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The Creation of KJGG

Introduction

The Williamsburg Jamestown Airport (KJGG) serves the Williamsburg and Historic Triangle. Modern, yet with a sense of the days of air travel gone by, we serve our customers in the old-school way, insisting upon the best personalized service.

Visit Charly’s Airport Restaurant for down home specials, or visit our complete pilot shop for all your pilot supplies, charts, and special gifts. Use our flight planning room, inquire about our conference services and catering.

Ho ho, this is going too fast form me. Let me first highlight a bit more where Williamsburg Jamestown Airport is situated. It lies in the US state Virginia, it’s a small airport that’s perhaps more known of its famous Charly’s Restaurant. The airport is situated south of Williamsburg, or to be exactly south of the Humelsine Parkway, and west of the Colonial National Historic Parkway. Arriving on the road goes via Marclay Drive while, also modelled, slightly north of this you’ll find the Williamsburg Landing Avenue.

But there’s much more that Marc Leydecker aka Belga12345 has to say about KJGG. First, it’s convenient to him, it lies in Virginia, and it’s not that far away from his home town so no long distance to drive. And, since it’s a small airport, it’s easy to get in contact with the airport authorities to get access to all places behind the fence.

As we all know from Marc, he needs full access to all buildings, aprons, runways and whatever you find on an airport. He needs all that close-by access because he makes hundreds, no perhaps even thousands of NEF (Nikon Electronic Format raw) photos of everything. At the end, after modelling all the objects in SketchUp, he covers each object with high quality photo material to give it that characteristic looks and feel.

Anyway, there’s much more needed then what I just highlighted to make such realistic airport as we know from Marc. But first, what is KJGG for airport?

A 35 Year History
The Williamsburg-Jamestown Airport’s story is one of struggle and triumph. It all began in 1967 when Larry Waltrip first asked his parents, Dudley C. and Mary Waltrip, who owned a construction company, to take their bulldozers and carve a little airstrip on their 200 acres of clay off of Lake Powell Road so he could learn to fly. Larry, and his father Dudley C. and brother Dudley S. (Timmy) began to do just that – carve the runway with their bulldozers.

In the middle of all this, friends told them “You have to get permits from the State and the FAA to build and operate an airport”. This they did, and on July 10, 1969 the senior Waltrips did receive permission to establish and operate the Jamestown Airport both the State and the FAA. Ironically, Larry did get his private certificate in 1970, but he did his flying at Fort Eustis since he was a member of the Virginia Air National Guard.

And so does the 35 Year History continue. When you want to read all about it, I encourage you to check out this dedicated airport “About Us” link.

Is it worth to have KJGG?

What without KJGG?
As we always do, is it worth to download Marc’s freeware airport or can we do without it? That thought, no question, is quickly and easily to answer …. without Marc’s KJGG there’s not much to see and to find. Ok, the airport is luckily modeled by Laminar Research for both X-Plane 10 and X-Plane 11. Ho ho hold on, modeled? No, the only thing you find within the default X-Plane is a grass strip that identified the geographic location of KJGG. More than that you won’t find .. end, period!
You don’t believe me? Then you must check out the following screenshots.

The first two screenshots are taken with X-Plane 10 with the first being no KJGG besides the grass strip. The second screenshot is Marc’s KJGG creation as well is the last screenshot, but this one is made with X-Plane 11.00pb11 with a visibility of 25 S.M. (Statute Mile).

Although I made a couple of more X-Plane 11 screenshots with higher SM visibility, I leave it for the moment as it is with only one X-Plane 11 25 S.M. screenshot enough. I’m aware that increasing the visibility, the ground texture colors will become less washed out.

But what does KJGG offer, or in other words, what kind of buildings, offices, hangars, construction areas, houses etc. are situated at and around the airport?

What’s at KJGG?
Since there’s’ no KJGG ground map available on the Internet that offers you and me what can be found within the airport fence, I used some close-up pictures via Google Earth. KJGG is not really a complex airport with a terminal, large parking lots, jet ways, a complex taxi route system. None of that is the case!

