Welcome to another edition of No Money Mondays! This week, we head to northern Poland to explore the freeware rendition of Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport (EPGD), created by developer pngraf for X-Plane 12 and 11.

Lech Wałęsa Airport is located approximately 7 miles northwest of Gdańsk. The airport serves the Tricity metropolitan area, which includes Gdańsk, Sopot, and Gdynia. Originally opened in 1974, the airport replaced the older airfield in the Wrzeszcz district. It was named after the former Polish president, Lech Wałęsa, in 2004. As of 2024, Lech Wałęsa Airport ranks as Poland’s third busiest airport, handling over 6.7 million passengers annually. It serves as an important base for Wizz Air and Ryanair, connecting northern Poland to numerous destinations across Europe. The airport features a single runway (11/29) measuring 9,186 feet. Recent expansions brought a modernised terminal facility.

The freeware scenery by pngraf provides an impressively rich depiction of the airfield, featuring custom terminal buildings, hangars, and interiors. 

Included are custom orthophotos for the airport surroundings, full night lighting, detailed ground markings, realistic road signage, and moving ground vehicle traffic on the airside. 

Attention to detail extends beyond the airport boundary with a package of enhanced coastlines, visible shoals, piers, moored yachts, and nearby buildings being included for the surrounding area. The scenery even has a modelled train station just outside the main terminal, with animated train traffic.

For users seeking improved performance, pngraf provides a "Lite" version of the scenery, omitting heavier details such as animated ground vehicles, terminal interiors, and crowds, to reduce system load.

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If you're eager to experience a highly detailed Polish destination, rich in history and coastal charm, pngraf’s rendition of Lech Wałęsa Airport for X-Plane is certainly worth exploring. It is available on the X-Plane.org forum.

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