Sometimes having custom airport scenery can really help to make the experience. In both X-Plane and Microsoft Flight simulator, custom scenery can elevate the an airport experiences to new levels making it fun to visit and take in the character of the airport. The newest airport in Orbx’s scenery store for Microsoft Flight Simulator is PAWD Seward. I take a quick look at the airport, at the scenery made for it, and why its a little bit special.

Location

Located 117 kilometres or 73 miles south of Anchorage Alaska lies the city of Seward. The city is located on an inlet of the Kenai Peninsula and is a gateway to the nearby Kenai Fjords National Park.

Nearby PAWD Seward Airport is the home of a small fleet of GA aircraft belonging to helicopter and aircraft tours that take in the sights of the nearby mountain ranges all along the peninsula.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the airport is located in a good spot to access a variety of scenic areas. Although the simulator’s satellite imagery in Alaska is not as good as in other spots around the United Sates, it is still a beautiful area to fly in not to mention potentially challenging to navigate thanks to the tall mountains. Anchorage is not too far away so even a slower bush-plane could navigate there in a relatively short amount of time.

PAWD has two runways 19-34 and 13-31. The later is listed on SkyVector as a 4249 foot runway in good condition while the former is half that at 2289 feet. Good enough for short takeoff bush-planes and small aircraft.

The airport and nearby scenery

Created by Northern Sky Studio, PAWD Seward has some nice attention to detail on most of the scenery objects that they’ve put into this airport. A far cry from the default, Northern Sky’s efforts give the airport plenty of character. The AA Seward Air Tours and Marathon Helicopters buildings are given a lot of attention to detail and the Seward Air Tours building has gobs of interior details.

The runways are reasonably well detailed and the location marking saying “Seward” on the tarmac is really nice to see. The runways look good with rain and snow as well.

A few buildings are a little less detailed and some of the cars seem to have blurry textures. On the other hand, some of the equipment, and maintenance vehicles are very sharp. Nearly everything looks just fine from the cockpit as you’re starting up your aircraft for a flight.

Northern Sky have also added a few details to the nearby town of Seward. The Seeward Boat Harbor and Cruise Ship terminal have been given some unique objects including a crane that sits on the end of one of the piers.

PAWD Seward is a good scenery pack for a very interesting airport in Alaska. It’s a good hub for flying in the area with your Aviat Husky, Carbon Cub, Kodiak 100 and other more rugged aircraft. Look for a future Flight Journal operating out of this airport for sure!

Orbx is waiving their fees

What I didn’t know until recently was that Northern Sky Studio, who sell a variety of their products on the Orbx Store, are also based out of Ukraine.

Given the war and humanitarian tragedy that continues to happen there, Orbx has waived fees on their storefront until the end of this month for this scenery developer so that they get every dollar.

Orbx is waiving its fees for Northern Sky Studio (and other Ukrainian developers) until the end of March. Every dollar from this purchase will go to Northern Sky Studio.

Orbx Announcement

It’s just one of many ways that the flight sim community is trying to help in whatever small way they can.

Available now

PAWD Seeward is available for $18.95 AUD (about $14 USD) from the Orbx Direct Store. You can also check out the announcement about the scenery here. You may also want to check out Northern Sky Studio’s other products including the nearby PATK Talkeetna Airport, PHHN Hana Airport, and PHJH Kapalua Airport to name just a few.