Installing FS5 scenery is really pretty easy. In general, once scenery is unzipped you can put the .bgl files into fltsim5\scenery and the .r8s and .oavs into fltsim5\texture. And that's all there is to it. The next time you check your Airport Menu, the appropriate airport/scenery will be there. The next time you fly into the region from outside, it's there as well.

The complexity (and it isn't really bad) is if you wish to become a scenery whacko such as I am. Then it's worth setting up geographical subdirectories, not for any technical reason, but rather just to organize them for updating/deleting/etc. You can do this at any time down the road or right now when you install one. It's your choice.

If you decide to do this, for example, I'd suggest making a subdirectory named fltsim5\amer-w for all add-ons in (you guessed it!) the American West. Then make two subdirectories of this, fltsim5\amer-w\scenery and fltsim5\amer-w\texture. Those .bgls go into \scenery, of course. But I'd keep this \texture subdirectory for region-specialized .r8 and .oav files, not the generic .r8s and .oavs that appear in lots of scenery. Seeing as these generic texture files (things like airpt00?.oav, etc) show up in a lot of scenery, put them once in fltsim5\texture and they're accessible to all subdirectories. The sort of specialized texture files I'd put into \amer-w\texture are things like myairpt.oav or phxzoo.r8 or some such. After downloading a few, it'll become clear which are which. In the meantime, you might keep a list of what textures you've added to fltsim5\texture.

Indeed, you can put all texture files into fltsim5\texture. But then it becomes difficult to find one if you want to update it or delete it or something.

Okay, so now you have, say, all phoenix.bgls in fltsim5\amer-w\scenery and the texture files wherever appropriate. The next (and last) step is to tell the computer that there's this new scenery area. This you do in the Scenery Library Menu, at the right of the Flt Sim main menu display. This is described in the manual, but to recall it here: Click on Scenery Library. You get a warning message. Click on OK as you DO know what you're doing (well, sort of ...).

Then you get a display with a choice down the bottom labeled ADD. Click on it. This gives a rectangle wherein you type, carefully, the "path" to the added scenery: c:\fltsim5\amer-w\scenery\*.bgl or OK.

Then you'll find this new area on your scenery master list, at the top, as I recall. Now click on the new area to highlight it, then on EDIT. Here you can rename what actually shows up on the scenery master list, say American West. Also, click to identify it as LOCAL scenery. If it's the first one you're adding, it'll have Priority level 1, above the default Regionals. That's fine. As you add scenery, it's fine to arrange Priorities geographically or in any way you wish. (I believe priorities get touchy only if sceneries overlap: for instance, if you have Phoenix and Arizona as separate add-on batches). Last, there's a box that says ACTIVE. Click on it to activate this scenery.

By the way, there are different opinions on this, but I don't activate more than 8-10 local regions at a time. Also, the setup seems sensitive to the length of name for a geographical area; be concise. Then OK, OK, etc. to get back to the Fltsim main menu.

Click on airports and Phoenix will be there. Last, be aware that sometimes downloaded airports don't show up in this Airport listing. But they'll be in that default North America list.

Hope this helps!

Dennis Simanaitis
EngEd@aol.com