World Wide Guide to FS Scenery Design

Web sites of interest to scenery designers

Sites with Airport and Aviation information

• AirNav: Extensive USA airport information, includes some airport diagrams
• On-line Airport Database: Slow server, but extensive information on US airports, by the National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO)
• Airport details in Universal Data Delivery Format: by National Geodetic Survey
• Aviation Directory with listing of airports in U.S. and Canada
• Airport Terminal illustrations and Airlines information: by QuickAID
• Airports in Michigan: Excellent graphical site by Michigan Bureau of Aeronautics
• Airports in New Jersey: Complete with aerial photographs and good detail 
• Aviation Industries: Low-cost source of printed charts and other aviation aids
• : Leading publisher of aviation navigational charts and flight information
• Cranenburgh's Cheap Charts: Not fresh enough for real flying, but okay for desktop pilots
• Pooley's Flight Guides: UK and European aviation information, some on-line and free

Sites with Maps and Geographical Information

• Coastline Extractor, by USGS : Good coastal data (worldwide)  for ScBuild
• Earth Resources Data, by USGS: Roads, railways, rivers, lakes (USA) for ScBuild
• Tiger Maps from US Census Bureau: Good for background bitmaps in Airport
• USGS National Mapping Information
• USGS node of the National Geospatial Data Clearinghouse
• NOAA's National Geophysical Data Centre
• Maps of the United States at a Digital site
• Map-Related Web Sites maintained by the University of Texas at Austin
• Canadian maps from Canada's National Atlas Information Service
• Great Circle Distances: On-line calculator will show distances between two points
• USA Terrain in 3-D: DeLorme, the map people, offer "3-D Explorer" for just $19

Sites with aerial photographs

• Image Archive of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Lots of hi-res satellite pictures

Sites maintained by scenery designers

• Bob Ballentine of Niagara Falls, N.Y.: He built Niagara Falls and Western New York
• Brian Lavelle of Dayton, Ohio: He's making Ohio better day by day
• Nico Visagie of Cape Town: He created Table Mountain and parts of South Africa
• Ralph Zimmerman of Orlando, Fla.: He enhanced Las Vegas and offers shareware ATC
• Peter Tanner of Maryland: He's the teenager who built the state of Maryland
• Alessandro Antonini of Italy: He's putting Scenery Maker to very good use
• Matthis Haeuptli of Switzerland: He's done Greece, and some excellent other FS software
• Nicola Marangon of Italy: He's built northeastern Italy
• Luís António Serralva Vieira de Sá: He's a professor in Portugal who makes nice beaches
• Tony Nogales of Seattle, Wash.: Part of the FS Aero team producing shareware scenery
• Ozpack: A band of Aussie volunteers is chugging out some fine Australian scenery

Get help and socialise with other Flight-Sim enthusiasts

• Fly-by-Wire: Fly and chat with other desktop pilots in multi-player Internet mode
• The Interstate Organisation, a European group that convenes the Interstate FS races
• Subscribe to Flight-sim mailing list: Type SUBSCRIBE FLIGHT-SIM in message body
• Send question or comment to Flight-sim mailing list: Join 800 other FS enthusiasts
• news:rec.aviation.simulators: A "newsgroup" about FS and other simulators
• news:comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.flight-sim: Not many hardcore FS people in this forum
• news:microsoft.public.simulators: Use msnews.microsoft.com if your host doesn't carry it

Build your own cockpit

• Q-Man's Cockpit (Wayne Qualkinbush)
• Build Your Own Cockpit (Rennie Simpson)
• Homebrew Flight Sim Cockpit (Jack Morrison)
• Build Your Own Cockpit (MicroWings)
• Flight-Sim Cockpit Page (Michael Willis)
• F-117 Cockpit (John Miller)

Build your own (FS) aircraft

• Aircraft specifications: Good searchable source of specs by manufacturer and model

Virtual Airlines

• Air Australia: Australia's first
• Air Transport Systems: A virtual airline
• Aero Airlines: Includes emergency airlifts to rescue downed pilots

Virtual Weather

• Real-Wx: Emulate real weather conditions as you fly, thanks to Curt Olson

Virtual Curiosities

• Stadiums in FS: Compare Flight Simulator renditions with actual photos of stadiums

Virtual Tutorials

• Perceptions, procedures and principles of flight: Very detailed, informative site
• On-line tutorial on Instrument Flight Rules (IFR): by Sam Estenson
• Using Binary/Decimal/Hexadecimal Number Systems: Good background tutorial

Other Web sites of interest

• Directory of latest files uploaded to FTP.IUP.EDU: by Mike Marando
• On-line Number Converter: Convert decimal into hexadecimal or binary, or vice versa.
• Manual Conversion Chart for Hexadecimal/Decimal Numbers: Good reference
• The Computer Desktop Encyclopedia: Find the meaning of any computer term, fast.
• Terrain Forge: An interesting freeware 3-D terrain generator, though not for FS