UGMS – Mestia Queen Tamar Airport, Georgia v1.0
Mestia
Mestia is a little mountainous village in Georgia with round about 2,000 inhabitants. Despite its small size, it serves as an economic and cultural center for the Svaneti region. In 2012, large parts of the city were renovated and cleaned up to promote tourism. In winter Mestia is a popular ski resort and in summer mainly hikers and mountaineers come to visit.
The Airport
The airfield in Mestia was named after Queen Tamar, who ruled the country in the 12th and 13th centuries. In 2010, the airfield was completely rebuilt. Before there was only a grass track whereas today there is a paved runway (02/20) of 1,200m length. Due to the high mountains and narrow valleys the approach is considered particularly demanding. To make matters worse, the airfield has no navigation aids. So you are completely dependent on good visibility.
Since 2015 Vanilla Sky flies regularly to Natakhtari (near Tbilisi) and Kutaisi with a LET410. In 2017, more than 7,000 passengers were handled at Mestia Airport. A 70 percent increase over the previous year.
In The Simulator
We tried to reproduce the airfield as realistically as possible in the simulator. What is made somewhat complicated is the fact that it is not always welcome to shoot photos and also generally there is not much information about the place. By default, the airfield is included but in the state before the new construction in 2010. Nevertheless, it has been possible to achieve a coherent image and to accurately represent the demanding approach.
You can look forward to the following features:
Accurate rendition of the Queen Tamar Airport in Mestia
Updated and colour corrected satellite image around the airport
Many of the historic defense towers are spread over the city
Several POIs in the city, which are easily recognizable during the approach (bridge, church, museum, …)
Runway with 2% slope as in real life
and much more
Installation
Just copy into your community folder and you are good to go
Tipps
A nice, short and exciting hop can be flown from UGAM Ambrolauri Airport, also available here to download.
The typical flight to Mestia leaves from Natakhtari airfield near Tbilisi. Normally the ICAO code is UGSA but in MSFS you can find it under UGMT
GPS Coordinates: 43.053338, 42.749761
