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Kahului Airport (PHOG) by NAPS

Introduction

Kahului Airport? I’ve never heard of it! That’s not so strange because I live in the Netherlands and Hawaii is far away for me. This is one of the worldwide destinations that I’ve never been to, but I know I’ll get to in the near future. But for now, it’s time to visit NAPS (North Atlantic and Pacific Sceneries) and Freddy De Pues creation of Kahului International Airport (PHOG). That’s good news!

What can you expect?
One thing is an interesting review of an X-Plane 11 product, which is free of charge by the way and oops, it’a also applicable for X-Plane 10.51+.

Kahului Airport

Kahului Airport (IATA: OGG, ICAO: PHOG) is a regional airport in the state of Hawaii, USA, located east of the Kahului CDP in Maui County on the island of Maui near Haleakala. Most flights into Kahului Airport originate from Honolulu International Airport. The Honolulu–Kahului corridor is one of the busiest air routes in the US, ranking 13th in 2004 with 1,632,000 passengers.
The airport code pays homage to aviation pioneer Bertram J. Hogg, who worked for what is now Hawaiian Airlines flying aircraft ranging from eight-passenger Sikorsky S-38 amphibians to Douglas DC-3s and DC-9s into the late 1960s.

The Kahului Airport terminal building has ticketing, USDA agricultural inspection (U.S Department of Agriculture) and baggage claim areas on the ground level.

Eighteen jetways are available for enplaning or deplaning passengers. There are six gate hold areas, designated A–F, with three jetways each. Gates with odd numbers have jetway systems, while gates with even numbers are designated as emergency exits and have stairs that lead to the tarmac below.
This FAA ground map shows the two runways, taxiways (of course), the passenger, commuter and helicopter terminal. Further on, there’s a cargo south ramp area, a hot cargo ramp, GA (General Aviation) transient parking and let’s not forget the control tower. These areas will be discussed later in XP10 when walking from one area to another.

Most of the gates were spaced to handle narrow-body aircraft like the Boeing 717 and Boeing 737 which are used on inter-island flights. In 1982–83, Kahului started receiving nonstop flights from the mainland United States. These now use wide-body aircraft like the Boeing 767 and Boeing 777, along with the Boeing 737-700, Boeing 737-800, Boeing 737-900, and Boeing 757. The smaller aircraft used on inter-island flights fit at all gates, while the larger overseas airliners do not.

The airport is going through expansion authorized by the Hawaii State Legislature. A goal has been set to prepare Kahului Airport for eventually having a permanent international airport status with service routes from Canada and Japan. Current flights from Canada use United States border pre-clearance facilities in Vancouver, British Columbia, Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta, all located in Canada.
Kahului Airport covers 1,391 acres (563 hectares) at an elevation of 54 feet (16 meters) above mean sea level. It has two asphalt runways: 2/20 is 6,995 × 150 feet (2,132 × 46 meters) and 5/23 is 4,990 × 150 feet (1,521 × 46 meters). It also has an asphalt helipad designated H1 measuring 125 × 125 feet (38 × 38 meters). Most commercial flights use runway 2.
In 2010, the airport handled 5,346,694 passengers and 118,896 aircraft movements.

There is, of course, much more to tell about Kahului Airport, but for additional information I’ll guide you to the Wikipedia web page or surf to the official Kahului Airport website.

Different Kahului Airport Overviews

Let’s start the other way around, with no NAPS/Freddy De Pues Kahului Airport installed. When you see the default XP10 or XP11 airport you won’t be happy, especially if this is one of your home base airports. When you select “PHOG” or “Kahului” from the XP10/XP11 airport list, you’ll be disappointed. You’ll find no buildings, no gates, no jetways, no ground equipment, no correct taxiways and runway markings, incorrect aprons, incorrect taxiways and much more. Screenshot I show you this, but keep in mind, these screenshots are from X-Plane 11.

