London Gatwick Scenery
By Aman Kumar (13 September 2000)
INTRODUCTION
I only took an interest in installing sceneries quite recently, and Gary Summons' FS98/FS2000 scenery for London Gatwick was one of my first. It still remains my favorite.
INSTALLATION
The installation is pretty standard, the same sub-folders…excluding…flattening… Add it from the Scenery Library, and presto zesto! You're ready to go.WOW!
My first impression was WOW! It is amazing! Moving gates, trees, night-lit
aprons…whew!
I gave it a run-through by planning a short Jersey - Gatwick flight, for my virtual airline, The Jersey Group of Airlines. (http://members.tripod.co.uk/jeurolink) On short final, the detail sprung out. I could make out each and every gate that Gary has worked on so laboriously. The first thing I noticed on approach were the trees--more realistic than most other macros. I touched down, and, taxiing in at a steady 5 knots, all I could do was gape. Thick, yellow centerlines on the taxiways guided me to one of 175 gates (at least the numbers said so!) Again, the detail is exquisite. Each and every gate is numbered correctly, and have those flashing sign thingies, giving your distance, and telling you when to stop. I halted at Gate 32, I believe, and took a screen shot of the passenger jetway having moved over and clamped on the door. A ‘Welcome to Gatwick’ sign made the offering all the more realistic.
For another test, I made a long-haul Sydney-Gatwick flight in Melvin
Rafi's
Qantas Formula 1 747. It was daytime by the time I got there. I
flew by the aprons once, (changing the time to night), and then touched
down on rwy 26L (in the daytime again). I then taxied around to a few
gates, admiring the truck macros and the signs pointing out the Gate and
runway numbers.
FLAWS
The only flaws I found in this masterpiece were the absence of dynamic or static scenery (static scenery can be downloaded separately), and the barriers on the runways saying ‘Shareware, Please Register and Pay’, though that isn’t Gary’s fault at all. I was the one who hadn’t registered!
CONCLUSION
This is scenery NOT TO BE MISSED! Though you have to pay a pretty penny to get rid of the barriers (through which you can fly, anyway), it is well worth just slewing around from gate to gate, tree to tree, truck to truck…I only regret that I cannot really fly aroung the real-world Gatwick as a pilot, being only 11 years old! I award this scenery a 98 out of a maximum of 100, due to the absence of any static or dynamic aircraft.Aman Kumar
amankumar100@hotmail.com
Download
Gary Summons’ scenery for London Gatwick.