German Airports 1 2 3

By Andrew Herd (8 February 2002)

frequently receive emails asking for information on "the best" add-ons for Flight Simulator - so, having a bit of time on my hands for once, I thought I might showcase my favorite packages. While I can't promise to make this any more than an occasional series, my aim will be to feature software that has survived the test of time and stayed on my system.

I sometimes find it a little odd in retrospect, but it is hard to judge whether a package is going to be a classic on first aquaintance. You probably have the same experience - you install stuff on your system, flog it to death for a week and then realise you haven't used it for months. The add-ons with staying power usually bring themselves to my attention when Flight Simulator itself is upgraded and I catch myself missing one of my favorites - as I currently am with the Wilco's PIC 767 and Lago's Italy, neither of which have yet been patched to work with FS2002. So, the gauntlet duly flung down before Wilco and Lago, what better way to start the series than with a review of Aerosoft's German Airports packages?

I first came across the series with the debut of German Airports 1 for FS98. The original release included Franz-Josef Strauß airport in Munich, Nuremberg, Dresden, Bayreuth, Egelsbach (Europe's busiest GA-airport), Augsburg, Stuttgart, and Friedrichshafen on the Bodensee. Aerosoft subsequently upgraded the package to FS2000 standard, playing slightly fast and loose with the title to include Innsbruck in Austria and Altenrhein in Switzerland, though none of us were complaining. Even at the time it was clear that something special was happening, because the sceneries from this small start-up were right up there with the best their most experienced competitors could manage.

German Airports 2 followed in short order, introducing Rhein/Main airport at Frankfurt, Cologne/Bonn, Dortmund, Paderborn/Lippstadt, Munster/Osnabruck, Kassel, Hannover and Leipzig; which meant that a user who purchased both packages had access to an impressive collection of detailed international airports, leavened with a selection of feeder hubs and GA fields.

When German Airports 3 came, it was an FS2000 product with backwards FS98 compatibility and it delivered detailed versions of Berlin-Tegel, Dusseldorf, Bremen, Hamburg, Luebek, Erfurt, Moenchengladbach and Kiel for Flight Simulator. For a long time Kiel was my favorite, because its overwater approach gave me time to watch the boats sailing in the bay, but the attention to detail which Aerosoft put into the design meant that all the airports were worth visiting. GA3 brought static aircraft with night lighting effects and automatically changing liveries which meant that you rarely saw the same collection of planes on the pan twice, but there were also runways with skid marks, functioning Safegates and all kinds of goodies which together set a standard which many rival products struggled to match. Throughout the series Aerosoft's textures have been one of their strongest points and you have to look pretty hard to find the kind of let-downs which are routine in other packages, like support vehicles and vegetation "photographed" onto terminal walls (yeeeeccccch!). Not only that, but it was actually possible to install the scenery onto PCs I could afford and run it without getting the slide show effect we all knew and loved so well in FS2000.

One of the highlights of the airports was and is the dynamic service vehicles and apron cars. Drop into spot plane view at virtually anywhere in the collection and there are hours to be wasted watching things come and go. Nurnberg is one of my favorites - the service buses run backwards and forwards under the air gates as if their simulated existences depend upon it. I can almost smell those delicious airline meals packed up inside of those trucks, waiting for the final assault by microwave before they are served up to captive passengers. When you add the "follow me" cars that guide you to selected gates at some of the airports, these sceneries definitely add a new dimension to Flight Simulator, making static airports come alive.

One of Aerosoft's marketing slogans used to be "a new dimension of realism and complexity" and while I raised an eyebrow at it at the time, in the long run, I think they can justifiably stand by it. Certainly, if you take a look at the volume of documentation included with the packages, they are up there with the market leaders in terms of presentation. The boxed GA2 for example, comes with manuals in English and German covering installation, background detail on the airports and nearly a hundred approach plates. In this respect Aerosoft have stood out against the long-term trend towards air-filled boxes containing a lonely CD and a lot of air; I just wonder if they can afford to keep it up in what has become a very competitive market.

A lot of attention has gone into making these packages a positive experience. Installation of the CD versions is extremely straight forward and even the most inexperienced users should have few problems coping with it - once the installation is done, the sceneries are "active" within Flight Simulator and there is no need to do any modifications to config files. Recently, Aerosoft have made downloadable "singles" versions of the software available for simmers with special interests or limited budgets, and while these lack the lush documentation of the shrink wrapped product, they are definitely worth a look if you want to minimise your outlay or try out selected airports first.

For simmers who are used to the default airports, or run of the mill freeware sceneries, the German Airports series will be a revelation. The packages include a full range of seasonal textures and they are absolutely littered with custom objects, ranging from "transparent" airbridges and lounge windows, to hangars that bear realistic logos of the companies that own them. This reflects the time and energy devoted to the project by the developers, who went out and photographed every detail of the airports you see here, right down to the type of floodlighting in use. Alert users will spot that there are no ground shadows cast by the scenery, but this is only because I forgot to turn the option on for the screen shots!

Taxi around and you will see jet blast barriers with freight, igloos and carts hidden away behind them; hangars with doors that open when you approach to reveal detailed interiors; baggage carts, transfer buses, minibuses, rotating radar, working windsocks, fire stations, car parks, office blocks... believe me, the detail is endless. Years ago I tried sneaking around the back of a couple of the larger airports into the freight areas just to see if I could catch Aerosoft out and it still makes me grin to think of it - take a trip over the bridge at Berlin-Tegel and take a look. Naturally, all the buildings are night-lit and the bigger airports look pretty spectacular on approach after the sun has set. The vast majority of the taxiways have centerline lights, as do the lead-ins to the gates, so you won't get lost as long as you have an airport ground plan to hand.

Problems? Aerosoft issued a patch to upgrade all the sceneries to FS2002 standard very quickly after the release of the new version of Flight Simulator, and they are to be commended for it, but one or two things still need attention. Some "flashing" textures remain at some of the airports, possibly the result of elevation changes between different versions of Flight Simulator, but on the whole these aren't obvious and don't detract from the overall quality of the packages. At some of the airports there are problems with progressive taxi and ATC, but this is because Aerosoft have put the runways and taxiways where they actually should be, as opposed to where Microsoft saw fit to put them. This is a problem to which all third-party sceneries are vulnerable and once again (all together now) - it won't be possible to fix it until the SDKs are released.

The lights on the service vehicles and static aircraft don't seem to have been upgraded to FS2002 standard, which means they are too large and too bright - but then how many airport sceneries do you see which not only have animated service vehicles, but have them light up at night too? Finally, some of the airports still have old-fashioned "billboard" perimeter hedges, which just don't look right in FS2002. It is time such things were pensioned off.

The detail of the airports does vary a little: the smaller ones have clearly had less time invested in them than the international hubs; and there is a noticeable "design gradient" between the GA1 airports and their GA3 counterparts, with the latter offering the best and most innovative sceneries overall. Despite this, there is no doubt that these are some of the best aiports ever released for Flight Simulator, and I am delighted that Aerosoft have upgraded them so that they work as well as they do in FS2002. If I was allowed to make a couple of requests, besides a further patch to fix the few remaining compatibility issues in 2002, it would be good to see some VFR scenery to link the airports; and as with Gary Summons' UK 2000 scenery, I can't wait to see what the airports will be like when FS2002 compatible AI aircraft are added, but then maybe I ought to be content with what I have got!