Malé - Maldives Scenery
By Norman Burton (2 August 2003)
I have a feeling everyone in the western hemisphere is saying, "Where is Malé?" A quick trip to the atlas reveals about a zillion little specks in the Indian Ocean that comprise the Maldives. Like a low wall in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the Maldives are an 820 km chain of huge coral atolls perched atop an undersea mountain range. They extend from north to south off the west coast of India into the southern hemisphere in the central Indian Ocean. The islands have a rich and interesting history, most recently becoming a popular holiday destination for Europeans and Asians looking for sugar white sand and waist deep azure blue water.
Developed by Umberto Colapicchioni, also known for his Honolulu scenery, the focus of this project is the northernmost atoll of Malé. Malé is the capital of the Maldives and home to the 10,500 foot Malé International Airport. Umberto seems to have come up with a rather unusual concept in this package giving flight simmers a new "waterworld" vacation spot. Each Maldivian atoll is its own little city with countless tiny islands as city blocks and the calm waters of the atoll as their city streets. This is a place where you only get around in an airplane or a boat.
I first set foot on the scenery at the southernmost island, home to the Malé International Airport. The airport consists of one huge 2-mile long runway, simple taxiways, warehouses, parking lots, the tower and a festively painted terminal. What makes this island different is that it serves as a transportation hub with facilities for amphibian planes to land and dock on the east side and the shipping docks on the west side. If you are interested in any other services, you'll have to find another island because all the real estate on this island is in use.
There is nothing ground breaking about this airport's scenery apart from Umberto's use of satellite imagery to model all of the structures precisely as they exist. His airport scenery gives you the convincing feeling of actually being there and that's all I care about.
Taking off from runway 36, the island next-door is an uninspired autogen city much like a default FS2002 city. I wondered at that point if I had been ripped off, which would be hard to do at €14.99 ($16.98 US). Continuing on a heading of 35° it's just a few seconds before the first of several resort islands is revealed.
To his credit, Umberto puts some great detail into to the structures on his island scenery such as furniture in the thatched roof villas, air-conditioning units attached to the buildings, signs and advertisements, umbrellas and beach furniture, tennis courts and swimming pools so real you can feel the water. Umberto Colapicchioni seems to have mastered tropical ambiance. The impression you get is that he has surely visited the islands as he paints a certain familiarity in to the scenery that would seem first hand. The first thing you notice are the beautiful white beaches and azure water with waves lapping up the shorelines. A glance overhead and you will see something new, palm trees waving in the breeze! At that point I was reaching for my suntan lotion.
Lago's Malé - Maldives Scenery does something I wish Chris Wilkes' would do for his "Islands of the West Indies" scenery, emphasize the resort nature of the islands. Please don't get me wrong, Chris Wilkes' Islands of the West Indies should be the first purchase of anyone fond of island flying, but Chris doesn't care as much about beaches and hotels as he does about airports.
What makes this package unique is its appeal to two different types of pilots. For the pilots flying heavies over the Pacific, this is a nicely detailed destination airport with an excellent approach lighting system. For us island hoppers, Umberto may have stumbled onto a market he didn't know existed. There are 25 scenery-enhanced islands in a 31 nm by 22 nm area with a plethora of docking facilities in fine detail. This sounds impressive at first until you realize that these islands vary from 1 to 1.5 football fields in size. Given that your only help getting around are the two navaids at Malé Int'l it can be tough finding your destination island.
I could find only two shortcomings in this package: First, the island scenery will not generate until you are about a quarter of a mile away. This means you have to know in advance where you want to land because you won't see it until the last minute. Lago's website mentioned an upcoming patch for this (Note: version 1.10 was just released with a number of fixes). The other fault concerns Umberto's limited library of resort objects, which makes all the resorts look fairly similar to each other. I got over this quickly.
Lago's Malé - Maldives Scenery is not for everyone as there is very little to challenge anyone interested in prolonged flight or navigation problems. Outside of the one runway, you will need a helicopter or an aircraft that floats to move around this virtual world. Lago includes one ultralight on floats from their "Ultralights" package, not only to promote their product, but also for the simple reason that it is an excellent choice to fly in the scenery. Lago has bundled this product with their De Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter package, presumably for the float and amphibious versions of the "Twotter" and at price of €24.99 ($28.30 US) it's good value.
I like my FS scenery to take me off on mini vacations and Umberto's scenery does that. I was especially impressed by his waving palm trees, an effect we are told to expect more of in FS2004. As a package Lago priced it exactly right, it's not something you can fly day after day because it's just too small, but when you're in the mood for a little tropical scenery it gets the job done nicely. I hope Umberto's next project will be French Polynesia.
Norman Burton
For more details go to:
cybnorm@hotmail.com
Lago's web site
