Hello there, I am a young Irish aviator that is quite fascinated by the Irish aviation scene, and also helicopters specifically. I have noticed the lack of a few helipads and locations around Ireland that are in MSFS 2020 and do not exist as freeware as far as I am aware. For starters, the Irish Air Corps' Finner Camp base in Donegal does not seem to be available in FSX, neither does the town of Athlone and Custume Barracks, which is where they operate their Emergency Aeromedical Service in conjunction with the National Ambulance Service as paramedics.

I use Brian Whitelegg's AB139 with the ICARO AW139'S IAC livery since they seem to have the same texture mapping bases, since the ICARO AW139 is built in a way that for whatever reason, it disappears at 0.5nm away and starts to become invisible at 0.2 for example. For my type of flying, that is very annoying. I use it as an Air Corps 112 roleplay, flying to random locations as accident sites, and at the moment, flying back to Athlone since there are no hospital helipads.

Currently, I am using a savestate at the approximate location of the barracks, but it is hard to locate it when I fly back since there are no standout objects that show where it is, and for Finner Camp, the lack of approximate building pinpoints really does not help either. So that begs the question, is there anywhere online, (FREEWARE PLEASE) in which I can get Irish Helipads including Custume, Finner and also Irish hospitals as well? I do not have any experience in scenery building so I would be dumbfounded as to how to do it myself. I am sorry if I come across as a begger, it would just help my personal flying experience.

NOTE: I HAVE IRELAND FULL VFR PART 1 AND PART 2 INSTALLED BUT THEY DON'T INCLUDE WHAT I AM REQUESTING.

OK, your new post is the only one showing!

Thanks sir.

23 hours ago, Wizzkidd02 said:

Hello there, I am a young Irish aviator that is quite fascinated by the Irish aviation scene, and also helicopters specifically. I have noticed the lack of a few helipads and locations around Ireland that are in MSFS 2020 and do not exist as freeware as far as I am aware. For starters, the Irish Air Corps' Finner Camp base in Donegal does not seem to be available in FSX, neither does the town of Athlone and Custume Barracks, which is where they operate their Emergency Aeromedical Service in conjunction with the National Ambulance Service as paramedics.

Dia dhuit! Although living in the UK now, I was born, grew up and learned to fly in Ireland and, as such, I was keen that my flight simulator experience for VFR flying there was as realistic as possible! Over the years I have therefore searched for almost every item of addon scenery available for Ireland and added most of them to FSX. Unfortunately however I don't think you are going to find what you are looking for and, as FSX is now a very old platform with, I suspect, an ever decreasing userbase, I think it is unlikely that anyone will ever develop the helipads you need for FSX.

As such the only option may be to create them yourself but scenery building using something like GMAX with realistic buildings etc could be a fairly steep learning curve. There is however a payware program called AFX (Airport Facilitator X) from Flight1 which gives you the option to modify airports and create new airports at specific locations (geographic co-ordinates) and this also includes an 'insert helipad' option which could allow you to place a helipad where you want it. However it would most likely lack any surrounding buildings and you might need to use something like Instant Scenery (also from Flight1 but I'm not even sure if its still available) to place suitable buildings near the helipad, if necessary using available freeware scenery objects. Whether it would be worth the expense and trouble for a handful of helipads is something that only you can decide however!

Good luck!

Bill

 

 

 

24 minutes ago, scianoir said:

Dia dhuit! Although living in the UK now, I was born, grew up and learned to fly in Ireland and, as such, I was keen that my flight simulator experience for VFR flying there was as realistic as possible! Over the years I have therefore searched for almost every item of addon scenery available for Ireland and added most of them to FSX. Unfortunately however I don't think you are going to find what you are looking for and, as FSX is now a very old platform with, I suspect, an ever decreasing userbase, I think it is unlikely that anyone will ever develop the helipads you need for FSX.

As such the only option may be to create them yourself but scenery building using something like GMAX with realistic buildings etc could be a fairly steep learning curve. There is however a payware program called AFX (Airport Facilitator X) from Flight1 which gives you the option to modify airports and create new airports at specific locations (geographic co-ordinates) and this also includes an 'insert helipad' option which could allow you to place a helipad where you want it. However it would most likely lack any surrounding buildings and you might need to use something like Instant Scenery (also from Flight1 but I'm not even sure if its still available) to place suitable buildings near the helipad, if necessary using available freeware scenery objects. Whether it would be worth the expense and trouble for a handful of helipads is something that only you can decide however!

Good luck!

Bill

 

 

 

Thanks for the advice, but as I said, I sadly do not have any experience in building, and as such would be hard. I also stay away from payware unless its steam because of personal security reasons (I HAD A BAD EXPERIENCE THAT THREW ME OFF A FEW YRS AGO). It is really sad to see FSX being deprecated, but I personally keep with it since I find the lack of an easy UI, and the shift towards pretty much just serious pilots with the flight dynamics unsettling. (EVEN FOR A 7+ YEAR LONG FLIER) FSX is still nice and user friendly and with what I have recently added with my addons, it has genuinely made it much more nicer to fly, and I've even found myself flying it WAY more often, like at least 6 times a week because it means that with more Irish aircraft and stuff, I can finally explore the entire country without much boredom from stock scenery.

16 hours ago, Wizzkidd02 said:

I also stay away from payware unless its steam because of personal security reasons

That's unfortunate because there is some very nice payware Irish scenery out there for FSX. I use the Orbx FTX Ireland scenery for VFR flights which, although not photorealistic, does look very much like the Irish landscape as seen from the air and is a massive improvement on the stock scenery. 

