Hi Straferr. I don't visit the scenery design forum much these days as most of my information is out-of-date.

The programs you mention are different. Airport is a conventional scenery design program used for creating complete airports/airfields or updating existing ones. To the best of my knowledge Nova is for creating 3D objects (scenery macros). These macros can be imported into Airport for placing in your project.

It's a matter of preference but I've always preferred FS Scenery Creator (FSSC) & Easy Object Designer (EOD) for creating CFS2 scenery. (These are the equivalents to the above & work on much the same principle. EOD object macros should be compatible with either Airport or FSSC.)

I'm not sure where you would find tutorials for any of these applications. They should include basic instructions & tutorials in their Help files. It might be an idea to check out the latest versions:

Airport for Windows. http://www.airportforwindows.com/
FSSC. http://www.fssc.avsim.net/index.html
Nova. (I think 1.6 is the shareware version. Not sure this is still available or supported.)
EOD. http://www.echos.ch/eod/

PS. Airport for Windows is continually being updated for FS9. Airport 2.60 might be fine for use with CFS2.

I hope I've been some help. May I suggest you try FSSC first. You can always compare it with Airport if you wish as the 2 programs are very similar. There's plenty of existing API macros posted in the Scenery Design section that can be imported into either. You can try EOD later if you wish to create your own. Don't be too ambitious to start with & take it in easy stages. Like everything else, it's not difficult when you understand the basics & it gets easier with practice. The important thing is not to try & do it all at once. Good luck.