When I'm flying, a very unrealistic airport kind of hurts my whole realism experience in the sim. And nearly every P3D/FSX streamer or youtuber, channels big or small, seem to have payware scenery for every flight. I only have one payware airport and it seems slightly unreasonable to spend the $20 to 30$ per airport on each flight. Now using REX helps with the unrealistic taxiways or runways at the airport but the buildings are a very big part in this and they are usually extremely blurry for me. Of course this is an investment in the hobby but is it often that people buy new sceneries?

I've spent about $1000 on various FSX related equipment (peripherals and add-ons) and I've yet to buy a single airport scenery program. I do have a very full hangar of planes I enjoy flying and I have spent a fair amount of money with ORBX and Rex but never on just an airport.

Disclaimer - I did buy REX's Airport HD scenery add-on which included a free KSLC.

I believe I bought one or two, years ago.  Just not worth it to me when I can spend money on other software and toys.  After all, taxiing in and out is limited funr.  I do buy texture programs such as REX HD to get runways, taxiways,  etc looking good along with terrain.  They do make and sell a lot of them, so it is worthwhile to many.

i don't buy an airport for every flight, although i might if i had more $$$.

i probably have around 20-30 freewares and another 20-30 payware airports installed at the moment.. i do generally plan my flights to either start or end at one of those but i also fly to default ones quite a bit.

i do tend to buy ones that are in places i like to fly frequently already, and/or ones that just look amazing (the jarrad marshall orbx ones are a particular favorite). i also tend to get them on sale, you can get a lot cheaper than $20-30 if you keep an eye on the specials. i think most of my orbx stuff was bought during their holiday sales over the years..

some of the freewares are of very high quality, there's a lot of solid airports in russia on avsim.ru and the airports of norway package is great too. http://www.freewarescenery.com/ has an insane amount of links.

i tend to avoid the huge, super polished airports as my machine is pretty old and doesn't perform so well with them, plus it invites OOM problems.

cheers,

-andy crosby

I have literally hundreds of them accumulated, all over the world.  For me, flying a finely crafted add-on airplane from/to a fuzzy default airport is like having a steak dinner served on the lid of a garbage can. 

Regards

More often than I thought I would.

When I restarted flight simming last year I didn't think I'd be buying any airports. (flying is the thing, right?) Then I purchased REX Airports HD. It resurfaces and pretties up all the airports. Very nice.

Then, I thought: wouldn't it be nice to have a base airport to fly out of? Proper gates and airport markings and so on. This led to needing a base to fly in to.

Then I wanted to do some island hopping and FlyTampa's Maarten Complete filled that. (very nice indeed)

Anyway, it has kept on that way and now I have quite a few payware airports and enjoy them all. It really completes the experience, for me.

This is actually a topic I know something about (probably the only one...lol).

So ir's been my experience that seasoned online pilots often have a ton of airport scenery.  It's important for the over all immersion level and interaction with other pilots/controllers.  Scenery purchases seem to go up in the weeks prior to a large event.  Offline guys seem to usually start off purchasing scenery for their home or favorite airports, and they slowly branch out after they get a little bored flying between what they already have. By comparison, the online guys seem to buy the most airport scenery. Of course there are always exceptions to this.

Personally, I have a gazillion airport sceneries (as do the guys I've flown with for years) as I truly love flying VATSIM events, and like you I'm a nut for immersion.

Now, something which may have passed under your radar is the somewhat new product from REX called REX Worldwide Airports HD.  It's a TERRIFIC product that provides HD replacement textures for default airport textures. Update your AFCAD for the airport, and use the REX WWA HD textures and you'll increase your immersion level substantially.  REX is also slowly producing replacement textures for 40 FSX Enhanced Airports - the first was Salt Lake and it rivals (or may even be better) than the recently released PACSIM KSLC.

My very best wishes to you!

 

I also have a whole lot of add on airport scenery (FSDT, Flight Beam, FlyTampa, Taxi2Gate, Tropical Sim, Latin VFR, ImagineSim, and others that I just can't recall at the moment.) and I enjoy the immersion.  I don't fly into stock airports, well, maybe I do on a rare occasion. 

I am definitely anxious to see how REX's Worldwide Airports HD - 40 FSX Enhanced Airports look, and I am hoping they will be P3D compatible.

Prices for payware airports are not bad, at all, considering what you get. 

To OP - be careful if you buy one, as this reminds me of the old Lays Potato Chip commercial which says, "Bet you can't eat just one!"  I'll bet you won't be satisfied with just one, or two, heck or even 3 good airports.

39 minutes ago, w6kd said:

I have literally hundreds of them accumulated, all over the world.  For me, flying a finely crafted add-on airplane from/to a fuzzy default airport is like having a steak dinner served on the lid of a garbage can. 

Regards

+1

I think many people buy tons of airports, especially at the beginning, then taper off and become increasingly more selective as they begin to realize how many of them they only fly to a few times and then pretty much forget they even have them. 

I have more payware airports than I thought I did.

 

I love the sight of a complex airport and it really deepens the immersion (for me). So far I have all FB and several of FSDT stuff as well as T2G and LatinVFR. The airport sceneries are pricey (for what you get), but I'm in it for immersion and therefore I have to pony up.

 

Not really sure I get the point of this question...

 

How often do people buy beer? Shirts? Games? Baseball cards?

 

You will probably find as many answers as people there are...

Save your money by finding an aircraft you enjoy flying, and routes you enjoy flying and stick to it. Say buy the PMDG NGX and fly Southwest routes in the west of America with FSDT/Flightbeam airports. That can keep you entertained for a while.

I probably buy too much, maybe 3-5 payware airports per month!.

Cheers, Ed

 

I've had days when i bought 20 in one day. The sale seasons...

But now i'm much more picky. Now, that i nearly have them all. %)

Flightsimming can become an addiction.

Like anything else.

And is it the worst, most painfull addiction?

No.