Austrian Airports

By Terblanche Jordaan (21 June 2002)

Vienna (LOWW)

Back to the review...I love Austria and have been there a couple of times for skiing holidays. I love the people and the culture and the scenery is almost as beautiful as my hometown of Cape Town.

I received the box from Stefan with some other Austrian memorabilia! It comes with the CD and two booklets with every single chart for every airport he designed. Complete with SIDs and STARs to every airport in Jeppesen format. I thought it well to do the review with a flight plan across Austria and will include the necessary flight plans for FS2002, FSNavigator as well as NAVDATA. I've chosen the Baron for my trip because it is fast and could land on any strip and I have flown the real McCoy as well.

Let's start:

We begin our discovery of this wonderful package at Zeltweg AB (LOXZ) situated in central Austria. We take off from runway 08 and maintain our heading until we reach 5000' - turn right for KFT VOR 113.10 inbound heading 200. Climb to 9000' and when 20 DME from KFT you could start you descent for ILS OEK Rwy28 at Klagenfurt (LOWK) on frequency 110.10. After you've landed and taxied to the ramp, you immediately are aware of a certain feel that Stefan wants to create. Not only did he use photo images to create the texture on the buildings but it must have taken him hours and hours to create the atmosphere for every airport. It has a very specific ambience to it! If you look at the picture, you will see what I mean if you compare it to the real building.

Klagenfurt (LOWK)

From Klagenfurt we take off from runway 28 and we fly the GRZ 1F SID from Klagenfurt to NDB KW 405, turn left and intercept KFT VOR 113.10 on heading 089, at KFT turn left 058 towards VOR GRZ 116.20 at 9000'. At 15 DME from GRZ turn right heading 130 and descend to 5000' on radial 190 from GRZ descend to 3500' and start to turn left for ILS OEG runway 35 110.90 to land at Graz.

After a cup of coffee and refueling of the aircraft we are off to the capital of Austria, Vienna (LOWW) and we fly the SNU 2U SID from Graz. We climb on heading 348 until 2000' turn right heading 070 until intercept the outbound track 042 from GRZ 116.2 climb to 9500' - then turn left heading 042 until 49 DME from GRZ, turn left 360° towards VOR SNU 115.5 and descent to 4000'

Just before SNU we will fly over Wiener Neustadt (LOAN) where you could land if you want to.

Wiener Neustadt (LOAN)

As we turn right to heading 094 we will see Vöslau Airport (LOAV) to our left. You could land if you want to because the scenery is absolutely magnificent - try and see if you could spot the difference between the photograph and the FS2002 scenery.

Vöslau Airport (LOAV)

At Sollenau (SNU) turn right heading 094 until 10 DME from SNU and then descend to 3000' at 13 DME from SNU turn left to intercept ILS OEN runway 34 108.10 and land at Vienna (LOWW) called Schwechat.

It hard to tell which one is the photograph...

Absolutely amazing!

From Schwechat we take off from runway 34 and fly heading 343 inbound WAGRAM VOR WGM 112.20 and climb to 4000'. At WGM we turn left to VOR STO 113.00 heading 285 and climb to 7500' when crossing STO descend to 3000' and turn to heading 270 and when 10.7 DME outbound from STO turn right heading 287 and Langelois runway 29 should be right in front of you. You could practice your STOL landings here with your twin engines like the Baron.

From Langelois we take off from runway 29 heading 290 to 3000' - intercept VOR FRE 113.50 on inbound 270° and climb to 7500'. When 20 DME from FRE intercept VOR LNZ 116.60 on 240 and fly to the west of LINZ (LOWL) airport towards WELS (LOLW) descend to 3000' - fly over airfield and make a left downwind to land on runway 27.

   

One thing that you will notice is the steady frame rates that you will get. With my P4-1.7 with 256 Mb RAM and a GeForce4 video card it stays a consistent 20 - 25 on the ground and a high 20s to mid 30s in the air. With all Texture Quality, Terrain Mesh Complexity and Terrain Texture Size set to MAX. I also have Josiah Haut's Austria Mesh enabled. Scenery Complexity is set to VERY DENSE but AI and AUTOGEN are turned off. It means that somehow Stefan managed to give you all the detail without sacrificing any frame rates.

From WELS we head for Salzburg. We take off from WELS (LOLW) and maintain heading 270 until intercept inbound heading for SALTZBURG VOR SBG 113.80 on a heading of 253° and we climb to 5500'. At 12 DME from SBG we start our descent to 4000'. Overhead SBG we turn left to 178° until we intercept ILS OES for runway 16 at Salzburg.

Look at the detail on the wall

From Salzburg it is off to my favourite airfield - Innsbruck! But not before we fly past two of the smaller villages surrounded by the high mountains of Austria. We take off from Salzburg and maintain runway heading 156 until we are 20 DME from SBG, then turn right to a heading of 195. Climb to 7500' and maintain the heading until you are 35 DME from SBG, then turn right on a heading of 222° and soon you will see the beautiful village of Zell am Zee (LOWZ). You could overfly the airfield or land. I've decided to land here and take a break. As you could see from picture...it's hard to tell which shot is a photograph of the Baron I am flying in and which one is FS2002.

Well, the next day it was of to St Johann (LOIJ). After take off turn immediately to a heading of 315 and tune the VOR to SBG 113.80 when you cross R211 on 34 DME from SBG you should be overhead St Johann. Look out for the hot air balloons!

St Johann Airfield (LOIJ)

When overhead St Johann turn heading 255 straight to NDB RTT (Rattenberg) 303.0 climb to 9500' and enjoy the valleys and mountains. At RTT you could turn left to 211° and intercept the ILS OEV for runway 26 freq 111.10 - Innsbruck (LOWI) has a very interesting approach. Your initial heading is 255° maintain 9500' until 17.2 DME on the ILS DME then you descend to 8990'. (See the chart included with manual.)

The last leg takes us from Innsbruck to Dornbirn-Hohenems (LOIH) to the far west of Austria. Unfortunately the airfield only allows 16714 motions (starts/landings) per year. So, only fly there if your intentions are to stay over. They do not welcome touch and goes. I filed a flight plan for this last leg and took off from runway 26 at Innsbruck (LOWI) straight to NORTO fix at 3500' (heading 274) and to KPT39 fix at 6000' (heading 295) to NEBEL fix (heading 279) at 7500'. Then tune your VOR to Friedrichschafen VOR FHD 112.60 at fly straight to FHD on heading 300° until you are 20 DME from FHD - turn left heading 230 and when you cross the R156 for FHD (18.6 DME) you will be overhead Hohenems (LOIH).

Congratulations! You have done 586 nm of flying in approximately 2h30 airtime. I think by now you will know that you have bought an excellent product. Well worth the $45 for the whole package. You could also buy separate airfields like the well-known German Airport Series. Personally, I think Stefan did an outstanding job. Well done! I hope that we will see a lot of scenery from you in the future! Now go and buy the Austria scenery and get in you favourite airplane!

Terblanche Jordaan
t.blanche@iafrica.com

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