Satelite photo for airport template

[petfy 1]

The ZSPD Pudong airport by Robert Catherall does not line up with Obrx Vector roads, particularly the bridges over the water feature. I would like to correct this by using ADE.

How do I get a satellite photo with the correct size and the correct coordinates to use as a template for ADE for this project?

[KFXE 13]

Interesting no one answered this because I just became interested in ADE and installed it and have since started editing some of my most frequented airports and ran into a situation related to your question.

Seems that every time I open an OEM (stock) airport in ADE, the Google satellite image does not concur.    I suppose it's quite possible that over the 10 years+ or so since FSX was released many airports have been physically altered, taxiways added, removed or relocated etc.

So here's what I'm doing.....

I go to google maps and go to the airport in question.   Next, I zoom in so that I have reasonably high resolution, approximately where 200ft = 1" on the scale at the bottom Right.  But the exact height is not important.

After that I use Photoshop (or any graphics program) to copy and stitch together a good complete image of the airport.   Sometimes this can be a chore.  But I like the detail so tht I can get the airport accurate.

Once I've saved the image, I load it into ADE in the background.

Next I look at the longest runway length in ADE and check the charts to see if it's accurate.  If it is, I then scale the image to fit (as closely as possible so that the longest runway in the ADE diagram and the  background image are aligned and the same length.  Once they are, I use that as the basis for ALL other adjustments.

I have found that most stock airports in ADE (which are read from FSX) are not laid out accurately and considerable adjustments need to be made to get the taxiways and parking pads properly aligned the the real life Google Sat imagery.

It's work.  But if you are nit picky about the look and feel of certain airports, this is about the only way I know (other than buy a file containing the airport).  Besides you can really liven them up in the process with lighting, trees and all kinds of things things not there originally.

Edited January 23, 2020 by KFXE