KJGG is in that respect and small airport with only one paved runway (31-13), a paved taxi way to/from each side of the runway as well as interconnecting the aprons with it, several aprons, Charly’s Airport Restaurant, the building itself with the pilot shop and ATC control although only Unicom. There’s, logically, an FBO and a couple of hangars.

Nearby, just outside the airport fence, you’ll find Williamsburg Landing which is a retirement community. Positioned in the middle of the community, there’s a big building – the office and medical care for the citizen – with the swimming pool, tennis court and the community office with their own medical care.

By the way, while Marc made his airport photos, he also visited several times Charly’s Airport Restaurant and here’s Marc’s impression …. “the food at Charly’s Airport Restaurant is only soup, cold and warm sandwiches/melts. They make their own bread and the place opens at 11:00 AM. By noon, you can stand in line to get in.

It’s not a big menu they have, but what they have is outstanding and well prepared. The airport is open from dawn to dusk, so you can sit inside or outside with your own drinks and enjoy the scenery. Oops, almost forgotten, the food and drinks are served starting at 11 AM.”

That’s it folks. Not more, not less, but hold on, what’s that first SkyVector screenshot in the above group of screenshots doing?

Good question, easy answer; it’s a part of the Virginia area with, within the red square, KJGG, while I also marked a couple of additional Belga12345 airports, previously modelled and released by Marc. The most recent medium to large airport released by Marc was KRIC (Richmond). It is the purple square. Another very detailed airport from Marc is KFYJ or also known as Middle Peninsula Regional.

This is marked via the light blue square. Another airport, visible on this SkyVector section, is, KFAF (dark blue square) although I must admit that this is already a while ago released by Marc. You do see it on this SkyVector section, and not marked either since I believe it’s one of the very first airports developed by Marc, Hummel (W75).

Perhaps it’s an idea that you visit virtually the US state Virginia region and fly from Belga12345 airport to another airport. For sure, including a drink, lunch, afternoon drink, it will take you the whole day. That said, let me highlight what X-Plained.com offers you on behalf of Marc Leydecker. We have for you:
KRIC (Richmond)
KFYJ (Westpoint/Middle Peninsula Regional)
– KJGG (Williamsburg-Jamestown) (xxxxxxx)
KFAF (Felker Army)
KPVG (Hampton Roads Executive

A nice VFR trip could be with starting at KRIC, and then via KFYJ, KJGG, KFAF and finally, you’re last landing for today KPVG. And if it’s still early, you could decide to fly back to KRIC. Just an idea, and entirely up to you! By the way, Marc also created W75 (Hummel Field), KORF (Norfolk International Airport) and KPHF (Newport News/Williamsburg International).

And now, it’s time to explore Marc’s KJGG creation.

Marc’s KJGG

Ground textures, runway, taxiways and aprons
Marc uses, as always, own ortho images (enhanced USGS) to improve the ground textures. That said, it’s not so difficult to see this overall quality of the ground. As far as I’ve seen, all ground textures related to runways, the taxiway, the aprons are all ortho material. But the surrounding green areas are filled with grass besides that these areas are also having ortho ground textures.

Looking around along the south of the runway, you’ll be surprised about the trees, bushes and what else more. These aren’t the default X-Plane bushes and/or trees. These are all modeled by Marc as is with all the trees, flowers etc. you will find within the modeled airport boundaries. The problem with all these trees, flowers, grass, bushes and what else can be found more, that it’s so much, I don’t know where to look for.

These screenshots are just to give you an idea how the ground textures looks like. The bushes, trees and flowers make it all complete. So, when you’ve installed it, there’s a lot to explore by yourself.

Charly’s Airport Restaurant and ….
KJGG is an airport, yes, that’s what we know now, but perhaps the airport is most famous of Charly’s Airport Restaurant. This modelled building does not only offer home to Charly’s Restaurant, you’ll also find a pilot shop and there’s some room left for the ATC controller, and at busy days, for two controllers. As Marc says “Although in theory, this is a Unicom airport. That said, the “tower” is always manned (dusk to dawn). When it gets so busy during the weekends, 2 controllers are available.”

