I used KSMO Santa Monica Airport when testing X-Plane 10.50 Beta 6. Actually, I recently stumbled upon the real location by accident (though I didn’t fly). To commemorate this, I’ll write a simple note.

Santa Monica Municipal Airport, code KSMO, translated into Chinese as 圣莫尼卡机场, is located in the city of Santa Monica, north of Los Angeles, just over ten minutes’ drive from the famous Santa Monica Beach. This is a typical general aviation airport without scheduled commercial flights, serving only private planes and business jets.

Seeing this sign outside the airport, I learned that Santa Monica Airport actually has a public observation deck. The location is on the airport office building at 3223 Donald Douglas Loop South.

Soon I arrived in front of the office building; it turned out to be a very small structure.

Going up to the observation deck on the 3rd floor, the airport Runway and Apron were in full view, putting me in a great mood.

Santa Monica Airport has an elevation of 53.9 meters and features a single asphalt Runway (3/21) with a length of 1516 meters.

By FAA - http://155.178.201.160/d-tpp/1607/05023AD.PDF, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49820474

Looking at these small general aviation aircraft gave me a sense of familiarity. Even though I’ve only done simulated flying here in X-Plane, hehe.

A Piper PA-28 taxiing past the Tower, Speaking of which, I have flown this type of plane in Hawaii, and I also have the Carenado PA-28 ARCHER II payware addon.

Approaching dusk, the sun was about to set. The warm golden light shone on the streamlined fuselage of this Cirrus SR-22. For an aviation enthusiast, this scene was truly breathtaking.

At this point, I was getting a bit hungry and discovered there was a restaurant on the second floor. It had a pretty interesting name called Typhoon. I went in to take a look and found I could get a window seat with a view of the entire airport, so I decided immediately to have dinner there. Eating while watching small planes taking off and landing, it was really enjoyable.

After leaving the airport, I found there was also an aviation museum outside called the Museum of Flying. Not only did they have an A-4 with the Blue Angels livery, but also a California Air National Guard F-86 Sabre, Unfortunately, it was late and the museum was already closed, so I couldn’t go in for a detailed look. I’ll have to find another chance to visit in the future.

End