Manchester Airport

By Terblanche Jordaan (3 June 2002)

Clearly in another class. Note the ground textures around the airport and the different taxi and apron color schemes.

ell, another breakthrough! Let me say this up front, I do not think that any other airport has been done with so much detail and for the first time you arrive at an airfield and you have the 'feeling' that this is "as real as it gets". I use the word 'feeling' because I know that there are some brilliant scenery designers out there, and although I am in awe with some of the work like the German Airport (GAP) series for example, you fly into an airfield and from a few miles out you think "whao!" and even closer you believe for a moment "this is how it looks" and on the ground there are moments of "sjoe, this is ..." but I've never flew in a flightsim and had a 'feeling' of pure sensational joy that the ground textures, the approach lighting and all and all mood of the airport is so REAL that you could smell the smoke from the distant factories.

The first airport I bought from Gary Summons was Gatwick and I was very impressed, so much so that when he released Heathrow, I bought it without blinking an eye. Unfortunately my computer then could not handle the frame rate monster and I had to upgrade, which gave my credit card such I beating that I could not afford Gary's other UK scenery and with our currency that depreciated more than 50% to the pound, I could only drool for more.

No, it's not a photograph, it's the scenery!
Well, I wrote to Gary and asked him if I could do a review on his scenery in exchange for a wonderful airport and he agreed in such a gentleman's fashion that I just realized again how kind pilots are. (Thank you Gary!)

The download went quickly and before you could say PSS Airbus Pro the file was installed and ready for its maiden flight. I have a personal rule on my computer--I do not 'jump' to an airport, if I want to be somewhere, I fly there and especially with new scenery I never start at the new scenery, I always fly there because it gives you that 'feeling' I was talking about earlier when you arrive at an airport. Luckily my previous flight ended at Luton (EGGW) of which I also have the Gary Summons version and I filed a flight plan with SquawkBox to fly with my brand new Piper Archer (DreamFleet) from Luton to Manchester (the flight plan is available here). The Heathrow controllers cleared my flight plan and off I went in a staggering 90 miles an hour. As I was getting closer I could not believe my eyes...

About The Scenery

Short final for runway 06L.

It is breathtakingly real, even the railroad is visible. It blends in wonderfully with Ruud Faber's ground textures and if you follow the advice Gary gives on add-on mesh for the UK, there will be no problem. As Gary puts it himself in the manual: "This scenery is very complex, but it is programmed in a resourceful way. So compared to other products this scenery is very good on frame rates. But please don't set your FS2002 at maximum settings and expect to get a smooth ride. Most of the frame rate problems have nothing to do with the add-on scenery. The 55 static aircraft are 6 times more efficient in frame rates than the FS2002 AI aircraft. The AI aircraft are FULL models and as such if you're looking at more than 6 of them the frame will drop a lot. I can assure you the biggest hit of frame rates is the AI and Autogen system in FS2002."

On short final for runway 06 I noticed that the runway looks different from anything else I've seen. It has the usual British runway markings that Gary uses in all his scenery but it (sorry I have to use the word again) feels real. You could notice the very detailed holding points with timed holds (wig wags) and the perimeter fencing and trees. I noticed an aircraft holding for take-off completely off the taxi way and I realized he must be flying with the default FS2002 scenery and if he only knew what he was missing!

As mentioned before, it will install FS2002 AI AFD data for Manchester to allow the AI aircraft to taxi and park correctly.

All buildings are accurately modelled and textured; all stands are visible with air gates where applicable. A lot of dynamic objects are there, moving around and helping to bring the airport alive. The stands have aircraft guidance boards and you could see the internal detail of the buildings.

The air gates have multi action and move in six ways including rotating wheels and the tube is now in two sections sliding over each other. It can also be 'ordered' to retract by selecting 117.90 on NAV1 and will also prevent the air gate from swinging back in when you don't want it to do so.

At night the airport is even more impressive! You have center line taxi ways and transparent terminal glass. It is not over lit like a lot of FS2002 add-on scenery and the taxi markers are clearly visible, even from a distance. It felt small with the Archer flanked by all the big jets and I remember once when I was busy with IFR training I had to fly into Johannesburg International and had the same feeling with a Baron sandwiched between all the Boeings and Airbus's taxiing and parked around me.

It's not even worth to have a PRO and CON table because the only negative thing about the scenery is that even with my P4 1.7 MHz with 256 Mb RAM and a 64 Mb Geforce2 - I could not set the scenery density on high or extreme because the frames just fell from the sky. But set on normal and the AI traffic and Autogen disabled it was a comfortable 20 - 25 fps on the ground.

For the guys in the UK this is a MUST HAVE, for anyone else it is a definite SHOULD HAVE and at Ł10 it is worth every penny. A last note for Gary: if I get you in South Africa, will you do Cape Town for us?

Terblanche Jordaan
t.blanche@iafrica.com

Web site: http://www.uk2000scenery.com/

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