But Kahului Airport will change the moment you’ve downloaded the Kahului airport package via this link. Just unpack the ZIP file and drop the complete folder with all of its contents, without changing anything, into the “Custom Scenery” folder. You should have already installed OpenScenery X. If you haven’t done that yet, then download it from this URL. Screenshot II shows you what an impact it has on Kahului International Airport, but remember, this is still without Vehicle Library Extension, Wide Taxiways Markings Library Replacement and Enhanced Runways HD.

The next step leads you to the installation of the following freeware add-ons as suggested by the NAPS team:
Enhanced Runways HD
Vehicle Library Extension v1.2


Screenshot I represents default X-Plane 11 Kahului Airport.
Screenshot II shows you Kahului Airport after installing the NAPS/Freddy De Pues Kahului Airport. That makes a big difference, but you could add a few more add-ons to it to make it even better. This is shown in screen shot III.
Screen shot III is a combination of NAPS/Freddy De Pues Kahului and the three suggested add-ons; enhanced runways HD (chosen for dark asphalt textures), wide taxiways markings library replacement version 2.0 and vehicle library extension version 1.2

The installation of “Wide Taxiway Markings Library Replacement” and “Vehicle Library Extension” is quite simple. Unzip the package and copy and paste the complete folder into the Custom Scenery folder. The “EnhancedRunwaysHD_by_FlyJSim_v1.20” folder is slightly different. When unzipped, look for the readme.txt file. A paragraph from this file tells you that “The folder “asphalt” replaces the current one located in X-Plane 10\Resources\bitmaps\runways. First move the old asphalt folder out of the runways directory and then drop in the new one. Do the same thing for the concrete and goodgrass folders.”

When you’ve installed these three add-ons, the results can be seen on screen shot III, found below.

Terminal Areas and South Cargo Ramp

Perhaps you’re not happy with the terminal buildings and in particular the colors used, but believe me, this is the same as the real Kahului Airport. I had an idea that “strange terminal colors are used”, but I woke up when I downloaded some real pictures and found the colors are the same. With that in mind, I must say that it looks dammed good and together with only the buildings, you’ll find the jetways. No, I need to correct myself! You’ll hardly believe that we’re dealing with a freeware airport. Well done NAPS and Freddy!

The parking positions are correctly marked, there’s a lot of ground equipment around such as trucks, high-loaders, push back trucks, baggage carts and much more. You don’t need to be alone at Kahului Airport! Looking closely at the passenger terminal buildings, I think some photo real material is used. To check out the complete passenger terminal, I decided to walk from one end to the other, but I found, a little too late, that this wasn’t a good idea.

Why?
It’s a very long terminal, stretched from the south to almost the north of the east airport side, but well worth checking every jetway, static ground equipment and if there’s enough space to park your intercontinental aircraft. This means that all the jetways are available and there’s no limit because of a parked aircraft. In total I’ve counted 18 jetways. North of the huge passenger terminal you’ll find the commuter terminal.

The commuter apron is situated behind the terminal building and isn’t really more then an apron with some buildings and lots of containers, since this area lies close to the ground equipment storage apron. From here, it’s easy to check the public side of the passenger terminal. What you find here are many parking areas filled with cars. So you’re not alone when you park your car.

The last area to cover is the south cargo ramp.
The cargo area offers parking for three aircraft. There are also storage buildings and one of them, within the airport fence, belongs to Kahului Trading. Additionally, as is normal for cargo areas, there are lots of ground equipment like baggage carts, hi-loaders, containers, trolleys, stairs, pushback trucks and more.
The same as with the helicopter area and GA transient parking, the whole apron from the southeast to the north east is full of airport lighting, which, during evening and night hours, an awesome view of the terminal and cargo area. Check it out below.

Heli Terminal, GA Transient Parking and Control Tower

I never knew that an international airport could be equipped with such a large helicopter area. If I’m not mistaken, I counted 25 heli spots. But there’s much more to see in this south airport helicopter area. Outside the airport fence you’ll find a small parking lot for cars and the presence of the Blue Hawaiian Helicopters. Ok, that’s something we haven’t missed so counting again the heli spots. The rest of this area is filled with the necessary hangars, ground equipment and enough apron lighting. By the way, as you can see in the screen shots, you’ve got a great view of the terminal area from this side of the airport.

