There are four airports that people use to get to Yellowstone National Park. These airports are Yellowstone Regional Airport (KCOD), Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport (KBZN), Jackson Hole Airport (KJAC), and the topic of this week's No Money Monday: Yellowstone Airport (KWYS), brought to X-Plane by Bruno Reichert.

Located just 3.1 miles (5 kilometers) from the West entrance into Yellowstone National Park, it's the closest airport to the park, as well as a great regional jet destination.

Modeling

The buildings at Yellowstone are excellent, with fully custom 3D modeling to resemble their real world counterparts. With Yellowstone being a small airport, the small items, as well as the big noticeable ones really show. From the main terminal to the fire station on the other side of the airport, everything looks right when I compare it to real images.

The area surrounding the terminal is also well done, with the drop off and parking area seeing plenty of attention to detail. Take notice of the small touches like the rocks and grass, as well as the posts lining the side of the road.

The other side of the airport also sees plenty of attention, with the fire station and surrounding buildings being custom made to just as high of a standard.

Another really nice touch with the airport is the hand placed custom road that has been implemented. It looks very nice and blends very well with the rest of the airport and ortho-imagery. Its usage is also very extensive, as it stretches all the way to the default X-Plane road.

Also quite noticeable are the vast number of trees surrounding the airport, which also appear to be hand placed, as they perfectly respect the boundaries of the ortho-imagery.

Texturing

Texturing at Reichert's Yellowstone Airport is pretty good. Although the buildings lack PBR (Physically Based Rendering) textures, they still look good in comparison to their real world counterparts. This isn't a huge deal either, especially when you consider the airport is free.

Ground textures also look good, with some wear and tear present, although I do wish there was a little bit more of it. Although the asphalt appears to be relatively new in real life, I think some more wear and tear as well as some dirt could really add some more immersion to the airport.

Night Lighting

A much overlooked part of many airports, night lighting is an important part of any scenery. Reichert appears to have done a very good job here, although there's one major setback that I will mention further on. Concerning buildings and areas near buildings, night lighting is great. It looks natural and offers a very immersive feeling with it, especially around the terminal building.

Another plus with night lighting at Yellowstone is that the aforementioned custom road has street lamps all the way to the main X-Plane road.

So what's the big drawback? Well, at night I didn't observe any sort of taxi lights or runway lights at Yellowstone Airport, making flying into and out of the airport past dark next to impossible. You'll observe that past the terminal the ground is practically pitch black.

Conclusion

Overall, Bruno Reichert's rendition of Yellowstone Airport is great. It's just the small details and night lighting that could use some work. Nevertheless, it's a great regional destination and I'd highly recommend adding this airport to your scenery collection. If you'd like to download Yellowstone Airport, you can get it on X-Plane.org here. Reichert also has a blog for his work, which can be found here.