It is with pleasure that we announce the release of Ysterplaat AFB for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020!
Ysterplaat Air Force Base (FAYP) is an airbase of the South African Air Force in the Cape Town suburb of Ysterplaat, on the southwestern coast of South Africa; 8km (5 mi) from Cape Town City Centre. The name Ysterplaat is Afrikaans from the Dutch “Ijzerplaats”, meaning “Place of Iron” in English.
The site of AFB Ysterplaat was originally used as a civilian airfield, known as Maitland Aerodrome, from as early as 1929. With the coming of World War II, the land the aerodrome sat on was donated to aid the war effort by Sir David Graaff, on condition his estate would be consulted should it ever be used for non-military purposes. During and after the World War II Ysterplaat was used as a maintenance and assembly depot for aircraft.
Today, due to increased budgetary restrictions, all activity at the base has basically come to a halt. There were plans to convert the base into a civilian airport with a military presence, but no decisions have been taken yet.
As with all our airports, we did our best to reproduce this airport to be as close to the real one as possible. We even went as far as park “Potties Private Bomber” which is an Avro Shackleton MR.3 (1722) at the airport! The aircraft has been designed as close to the real one as possible and it even has the correct markings!
We have added an updated photoreal ground layer to the airport as the one provided in Microsoft Flight Simulator is rather outdated. PBR Texturing have also been added to all the buildings and the layout in terms of the runway, taxiway, buildings and lighting are all accurate.
Unlike all our other airports, this one is available at the Microsoft Marketplace for $12 US exclusively. It is not available via our website at all. You will need to purchase and download this airport directly via Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Screen shots of this airports are available below.