I decide to take a car to drive in the direction of the GA transient parking. Half way from the helicopter area, I’m passing the airport VOR beacon, a large fence and then, I’ve reached the first GA transient parking. Although most of the static aircraft standing here are not really GA models but much bigger aircraft like a Learjet, a FedEx ATR 72, two Canadian Citation X aircraft that, unfortunately, have the same aircraft registration.

But I can live with that. A little further along the GA transient parking I find two other FedEx models, another ATR aircraft with connected tow truck and a medium size twin-engine cargo aircraft. It looks like an Airbus A320 Family member, which isn’t really correct unless I’m mistaken. Anyway, correct or not, it fills this cargo area and gives it a realistic look.

Close to the control tower, which is realistically modeled, especially if you compare the tower to the real one. Also located in this area are the fuel department and tanks, a terminal for GA aircraft, although not indicated on the ground map, hangars and some parked GA aircraft. Besides these static objects you’ll find also ground equipment, trucks, some helicopter spots and at the far end, the fire department station. What I found interesting in this part of the airport is the presence of many static objects like aircraft, ground equipment, people, cars, trucks, flags etc. It gives you the feeling that this airport is operational and in use.

Cargo Ramp including Ground Textures

Even though it’s indicated on the FAA ground map, I can’t find the hot cargo ramp. This area is empty except for the helicopter spot. On the other hand, in the previous section, I found a cargo area that wasn’t indicated on the ground map. So perhaps this one is actually on the east side of the airport, which honestly makes much more sense. But writing about the ground textures isn’t really a problem.

But hold on! I should mention something I started this review with …. According to Freddy De Pues “Works better with Vehicle Library Extension, Wide Taxiways Markings Library Replacement, and Enhanced Runways HD.” Any more explanation needed?

What’s important for now are the taxiway and apron markings as well as the signs along the taxiways that indicate to which apron and/or runway you’re taxing too. That said, it seems to me that they aren’t missing and you should find your way when approaching or departing PHOG. Check it out by yourself with these screenshots.

What Else?

That’s always the question I ask myself …. did I forget anything and is it worth downloading NAPS/Freddy De Pues Kahului Airport?

Let’s start with the last part of the question … absolutely and not only because it’s free of charge! There’s been a lot of man-hours put into the creation of this airport. To me it seems that every building is handmade and each building comes close to reality. The overall airport is well made with an eye for details and the NAPS team wanted to give you the idea you’re not the only person at this airport. The result is that the airport comes with many static objects in those areas that won’t harm your parking spot.

OK, that was an answer for the second part of the question. Then “did I forget something”?
That could be, but I think I covered most of it but maybe I missed some tiny details. Overall, I’ve seen every corner of the airport by using the ground map.

This review is unusually long for a freeware package. On the other hand, it’s absolutely worth downloading the “NAPS (North Atlantic and Pacific Sceneries) and Freddy De Pues creation of Kahului International Airport (PHOG)”. Of course it’s up to you decide if you want to add the three additional packages. Remember, that those additional packages will reflect all XP10 airports with different runway and taxiway textures. For Kahului Airport, it’s worth it and gives the airport a realistic look, which is not always the case with other airports.

Evening screenshots?

Almost forgotten is night lighting!
I can tell you that with HDR selected ON, it gives an awesome evening atmosphere weather this is with X-Plane 10 or X-Plane 11. So, not only day flights are interesting, but approaching Kahului is also an interesting option during the evening or early morning hours. The following screen shots will show you.

End this is it!

Sometimes the end could be different then expected from me.

No, just kidding!
It was nice to review this NAPS airport, as usual I would say. I decided to test the airport with X-Plane 11, but it works fine with X-Plane 10.51 too. I offers a nice replica of what may be expected from PHOG and since it free, I would always suggest to download this airport, but what else do you need more since libraries are an absolute requirement for this NAPS airport.

Let me highlight what’s needed to run PHOG without any errors:
NAPS PHOG airport (logically)
NAPS Library
MisterX6 Library
3D People Library
CDB Library
OpenSceneryX
BS2001 Objects Library

That’s it I think.

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,
Angelique van Campen

 

 

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