the News…Heard ‘Round the Ramps…for 13 October 2011

Call it part of the completely unpredictable nature of life here in XP Land, but most of the activity this weeks seems to have been on the scenery front. You just never can tell from one week to the next, either. We can weeks without a major scenery release, then…blammo! So anyway, let’s go over some news before jumping into the files.

• Iranian carrier Mahan Air has been hit with tough sanctions after details were revealed about the airline’s involvement in the bizarre plot against Saudi and Israeli interests in the US and Argentina. BBC
• Embraer says it is on track to fly its $18.4 million midsize Legacy 500 by the end of the year. The twin-jet plane is designed to fill the gap in Embraer’s lineup between the Phenom and the Legacy 600/650. The manufacturer is also developing a slightly smaller version, called the Legacy 450. AIN Online
• Virent Energy Systems has created a plant-based jet fuel that is 100% renewable and has passed a series of testing by the Air Force Research Laboratory. “These AFRL results are exciting because they demonstrate the potential of Virent’s catalytic process to create renewable plant-based jet fuel that can meet or exceed petroleum-based jet-fuel specifications at 100% concentration,” said Aaron Imrie, manager of commercial fuels at Virent. “We expect a high level of interest in the aviation industry for a single, fully renewable, plant-based jet fuel.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/Plugged In blog
• The Federal Aviation Administration has awarded $3.1 million to Boeing for its Greener Skies Initiative 2. “The Greener Skies 2 initiative represents another critical milestone as Boeing helps to drive implementation of NextGen, the FAA’s program to transform the national airspace system,” said Neil Planzer of Boeing. Air Transport World
• The Transportation Security Administration has pushed back the deadline for screening all air cargo amid opposition from the International Air Cargo Association. “We fully recognize its intention to enhance existing air cargo security programs but it is showing the foresight to listen to, and work with, the industry towards this objective,” said the group’s chairman, Michael Steen. “This is the result of TSA requesting comment from the air cargo industry on the feasibility of a December 31st 2011 deadline and its careful consideration of the advice it received.” The cargo-screening requirement was a recommendation from the 9/11 Commission. The Hill/Transportation blog
• High-school student Waverly Giannotti knew she wanted to get her private pilot’s license when a family friend took her for a trip in a Cessna 172. “We weren’t even 50 feet off the runway and I knew this is what I wanted to do,” Giannotti said. She earned her license at 17, and wants to study aviation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The Coast News  

Interesting volcanic structure in Alaska. Read more here.

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JARDesigns, the team behind last years hit An148 freeware file, sent us this “spy-foto” of their latest effort, an A318 that’s well along in development and pictured here “in-SIM”. We’ll be looking for more on this one soon, too. So should you!

And rumor has it there’s a new payware airport package about to release, one that will be of serious interest to… oh well, best not spoil the surprise, but some of you are going to be very surprised, and very, very happy!

In the meantime, we have some very, very interesting freeware scenery to look at, so let’s jump right in right after some fresh paint for the Yak40.

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Clavel9 released this Olympic Airways paint for Felis’s YAK40, and this is a sweet effort and most highly recommended. The interesting thing here? It’s not fictional!

You can read more about the aircraft at the link. Cockpit image above in case you’re not familiar with this ACF. It’s a payware file, and an excellent one at that, but it pushes older computers to their limits, and is best utilized on newer, more powerful machines. If you can run this one, you’ll enjoy the LIT cockpit. Like Felis’s An24, the cockpit is about as good as any in X-Plane…

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Biarritz, France is arguably one of the most beautiful seaside resorts in the world, and it has long been a tourist’s mecca, particularly for those in search of wild seas and dramatic sunsets. The town is, as the crow files, not too far from the infinitely more famous French Riviera, yet it’s worlds apart geographically and culturally.

For you see,  Biarritz is a part of the Basque region of France. Located a stones throw from the border with Spain, Basque culture permeates this region of France and lends the area a unique flavor, and the surrounding territory is a sort of country within a country. Too, in modern times the Atlantic/Biscay surf has drawn legions of hard corps surfers to area beaches, and alpine skiing can be had not too far away.

As a result, tourists from France, and indeed from all over western Europe, have flocked to the area for decades, and while air travel is a not so recent addition to the area, most arrive by train, most notably by TGV from Paris. But as you’ll see in the list below, there is good air service to many larger European cities, and so the airport will make a very nice addition to operators of 737s and A319s and RJs and even GA aircraft in X-Plane. It helps that LFBZ Biarritz is by XPFR, and that the team was at the top of their game when they made this one.

