Munich is the heart of Bavaria, thecapital of south east Germany. The airport handles 48 million peoplein a good year and opens up connections to the world. sim-wings are along-standing developer in the flight simulator scene and have beendeveloping high-quality airports for almost two decades.

sim-wings have recently released their own rendition of MunichAirport within Microsoft Flight Simulator, their second release forthe new platform. Today we will take a look at this scenery in detailand see if it holds up to their usual level of high quality.

What/Where Is It?

Munich Airport is just outside of the main city of Munich itself,located to the north east. It has two runways, two terminals andserves as a hub for both Lufthansa and their CityLine division. Theairport handled 47.9 million passengers in 2019, making it the 15thbusiest airport in the world. It is also relatively new, having onlyopened in 1992 when it replaced the original Munich-Riem Airport.

Installation

Installation of sim-wings Munich is very simple through theflightsim.com store. You receive an installer download and anactivation key for the add-on. Run the installer, point it to thedirection of your simulator's 'Community' folder, input your key andthe rest is automated.

Once the scenery has downloaded, you are then given a pop-up wherethe add-on offers to install a local copy of NavDataPro with Munichcharts included for free. It's a nice feature that I highly recommendinstalling and one I will go into detail later in this review.

Structures And Facilities

sim-wings have completely transformed the scenery in and around theairport. This includes re-worked terrain data too, allowing for carsand road traffic to pass underneath taxiways in tunnels.

The terminal has been completely hand-built and looks spot-on whencompared to their real-world counterparts. Modelling and texturing hasbeen made to a very high standard and this very much stands out. Smalldetails including gate numbers written alongside the service roadswhich ground crew use to navigate by, the airport logo and Lufthansalogo on dedicated gates are included, plus roof vents and sky lightsare all modelled and really add to the sense of scale you get withinthe airport.

Another part of the terminal model I adore is the fact that theinterior has also been included and to a very high degree! Windows aretransparent which means you can see benches and even a few duty-freestores. The entrance to Terminal 2 is also something to behold, thered and grey floor contrasts with the open skylight and Lufthansaadvert that overlooks the main doors and looks fantastic.

Jet bridges are also custom and function with the default simulatorGround Services. These come in two styles, open triangular window forTerminal 2 and covered for Terminal 1. These are also covered withadvertisements for O2. Functional jet bridges are a massive bonus withany scenery, having a variety of these adds to the detail and depththat this add-on brings. sim-wings have also noted that they aim toimplement working Safegates (VDGS) at each gate as soon as thesimulator SDK allows for this to work.

The remote stands of Terminal 1 also feature a series ofout-buildings connected to jet bridges. While generally airports willhave used airstairs to allow passengers to board and disembark, theseare fully-functional bridges that are disconnected to the mainterminal building. Once again sim-wings have added these to theirscenery and I'm sure people that have used these stands in the pastwill appreciate the depth that these developers have gone into addingthese smaller details.

To the south is the Lufthansa Cargo Terminal and here too you cansee a very high-quality model, complete with textures that fill theairport environment. These include cargo loaders and containers whichare dotted around the stands and doors. Once again the car park hasbeen populated with vehicles, and even the lorry park around the rearside of the warehouse has lorries parked up and ready to take theirload away. Between the cargo terminal and train station which has alsobeen modelled (complete with local trains), is a walkway bridge thatallows workers to access the station without the need to cross thebusy road.

It doesn't matter which part of the airport you're in, you canreally appreciate the lengths that sim-wings have gone to give us afaithful rendition of this airport. If Munich has it in real-life,Munich in MSFS has it too!

The Airport Environment

Taxiways and runways have been adjusted to sit in their real-worldpositions. These are very highly detailed with new textures completelychanging the face of the ground environment. Everything within theairport perimeter has been totally transformed and is completelyunrecognisable to what was the default simulator environment. Everyasset, every texture is custom made by sim-wings and used to itsmaximum capability.

Ground navigation is also eased thanks to strong clarity of taxiwaysigns and directions painted directly onto the ground. This meansfollowing ATC instructions either using the default ATC or on anonline network can be done with more confidence; you're now much lesslikely to make a wrong turn.