Back to the modelled building which is, I hope you got that idea, not really a terminal. And of course, you won’t find the pilot shop inside nor the restaurant, but Marc spend a lot of time modelling the terrace with everything that can be found in real during his many real KJGG visits.

On one of the sides of the building you’ll find a place for the kids to play. Being so close to the building, it doesn’t cost much time to find out that the building is well modelled with eye for details. As always with Marc’s projects, every tiny object isn’t forgotten and that can be seen with this building. See for yourself how it’s made.

Hangars and other places
On one side of Charly’s Airport Restaurant (and building) you have a huge platform partly occupied by parked aircraft with the previous mentioned helipad.

By the way, proudly indicated with a small photo on the Williamsburg KJGG website; once and a while the helipad is occupied by the Marine1 Presidential helicopter. The nearby located Kings Mill is known for its pristine golf course frequently used by the president of the United States and Hollywood stars. Don’t believe me? Check it out at the following photo and on the Williamsburg KJGG website.

Ok, back to “what’s then on the other side of Charly’s Airport Restaurant”.
On this side of the airport we find several hangars and storage areas and an unbelievable number of tiny objects but also large objects. Or as Marc picked up from the radio “Hangar 10 is the hang-out place for the aircraft buffs. I sometimes monitor ATC from KJGG at my house and even when given taxi directions, thy use language like “park on the right, once you pass Charly’s.”

Looking to the hangars and storage area you could say “ah, these are just easy created SketchUp buildings”, but even with my limited SketchUp knowledge I can say that this is not thru. First the buildings and hangars are well made, but all the tiny parts on it are also modeled including everything that belongs to it like trucks, cars, aircraft, static people, stairs, tables, and whatever Marc has more modeled.

Just to clarify on thing; all the objects you see are all Marc’s own creation. That said, Marc’s airport doesn’t need additional libraries. Together with KJGG Marc also introduced a Hobart GPU (Ground Power Unit) although this GPU was intentionally mend for something else. The GPU is positioned at a hangar from the Flight Center organization, as it seems to me.

Anyway, I’ve seen driving around a FedEx Home Delivery bus, a very old firetruck, at least, I don’t have the idea that this one is still used. Neither less, the old paint doesn’t smell anymore! At the far end of hangar 10 (look out for the yellow Rubicon Jeep lookalike car) which is almost the end of the runway, so we’ve reached the beginning of runway 31, and at that point you’ll find many types of trees, flowers and other type of plants. Amazing what Marc all created. And, hold on, don’t forget to look behind hangar 10. There’s so much more to see, that it’s almost impossible to stop.

What said before, there’s so much to see. Being very honest, there’s way too much to bring in this review. Behind hangar 10 – situated at the apron and along the taxiway – you’ll find another pair of hangars or storage buildings, but when you think this is it, no way.

Behind these buildings, you find many objects like pallets, a fuel truck, a portable fuel container, a shipping container, somebodies Land Rover (for sure he lost where he /she has put it) and again, full with homemade trees. It is not the first time to see Marc’s own created trees, but this airport offers so many different bushes, new trees, different types of conifers and so on.

While I walked back via the rear of these hangars, I reach the entrance area of KJGG. Before I reach the parking lot, I pass a half rusty construction with on the top, the airport green/white beacon. Below, protected by a fence, Marc modelled in accordance with the real look and feel, several additional objects.

Airport Entrance and Construction Areas
The airport entrance road is not spectacular. Not that it’s not well modeled, no, simple because the real entrance road isn’t one with signs for arrivals and departures, parking lots, rental area etc. No, the parking area in front of Charly’s Airport Restaurant, is filled with a couple of parked cars, a school bus waiting for the last passengers, an animated FedEx home Delivery car, overall a nicely modelled area with, yes, a couple of trees. Altogether, well-done!

