SIM720's Inverness & Edinburgh
A review by Mike Cameron
Introduction
The information below was gathered from the product page and from www.scotland.com. The Scottish Highlands have many small villages located there, but have only one community that is large enough to be called a city--and that is Inverness. Inverness is located in Northeast Scotland, at the mouth of the River Ness from which the city derives its name. The area where the city is now located was once inhabited by the Picts many centuries ago and today you can make your way to Craig Phadrig where you will find an ancient fort once used by these native peoples. Some of the many historical sites that are located in Inverness are Inverness Castle, which is currently being used as a courthouse. The Andrew’s Cathedral is located on the River Ness and the oldest church of the area, Old High Church, is situated on St Michael’s Mount next to the river.
Inverness Airport (EGPE) is located in Dalcross, which is 8.1 miles (13KM or 7NM) northeast of the City of Inverness and serves as the gateway to the Scottish Highlands. The airport is operated by HIA (Highlands & Islands Airports) and hosts a range of scheduled flights throughout the United Kingdom and a few European destinations. The airport has over a half million passengers that use this airport with more than 15,000 scheduled flights to/from Inverness each year. This airport was originally used as a RAF base in World War II and then opened for civil use in 1947.
Since then, numerous air carriers have used the airport and Inverness Airport has had many upgrades through the years. The Sim720 presentation of this airport is an accurate reproduction of Inverness Airport with custom & hand placed objects with high-resolution textures, accurate placement of taxiways and the runway and custom night lighting effects. This scenery is designed to blend seamlessly with FSX default scenery, Orbx FTX Scotland regional scenery and Horizon scenery products. I will be using it with the Orbx Scotland Scenery. This product is also DX10 compatible.
Installation and Documentation
This is a multipart review and flight tour, so I am only going to explain the install process with the first part of my tour, Stornoway Airport. If this is your first Sim720 airport and did not read the previous part, check out this review. An excellent manual is included with all Sim720 products.
Inverness Airport Walking Tour
Before starting my tour of the airport, I want to first capture a picture of the Sim720 Control Panel. A very nice feature of the Sim720 Control Panel is that as you install new scenery products they are added to the control panel and all you have to do is select that airport to enable/disable features for that airport. There is even a picture from the selected airport, which is also a nice feature. I have the Orbx Scotland regional scenery installed, so I will leave that compatibility option selected. I am not going to provide seasonal texture comparisons for this airport and the next review, Oban, because they would probably look similar to the Stornoway textures, which I already compared. As I like to do whenever I install new airport scenery, I like to explore the airport grounds on foot using the Orbx Bob first person simulator.
I will be using the airport diagram from the User Guide as a map and am going to start at Runway 23, walk north and west crossing Runway 05 and work my way south and east back to Runway 23. I will be loading my current date for the season, which is April 13, 2014 at about 1:00 PM with the default FSX Fair Weather theme. The second screen grab is looking forward towards the runway and you can see the nice texture change of the runway. While standing here I thought it would be a good time to display the ramp & runway lighting for this airport. I currently have DX10 mode enabled and have the DX10 Scenery Fixer program installed, so the light halo effect may look different on your system. Overall I am pleased with this lighting but may tweak the light halo effect using the DX10 Scenery Fixer program.
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Screen grabs four and five is the runway approach at night and during the day. The fifth picture also provides a nice view of the landscapes near the airport area. The first objects that I see are some detailed buildings & trees and a static vehicle that are located just outside the airport boundary. Continuing west at the unused part of the airport, the next group of objects that I come to is the Inverness Airport Fire Training Area. The textures and details of these objects are outstanding and unlike the unlike the Stornoway Fire Training Area, I did not have any flickering textures or missing objects which is nice. The only details that are missing that would have added to the atmosphere of this area are a static firefighting vehicle and maybe some airport workers being trained. Another nice detail here is that you can partially read the labeling on the crates.