Cars enter the airport through a series of tunnels underneathtaxiways to the north and south of the terminals. These tunnels andbridges have all been recreated in MSFS and really stand out whentaxiing in and out of the airport, especially when compared to thedefault scenery which had road traffic at ground level and whichdisappeared at either side of the taxiway. You even have the railwayline that goes alongside the autobahn, which tunnels under the airportalongside a series of remote stands.

The entry road to the airport also features a series of modelledheritage aircraft that act as gate guardians to the terminal tunnelroads. These include a Lufthansa Constellation, a Swiss Air Line DC-3and a Ford Trimotor. I'm sure there are many more little details likethis that are dotted around the airport which I may have missed, it'sjust that there is just so much to explore!

The whole airport has completely come to life thanks to this add-onfrom sim-wings, I just adore flying in and out of Munich!

Night Effects

When the sun has set and the evening flights depart, the whole ofMunich is transformed.

One issue that default MSFS airports have at the moment is thatthey are too dark. Very little in the way of lighting means thatterminals and gates really have no clarity to them. sim-wingstransforms this entirely, with bright lights filling the centralterminal island with less coverage over the runways, giving pilotsmore visibility of the touchdown zones.

Each stand has its own floodlight that looks down on the aircraft'sposition; these are bright and fill the scene with light. The airportterminal also lights up with some of it emitting onto the tarmacbelow, adding to the depth and dynamics of this add-on.

Individual street lights on roads running through the airport alsoadd an orangey haze to streets, very reminiscent of older halogenlamps that you would find on an evening walk out.

Seasonal Textures

Seasons have a great affect on the scenery and transform the lookand feel of the terminal and surrounding facilities. Roofs are coveredin a layer of snow and taxiways and runways are completelycovered. Even smaller details such as cargo boxes and parked cars havea top layer of white just to add more depth to the scenery as a whole.

Taxiway lines and signs are also affected and coated in a layer ofwhite but are still clear and visible enough as not to affect yourtaxiing. Do be careful however, as the taxiway boundaries are a lotmore difficult to spot and therefore you need to ensure you're on thecentreline at all times.

My only comment would be for sim-wings to add a littledifferentiation, especially on the runways which should be a littlemore visible. It's almost as if Munich has absolutely zero anti-iceand grit salting capabilities, everything is completely covered in ablanket of white.

NavDataPro Charts

NavDataPro is Aerosoft's answer to Navigraph, offering you an EFBChart toolkit for your simulator. While it comes at a monthly cost,you are able to use the 'Offline' mode to view charts installedlocally, in this case, this is what comes with this add-on.

The UI is extremely easy to navigate. You select your airport (inthis case EDDM Munich), select which chart you require, and this willthen be displayed on the right-hand side. Charts are based on thereal-world LIDO format and are very clear and easy to understand.

Including this is a massive bonus and much appreciated - perhaps itis an add-on I'll look into in more detail at a later date!

I just adore this scenery through and through! sim-wings havecompletely transformed Munich Airport and have recreated every aspectof the airport, exactly to how it looks and feels in real-life.

While a number of developers may focus on just the main passengerterminal and throw in a few small details here and there, sim-wingshave gone above and beyond to incorporate everything that surroundsthe airport, both air-side and land-side including a transformation tothe road network and cargo terminal.

The developers have also put a lot of care into ensuring that theywould release the best add-on possible for the new platform, with acommitment to supporting the scenery with future updates once thesimulator's SDK allows for it.

Munich serves as a massive international hub, and this scenery fromsim-wings has totally done it justice with every little detailimpeccably recreated. It doesn't matter if you fly passengers orcargo, with sim-wings Munich you'll have an amazing experience.

The Technical Bit

Minimum Requirements:

• Microsoft Flight Simulator (Version 2020)
• OS: Windows 10 (Nov 2019 Update - 1909)
• CPU: Intel i5-4460 or Ryzen 3 1200 or better
• GPU: NVIDIA GTX 770 or Radeon RX 570 or better
• DirectX: DirectX 11
• VRAM: 2 GB
• RAM: 8 GB
• HDD: 5 GB
• Bandwidth: 5 Mbps

Review PC Spec:

• Microsoft Flight Simulator
• Windows 10 Professional
• 6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 6700K Processor
• 32 GB RAM
• NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1660

Michael Hayward

Purchase Aerosoft - sim-wings Munich for MSFS 2020

See other sim-wings scenery for MSFS 2020