Let’s look at the overhead imagery from Google Earth before we dive into the package itself…

…as well as a few images of the terminal:

Below, some images of the terminal area in X-Plane 9.70:

And a list of current operators as of October 2011:

Air France	Marseille, Paris-Orly
Air France operated by Régional	Lyon, Geneva, Nice
Darwin Airline	Geneva
EasyJet	Paris-Charles de Gaulle, London-Gatwick, Lyon
Ryanair	London-Stansted, Brussels South-Charleroi, Dublin, Manchester, Stockholm-Skavsta
Transavia.com	Rotterdam

The download page at XPFR lists this package as being an MsFS conversion of Christophe Deramaix’s original work, and undertaken by Michel Picard, with assistance from Jean Barthet (lighthouse) and “Beber” (LIT textures). Let’s look at the LIT textures in the package now, and the next five single images will yield better results if enlarged, so just click on each to do so:

There aren’t too many images of the terminal building readily available but you can tell that this one is not from some scenery library, and the LIT textures are much better than average. Below, more images from around the airport…

…as well as a few real images from around town:

Which might help you appreciate both the natural beauty of this area as well as the lighthouse that’s included with this package, and that you’ll find in the images below:

It’s nice to finally have another French scenery from XPFR too, and note I have nothing against the Asian scenery packages that have been their focus recently, either! This effort is most highly recommended, and those who downloaded Jersey and St Mary’s last week will want to add this one to their CS folder ASAP.

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xflusi has turned out some very nice small GA airports recently, and this latest is no exception. EDVS Salzgitter is surrounded by industrial/warehouse development so the feel on final approach is a little different than some of the rural airports we’ve seen recently from this developer, and trees virtually surround the airport so the runway can be a little hard to spot. Still, it’s worth going out of your way to find this one! Let’s look at the overheads from Google Earth first:

This is another very small GA airport, one with a very pronounced “local knowledge” feel about it…meaning it’s probably not one you’d likely run across unless you flew out of here regularly. Oh well, Bitte ein Bit!

Some distances? You betcha: Hamburg is about 95 miles, Berlin 125, Frankfurt 150, Prague 220, Amsterdam 230, Copenhagen 250, Paris 420, London 450, Leeds 510, Oslo 530, Edinburgh 600, and Dublin 700 miles. You’ll not want to fly here direct from Los Angeles in your 172…

Above, the tower on the ground, and below, a corresponding view from within XP9.70.

Below, some basic shots from around the airport:

Once again, note the general “industrial” feel about the surroundings on final. Also, if there’s an issue with the file it concerns the rail tracks that run through a few of the buildings, and said tracks are not shown in Google Earth imagery. This is perhaps an issue with XP?

There is a feeling of rural forests all around – once on the ground, which again is sort of odd after the crowded industrial feel on approach…

…but the airport has – all in all – a very nice feel about it.

So, any conclusions here? Well, xflusi has produced yet another winner, and this is a highly recommended download. Great for GA hops around central Germany and surrounding EU countries.

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Ian G revised his EGHE St Mary’s airport package this week, and coming on the heels of the Jersey release last week and the Biarritz release today, you might, repeat might, want to update your copy. First, the overheads:

Next, the terminal/control tower, and note that all the buildings, ALL of them, are Open Scenery X placements, and note that the simple runway structure on the ground is radically expanded in this package…and no longer represents what’s really on the ground.

Now, the revised package. Compare the buildings and runways/taxiways in these images to the real ones just above…

You either like OpenScenery X or you don’t. I don’t, but I understand it’s purpose. I’m not fond of it as we end up with airports that really don’t look like what’s on the ground, and this package is a good case in point. Still, most people will conclude it’s better to have something in XP rather than a whole lot of nothing, while others will chime in and say this type of scenery is why XP is in the predicament it’s in these days. No easy answer to either, I say.

This revision is, by the way, tiny. As in 10 Kb. You delete your older file and replace it with this tiny one, making sure that all your scenery libraries are up to date, and that’s it. All the new (tiny) file does is “download” scenery component information from your libraries and place the needed components on “the ground” in XP. There are no real changes made to the earlier file, but you’ll have the latest file data and formatting.

Despite all the mixed feelings about overuse of OSX elements here, in the end this is a workable package that suits the purpose, and it’s a recommended effort. I’d still like to see an accurate recreation of the real facility one day…but until then, this will do just fine.

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Update: we’ve posted the new links to Jacques Brault’s Prince Edward Island airports in that article, which you’ll find here.

And that’s about all she wrote for now, so…