Birmingham Airport Scenery

By Jim Martin (25 June 2002)

The download was very easy, and the set of instructions provided by John is easy to understand. Unzip the Birmingham 2002 Package to your Scenery Add-On Folder, add to your Flight Simulator using the Library Function, and then modify the Scenery Configuration file and you're finished. I must admit that I have added and deleted so many sceneries that I have become an old pro at this. Literally, within five minutes I was taxiing around this airport in awe.

The main terminal is very well represented. I think it strikes a good balance between good detail and not having too much to slow the frames rate down. Several different airline liveries and aircraft types are represented. Also what makes the main terminal nice is the transparent glass you see in some areas. The curbside of the terminal is also nicely represented, once again offering a "balance". The air traffic control tower also has transparent glass with some nice detail.

What I consider a nice little feature is the general aviation terminal. This is a beautifully represented art deco structure comes complete with a clock. The fuel storage tanks are nicely represented too. John has even included the fire station complete with fire trucks. The taxiways have accurate markings.

No scenery add-on is perfect and there are always things that can be improved. Here, the night lighting is a small disappointment. The buildings have night lighting and large overhead lights visible during the day, but at night there is no light coming from the overhead lights. The aircraft at night are totally dark. The taxiways appear to have sufficient lighting and are very usable at night. I would like to see more vehicles servicing the aircraft such as catering trucks, push back vehicles and baggage carts. However, when adding vehicles the frame rate slows, so John might have struck the right balance.

John has been involved with Flight Simulator for several years but really got serious in 1999 when he received FS2000 as a Christmas present from his wife. John found Airport 2.10 and started working on the Birmingham Airport. When Airport 2.6 was released he started using it to design airports. He told me that the first version of the Birmingham Airport was rough. Then John took his camera and started taking pictures, shooting over 180 pictures of the Birmingham Airport. He then purchased FSDS to create a more detailed and accurate environment for his airports. John has created two other airports for FS2002 that are as equally spectacular, Cardiff (EGFF) and Hawarden (EGNR). For users of FS2000 John has created six great airports: Birmingham, Cardiff, Hawarden, East Midlands (EGNX), Coventry (EGBE), and Cairns (YBCS).

I am using a 650 MHz Pentium III computer, 512 kb SDRam memory, and a Get Force 3 Video Card with 64 mb DDR Memory. I get a very respectable frames rate of around 10-15 fps in the terminal area with little if any hesitations. On the taxiways and runways I get between 14-24 fps during the taxiing, take off, and landing phases. With the new AMD XP and Pentium IV chips out there this package should be even greater.

John has totally created all the buildings himself, and this really shows. The roof structure of the main terminal is very unique and must have taken quite a while to design. So many of the freeware packages out there offer a lot of generic buildings. The time invested by John in creating these buildings must have been considerable, but the pay off is a great airport. The taxiways are well marked, and the gates offer taxi lines with excellent jet ways. John is now on his eighth FS project and his dedication really shows in this airport.

There are two words to describe this package, "balance" and "dedication". From a rough airport to a masterpiece is a statement of what the word dedication means. This is one airport that I enjoy flying into with my Vickers, BAC and RJ185 Aircraft. I think this is a file well worth the time involved in downloading, installing and tweaking of your FS2002 video settings. On a basis of ten points I give this package a solid nine. I am looking forward to future releases and more airports for my FS2002 from John.

I hope all of you have enjoyed this review and I thank you for taking the time to read it. After seeing this package and reading the email from John about his experience in FS Scenery Design, my long contemplated decision is over, I have decided to take the next step and start designing airports. As a Professional Conference Planner I would love to know if there are any Scenery Design Seminars offered at the various meetings regarding Flight Simulator. Please email any information you have about this. If no seminars are offered and you too are interested in attending one, feel free to email me. Maybe with some collective effort we can pull off one if a FS Scenery Design Seminar isn't being offered. Finally, let this Scenery Freak know about any of your favorite scenery add-ons.

Jim Martin
jhuntermartin@SoftHome.net

Download John Walker's Birmingham scenery.

Download other scenery by John Walker.