope my work here meets everyone’s expectations, but even if it falls short, initially; I plan to keep pushing forward until I get it right and meet those demands.
Requests From the Flight Deck:
For all real-world pilots or anyone who visits KHIO or has regular access to the airport, please contact me via private message or leave a comment if you see anything that is incorrect or has been changed because you have more recent data available to you that the source data, I used to recreate KHIO.
I welcome any new information that will help me make this scenery as close to real life as possible. It would be especially helpful if anyone could provide current pictures and if anyone could help get me personal airport access to any or all the facilities, that would be truly an amazing opportunity and experience for me that I wouldn’t pass up; not to mention the invaluable wealth of useful resource data it would provide to assist me in this ongoing project.
Feel free to let me know where I can improve this scenery and I will do my best to accommodate everyone’s requests.
Short Final Thoughts:
I will provide a development road map soon and I hope you enjoy this scenery. Even though it was a challenging project and at times, downright frustrating. This has been a truly enjoyable and rewarding learning experience for me. The long hours and hard work were worth it, and I hope everyone here enjoys my contribution to this wonderful community. Donations are always appreciated and welcomed.
Kind Regards
VPac
2 months ago
2 months ago
VPacSimulations
Syguy
it is showing up on my side.Top work, but a few things only pop up, when you quite near to them.
5 months ago
Scotty
I unzipped the 'KHIO - Portland ...' folder and then moved the 'vpacsimulations' into the community folder, same as any other add-on.
I guess it's possible another addon for the Portland area has taken priority of this file but I don't believe I have any other scenery that contains anything for the KHIO airport.
Below is a screenshot of my world map for reference.
https://ibb.co/bBVxRLt
Thanks again for your help.
5 months ago
5 months ago
VPacSimulations
foxtrot789
6 months ago
6 months ago
VPacSimulations
foxtrot789