Hi! I’m L_sound, a reviewer of Infinite Flight Scenery Editing Team. To be honest, this post was completely impromptu. I just really wanted to share something lately, lol. (I wanted to post this on General instead of Scenery Editing because this isn’t an airport preview, it’s just something I would like to share.) Please ignore the poor English from a non-native English speaker. Some content is from Google Translate lmao.
On October 7, 2022, I entered IFC as usual. There was a green dot on my profile picture. I clicked on it out of curiosity and found that it was an invitation from IFAET! And so began my career as an editor. 
My First Airport
The first airport I edited was Kalaupapa (PHLU). I did a terrible job. The terminals are completely impractical. I didn’t even know I needed to import satellite images at the time. I dislike reading manuals and am always self-righteous. Then reality hit me hard. I received a long string of feedback from a reviewer. 
It took me a long and arduous time to complete the revisions. And so I finally realized that editing an airport is far more complicated than I had imagined.
Becoming A Senior Editor
After realizing how difficult editing is, I took a break for a while. I tried editing Koh Samui Airport, but gave up. So I started to change my goals. I am Chinese, shouldn’t I edit more Chinese airports? That was a crazy idea! I edited both ZSYA and ZSZS, and both yielded good results. ZSZS was even selected to be published on Infinite Flight Airport on Instagram! On the very day ZSZS passed the review, I became a senior editor!
Becoming A Reviewer
After becoming a senior editor, I had even greater motivation and edited many well-known airports, such as KBFI and ZGGG, most of which were Chinese airports. (Of course, I also reworked PHLU. )
Soon after, things took a turn for the better. On January 31, 2024, I was selected to participate in the mentorship program. I met my mentor: @Mathurin_Garcier . After his patient guidance and training, I became a reviewer on March 5, 2024.
My Editing Style
If I want to edit an airport, the first step is to find one that suits me and is within my capabilities. To avoid giving up halfway, I will set a goal for myself.
I prefer to edit the 2D portion first. For some airports with good satellite image quality, editing the 2D is straightforward. However, some satellite images are highly distorted, which presents a significant challenge. Sometimes, I feel like giving up because of the complexity of the 2D images.
Next is the 3D part. I always edit the terminal building first, as it’s the main part of the airport. I try to recreate reality as closely as possible, but due to various limitations of the editor, I have to sacrifice some things.
A good airport terminal often requires meticulous planning and refinement. Before each project begins, I search for a large number of images and videos on various social media platforms. I believed that as long as I could find some reference images and combine them with satellite images, I could recreate the terminal. However, it wasn’t until I edited Japanese airports that I realized how complex airport terminals can be!
Kagoshima Airport’s terminal building is unforgettable. It was incredibly difficult to design, with a very complex layout. After finishing Kagoshima Airport, I swore I would never edit a Japanese airport again. But I finally reworked HND. As for why I only redid Terminal 1, it’s because I had been working on Terminal 2 for a long time without fully understanding it, so I gave it to @BLee .
Next come the other 3D buildings, like cargo terminals and control towers. I hate making control towers because the editor don’t have a tool for drawing circles, every single column have to be drawn manually. I hate doing this repetitive and tedious work. You can go to my airports and take a look. Most of the control towers are very poorly made. My favorite thing is editing all sorts of jetbridges. Each airport’s jetbridges are unique. I also enjoy editing some oddly shaped buildings, like uniquely designed terminals or airport hotels. (But I just don’t like editing control towers. 
)
Some Thoughts
There are some things I want to clarify. Editing an airport is actually very difficult. Editors often need to collect a lot of information, such as aeronautical charts, clear and timely satellite images, reference pictures of terminals, etc. For some airports that don’t have 3D terminals in Google Earth, we need to estimate the terminal height using a large number of real-world photos and vids. This inevitably introduces errors, but we can’t control that, we can only try our best.
With the continuous innovation of the editor, editing airports has become easier, and we can now edit airports of higher quality. I will launch more amazing airports in the future. I hope to use my abilities to create more beautiful airports for Infinite Flight. Hope you like them. 
