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Screen shots by AeroFiles |
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Billund Airport (EKBI) is a major air-cargo and charter-airline facility for Denmark and its second-busiest airport for flight operations. Its single 10,172-foot (3,100-meter) runway can handle the world's largest passenger and cargo airliners. Most passenger flights are on smaller aircraft, however, and the large aircraft carry mostly cargo. Built by Lego in the early 1960s, it is now Denmark's second busiest airport with 2 million passengers annually. Passenger airlines include Lufthansa, KLM, and British Airways. Cargo airlines include DHL, FedEx, and UPS.
Billund is a small town in central Jutland (the main Danish peninsula). It is home of the Lego Group home office. Lego manufactures the popular Lego plastic bricks and other toys. The Lego factory on the outskirts produces 90 percent of the company's products. The Legoland theme park opened here in 1968. From satellite photos, the airport appears to cover more territory than the town itself.
AeroFiles is a small enterprise formed in 2006 that makes sceneries for Microsoft Flight Simulator®. "Our main goal is to become one of the best in making FSX addons," the developer says.
"Billund was chosen because it is the second largest airport in Denmark, and is on the number 10 spot of 100 among the best nordic airports according to Wikipedia," the developer explains. "Also, Billund has a great look over it. Aerosoft made the last Billund Airport back for FS2004, and a lot of fans have been waiting on the FSX version to come."
The following features are among more than twenty that AeroFiles lists for its Billund Airport:
"The model itself is so true to the real life airport that you will be amazed," AeroFiles promises in its product description.
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PURCHASE FEATURES |
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Instant download from the Pilot Shop |
YES | |
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Installation program |
YES | |
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License key required |
YES | |
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Copyright acknowledgment required |
YES | |
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Manual included |
NO | |
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Uninstall program included |
NO | |
| AIRPORT LOCATION | ||
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| Screen shots by Bill Stack | ||
Based on the few real-world photos of Billund Airport that I was able to find on the Internet, this scenery seems accurate and realistic. The positions of buildings and their overall appearances are true to life. The passenger terminal in particular is very realistic compared with the photos.
The passenger terminal has received the most attention, and it is very well done. The buildings, the airport equipment, and the "landside" items all appear very true to life.
Several of AeroFiles' screen shots of this airport drew my attention. Their shots of night effects looked unusually interesting, so I made a point of closely examining their night lighting. It's remarkably realistic from close and afar in most areas. As one example, the illumination of the night air is clearly visible.
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COMPARATIVE OVERVIEWS OF THE AIRPORT |
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AeroFiles |
FSX |
AeroFiles |
FSX |
AeroFiles |
FSX |
AeroFiles |
FSX |
AeroFiles |
FSX |
| Screen shots by Bill Stack | |
The enhancements at this airport change it from an imaginary representation with stock facilities to an accurate representation with realistic facilities. Close up, when we're taxiing about, the airport gives us a sense that we're actually there.
The night effects are the best I've seen. Most night effects look odd because the buildings are illimuninated from within like plastic boxes. Although some of AeroFiles' buildings at Billund look like that, the passenger and cargo terminals look very realistic at night.
The parking system is activated automatically when the aircraft gets close to the pavement marking where the nose wheel should be when parked. The jetway is activated with the Ctrl/J keyboard command when the aircraft is in the correct position. "The user aircraft must be parked right," explains the developer. "Not much room for error, but not a 100% perfect parking needed."
A Billund Airport mission is included.
A bonus airport is included: Old Vagar Airport for FS2004 and FSX. The developer says that scenery is three years old "and does not show our latest development skills in use."
The developer promises to enhance the airport further with updates such as 3D taxiway signs and more missions. "All these updates are free of charge, and always will be," he said. "When the airport has all these updates, a boxed CD version will be released."
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VIEWS AROUND THE AIRPORT |
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| Screen shots by Bill Stack | ||
AeroFiles' Billund Airport is available for instant downloading from the Pilot Shop.
The installation program places all files in the correct folders. Two setup alternatives are offered. Users can load a complete version or a scaled-down version that's easier on frame rates. I loaded the full version, and it took less than one minute.
As usual, the scenery must be loaded into the FSX scenery library. This quick and simple process is explained in the instructions.
This scenery FSX works only with FSX Service Pack 2 or Acceleration, according to the AeroFiles. The readme.txt file states: "You can get the service pack free of charge from the below location: http://www.microsoft.com/games/fsinsider/."
AeroFiles claims frame rates of 24 fps (frames per second) on a system with I5 dual core processor with 4 GB Ram, and "just under" 20 frames per second on a "lesser" system (unidentified). Frame rates are always a concern in detailed sceneries. My experience was much less than this. I had frame rates in the 30s and 40s while the default FSX scenery was active, and I had frame rates in the teens while AeroFiles' scenery was active. Rates were naturally lower near intense imaging such as buildings and gates.
| NIGHT EFFECTS | ||
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| Screen shots by Bill Stack | ||
My comparative screen shots were made as follows: I snapped all the AeroFiles' shots in one group, then I switched to FSX default scenery and snapped each shot from exactly the same location. This made all the comparative shots from the same position.
AeroFiles' rendition of this significant but overlooked European airport reflects a lot of attention to realism and appearance. The passenger terminal and the cargo terminal are accurate. Most of the night effects are remarkably lifelike. This scenery provides an all new experience at an airport worth visiting.
Learn more about Billund Airport at these websites:
Bill Stack
Learn More About AeroFiles' Billund Airport for FSX
Bill Stack is author of several books about flight simulation, a regular author in flight-sim magazines, and a contributor to Flight Sim Com. His website is www.topskills.com
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