Baitoushan Intercontinental Airport

This is a historic article about an airport which no longer exists or has been replaced.

Baitoushan Intercontinental Airport (ICAO: SLBA) was a dual-runway public airport in the 'Baitoushan' region of south-western Corsica. A modern-style fixed platform airport, Baitoushan was the largest and oldest aviation facility on a continent known for smaller, short-lived airstrips.

Landing Advisories

Elevation advisory: Platform airport suspended approx 60m above sea-level. Minimum recommended approach 70m.
All flights arrived and departed via eastern side of the region.

Background

Origin and growth

Founded as 'Baitoushan Airport' on March 30th 2010, the facility was intended by owners, Devyn Smythe and Deirdre Faulds' as a replacement for their previous Corsican venture, Surtsey Airport. The airport gradually took shape over the course of several months, with most building work completed by November. As the number of airports to the south of Baitoushan increased during December 2010 (largely due to the creation of many protected water regions connecting Nautilus and Satori), travel from Corsica became intercontinental and consequently the airport was renamed 'Baitoushan Intercontinental Airport'.

During January 2011, Baitoushan's innovative, two-tier platform layout was introduced for the first time in Second Life, and gave the facility room to house both an airport on the upper platform and a large marina underneath. On the airport level, Baitoushan's two runways (200m x 30m) were retained, allowing large passenger aircraft to land and take-off simultaneously, with little chance of collision. By October 2014, little had changed to the airport's general layout - its rental hangars remained positioned in the south-east corner, and on the northern edge of the platform was its iconic ATC tower (based on the real-life Arlanda ATC tower at Stockholm Arlanda Airport). Despite few changes to its layout, the airport's main terminal building (still located in the south-western corner of the platform) had been replaced by a futuristic glass structure with three integrated jet bridges and a pushback system.

New ownership

In September of 2015, Baitoushan came into the possession of Luke Flywalker (lukeflywalker.fittinger), who renovated the facilities. It was the home base for "SL Aviation Magazine" and "Music to Fly By" multimedia ventures. Both can be found at SL Aviation Network, providing programming deticated to SL Aviation, and accompanies all of the widely popular "SL Grid Flights", founded and hosted by Deirdre Faulds' .

Luke Flywalker acquired ownership from Little Cherry who in early March 2015, had in her turn taken over ownership of Baitoushan one year before. Little Cherry had set about restructuring Baitoushan, resulting in the replacement of the Arlanda ATC tower and glass terminal building. A row of rental hangars were constructed along the northern edge of the region and a new mid-sized terminal building was constructed in the south-west corner. More in keeping with the dark brown brickwork of the surrounding buildings, the new terminal had two public gates, several floors with office/retail space and ten rentable airline check-in desks. Taxiways were reconstructed to support the new buildings and the runways were shifted slightly southward and replaced with a new asphalt-style surface. By the end of 2015 the terminal had been replaced once again, this time by a single-store brick building with an integrated ATC tower and a glass-windowed sub-level below the platform surface. The sub-level was primarily occupied by the SL Coast Guard and consequently had access to enclosed docks at sea-level. Also at sea-level, along the northern edge of the region, was a marina with several rental docks and 7-Seas Fishing.

In mid-2017 Baitoushan Intercontinental Airport closed its activity, and ownership passed from Luke Flywalker to Jade Kangas, leader of the SL Marine Corps group, which took the mission to continue the seven-year history of this landmark region in Second Life aviation. The airport was consequently redesignated as MCAS Chase Field(MCAS) and, in October 2017, it was home to Training Air Wing 3 (TAW-3) and CNATRA of the SL Marine Corps.

Airlines

Baitoushan terminal interior, looking East (11-15) — Interior of Baitoushan terminal building with check-in desks (November 2015).

The following list included all scheduled services to and from Baitoushan Intercontinental Airport, as of November 2015. Other non-scheduled charter flights may have been available on request. Please contact airlines for more information.

Facilities and services

Baitoushan terminal exterior, looking SE (11-15) — Baitoushan's revamped terminal building (November 2015).

Pilots' facilities

Public rez zone.
Aviation fuel station (DSA, Terra & Dani fuel).
Tri-color visual approach slope indicator (VASI).
Airport beacon

General facilities

Mid-sized terminal building with:
- x3 public gates.
- x14 airline check-in desks.
- ATC tower.
Shops/vendors.
x11 rental hangars (with helipads).
Naval port with marina.
Second Life Coast Guard (SLCG) headquarters (District 4).