German Airports 2 Edition 2000

My Favorite Commercial Scenery to Date

By FlightSim.Com Staff (17 March 2001)

Aerosoft was kind enough to send me a copy of this scenery to review. As I have recently found, all the Aerosoft products come with two thick paper manuals. The first one is a basic instruction manual with installation instructions and many pages dedicated to the history of the airports included. You'll find out all kind of neat facts and places to visit while there. This is a great guide to have with you while operating as a taxiing aircraft. The second book is a great volume of Jeppesen approach plates, standard instrument departures (SID), and arrivals (STAR). There are also the Jepps airport diagrams for each field. Aerosoft went to the trouble to include all the charts there are in real life. So at large airports like Frankfurt/Main, there are many, many pages to get accustomed to. I thought this was great. In a time when everyone gives Adobe Acrobat manuals you can print yourself, we still have an "old fashioned" company that includes something to keep in hand, for the price. I'd rather pay a few more dollars for nicely written or photocopied manuals, then have to print them all out myself and go get a new ink cartridge! Again, the Jepps touch is great!

After the easy installation and a bout of great installation music, FS2000 was fired up. Now, unlike most of you out there, I had to fly to the scenery to be realistic. This took some time to plan. One night I did the trip. Upon waking up early one morning, I took over the arrival into Germany! My frame rates were smooth on descent as expected, but once vectoring onto final, THEY WERE STILL GOOD! Can you imagine that? Wow. And, would you believe I saw rows of forest off the airport boundary? Woods, roads, and terminal buildings coming into view. Not only trees visible, but ones with snow on them! Yikes. Frame rates were solid around 12 to 18 out the cockpit on my PIII850 (Voodoo 5500 - 32 bit 1024x768 mode in FS) in the 767-300 featured in 767 Pilot in Command. This would contrast to maybe 20 to 25 over default German airports, with detail on max. And there was no stuttering. So, I accepted the 12 to 18 fps and found my landing and rollout very, very acceptable. Smooth actually. And my eyeballs were seeing runway distance markers, taxiway turnoff signs, holding markers, light poles, vehicles, jetramps with airliners, and spectacular glass-lined terminals with see-through glass! And I was taxing around the ramp with ease! Frame rates held above 12 on the runways and 9 or 10 the entire time on a crowded ramp, no matter what objects I were bearing down on.

I recently tried another famous airport by another software company, and I could not get above 7 fps anywhere. And you all know the disaster I had last year with Airport 2000. I am no programmer. But, in my mind, the folks at Aerosoft have brilliantly figured out how to optimize their scenery. No detail was left out, yet no where did I find any bad frame rates. Not even at night. Not even at Frankfurt/Main, the largest, so naturally, most detailed airport.

My test flying took me on various legs from Germany to other parts of Europe and back. Often, I would fly a shorter connecting leg from one airport to another one featured in this package. One of my favorite legs was to and from Paderborn. I knew it sounded familiar, but wasn't sure why. Its 7000 foot runway is just long enough for heavy jets, yet offers some challenge. Once creeping in on the parking ramp in my 767, I found myself accompanied by some other smaller twin airliners and an ATR style regional turboprop, unloading passengers. All the action was still, but added a ton of realism. The taxiway lighting and markings made maneuvering easy and very realistic. At night, the airports are a brilliant display of lighting - taxiways, runways and special awareness lighting at hold-short points. At one point I noticed some offices outside the airport ramp. A very nice, modern building with the Aerosoft name on it! Wow! An actual flightsim company with a NICE office! I knew the name meant something. I checked my box just to be sure. Yep, this is where this product came from all right.

I found myself spending a lot of time positioning spot plane views, with the intent of taking many screenshots for this review. What I came up with was enough for a book. I scrapped most, sadly, and saved some for my Windows wallpaper. Every time you fly in and out of one of this airports, you too will have the urge to hit Print Screen one too many times.

   

This was the first scenery product I've tested from Aerosoft. Now, I have just finished exploring two more, plus one for FLY!. All packaged with the same quality, all featuring rich, professionally done airport scenery with little performance hit. I don't know how they did it. Maybe they exercised some control where other designers have not. Maybe they just know how to do it best. This is by far, the best commercial add-on scenery I have ever used. I only wish they did a version containing all the major US hubs. It would be a fantastic replacement scenery. As for now, I'll return to Germany often, me and my 767. I have finally found a scenery worth keeping. Even when it's 2500 miles away from home!

German Airports 2, Edition 2000 gets a 96 out of 100 possible points. Outstanding in every aspect, with detail and realism on every taxiway - without a frame rate headache!

Visit Aerosoft

Read about how to modify your panel's ZOOM views for better realism.

Read the 767 Pilot in Command Review