Overview

Developers 29Palms and JaraNet havecome together to faithfully recreate the beautiful airport ofTwentynine Palms located just northeast of Palm Springs inCalifornia. This was developers 29Palms and JaraNet's first projectthat they have developed. The scenery includes an extensive 3Dlibrary, over 250 km² of high resolution satellite imagery (thatlooks simply stunning), and key airport buildings and features.

KTNP provides both a VOR and RNAV (GPS) approach so you'll happilyget your trusty Learjet in there! The airport provides the best forboth jet and prop general aviation, with runway 8/26 being 5331 feetlong, while runway 17/35 measures 3979 feet. As hinted by the glidertrailer store on the ramp, KTNP is a great location for gliding,especially with its nearby rugged terrain and peaks reaching 5677feet. These provide ample updrafts so as to keep you soaring, and ofcourse, being near the Palm Springs area, the weather is always great.Of my two years of flying on thePilotEdgenetwork, I have never seen the metar report any bad visibility, whichpretty much speaks for itself! As mentioned, "PilotEdge" the onlinenetwork I prefer to fly on, has KTNP within its SoCal base coveragearea, which makes it even more of a reason to pick up if you are anavid PilotEdge user.

System Requirements

• X-Plane 11 / X-Plane 10.45, X-Plane 10 North-America Edition, X-Plane 10 Steam Version
• Windows 7 / 8 / 10, OS X (10.6.8 or later) or Linux Ubuntu 12.04LTS or compatible
• 3 GHz, multi-core CPU (or, even better, multiple processors)
• 8 GB RAM
• 3D graphics card with 2GB of on-board, dedicated VRAM
• Download Size: 420 MB
• Installation Size: 920 MB

Initial Impressions

Ready to explore, I took my C172 from KCLR (situated south of KTNP)and headed on a short cross country flight on PilotEdge over to KTNP.As I passed over the Salton Sea, there was not a cloud in sight -perfect sightseeing weather! Approaching the field, I saw theorthographic photos supplied with KTNP, overlaying my own ortho4xpbuilt orthographic imagery. The add-on scenery's ortho wassignificantly darker and more vibrant, but this wasn't really too muchof an issue for me, and I'm sure there is a way to delete thesatellite imagery specific files in the scenery folder if need be.For those using the standard X-Plane scenery, this minor issue willnot be present. However, for those who do have their own texturesinstalled, perhaps the developers could provide two versions to downloadin the future?

As I entered left downwind for runway 26, I noticed the neatlyplaced houses and shacks around the KTNP area, plus the appropriatelyarranged flora and fauna. Seeing all this reminded me of how isolatedand often unforgiving this part of the US can be.

Turning from base to final, the detailing of the scenery becameeven more apparent. The worn out and weathered runway, surrounded bythe arid environment, looked incredibly realistic as it greeted me ontouchdown.

Exiting the runway, I couldn't help but notice the scattered rocksand small dried up lifeless shrubs the developers had seen fit toplace. As I approached the GA parking area (helped by the clear anddetailed taxi signs), even more objects came into view. These helpedgive the airport an additional feeling of liveliness, and it workedwell.

The nicely modelled parked trucks, ladders, toolkits and otherequipment, all helped give the impression that it was just anothersunny, busy day at KTNP.

As I pulled my aircraft up to the main building (which I presume isthe FBO), I saw a man reading a newspaper on the bench. Note: situatedaround the airport were additional 3D characters (all in numerousposes) and while these were not animated like some sceneries, they area welcomed addition.

Going back to the main airport building; I noticed that thetexturing went as far as to include airport posters on the walls, andthis along with the quality of the 3D modelling, worked extremelywell.

The other buildings within the airport also contained lots ofdetail, with the hangar of the jet aircraft even incorporating a lowresolution sectional chart on its walls.

The night lighting of the airport (thanks in part to X-Plane 11'srendering engine), looked stunning.

The scenery uses the correct blue taxiway edge lights from thecrossing taxiway from 08-26, all the way down to the end of runway 35.The runway end identifier lights and two-light PAPI's were alsopresent.

Overall Features

• Over 250 km² high resolution satellite imagery (0.25 - 0.6m/px)
• Realistic shadow renditions on many 3D objects through the use of texture baking
• High resolution day and night textures (2048x2048)
• Over 100,000 hand placed custom vegetation objects
• Complete representation of the airport's lighting equipment
• Animated car traffic
• Scenery compatible with HD-Mesh V3
• Great FPS

Pros And Cons

Pros

• Custom objects used outside of the airport region i.e. houses/shacks
• Widespread hand placed detailed vegetation e.g. shrubs and trees
• High quality satellite imagery for users without orthographic tiles
• FPS friendly
• Many ramp starts to choose from
• Accurate runway/taxiway lighting
• High resolution textures
• Baked in shadows on objects such as buildings look very realistic
• Detailed worn taxiway and runway

Cons

• Vegetation low LOD (Basically the distance you have to be towards the shrubs on the airports next to the runway and taxiway is very close in order for them to show. Maybe this could be lowered?)
• No option for a version without the satellite imagery (I am sure you would be able to remove the satellite imagery yourself but having two versions to choose from when downloading would be nice).

Overall

Aerosoft's KTNP is an excellent general aviation airport for pilotsof both large and small aircraft. With the airport being in thePilotEdge base coverage area, it makes this scenery even moreattractive. Apart from the two issues mentioned above, there's reallynothing not to like about it.

If you're a keen general aviation pilot that likes to fly aroundincredibly scenic areas, or maybe a subscriber of the PilotEdgeservice, then Twentynine Palms Airport is definitely worth investingin, and in the opinion of this reviewer, one you will not bedisappointed with!

Luke Webber

Purchase Aerosoft - Twentynine Palms KTNP Airport for X-Plane