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Review: Orbx EGSG Stapleford AerodromeBy Bruno Esperanca /images/reviews/orbxegsg/t/Cessna_172SP_39.jpgLocal InformationStapleford was established in 1933 asEssex Aerodrome, a base for Hillman's Airways, a British airlinewhich later became part of British Airways. It is located in theEpping Forest district of Essex, England, near the village ofAbridge. It is just within the M25 which encircles Greater London. Theairfield was requisitioned shortly after the Second World War as RAFStapleford Tawney. Today, Stapleford is used as a general aviationaerodrome, home to the privately owned Stapleford Flight Center. Forroughly 40 years it has been used to train pilots for PPL all the wayup to CPL and ATPL qualifications. The airfield has two long parallelrunways 04/22, one of them being partly asphalt at one end, and ashorter grass runway 10/28. /images/reviews/orbxegsg/t/Cessna_172SP_38.jpg /images/reviews/orbxegsg/t/Cessna_172SP_52.jpgStapleford Aerodrome for X-Plane 11 is part of a series of Britishaerodromes released for X-Plane, following their popular True EarthGreat Britain South release. This release has brought photorealtextures, hundreds of custom objects and accurately placed autogen toX-Plane, to the delight of many simmers. Orbx has a long range ofsuccessful add-ons for FSX and P3D, but only recently joined theX-Plane platform. Purchase, Download, Documentation & InstallationIn order to purchase Orbx products, you need to create anaccount. It's a fast procedure, similar to other online stores. Ifyou're a Windows user, you will also be able to use FTX Central 3,which is basically an installer for the products you havepurchased. If you are using another OS, you will have to manuallydownload and install your products, but with X-Plane this is extremelysimple. All you have to do is copy the scenery into your "CustomScenery" folder and adjust the "scenery_packs.ini" file accordingly. Iplace add-on airport sceneries next to the default Aerosoft airportsthat come with X-Plane. /images/reviews/orbxegsg/t/Cessna_172SP_40.jpg /images/reviews/orbxegsg/t/Cessna_172SP_41.jpgStapleford takes up around 430 MB when installed, excluding theOrbx Libraries which are also necessary. This includes high resolutionphotoreal textures of the area, custom objects, a user-guide withinstallation instructions and charts, etc. I couldn't really see anoption to remove static aircraft, but this is quite easy to achievewith basic knowledge of the WED tool. If you are planning onparticipating in some online events, this is probably a desirablething to do. One would think all sceneries would offer a comfortableway of removing static aircraft. /images/reviews/orbxegsg/t/Cessna_172SP_36.jpg /images/reviews/orbxegsg/t/Cessna_172SP_37.jpgSystem PerformanceTo check the performance hit from Stapleford, I used X-Plane11.31r1 and the default Cessna 172. Currently I'm sporting an i79700k, an MSI GTX1070 and 16 GB of RAM. My settings are generally highwith world objects maxed out. I'm also usingASXPupdate B6927, with real weather, on realism mode. Also, I don't haveOrbx True Earth installed, but I do have HD Mesh V4, with Ortho4XPwith ZL18 close to the airports, and ZL16 elsewhere. /images/reviews/orbxegsg/t/Before1.jpg /images/reviews/orbxegsg/t/After1.jpgBefore (left) and after (right) /images/reviews/orbxegsg/t/Before2.jpg /images/reviews/orbxegsg/t/After2.jpgBefore (left) and after (right) A before and after comparison shows a decent rendition of theairfield only with the HD Mesh and Orthophoto. In fact, for a defaultairfield, it's great, and the frame rates were situated between theupper fifties and lower sixties, so a pretty good performanceconsidering the maxed out world objects. With Orbx's Stapleford we seequite a substantial performance drop. On my setup, the frame ratedecreased to the mid thirties, and then back up to the lower forties,so we are looking at around one third of drop in frame rates. However,we can see why. The airfield and its surroundings were reproducedmeticulously. With a different setup and settings, perhaps the dropwill not be as significant. Look And FeelIn much the same way as their FSX/P3D offerings, Orbx has gained areputation for scrupulous attention to detail in their X-Planesceneries, and their rendition of Stapleford is no different. /images/reviews/orbxegsg/t/Cessna_172SP_42.jpg /images/reviews/orbxegsg/t/Cessna_172SP_43.jpgX-Plane's default and also freeware sceneries are already of a highstandard, so Orbx had to deliver...and deliver they have! The aerodrome buildings have all been modeled with astonishingdetail. Add-ons like these really make me miss a "walk-around" optionin X-Plane, it motivates us to perform that often forgotten initialwalk-around section of the checklist. I believe this is available withthe X-Camera add-on, but unfortunately I haven't gotten around to gettingthis yet. Among the buildings that are modeled in detail, you've gotStapleford's reception, the Bar & Clubhouse with an observation area,a Flight Simulation Centre, maintenance hangar, etc. You also havesome livestock in the area. Actually, it occurred to me that the nextstep to increase immersion and make