But there’s more and watch out for the ducks!
Yes, I know … you think … she’s kidding … walking ducks, but no, I’m blood serious. Besides the ducks, many objects are included in this relatively small airport entrance area. Besides the previous mentioned cars/buses, you also find handmade modeled terminal buses, and at the parking lot, the dark red “Williamsburg Area Transport bus. It’s nice, but this service doesn’t run anymore. Consequently, the bus has been sitting at the airport at the same place for as far as Marc can remember.

According to Marc …. see the bus as an airport object icon.
At the border between the airport entrance area and the apron, not divided by a fence which you normally would expect, is the GA fuel station with supplies for JET A and AVGAS 100LL with, on the opposite of the same road, the fuel storage cylinders.

One of the construction areas lies northwest of the large apron with on one side also some hangars. But the KJGG construction area does offer much more then just a couple of sand mountains. Marc has been very creative and modeled many huge sand hills, trucks, containers, Caterpillar equipment, another known object, the Bobcat for the small work and by the way, I only talk about sand hills, but it’s a mix of sand hills/mountains, concrete parts, grind hills.

Marc wrote for the community a while ago an article how to make such hills/mountain in SketchUp. According to Marc “Creating these airport “sand/construction” mountains, finding them in all different shapes, different look and feel of material, isn’t as easy as you think unless, you know how to do it.“

Curious how to do it yourself?
Check out this tutorial link, but remember you need to be a registered user to download Marc’s tutorial, but that’s the same for downloading Marc’s KJGG airport.

That said, the other construction area lies more to the west of the airport. Although the look and feel of this area is basically the same as the previous discussed construction area, but it does have a couple of more surprises for you. You’ll find an old kind of rusty shelter or perhaps it’s a kind of hangar. Whatever it is, it looks gorgeous.

Further on you will find barrels, wooden boxes, containers, animated digging machines, green shelters and lots of trucks and close to this or I could better say almost at the end of the modelled area, another house. Although this house does look different then the other ones in this community, it is well modelled, but that doesn’t surprise you. And what said, we’ve reached the boundary of KJGG with the entrance road, street signs, airport sign and a movable CAUTION 2-WAY TRAFFIC sign.

Williamsburg Landing, a small Fort Knox

It’s difficult to find any information about the modelled area so called Williamsburg Landing. These are the community areas created by Marc which lie along the airport access road. In real, Williamsburg Landing is a retirement community and since it isn’t easy to access, Marc did his upmost best to create this part of the airport.

Although Williamsburg Landing isn’t really a part of the airport, it seems that the retired citizen do have a link with the airport, and then in particular with Charly’s Airport Restaurant.

Most of the time, Williamsburg Landing is a quiet place, till that day that a GA aircraft crashed in the middle of the community. It’s something can happen, but for all the retired citizens it was great and scary moment.

Ok, Marc didn’t model the crash, but he did a great job modelling Williamsburg Landing. That said, this means that Marc not only created a complete community consisting out of houses, roads, cars etc., he also modelled the surrounding area. When I speak about the surrounding area, I mean trees, bushes, water textures and what else comes up what I’ve seen. Please, join me on my “hidden” trip thru the community, but first, some overview screenshots of the community.

Looking more closely to the community, I’ve seen the citizen’s houses with their property, their cars, but there’s more. I mentioned this before, there’s also an office or main building. The modelled main building does have on the rear side a swimming pool with, on the side, a tennis court.

Yes, when you see it yourself, you probably think “why are all those ship containers at the backyard of that office”, but remember, Marc modelled it as real as it gets, and, at the moment of this modelling, these containers, wooden pallets are actually there. So, no, it’s not a mistake that you see that in the backyard, it’s as real as it gets!

Documents and Installation

Within the scenery package you’ll find under “_DOCS” the following Acrobat documents:
– KJGG Surroundings
– KJGG_AirNan
– KJGG_ALT_Mins
– KJGG_RNAV_GPS
– KJGG_TakeOff_Mins
– KJGG_VOR-B
– READ_ME.

