ZMHA is an unimproved airstrip located about 5 km from the village of Hanh (also called Khankh or Turt) in northern Mongolia. Khankh (population 2100) lies on the northern shore of Khövsgöl Nuur about 15 km by air from the Russian border and within the boundaries of Khövsgöl Nuur National Park. Khövsgöl Nuur is considered both a natural jewel and a holy place by Mongolians – an ancient lake with pristine waters that attracts numerous tourists from both Mongolia and Russia. Most tourist activity occurs near the village of Khatgal on the southern shore, but many Russians from the Irkutsk area travel to Khankh to vacation along the east shore of the lake, staying in traditional ger camps or modern resorts. A ferry takes passengers to Khatgal during the summer, and vehicle traffic can travel across the lake in the winter. Surrounded by mountains, Khövsgöl Nuur is a beautiful area to explore by plane in the sim. A great jumping-off point is the airport in Khatgal, ZMHG, which can be found here on flightsim.to.
ZMHA exists in MSFS but is difficult to find from the air since the airstrip itself is not highly differentiated from the surrounding terrain. There is no detail at all on the ground; after landing or before takeoff the runway fades into the landscape. I could find almost no information on the airstrip, save for an entry in the 2008 Jeppesen data base that lists runway 9-27 as having a length of 5135 feet and an elevation of 5741 feet. Satellite views in both Google and Bing maps show the airstrip to be very isolated with several two-tracks crossing and leading both into Khankh and connecting to the main road heading to the Russian border. It is difficult to tell if the airstrip is still active – there’s nothing suggesting recent use. Perhaps it was more active during Soviet times when Khankh was a depot for moving oil to and from Siberia. There is a small ger camp (or former camp) just south of the runway, with corals set up for livestock, and several more gers are clumped about a mile west and a mile north of the runway. But there appear to be no buildings associated with the airport.
I decided to bring the airstrip back to life in the sim. I have changed the runway turf so that it can be easily spotted from the air and have added gable cones along the runway edge. I created the ger camp to the south of the runway with a coral containing horses. There is also a camp to the north of the runway with horses, chickens and goats. I haven’t added any airport facilities except for a windsock along the runway edge near the ger camps, where there are now three parking spaces. There is one static airplane near the windsock, along with three vehicles. There is no lighting or radio frequency.
NOTES
To install the airport, unzip and place the folder titled "mulberrywing-airport-zmha-hanh" in your community folder.
One warning – the goats and chickens like to wander, so be aware when taking off and landing!
Greetings from Germany
6 months ago
6 months ago
MulberryWing
Willowfsx