KGDB - Granite Falls Municipal Airport - Granite Falls, MN
Granite Falls Municipal (also known as Lenzen-Roe Memorial Field) is a small airport nestled in the corn fields of western Minnesota. It has a single runway (measuring 4357' x 75'). This is a Pilot-Controlled airport (no control tower) and sees a handful of aircraft movements in a normal day.
By statistics, this seems like a sleepy airport. But that isn't what makes it special. What makes this airport a gem in an unsuspecting place is the Fagen Fighters WWII Museum which makes up the majority of the hangars on the field. I had the privilige of visiting this museum during the winter of 2021 and would love to go back. They do a wonderful job of preserving the history of the war, but also the warbirds that served in that conflict.
When I visited in 2021 they had three hangars open to the public with various period aircraft and vehicles. In December of 2023, they opened a new hangar for aditional aircraft. I have attempted to recreate this airport using mostly stock items, but also using libraries which are highly recommended to fill the airport with life. Also, this airfield is another suffered from flat hangar syndrome which has plagued it since release.
The reason I finally started on this project was due to the fact that in August of 2023, the restored "Beck's Corsair" is now on loan to the museum. This is a Corsair that was restored in North Dakota but loaned to a museum in the Twin Cities until that museum was forced out of it's location. Now on loan to the Fagan Fighters museum, I requested it repainted by Milviz for their Corsair and they released this in December of 2023 (see the screen shots for this bird).
Be advised that this isn't only a WWII only airport. This is a public use airfield and the Fagan family also flies more current aircraft out the the field (I saw their TBM depart when I was visiting).
Notes:
- Fixed the runway location and the blast pad
- Relocated the PAPI lights the correct location
- Added a mix of stock hangars and used Windhover's open hangars
- Added lighting and vegitation
- Created the ampitheater area and staged it for a "History Hour" discussion on Trainers as found from their facebook images
- Added some taxiway lighting - note that most of the field uses blue reflectors but since these aren't an item I could find I used taxi lights throughout
- Modified the parking positions and added a few static aircraft
- Heavily used the Vintage Aircraft library for period appropriate aircraft in the hangars (If you don't include this library, your open hangars will be empty!)
- See the Credits section below for other used libraries
- Aircraft I'm aware of in the Fagan Collection as of 2023:
- Beck's Corsair
- P-38
- 2x P-51
- 2x P-40
- P-47
- B-25
- Hellcat
- Wildcat
- Helldiver
- Zero
- PT-17
- PT-19
- PT-22
- Birddog
- BT-13
Installation:
- Extract the package from the zip file and place in your community folder
Credits:
- totof's Vintage Aircraft Libary
- Windhovers open hangars
- MN Scenery Design rotating beacon from this library
As always - thanks for flying in Minnesota!
CaptainMoonlight
spidermanMN author
4 months ago
ryanbatc
spidermanMN author
6 months ago
maxd200
spidermanMN author
6 months ago