Screen shots by OshkoshSim

Santa Catalina Island is a rocky island off the coast of southern California, U.S.A., and it is part of Los Angeles County. Its total year-round population is barely 4,000, with most of them living in Avalon on the island's southeast coast. It is mostly a tourist destination for beaches, boating, diving, and flora and fauna in the widespread undeveloped areas. The island is commonly called "Catalina Island" or simply "Catalina."

Catalina Airport (KAVX) is a privately-owned general-aviation airport atop a hill in the middle of the island. Its elevation is 1,602 feet (488 meters), and it has one runway (4/22) 3,000 feet (914 meters) long. Several mountain peaks around 2,000 to 2,200 feet (610 to 671 meters) are nearby. It averages about 60 flight operations daily. Because no fuel is available at this airport, pilots must have sufficient fuel for round trips before embarking for the island. Most tourists who visit this island arrive and return by regularly scheduled ferry boats to Avalon and Two Harbors, however.

This scenery by OshkoshSim replaces all ground textures throughout the island and enhances Catalina Airport and Avalon Bay. OshkoshSim's list of features includes these:

• High-resolution photoreal scenery of the whole Santa Catalina Island
• Detailed shorelines, numerous lakes, as well as residential areas
• High-resolution runway, taxiways, and apron
• Realistic and detailed runway and taxiway markings
• Authentic buildings and structures

LOCATION MAPS
Screen shots by Bill Stack

The Scenery

OskhoshSim's rendition of Santa Catalina Island and Catalina Airport is more realistic than the FSX default in several regards:

• Airport: Airport buildings such as the terminal, a hangar, and storage tanks are realistic compared with the photos I found, as is the tetrahedron across the runway from the terminal. Runway and taxiway surfaces are improved, and the non-standard, pilot-controlled runway-edge lights work as promised. There isn't much at the real Catalina Airport, so there isn't much at OshkoshSim's Catalina Airport, either. One feature at the real airport that's missing from OshkoshSim's airport is parked aircraft, even though it has parked motor vehicles.

  As seen in the local and top-down screen shots of the FSX rendition: Its terminal representation is wrong, the hangar is missing, surface textures are poor, and terrain covers the runway in two areas like sand dunes blown across it. These weaknesses and flaws are corrected in the OshkoshSim rendition.
  
  

• Surroundings: Terrain on OshkoshSim's Santa Catalina Island is more like real-world photos I found than FSX's rendition. Southern California is mostly grasses with bushes and trees scattered about. This is true in both FSX and OshkoshSim's renditions of the island, but grasses in FSX are brown while grasses in OshkoshSim's Santa Catalina Island are green. The latter is more like the real photos. I didn't see any differences in OshkoshSim's rendition from season to season, but the climate is said to be mild year round, so the lack of seasonal change might be accurate. There are far fewer auto-generated trees in OshkoshSim's rendition than in default FSX.

  Other than the aforementioned texture improvements, the City of Avalon and Avalon Bay are much like the FSX default. OshkoshSim's Avalon seems to have more auto-generated objects, but I found no buildings specific to that resort area other than Catalina Casino (large round building at the mouth of the harbor), which is identical in both scenery renditions.
  
  

• Night Effects: OshkoshSim's night effects are more realistic than FSX's night effects in some regards, but they're aren't the best I've seen.
  
  

My screen shots comparing OshkoshSim's Santa Catalina Island, Catalina Airport, and Avalon Bay were made as follows: I made a series of shots with OshkoshSim's scenery activated. Then I went to precisely the same vantage points with OshkoshSim's scenery deactivated (FSX default). The only shot I changed was the terminal closeup because the buildings are in slightly different locations — the FSX terminal was half off the screen at the point where the OshkoshSim terminal was centered.

SCENERY COMPARISONS Catalina Airport
FSX Default	OshkoshSim
FSX Default	OshkoshSim
Screen shot by Bill Stack

SCENERY COMPARISONS Santa Catalina Island
FSX Default	OshkoshSim
FSX Default	OshkoshSim
Screen shots by Bill Stack

SCENERY COMPARISONS Avalon Bay
FSX Default	OshkoshSim
FSX Default	OshkoshSim
Screen shot by Bill Stack

SCENERY COMPARISONS
Catalina Airport
FSX Default	OshkoshSim
Catalina Airport
Catalina Airport
Avalon Bay
FSX Default	OshkoshSim
Screen shot by Bill Stack

Technical Features

This scenery is for FSX. A Catalina Island scenery by OshkoshSim's predecessor MikeMax for FS2004 is available separately and is not included in this review.

Purchase and installation from the Pilot Shop are very easy. Downloading and installation are quick. Neither acknowledgment of copyright nor license keys are required.

The installation program is available in about 20 languages, including Farsi and Chinese along with the usual English, French, and Spanish.

A three-page manual provides background about the island and its airport as well as features of the scenery. It provides installation instructions and explains how to operate the pilot-controlled runway lights.

System requirements are not disclosed, but a typical home computer and FSX setup should be able to handle this scenery.

After installation, the scenery must be activated in FSX, which is easy, and clear instructions are provided.

Frame rates are good, ranging in the 20s and higher as I flew around the airport and island.

Without an uninstall program, removing the product (if desired) must be done through the Windows Add/Remove Programs system.

Technical support is available through an email address available on the Pilot Shop page describing the product. Response was quick and to the point, which bodes well for users needing assistance.

Readers with technical questions not answered in this review should ask the developer. Using the links below, go to the Pilot Shop page where the product is listed and described, then click on "Manufacturer Tech Support" in the right column.

PURCHASE FEATURES
Instant download from the Pilot Shop	Yes
Installation program	Yes
License key required	No
Copyright acknowledgment required	No
Manual included	Yes
Uninstall program included	No

More Information

• Air Nav
  
  
• Wikipedia
  
  
• Sky Vector
  
  

OshkoshSim produces scenery for Microsoft Flight Simulator. The name "MikeMax" also appears in association with the product. In response to my question, the developer said: "MikeMax Aviation has been formed in 2008, but due to certain changes in the team it was renamed to OshkoshSim, which is the team that developed all OshkoshSim branded products. The team currently consists of two people, plus occasional third party developers."

The developer said this scenery was chosen for developement because: "All of our airports since 2008 were small general aviation airports, designed for people that fly VFR. And Catalina Airport is a great well known GA airport, so it's a natural choice. We've released the FS2004 version of it in 2009, but for this project it has been reworked from scratch, and also includes phototerrain of Catalina Island."

Other products by these enterprises include Homestead General Aviation Airport, Appleton Outagamie County Airport, and Gunnison Airport.

Wrap Up

The major feature of OshkoshSim's Catalina Island X is realistic textures for the entire Santa Catalina Island, followed by an accurate rendition of Catalina Airport. There isn't much to depict on this island or at its airport, so the basic feature is realism at a remote tourist destination that isn't represented very well in the default scenery. For those simmers who like simulating flight outside large urban areas, huge airports, and busy airspaces, sceneries such as this enhance their simulation experiences.

Bill Stack
billstack@flightsim.com

Learn More About OshkoshSim's Catalina Island X 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