Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'leeds bradford airport'.
Found 1 result
-
Review: Orbx Leeds Bradford Airport Prepar3DBy Alex Dickinson /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-01.jpg /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-02.jpg /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-03.jpg /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-04.jpgIntroduction"Ah up lad" is a popular Yorkshire greeting term to compliment thenext airport I shall be reviewing; the aptly named "Yorkshire'sAirport" of Leeds Bradford. This is an airport I know incredibly well,as I worked and studied there for almost 5 years. Due to this, I wouldregard Leeds Bradford Airport as a second home. ReputationLeeds Bradford is well known to UK flight simmers, but due it tobeing quite a lot smaller than say Gatwick, Stanstead, Birmingham,etc., it tends not to get the publicity, which is a shame as it hasquite a lot going for it. Leeds Bradford Airport is located in Yeadon, in the City of LeedsMetropolitan District in West Yorkshire, England, about 7 milesnorthwest of Leeds city center, and about 9 miles from Bradford citycenter. It is the highest airport in England at an elevation of 681 feet(208 m). Not only this, but Leeds Bradford's runway is orientatednorth/south, unlike the traditional west/east setup at most other UKairports. The consequences of this, is that the airport is susceptibleto nasty crosswinds, as well as wind shear. This notoriety couldpotentially be the reason as to why it appears to be popular amongstflight simulation enthusiasts. /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-05.jpg /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-06.jpg /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-07.jpg /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-08.jpgTerminal AreaThe terminal building at Leeds Bradford has been standing for sometime now, and over the decades it has been extended numerous times toinclude passenger walkways, large seating areas, and airbridges. Itlacks the newer modular type design of modern airports and manycritics argue that the airport needs a revamp, as currently it is verydilapidated. LandsideDue to its design, the terminal building can be very tricky tomodel, but I have to say that I am impressed with how well thedevelopers at Orbx have managed to get it to look. The 3D modelfeatures extensive use of PBR, and the attention to detail overall isgood. North of the terminal are the warehouses, offices, and cateringfacilities which I felt were also accurately modelled. An area I likedvery much was the terminal landside area, as it included vast amountsof detail, such as vehicles, signage and 3D objects. There is also aTravelodge hotel, as well as numerous car parking facilities. OverallI would say this is a highly accurate rendition of the landside area,bar one or two minor omissions. AirsideUnfortunately I cannot say the same for the airside area as Inoticed a fair number of discrepancies. Firstly, on stand 3 there usedto be two rectangular buildings of the same length, both located northand south of this stand. If my memory serves me correctly, thesebuildings were both used by Jet2 for their baggage processing. Thishas since been edited to only have a small portion of the southernbuilding remaining, despite the north building remaining as is (Googlemaps can give a clearer visual explanation to this). On the Orbx P3Dversion of the scenery, this small protrusion is missing, as well as alarge sheltered passenger area adjacent to stand 14. Also, on stand 6there is a bus which is off placed, which means that it would not bepossible to park on this stand without colliding with this object. /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-09.jpg /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-10.jpg /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-11.jpg /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-12.jpgAnother issue I encountered was where taxiway "D" meets the runway,as just adjacent to this is a holding point marked with the letter"J". This area has what looks to be a large turning circle, but inreality, it is no longer used by neither air traffic or groundvehicles. Due to this fact, I would argue that having ground vehicleslocated here in the Orbx version is actually rather unrealistic. Thearea in real life is very run-down, and includes an abandonedbuilding, which unfortunately has not been modelled. Overall I foundthis area to look far too fresh and nothing like how it is in reallife. VehiclesI can tell you first hand from working at Leeds Bradford, thatthere are so many ground handling vehicles around, it is often a realchallenge to store them all, which results in cramped storageareas. Knowing how well the X-Plane version had modelled this, I waseager to see how it looked in P3D, but was disappointed to see that itwas lacking. Orbx's use of ground equipment was minimal here, whichallowed for the airport to feel decidedly empty. If Orbx could liventhis area up in a future update, then this would make a bigdifference. However, despite my criticism here, I do have to point outthat I liked how well the objects were modelled, as they looked highlyauthentic. SODE JetwaysLeeds has a unique layout when it comes to its airbridges, as itonly has two of them (both on stands 7 and 8), with each one beingdifferent to the other. Stand 8's airbridge is what I would refer to asa "Fully movable airbridge", which means that it is able to moveforward, backwards, left and right, plus up and down, as compared tostand 7, where it can only move forwards and backwards. /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-13.jpg /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-14.jpg /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-15.jpg /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-16.jpgThis was something I was keen to test out, as the above couldeasily trip up even the most talented of developers, but I am pleasedto say that this level of detail and immersion has been wellreplicated by Orbx. Both airbridges not only worked like their reallife counterparts, but also featured the appropriate signage. Overall,some great attention to detail. Night LightingUsing Prepar3D, the night lighting at Leeds Bradford was generallyvery good, but not perfect. The light intensity from the flood lightsworked well and was accurate, with areas such as the car parks,airport entrance and signage all being visible. The front of theterminal is where I would say the best use of the lighting was to beseen, whilst at stands 7 and 8, I would say it is a bit lackluster dueto dark spots. On the remote stands however, there seemed to be verylittle at all. Static AircraftOrbx's rendition of Leeds Bradford Airport features a number ofstatic aircraft from different airlines, and these include BritishAirways, KLM, Jet2, and Ryanair. Located on stand 3 is a KLM Embraer,which is a frequent site at the airport, and one I have personallyworked on. Now whilst the model of this aircraft is nicely done, Ihave to question its placement, as the largest aircraft you wouldprobably see at this stand is a Saab 2000 (I could be wrong though, soplease correct me). Also, the static model of the British AirwaysEmbraer has no place at the airport, as these are exclusive to LondonCity Airport, and Leeds is not one of its destinations. Most of theliveries are done to a reasonable standard, but I found the outdatedRyanair livery to be a bit of an eyesore. /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-17.jpg /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-18.jpg /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-19.jpg /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-20.jpgRunway And AssetsMoving on to the modelling of the main runway, I have to say thatOrbx have done a great job here, as it's highly accurate and includessome great texturing. However, I feel there are some aspectssurrounding the runway which have not been given the attention theydeserve. For starters, on approach to runway 14, you will notice thatthe PAPI lights are to the left of the runway, when in reality theyshould be to the right. Secondly there are no runway stop lights atthe end of either runway, or any guard lights. There also seems to bea lack of smaller buildings around the runway, such as the ILSantennas and the NDB. Again, if Orbx could address these in a futureupdate, it would go a long way in improving the experience. General Aviation AreaThe GA section of the airport is another area in which I felt couldhave been improved upon. Whilst it wasn't terrible, I felt that itcould have been a lot busier. The structures which were present, wereall modelled to a high standard, but there just wasn't enough ofthem. In real life it's full of clutter, but in this scenery itwas...sparse. Adding additional objects such as aircraft, people,barrels, etc. would really help bring this area to life. /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-21.jpg /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-22.jpg /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-23.jpg /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-24.jpgSurrounding AreaCompared to the version by UK2000, Orbx' rendition of LeedsBradford Airport features a far better representation of thesurrounding area. I was able to recognise individual buildings as faras the village of Yeadon; the "Hawthorne" pub for example (great aleby the way), as well as the Leeds Bradford Airport Industrial Estate.Another aspect of the scenery I was impressed with was the terrainmodelling. Unlike Heathrow, which sits on a flat plain, Leeds BradfordAirport has a pretty dynamic landscape, full of ups and downs, and Icouldn't help but be impressed by the way the airport seamlesslyblended into the surrounding landscape. I really felt that I wasthere...and that's saying something! PerformanceOne of the positives of having a scenery which is "lite" on detail,is that frame rates are generally good, and Leeds Bradford Airport isno exception. Considering my PC is far from the quickest, I was reallyimpressed by how it performed. With Orbx's excellent Englandinstalled, the results were butter smooth! ConclusionSo now we come to the conclusion and I must say, it's quite a hardone to summarise. This is a scenery I wanted very much to enjoy,especially with the personal connection I have with the airport; afterall five years is a long time. So whilst it's true I had moments offun (even nostalgia), it's also equally true to say that the sceneryleft me frustrated. None of the issues are major game changers, it'sjust a real shame they are there. If the developers could take thetime to go back and address the issues mentioned in this review, thenI believe this would be a scenery easy to recommend. /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-25.jpg /images/reviews/orbxbrad/t/orbx-leeds-bradford-26.jpgIs it better than the UK2000 rendition? Well it depends on what youwant. If you're a GA flyer then I would say that the UK2000 versionhas the edge here, but if you're a heavy metal pilot, then I wouldprobably lean towards the Orbx version. The low price of £16 isalso very compelling, so one has to factor this in as well. At the end of the day it comes down to...can you live with theissues mentioned. If you can, then I believe you'll have a great dealof fun at Leeds Bradford Airport. However for myself...I'm hopingthat Orbx can inject a bit more life into the airport before I call itmy "second home" again. Alex Dickinson Purchase Orbx - Leeds Bradford Airport For Prepar3D