I have been using FSX now for at least 15 years and, although I have been tempted to move on to some of the newer platforms, I haven't done so yet simply because of the amount of time (and money - a LOT of addons!) I have invested in FSX. There is also the fact that FSX on my system is a very stable platform and, as you say, it still remains very nice to fly!

Bill

4 hours ago, scianoir said:

That's unfortunate because there is some very nice payware Irish scenery out there for FSX. I use the Orbx FTX Ireland scenery for VFR flights which, although not photorealistic, does look very much like the Irish landscape as seen from the air and is a massive improvement on the stock scenery. 

Bill

I understand yes. My family is just against modding because viruses and stuff. Payware would require family permission if that makes sense. I am not that young, just not young enough to go onto random sites. The ONLY payware I have gotten things off of is Steam because it is trusted. However, nothing new has come into steam for a few years which is sad. PLUS, they have sales so I can grab the products at less than €30 for example.

Ah well, can't control everyone's life you know.

I can appreciate the concern about going on 'random sites' which can be risky and, having had my computer 'infected' by a virus/trojan horse from some freeware many years ago (missed by my Norton antivirus at the time but thankfully detected by PayPal when a suspicious transaction was made on my account), I remain extremely wary about what I download and where I download it from! I can certainly think of quite a few sites which I would avoid but if you do get permission to buy some payware then you should be quite safe buying it directly from reputable vendors such as SimMarket, PC Aviator, Just Flight, Flight1 etc. I have used these for years and they have never given rise to any problems.

Stay safe!

Bill

Edited February 5, 20251 yr by scianoir

On 2/5/2025 at 8:22 PM, scianoir said:

I can appreciate the concern about going on 'random sites' which can be risky and, having had my computer 'infected' by a virus/trojan horse from some freeware many years ago (missed by my Norton antivirus at the time but thankfully detected by PayPal when a suspicious transaction was made on my account), I remain extremely wary about what I download and where I download it from! I can certainly think of quite a few sites which I would avoid but if you do get permission to buy some payware then you should be quite safe buying it directly from reputable vendors such as SimMarket, PC Aviator, Just Flight, Flight1 etc. I have used these for years and they have never given rise to any problems.

Stay safe!

Bill

I getcha don't worry. Back then, I had accidentally downloaded a file that wasn't even a helicopter, it was called 'r66' but it was on mediafire or something sketchy which I SHOULD have known, but being young I did not. Took like the whole day to clear a big virus that would open sites like the... hub by random and stuff. My parents and I would not even want to trust like simmarket, because compared to Steam, it is pretty much unknown and so, is quite sketchy. It was a bad experience, but a zero tolerance one.

WizzKidd,

I'd be happy to make a couple heliports for you.

I have created several add-on airports and heliports for FSX. Currently they are only available on FlightSim.com, but I plan on also uploading here as time permits. This link is for all my various uploads, so scrolling through will give you an idea of what I do, and then see if you think I might be able to assist you.

If interested, we can share more info via messages.

Thanks, PhrogPhlyer

https://www.flightsim.com/profile/538229-phrogphlyer/content/?type=downloads_file

I am SO sorry for the late reply. Thank you for the offer, but I would like to communicate it here so it feels less 'creepy' in a way. I do actually think you could help. Firstly, is there any way that a scenery of Athlone, Ireland (Including barracks) could be made? I do not live there but am interested in flying Air Corps 112 in and out of there. In general, maybe a scenery pack that adds sceneries such as Galway's, Sligo's Limerick's and Dublin's hospitals and barracks across the country?

Edited May 24, 20251 yr by Wizzkidd02

Only thing I do not like about ORBX while beautiful, is still inaccurate. Only way to get accuracy is to purchase city packs or regional scenery or use ADE and Scenery design editor and make your own VFR using landclass edits and library scenery objects  

 

BTW helipads and ADE is really really easy to learn, and addictive. You literally just click add helipad, and add parking. You can design 40 km^2 if you want in ADE, that would be a tad excessive, but its possible. 

Edited May 24, 20251 yr by Sweetd31

20 hours ago, Sweetd31 said:

Only thing I do not like about ORBX while beautiful, is still inaccurate. Only way to get accuracy is to purchase city packs or regional scenery or use ADE and Scenery design editor and make your own VFR using landclass edits and library scenery objects  

 

BTW helipads and ADE is really really easy to learn, and addictive. You literally just click add helipad, and add parking. You can design 40 km^2 if you want in ADE, that would be a tad excessive, but its possible. 

I get that, but I am a TAD bit of a perfectionist. A helipad would not do justice. The detail in the specific design of the helipads and hospitals are... Yeah. Oh and I am NOT good at building at all. I wouldn't even get the hang of it if I try.

I can understand that, its not even a straight forward task to get ADE working. But it allows you to literally draw the lines of land textures or "landclass" by clicking the boundaries. i.e. concrete, forest, neighborhood, city. In fact if you send me what airport, i'd consider doing it. 

 

As long as you're not expecting a huge area. I'm just going to use basic objects to make the airport, just fyi. But give me a list of like 4-5 airports, and I'll screw around with it. 

 

This all used to be farms and fields with sparce housing... so you can see whats possible. Johnson Space Center Houston

If you want to check out my work, I literally just published about 30 seconds ago. Been working on it for more than a year, it be an honor to share it with yal. 

https://www.flightsim.com/files/file/212442-kefd-ellington-2025-refresh-fsx-circa-2006-2010-johnson-space-center-houston/

Here is a reference shot of what I was recreating. So Feel free to try it out, and if you pick an airport I'll definitely consider doing it. Currently doing a refresh for Austin Tx, and after that Dallas Texas.