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After crossing Runway 05, I am now approaching the modern area of this airport. The first thing that I notice is that Inverness is a much larger airport than Stornoway. Before moving on, I thought I would capture a picture of the detailed airport vegetation. I like the vegetation of the default Control Panel setting, not too tall and not too short. At the helicopter parking area I get my first look at the very detailed ground vehicles, a worker and some small buildings or trailers. I love the realistic weathered textures on the buildings. As I commented about during the Stornoway Review, animations & sound effects are currently not included but Sim720 is working on adding animations for future products and upgrades to current ones. Since I am commenting about animation now is a good time to review system performance. I had no issues on my review computer and most people should not have any trouble using this scenery on most computers. If you do have an issue, try disabling a scenery feature in the Control Panel.
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The only thing missing from the helicopter parking area is a static helicopter. Next up on my tour of the airport is the parking lot and I really like how Sim720 presents the static vehicles parked here. First, they are realistic looking and there is some variety with different makes and models, just what you would expect in the real world airport parking, very nice. Other nice details I notice near here are the small scenery objects such as the large rocks that are placed realistically, garbage dumpsters and other detailed smaller objects. The airport signage is excellent and there is even real world freight company names included, such as FedEx at the cargo area. Lighting is also excellent and I like how the light shines off of the ground and the nearby trucks for a very realistic look. The general aviation terminal and the fire station are also located at this area of the airport and the static objects (fuel trucks, fuel tanks, aircraft & vehicles) look wonderful. It is nice to see an open hangar with aircraft inside being worked on by mechanics. Even though this is not animated, it still adds to the atmosphere. Also if you have it enabled, you can see some of the airport clutter and some other detailed small objects in this area of the airport.
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Continuing south I approach the passenger terminal area of Inverness Airport. This area provides another example of the size difference between Stornoway and Inverness. Even though passengers still board the aircraft using air stairs from the ramp, Inverness is capable of handling larger passenger jets instead of just the smaller regional propeller aircraft. The static aircraft here are also of the real world airlines that service Inverness which is what you would expect from premium airport scenery. The only thing missing that would have added to the experience would be custom AI Traffic to see these aircraft arrive and depart. Just like all of the other textures of the airport, the static aircraft and buildings here look wonderful. This airport will greatly benefit when Sim720 introduces animations because seeing a ramp worker loading a waiting airliner will really add to the experience.
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I read on the support forum that the night lighting is not bright enough so I thought I would capture a couple of night shots of the terminal to see this for myself. Unfortunately, this is true; the lights do not appear to be working so the ramp is very hard to see. The good news is that Sim720 is looking into this issue, which is another reason to like Sim720, great customer service. This update has not been released by the time I had completed the review. As I arrive at my starting location the walking tour of the excellent Sim720 Inverness Airport is complete. Other than the night lighting issue, I did not encounter any major issues with this airport. I am now going to load the Trike Ultralite and fly over the small scenery area surrounding the airport.
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Inverness Aerial Tour
I am going to depart from Runway 05, then fly east and travel in a circle around the scenery area until I reach the furthest south area, then return to Runway 05. I will have a moving map open on my iPad that displays Google Earth data so that I can see where I am at as well as having the scenery coverage page from the manual open. The airport and the area surrounding the airport looks just as impressive from the air as it did from the ground. The buildings and vegetation near the airport have just as nice textures as these things on the airport grounds. I also like the variety of the textures for all of the plots of land and look very similar to the Google Earth image and are located in the real world location. The small communities and housing developments look good with houses that are placed next to driveways and streets.
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Roads are also very accurate and are also placed in real world locations, which are great for VFR flying. I love trees and this scenery has plenty and they are very impressive looking. The City of Inverness is not included with the Sim720 Inverness scenery but I decided to fly over it to see how it is presented with the Orbx Scotland regional scenery. Unlike my disappointment with the City of Stornoway, I am very impressed with the Inverness scenery; it looks just like what I am seeing on the moving map. I tried to locate Inverness Castle but it is not included with the Orbx scenery. Now it is time to return to the airport, and after a brief rest, continue with my Scottish flight tour to the third Sim 720 Scottish airport, Oban. As with the first part I am going to wait and write a comprehensive conclusion after the final part of this multi-part flight tour and review. That being said, I was very impressed with the Sim 720 Inverness (EGPE) scenery product.