Further on, you’ll find two jpg files, namely:
– KJGG_modeled_area
– KJGG_VFR

Good, what to do with all those documents?
In respect to the Acrobat documents; except for the “Surroundings” and “READ_ME” files, all other documents are related to aviation stuff, needed to depart or for your arrival. There’s no ground map of KJGG available because there’s no such file. The Surroundings file gives you some background and historical information about the Williamsburg area. Worth to check it out.

The READ_ME file is Marc’s own and offers a lot of background information of the modelled airport as well as some links where the grab other airports from, for example, for your Virginia VFR cross-country flight.

The “KJGG_modeled_area” jpg file gives you a good view what’s modelled and where the KJGG boundary ends. The “KJGG_VFR” jpg is a screenshot from SkyVector of the area with the VFR chart underlay.

The installation is very simple and straightforward. After you’ve downloaded the package, unzip it if not already done by your file manager and copy and paste the complete contents in the “Custom Scenery” folder. Any need for libraries? No need!

Can it be used with X-Plane 11.00.pb11+?

As of this testing and having X-Plane 11.00pb11 being the current version, KJGG works perfect with this, but it could be easily that with a next Public Beta update, some issues arise and Marc can start all over again, what he won’t do.

I can tell you that already although I didn’t ask Marc. First, it’s important that X-Plane 11 goes final, which is not only for Marc as freeware developer important, but for every other developer since some developers are getting crazy of the beta changes and the issues they suddenly face.

That said, curious too how KJGG looks with X-Plane 11.00pb11. That said, final screenshots can be found via our Google+ and X-Plained.com pages. Here are the Google+ screenshots link and his one is for our own X-Plained.com page.

At the End

And, did I see every spot Marc modelled? I think, but you never know with Marc since he’s a master in modelling. Although this airport seems to me very similar to other of his airports, not mentioning KRIC which is bigger and more complex, it seems that Marc every time adds new features to it and many more own created objects.

Is there a need to tell you that this is a must have airport?
I don’t think so, but please keep in mind that many hours are put into this KJGG, many lunches where needed to make the hundred, perhaps thousands of photos of all the objects you see in KJGG.

Oh, completely forgotten to mention and to discuss … how does the airport look during evening? There’s not much lighting at the airport, some buildings, hangars do have lights as well as the buses and trucks and not to forget the Williamsburg Landing community. But I haven’t forgotten you. Find here an evening impression of KJGG on our Google+ page and when not enough, check out our own dedicated website page.

Overall in one word …… gorgeous!

You can download KJGG Williamsburg Airport via his link, but remember you need to be a registered X-Plained.com member. When that’s not yet the case, then it’s time to register.

Feel free to contact me if you’ve got additional questions related to this impression. You can reach me via email Angelique.van.Campen@gmail.com or to Angelique@X-Plained.com.

With Greetings,
Your personal X-Plained reporter, Angelique van Campen

A personal note from Marc;
I would like to add a special thanks to the Staff of KJGG and especially Charley Rogers. Without them, it would have been impossible to produce this gem!

 

 

Add-on:Freeware / Williamsburg Airport (KJGG)
Publisher | Developer:X-Plane.Org | X-Plained.Com | Belga12345
Description:Ultra realistic rendition of the airport of Williamsburg (KJGG)
Software Source / Size:Download / Approximately 807MB (unzipped)
Reviewed by:Angelique van Campen
Published:February 2017
Hardware specifications:- iMac 27″ 3.5Ghz Late 2013
- Intel i7 3.5Ghz / 3.9Ghz during Boost Mode
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4096 MB
- 32 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
- 1 internal 1TB SSD (Sierra 10.12.3)
- 3 external 1TB SSDs
- Saitek Pro Flight System
Software specifications:- Sierra (10.12.3) | El Capitan (10.11.4)
- Windows 10 Professional
- X-Plane 10.51c | X-Plane 10.51m | X-Plane 11 pb11

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