Another week, another No Money Monday! This week, we’ll be covering the amazing work of vbazillio, specifically his rendition of San Diego’s Gillespie Field. This amazing scenery has received a 4.95 out of 5 star rating on Flightsim.to, and is a great place to explore the beautiful mountains and valleys of southern California in your favorite GA aircraft!

Gillespie Field started out as a military base for the United States Marine Corps in 1942, used for the training of paratroops, as well as housing many units that flew the Grumman TBM3 Avenger. It was named Camp Gillespie, after a Marine officer, Lieutenant Archibald Gillespie, who was instrumental in helping California separate from Mexico. After the end of World War II, it was handed over to San Diego County in 1946, to be used as a general aviation airport.

Today, Gillespie Field is home to much of the general aviation traffic out of San Diego County, having over 225,000 aircraft movements in 2016. It is also home to the San Diego Air and Space Museum Gillespie Annex, with many vintage aircraft on display, including an Atlas ICBM, an F-102A Delta Dagger, and most prominently, an F-14A Tomcat that was featured in the movie Top Gun: Maverick. It is used mainly as a restoration and storage facility for the main museum, which is located in the heart of San Diego itself.

The Microsoft Flight Simulator rendition boasts a variety of features, including:

• Fully corrected taxiways, with over 1400 taxiway paths
• Over 150 taxiway signs, accurate to the latest data
• Every building on the field represented
• Correct ground markings, including helipads and compass rose
• Addition and correct placement of windsocks
• Many different static aircraft
• Custom ground signage, including the “Please Fly Quietly” sign.
• And much, much more!

This amazing airport can be found on flightsim.to!

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Be sure to stay tuned to Threshold next week to see where the freeware fun heads to next!

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