Screen shots by xScena

Fernando De Noronha is a group of islands in the South Atlantic Ocean 190 nautical miles (354 kilometers) east of Brazil and about 3 degrees south of the Equator. The main island is about 7 square miles (18 square kilometers) in area and has a population of just over 3,000 people as of 2010. The other islands are much smaller and uninhabited. Some are simply stone outcrops rising above sea level. Visitors, most of whom are tourists, arrive by private and public aircraft and boats.

The islands were discovered by Europeans in the early 1500s. Over the following centuries, they were occupied by Portugese, English, French, Dutch, Spanish, and United States governments. They have been used over these centuries as a fortress, a prison, a maritime waypoint, later an aviation waypoint, and a military base. Their primary economic activity today is tourism.

The main island was forested until the 1800s when it was cleared to prevent prisoners from building rafts. It is now covered by shrubs with some areas of recently planted forest.

xScena points out these features of its scenery:

• "Visual rich" Fernando de Noronha Airport (SBFN)
• Photo-real Fernando de Noronha archipelago
• Manually placed Autogen
• Custom realistic landmarks and historical buildings

xScena says its scenery "brings the best of VFR flying, to watch sailers, fish boats and a rich fauna, and a fun and challenging approach."

LOCATION MAPS

The Scenery

The largest island is enhanced considerably with airport, roads, structures, and vegetation. Other islands are enhanced with realistic vegetation even though they are uninhabited. Comparisons between xScena and FSX clearly show how much more detailed and realistic xScena's rendition of these islands is. Terrain, flora, beaches, structures, colors, and waters on and around the islands are true to the real-world photos. Indeed, the standardized forest rendition of these islands by FSX is quite unrealistic.

My comparative screen shots were made from the same locations, altitudes, and headings. Any apparent differences in positions result from differences between the sceneries, which is not uncommon.

SCENERY COMPARISONS The Island
xScena	FSX Default

The Airport

Fernando De Noronha Airport (SBFN) is the only commercial airport serving these islands. It was begun in 1934, expanded as a United States military base during World War II, converted to a commercial airport thereafter, and expanded again in the 1970s. The current passenger terminal opened in 1999. Its single runway (12/30) is 6,053 feet (1,845 meters) long. Two commercial airlines serve the airport regularly: Gol Transportes Aéreos and TRIP Linhas Aéreas, both of which are based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The runway approaches are challenging because of high peaks to either side.

xScena's rendition of this airport is realistic compared with the real-world photos I found. The airport's layout, pavements, markings, signs, structures, and other features are all true to the photos. Moreover, the high terrain around the airport (missing from the FSX rendition) makes using the airport as challenging as in real life. Pilots can't stray too far from the runway centerline without risking a crash into the hills and cliffs.

SCENERY COMPARISONS The Airport
xScena	FSX Default
Screen shot by Bill Stack

Night Effects

Night effects are much better than FSX default effects with artificial light cast realistically on buildings, vehicles, and surfaces. The glowing waters around the island at night are not xScena's fault &#8212 that's how FSX depicts water at night even though few water bodies glow at night.

NIGHT EFFECTS
Airport	Harbor
Town	Town
Screen shot by Bill Stack

Using the Scenery

Although it covers a small area, this scenery makes these unique islands a fun place to fly to, from, and around. Fernando de Noronha is about 45 minutes from the Brazil mainland by Beechcraft King Air 350, about an hour by Beechcraft Baron 55, and about half an hour by business or commercial jet. They're also fun to fly around visually in a small general-aviation aircraft such as a Cessna 172, a float, or an ultralight. Of course, any similar addon aircraft would substitute for the FSX defaults.

Use of this airport must be precise because of high terrain to either side of the runway. The lack of runway approach lights makes night approaches even more challenging.

The climate is tropical because the islands are three degrees south of the Equator. When I set real-world weather, however, it gave me standard atmosphere (59F), even though the official weather reports were showing 77F, light rain, and light southeast winds. For realistic weather, therefore, users should check real-world weather reports and manually select conditions in FSX.

USING THE SCENERY
Screen shot by Bill Stack

Technical Matters

The installation program deposits all files and folders into position for use by FSX, and the scenery is pre-activated. When users go to the FSX Scenery menu, they will find this scenery already activated and ready to use.

My installation didn't go well, however. The simulator did not recognize the scenery even though the installation program lead me to believe the files were correctly installed. I found that a missing backslash ("\") in the folder script of the installation program obstructed the installation. My adding the backslash between "FSX" and "Addon" in that folder script during installation enabled the program to install all the scenery files correctly, and FSX recognized the scenery. xScena said this problem seemed limited to 32-bit systems. The fix is easy enough nonetheless.

The installation program deposited two text files in the Windows Temporary folder: "Fernando de Noronha Setup Log.txt" and "Fernando de Noronha Uninstall Log.txt." I discovered them during my daily removal of files from that folder. Anyone who uses a program that automatically removes files from temporary folders might never know about those files. The developer said: "Those files were entries created to add the scenery entry to the .cfg file," xScena explained. "Windows usually deletes them after a while."

Shortcuts are created by the installation program for uninstalling purposes. "We are working on a robust installer like Aerosoft has," Bruno explained, "and we will update all customers with it."

Without documents describing the island, any information about what is what must be obtained from other sources.

Technical support is reached through an email form on the developer's website. Response was quick and clear, which bodes well for users needing assistance.

Readers with technical questions not answered in this review should ask the developer. Using the links below, go to the Pilot Shop page where the product is listed and described, then click on "Manufacturer Tech Support" in the right column.

More Information

Information about Fernando De Noronha is available from several sources:

• Official Website
  
  
• Fernando De Noronha Online
  
  
• Wikipedia

REAL-WORLD PHOTOS
Its Nature Org	Fernando De Noronha Org
Airliners Net	Wikipedia

The Developer

Based in Brazil, xScena has collaborators all over the world. Its sceneries include Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Tokyo Haneda, Thule Air Base, and many others.

"xScena's participation in the FS community is dated to the beginning of the appearance of simulator add-ons," their spokesman Bruno explains. "Our company is a result of a reunion of World Sceneries' former founders with the mission to bring to the addon market the quality and standards applied to professional simulators (our focus of development in the last four years)."

They chose to make Fernando de Noronha because it is one of Brazil's most amazing touristic destinations and a wild life sanctuary, Bruno said. "This makes it very appealing to regional VAs that fly to the northeast of the country."

"Because Fernando de Noronha is an island," Bruno said, "we have the possibility of interacting with all areas available in add-on development: texturing, 3D modeling, lighting, working with mesh and with modeled terrain. Every discovery we make with Fernando de Noronha is applied to our next releases."

Wrap Up

xScena's scenery of Fernando de Noronha enables a variety of interesting flight simulations by rendering this small yet beautiful island very nicely. Everything I found was accurately depicted or reasonably represented. Details are appropriate without diminishing frame rates. Night effects within xScena's control are realistic. The installation program needs a small fix, and the developer plans to upgrade it. Tech support responds quickly.

Bill Stack
billstack@flightsim.com

Learn more about Fernando De Noronha by xScena.

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