Scotland Flight Tour Leg 2 – Part 1 Inverness to Edinburgh
According to www.skyvector.com, a direct flight to Oban (EGEO) is only 79 nautical miles but where is the fun in that. First, I downloaded some free scenery objects for the cities of Edinburgh, Stirling and Oban from Orbx developer Martin Reiffer. Here is the link to this free scenery. There are many points of interest to see from Inverness to Edinburgh plus the Edinburgh sites; I decided to write two sections to finish this review instead of one very long section. This section will be the cross country flight in my Cessna 172R and for the final section I will use the Trike Ultralite to explore the City of Edinburgh.
So let’s get started and travel south over the City of Inverness then to the first point of interest, Urquhart Castle and Loch Ness. This castle was once one of Scotland’s largest castles, and remains include a tower that provides wonderful views of Loch Ness and Great Glen. Many conflicts have occurred through the years as a medieval fortress from the 13th to the 17th centuries. Loch Ness needs no introduction as the famous alleged home of the Loch Ness Monster. On a more scientific note, Loch Ness is the second deepest loch in Scotland after Loch Morar but is the largest loch by volume containing more fresh water then all of the lakes in England & Wales combined. Next, I am going to travel southeast over Cairngorms National Park and the Balmoral Castle. This castle on the Balmoral Estate is located in Aberdeenshire; Scotland is the holiday residence of The Queen of England and members of her family.
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After taking a snapshot of Balmoral Castle I am going to fly in a southerly direction towards the City of Edinburgh. After passing over the Tay Road Bridge and before flying over the next landmark the St Andrews Cathedral Ruins and wanted to see the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews which was established in 1754 and is one of the oldest golf clubs in the world. St Andrews is part of a rotation of courses that host the British Open of Golf in the summer each year. The St Andrews Ruins contains what once was Scotland’s largest and most magnificent medieval church, The St Andrews Cathedral. The real world location also contains the St Rules Tower, the predecessor to the cathedral and the Precinct Walls which are the most complete in Scotland.
Both the St Andrews Golf Course and the St Andrews Ruins look great in the Orbx Scotland Scenery. There are several other golf courses in this area and they are placed accurately along with all of the other cities, towns, parks and other scenery features according to my Google moving map, which is another benefit to owning this regional scenery. After flying over these ruins it is now time to land at Edinburgh International Airport for a short rest before starting my city tour of Edinburgh in the Trike.
Scotland Flight Tour Leg 2 – Part 2 Edinburgh City Tour
The City of Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. Edinburgh grew around its Old Town until the late 18th century and this area of the city still has the distinct character from the days of old featuring the Edinburgh Castle at the top of the Royal Mile to the Grass Market below which was once the site for public hangings. During this time the Nor Loch served as a natural defense until it was drained and converted to form the Princess Street Gardens in later years. After 1583, the city was the hub for educational and professional development. It was at this time that the University of Edinburgh was formed and this university still stands today.
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As the years followed, many new ventures happened, making Edinburgh a financial capital by the end of the 20th century. In 1707, the Act of Union occurred, which joined Scotland and England together politically and moved power from Scotland’s Old Parliament to London’s Westminster. Today, Edinburgh combines both modern buildings such as the Scottish Parliament, which sits alongside wonderful historical buildings including the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The City of Edinburgh is very compact, is easily walkable and is comprised of different villages with their own distinctive character. The landmarks that I am going to fly over include Tynecastle Stadium, St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh Castle, Royal Scottish Academy, National Gallery, Scottish Government buildings, Holyrood Abby & Holyroodhouse Palace, the Royal Mile and Barclay Church. Although I was able to create waypoints in Plan G of the above landmarks, I could not zoom in close enough on the moving map in order to see the location names so I will not be providing labels for the various landmarks but I tried to capture them in the order of my flight plan. To learn more about the City of Edinburgh and these landmarks visit, www.visitscotland.com.
Summary / Closing Remarks
I hope everyone has enjoyed my review of the Sim720 Inverness Airport and leg two of the Scotland tour. I have decided to finish this review now because this leg was becoming very long. In Part three, I will finish the Scottish tour, flying over the landmarks along the way including the City of Stirling and write my review of the Sim720 Oban Airport scenery. I will write a comprehensive conclusion at the end of the third part of this multi-part review and tour. I want to thank Sim720 for providing the review copy of Inverness. If you are interested in this scenery visit the product page located here. This product is also available from the AVSIM Marketplace located here.