you feel like you are in a "live"aerodrome, is to properly animate people and livestock. Maybe thiswill be something that will come in X-Plane 12, who knows. But fornow, this is as close as it gets to the real thing. /images/reviews/orbxegsg/t/Cessna_172SP_44.jpg /images/reviews/orbxegsg/t/Cessna_172SP_45.jpgAt 430 MB this package is quite heavy for such a small airfield,and if you factor in that the Orbx Libraries weigh another 300 MB,this is packing a lot. However, how much of the libraries are used inthis airfield, I'm not sure. Dissecting the folders, we realize morethan half of the size (around 266 MB) are for the Ortho imagery of thearea, whereas most of the rest is in the objects, and therein, mostlyfor the texturing. When taking the Cessna for a couple of traffic patterns around theairfield, one can see why Orbx chose this airfield for an add-on. Thesurroundings are quite peculiar and exquisite. There's a lot of green,farming fields, industry, etc., and so close to downtown London! It'sperfect for firing up your favorite GA aircraft, going for asightseeing tour around London and coming back when you're ready to gohome. If you haven't purchased Orbx True Earth Great Britain South(like myself) the visual anomalies that are expected are easy to spota few moments after takeoff. I am using ZL16 ortho imagery using Bingfor the source, and compared to Orbx's imagery, the colors feel verywashed out and dull. Looking at the textures, Orbx has achieved a verygood balance between eye candy and realism in terms of contrast andsaturation. It means even though they are "screen shot-friendly", theyare still very believable and don't kill the immersion. If you plan onflying VFR over England a lot, it is probably a worthwhile investment. /images/reviews/orbxegsg/t/Cessna_172SP_46.jpg /images/reviews/orbxegsg/t/Cessna_172SP_47.jpgWhat about night flying? Well, Stapleford is your typical VFR GAairfield, and offers no lighting whatsoever. As we are in thecountryside, and mostly with green fields, the area is pitch black atnight. Nonetheless, I loaded the scenery up at night just to check outthe night textures, and I'm happy to say that Stapleford didn'tdisappoint at night. This means that if you arrive late in the eveningas the sun is kissing the day goodbye, you have a good chance oftaking some really good looking dusk photos. /images/reviews/orbxegsg/t/Cessna_172SP_48.jpg /images/reviews/orbxegsg/t/Cessna_172SP_49.jpgFinal ThoughtsStapleford is a small GA airfield which is used today extensivelyfor training. If you fly at this airfield and would like to practiceyour approaches or traffic patterns, I would easily recommend thisscenery. It would probably be a good idea to get True Earth GreatBritain South so as to make sure you have all visual referencescorrectly placed and depicted in the simulator. The Orbx groundtextures also look significantly better compared to creating orthoimagery yourself. If you're simply looking for a nice GA airfield inLondon's vicinity, I leave it to you to decide whether or notStapleford is the best decision. Personally, I think the airfield isvery peculiar with its crossed, partially asphalted runways, and theamount of detail is great. The textures look awesome and Iparticularly liked how real and weathered they looked. In terms ofperformance, I did experience a significant performance hit, but I'mnot sure what I can attribute this to. As I haven't seen othersreporting the same, it could be something local from my machine. Asusual, your mileage may vary. At its price tag, I consider thisscenery to be good value and would recommend it to anyone with aparticular interest in Stapleford. /images/reviews/orbxegsg/t/Cessna_172SP_50.jpg /images/reviews/orbxegsg/t/Cessna_172SP_51.jpgResourcesOrbx EGSG Stapleford Aerodrome for X-Plane 11 user manual https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stapleford_Aerodrome This review was completed using X-Plane 11.31r1 and Orbx EGSGStapleford Aerodrome for X-Plane 11 v1.0. Also used was ASXP B6965 andortho imagery using Ortho4XP v1.30. Bruno Esperanca Purchase Orbx - EGSG Stapleford Aerodrome

/images/notams/notams19/orbx0108.jpgEGSG Stapleford Airport is located in the Epping Forestdistrict of Essex. Stapleford began in the 1930's as Essex Aerodromeand was used by the RAF during the Second World War. Today it is usedextensively for pilot training by the Stapleford Flight Centre, afamily run business that has been training pilots for over 40years. Each building has been made to look as it appears in real life- definitely one to add to your GB South collection! Key Features11 cm per pixel ground texturesCountryside at 30 cm per pixelFully custom modelled airportCreated from on-site photographyComplete with AI trafficFully integratable with TrueEarth GB SouthIncludes more surrounding autogen vegetationPlease note that for the best experience, we recommend using EGSGin conjunction with TrueEarth Great Britain South. EGSG Stapleford Airfield is available to purchase from OrbxDirectfor AUD $24.95A (approx. USD $17.90 / €15.75 /£13.90). Previous buyers of the FSX/P3D version will get anautomatic 40% discount. Purchase Orbx - EGSG Stapleford Airfield Now Available For X-Plane