Real Sandspit For FSX By SceneryPro

By Bill Stack
31 January 2010

Screen shots by SceneryPro

Sandspit is the largest community on Moresby Island, which is in the Queen Charlotte Islands, which are off the Pacific coast of British Columbia, Canada. This unincorporated community had a population of 538 persons as of the 2001 census. The area is popular for tourists seeking nature, hiking, camping, boating, and fishing. It is serviced by Sandspit Airport (CYZP) with commercial flights to Vancouver and miscellaneous general aviation operations.

Sandspit Airport's single runway, 12/30, is 5,120 feet (1,561 meters) long, which is sufficient for small jets and turboprop aircraft. This uncontrolled airport had 6,288 aircraft movements during 2008 according to Wikipedia. "Every year over 40,000 passengers travel through Sandspit Airport, and close to 14,000 aircraft take off or land annually," according to BritishColumbia.Com. There is a VORTAC at the field and an NDB nearby. Runway 12 has a complete ILS, and published approaches using VOR, DME, and NDB are also available. The Jeppesen airport diagram cautions about "extensive bird activity year round."

SceneryPRO Software has enhanced the scenery of this airport and surrounding area "to capture Sandspit's timeless beauty and peaceful serenity," according to its product description. The terminal building, animated birds in flight, and orcas splashing about off the coastline are featured. Masset Municipal Airport (CZMT), which is 47 nautical miles to the north, is included with this package as an extra. Their scenery is called "Real Sandspit" to emphasize "just how real and accurate the scenery is to the real world Sandspit airport."

Jim Tunstall, Project Manager, describes SceneryPRO Software as "a new FS scenery development company based in the USA and focusing on FS9 and FSX scenery. We recently purchased a few project from other developers and have either completed or re-developed the products under our brand." He promises that more sceneries are on the way.

Two versions of Real Sandspit are offered: one for FSX and one for FS2004. I reviewed the FSX version.

Sandspit Location
Screen shots by Bill Stack

PURCHASE FEATURES
Instant download from the Pilot Shop	YES
Installation program	YES
License key required	YES
Copyright Acknowledgment Required	YES
Uninstall program included	NO
Manual included	YES
Instructions included	YES

Visual Features

This Real Sandspit scenery is based on a recent trip to the real world airport about 9 months ago, SceneryPRO explained. "We used nearly 600 photos taken from that trip along with satellite imagery to create the most realistic interpretation of the Sandspit area to date."

Verifying the accuracy of this scenery is very difficult because few pictures of it are available on the Internet. Satellite photos show a runway on a sand spit — literally. The satellite photos show some flora in the area, but I can't tell whether they are trees, sand grasses, scrub, or what.

• The airport is laid out much as shown on a Jeppesen SimChart airport diagram, but that chart doesn't show much, either.
  
  
• Airport objects are more plentiful and seem more realistic than the very basic FSX depictions. There are hangars, fuel tanks, automobiles, tour buses, static aircraft, and animated aircraft. The terminal looks just like a photo I found.
  
  
• Airport markings and signs are different between the two versions. The SceneryPRO scenery shows them farther back from the runways than FSX shows or than is common at most airports. They said their depictions are correct because they are based on their own photos taken about nine months ago.
  
  
• Night effects are acceptable within the simulator's limits. Neither FSX nor FS2004 depicts objects realistically at night. Many buildings look like plastic boxes illuminated from within, but scenery developers must work with the effects available to them, and flight simmers must accept those conditions. I have seen worse than these.
  
  
• The village houses and the tourist facilities add a sense that we're in a real area with real people even though the area is very remote. The marine life add good realism when aircraft are taxiing about or using the airport's airspace for circuits. They are excellent for float planes because pilots must stay clear of them. The flocking gulls and soaring eagles are an appropriate feature because pilots are warned about them on real-world charts and they certainly present realistic obstacles in this rendition.
  
  
• The terminal is rendered inside as well as outside. I looked inside because I read a user's comment complaining that there was nothing in there, yet there actually is something in there. A fireplace, furniture, and pictures on the walls are visible from outside through the large windows. Users can taxi or slew inside for a closer look, but that obviously isn't realistic.
  
  
• The same AI Learjet and Dash 8 are present in both the SceneryPro and FSX versions of this scenery. SceneryPRO doesn't explicitly claim its own AI aircaft in its product descriptions, but it shows AI aircraft in its screen shots. In response to my question, they said the Jazz Dash 8 is theirs.
  
