FREEflow Florida

By Victor Knight (15 September 2005)

Unlikely as it was at the time, I did indeed eventually become a resident of the Sunshine State. I have lived in Florida now for over forty years. Who wouldn’t want to live close to a sandy beach relaxing as scantily-clad females drop grapes into your mouth, delivering ice-cold margaritas on demand? Well, let’s just say I got to play with the kids on the beach a few times, and cast a fishing line on occasion!

When I reviewed the Florida Landclass Scenery by Joe Watson and Bob Brown back in 2002, I was thrilled that my home state was no longer a featureless blob, but enhanced with much improved land class to make it appear more realistic. Florida is much bigger than many believe. There is the hustle and bustle of the Miami metropolitan area, the vast Everglades, the silky beaches of Tampa Bay, the endless orange groves and the never-ending panhandle. Add to this the unique and wonderful Florida Keys, The Space Coast launch sites, plus the home of Mickey Mouse and it becomes obvious there is a lot of diversity here.

       

When Joe and Bob advised me to dump it all, as they and the Florida FREEflow team had produced a program that would completely transform Florida into the most realistic flight simulator scenery of the region ever produced I was a little skeptical. It sounded a little optimistic, but I was eager to try it. The download is around 11 MB, which after using the self installer expands to some 40MB, but does it transform the State of Florida?

We all have our pet peeves in Flight Simulator I suppose. Back in the days of FS2000 the first thing I looked for was the Sunshine State Skyway Bridge across Tampa Bay, but t did not exist in the default scenery. With the advent of FS2002, I again looked for “My Bridge” and voila! There it was! Outstanding! Naturally, in FS2004 I assumed it would have been improved, only to discover that it had once again vanished - along with a lot of others. For some reason we now had a messy collection of broken bridges all over the place. A patch put some of these right, but my “Skyway” was still missing. With FREEflow Florida it was the first thing I looked for, and sure enough it appeared magnificently. With USA Roads installed it was obvious, too, that it was in exactly the right place. The FREEflow Florida scenery is magnificent. In Tampa bay I also found a wonderful St. Petersburg Pier, the Vinoy hotel and much more. It was then I realized this scenery was serious. So what about other parts of the state? In a nutshell, it is all there. Amazingly so.

       

Everything is in the right place, and you will spend many hours enjoying it all. Flying around, I crossed the Everglades, a fifty mile wide “River of Grass” that flows 100 feet per day from Lake Okechobee to the Gulf of Mexico. And it looks like the Everglades, too, right down to a slew of AI airboats crossing the airboat trails.

On the east coast, visit Ft. Lauderdale and look for the Queen Mary 2, complete with swimming pool and deck chairs as she makes regular departures. A little farther south, one encounters a very realistic Miami area complete with cruise ships, including the highly detailed Vollendam with its rotating radar antenna. These ships too, make hourly departures.

The area covered by this scenery, stretches from New Orleans, Louisiana, in the west, to east of Jacksonville, Florida. All of the water and coastlines have been reworked, and it is interesting to note the sandy silt extending from the rivers into the Gulf of Mexico. This stretch of the Gulf Coast is populated with several freighters which also make regular trips. There are some 21 accurately located oil drilling platforms in the Gulf with helicopter landing pads. One may also add a collection of shrimp boats!

       

Members of the FREEflow Florida site are constantly upgrading the scenery and much has been added to the interstates and bridges. There are some great bonus features: In the Mobile, Alabama, area much has been added, right down to the battleship USS Alabama and its companion submarine, USS Drum. Further exploration will reveal a neat Space Coast complete with shuttle launch pads, the navy yards at Mayport, near Jacksonville complete with the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis, accurate down to aircraft and ground crews on the deck.

There’s not too much at Disney World as yet, although the Epcot globe, Cinderella's Castle, and Space Mountain are there. Future updates are promised that will add the theme park’s main attractions to the scenery.

Bearing in mind that this scenery is not photographic, you will not be able to pick out your house for example, it really brings the State of Florida to life in a most realistic manner. The designers of this scenery have done a magnificent job. The interstates are very realistic featuring ramps, fly overs, whizz-unders, guard rails, lamposts and more. Endless hours were spent by the developers removing all the unwanted bits of broken bridges, and every effort made to make the flight experience realistic. Compare the somewhat muddy waters of the northern Gulf Coast with the sparkling waters of the Florida Keys. Note the superb accuracy such as at the Skyway in Tampa Bay, how the old bridge approaches have been retained as accurate fishing piers, how the Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys also retains an older section, now a fishing pier. Even the Dry Tortugas National Park and its fort is featured some 75 miles west of Key West. This landmark is a bit hard to find, its rough coordinates: N 24.38.02 and W 82.52.22.

       

I do not have the personal ability to give this scenery any kind of an award. Which is a pity, for I should be inclined to give it everything including the kitchen sink, it’s that good. However, the folk who really matter, flightsim enthusiasts, have voted this scenery a much-deserved Developer’s Award. Thanks to everyone involved for producing a stunning rendition of Florida, so accurate I was even tempted to go looking for hanging chads.

Victor Knight
VictorKnight@msn.com

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