  
• There is no chain-link fence around the airport in SceneryPRO's rendition, but there is one in FSX default. SceneryPRO says there is no perimeter fence in real life, so there is none in their scenery either.
  
  

"I can assure you that Real Sandspit is a very close representation on the real place," Mr. Tunstall said. Because they have been there and I have not, I must trust what they say about their renditions.

SceneryPro	FSX
SceneryPro	FSX
SceneryPro	FSX
SceneryPro	FSX
SceneryPro	FSX
Comparisons of Sandspit Airport
Screen shots by Bill Stack

SceneryPro	FSX
SceneryPro	FSX
SceneryPro	FSX
Comparisons of Masset Airport
Screen shots by Bill Stack

Technical Features

The installation program defaults to deposit scenery files into a subfolder to the basic FSX files folder. Although this is more useful than depositing them into a catch-all "Addon Scenery" folder where innumerable other scenery files might be stored, the files would be better installed subordinate to "Addon Scenery" than to "FSX." Users may chose to install them into different folders, and I chose to install them within the Add-on Scenery folder. Users must activate the scenery themselves, which is easy to do and is clearly explained in the instructions.

Frame rates are good. They were in the teens and twenties while I was using the airport, and they rose to the thirties and sometimes forties while I was flying around the airport. The display never sputtered or jerked while I was near any of the scenery objects.

No special display settings are recommended in the instructions. All scenery objects that appear in the developer's screen shots appeared in my system under default FSX settings.

FSX Acceleration is not needed for seeing all objects. This add-on software for developers and users includes scenery objects that cannot be seen without it. But that isn't a problem with this scenery.

Airport Welcome Sign	B & B Signs
Car Parking Lot	Terminal Interior
Splashing Orca (animated)	Soaring Eagle (animated)
Object Details
Screen shots by Bill Stack

The Manual

A two-page "read me" file in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) is deposited by the installation program into the Real Sandspit folder. It provides easy-to-follow installation instructions and a legal statement about license agreement, copyright, credits, and disclaimers.

Manual Cover

Screen shots by Bill Stack

Nice Features

Inclusion of Massett Airport (CZMT) is a nice bonus. Forty-seven nautical miles north of Sandspit Airport, it was a military base during the Cold War where communications in the former Soviet Union were monitored. Nowadays it's a municipal airport with charter flights around the islands and to mainland British Columbia. The accuracy of SceneryPro's depiction is impossible for me to determine because I found no photos of it on the Internet and satellite photos are too blurry to be of any use. The Jeppesen SimCharts airport diagram shows a 5,000-foot runway with a small service area at the south end but not much else.

Day & Night Scenes
Screen shots by Bill Stack

More Information

Information about Sandspit and Masset can be found on Wikipedia. BritishColumbia.Com also has good information about the area.

Good satellite photos are available from Google Maps and Bing.

Screen Shots

My comparative screen shots were made with FSX display settings on default because no special settings were recommended. While SceneryPro's scenery was active, I slewed to a good vantage point and snapped a shot, then I moved to another vantage point and/or airport and snapped another shot. After all the SceneryPro shots were made, I deactivated the scenery and slewed to the exact vantage points and reshot the views with FSX default scenery. As a result, all screen shots are from the same viewpoints.

Summary

This is a nicely done scenery of two unique and remote airports in a beautiful and rugged part of Canada. The inclusion of features outside the airport grounds gives a human feel to an area with few people. Reflection of tourist attractions gives the scenery an appropriate ambiance. The abundant wildlife definitely make the airport more realistic than default FSX. Any aircraft using this airport for any reason will have to contend with birds flying about, which is supported by notes on real airport charts. I was unable to verify the accuracy of the airport depictions, but I found no reasons to doubt them either. SceneryPRO's personally visiting the airports and using hundreds of photographs they shot are good enough for me.

Bill Stack

Learn More About SceneryPro's Sandspit Scenery

More Reviews By Bill Stack:

Dublin Ireland Airport For FS2004 By Eiresim
C-5M Super Galaxy For FS2004 And FSX By Area 51
WSSimulation Piper PA-44 Seminole
Hawkeye Sim Midway Islands
CFB Cold Lake X From Team SDB

---

Bill Stack is author of several books about flight simulation, a regular author in flight-sim magazines, and a contributor to Flight Sim Com. His website is www.topskills.com

[ Back | Home | Main Menu | Logout ]

Copyright © 1996 - 2012 by FlightSim.Com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.