The UK's
Second Busiest UK Airport Gets First Class Treatment
The first
time I flew, I went to Orlando, with Virgin Atlantic, on
one of their B747-400’s. I remember the flight well.
Strangely though I only have 2 short memories of Orlando
International itself. My memories of airports are
trained wholly on London Gatwick.
As it was
the departure airport for my first ever flight, as well
as several other flights I have made, it was obvious
that I would spend a lot of time flying into and out of
it in FS. However, I found myself choosing Heathrow more
and more, as I preferred the scenery that Microsoft had
modelled. Only the shape of London Gatwick was
represented. So it comes as a relief that some fine
scenery had been made for the airport.
Airport
overview. The blending looks better in the background
than near the front. From the air this place looks real
The UK2000
sceneries are probably most well known for the work that
they have done supplying scenery for England and Wales,
at a cost, leaving the owners with some realistic
scenery for their local. I must admit that I do not own
any other UK2000 sceneries. I was always deterred by
certain parts of the sceneries, mostly the taxiways
which to me, never appeared to be capable of supporting
large aircraft.
Thankfully
though, with Gatwick Pro these taxiways look firm and
stable. This is not the only improvement that has been
made. Owners of Heathrow Pro always found themselves
with poor frame rates. With Gatwick, I have found them
to be just lower than the default. It would not be too
hard however to go into the start menu utility and
change the setup to improve frame rates on my system.
Installation was possibly the easiest process I have
ever been through. It requires activation in the Setup
menu, but this is really simple. After purchase, a code
is sent that allows you to ‘unlock’ the scenery.
The tower. Not the most beautiful rendition of a
tower I have seen, but then Gatwick’s is not a
particularly modern design |
The
included manual, available free on the website, informs
you that there are a few options that you must set in
order to receive the intended effect. These might affect
frame rates on slower systems, but if you have a system
capable of running FS2004 smoothly, there are no
settings there that you won’t already have set at the
required level. Furthermore the manual goes on to
explain that there are certain things that some users
can remove to save disk space/improve performance. On my
setup, this included a file that eliminates the Gatwick
included in British Airports. Although you have to turn
‘Dynamic Scenery’ off, you do not need to uninstall the
original version.
An
important note to make is about VFR terrain. Gatwick is
perfectly aligned to the Get Mapping ground images. This
will clearly be evident to ground Environment, FS Scene,
and default texture users, as the ground that Gatwick
sits on is photo real. Never the less, it does not have
an obvious transition between the photo and the default,
although some edges are more apparent than others. It
would be nice to see an option of switching between the
2, with Non VFR users having a smoother blend between
the two.
Spring and
summer textures are included, but unfortunately no snow
textures. There are of course night textures, as you
would expect, and these leave the airport looking as
real at night as it does in the day. Some parts have
more detailed lighting than others, but when on
approach, the areas that are illuminated are the exact
right ones for that special feel.
Approaching 8R at night. The landing lights are
left on all the time, but you can turn them off
by tuning a specific frequency |
A
comparison of the airport by night and by day |
Gatwick
Pro has most of the airport clutter that appears around
the edge of the airport. This includes trees, the Fire
training aircraft, fences, huts and hangars, and a
couple of roads that go past the airport. It adds a
surprisingly realistic feel to the airport as you taxi
out to runway 8R, which is quite a distance from the
terminals. Gatwick actually has 2 runways, although only
one is operational at any one time for safety
restrictions, and so the AFCAD reflects this.
On the
edge of the South terminal, Gary Summons has modelled
Gatwick’s Rail link, with trains coming and going every
so often. Unfortunately there is no possibility of
chasing these for any substantial distance, as the rail
line cuts off with the ground textures. I would have
preferred this line to be extended into the distance.
The track network and station are nothing more than
ground textures, with only the trains being basic 3D
shapes. Although they have fewer carriages than the real
versions, they carry the correct shape.
Another train runs between the 2 terminal buildings, and
looks just how I remember it. As usual with add-on
sceneries, the high levels of detail cannot just be seen
airside, but also around the terminal, although unlike
some scenery, Gary Summons has chosen not to model the
inside of the terminal buildings in full. A
representation of what is inside has been included, in
something that is surely a first for FS. Moving people,
walking between locations! Although these are nothing
more than 3D silhouettes they add an untold amount of
realism to the airport.
There is
no part of the airport where they have an effect more
than at the air bridge. Gatwick recently added a multi
million pound, 22m high Air Bridge to connect the North
Terminal with 11 mid field gates. It is accurately
modelled in the FS scenery, with aircraft running under
it with no problems whatsoever, except the A380.
Despite having a superb set of ground textures, courtesy
of Get Mapping, there are several areas that have not
been created in 3D. A couple of these are
understandable, but some, especially on the approach
path, would be greatly improved if a few 3D objects were
placed there.
The
infamous air bridge that BAA and Gatwick are very proud
of |
VA’s will
be pleased as Gary’s love for these organisations has
persuaded him to allow VA’s to request that their logo
replace the HSBC signs on gates. Static Aircraft are
available from the website as a separate download, for
users not using any traffic add-ons. These are not
great, but new ones are on the way.
If you have any AI packages installed, you will
immediately find that you have to reduce the AI traffic
sliders. With only one runway, you will find yourself
waiting for hours to get to the hold point. In my setup,
aircraft, especially BA and EasyJet seem to park
together. There are 2 AFCADS included, that can be
changed manually. One apparently sends the AI to airline
specific gates, and the other does not. It is extremely
hard to get a balance between how busy the airport
looks, and how frustrating it gets waiting. I personally
don’t think I have got it right.
EasyJet gates at the south terminal |
Some
scenery developers have stopped creating active gates.
This includes Mega Airport Frankfurt and Fly Vienna. At
Gatwick, active gates are still in operation. However,
there are only 5 of them. The way the AFCAD is coded
results in your aircraft generally being sent to these
stands.
And even
when I wasn’t, it did not stop me risking my virtual
licence, and going there anyway. Upon entering the gate
area a fleet of vehicles appear, drive to your aircraft
and line-up. The same happens if you first load your
aircraft in those positions. The ground vehicles are set
to hang around (with the baggage lorry coming and
coming) for around about 10-15 minutes. According to
Gary this is neither too long to wait, nor too short to
dislike. And I would certainly agree.
Upon
tuning the ATIS the air bridge will swing towards one of
your aircrafts doors. Tuning clearance then moves it
back to its original spot. However this often means that
I’m moving the air bridge away before I want to. It
would be better if tuning the ground frequency removed
the air bridge, and clearance/ATIS docked it.
As
expected this is not 100% accurate, but I have found
that it is never far off. Getting into the right
position is easy too, as the stop boards will put your
aircraft where it is needed provided the 2D or VC is
also positioned correctly to where the rest of the
aircraft is. Many of the non-active gates have a stop
board anyway. If there is no active gate, the air bridge
is positioned fairly close to the aircraft, so you can
open the doors without having to look at a huge gap.
This shot
does not show the full effect of the ground fleet. You
have to actually see it to believe it |
The
section of the manual that deals with getting this to
work is not very clear, or at least it was not to me. I
thought that both the service fleet and the air bridge
worked by communication frequencies. It didn’t stop me
flying and enjoying, but it could be slightly clearer.
Once the
Service Vehicles do depart, it is not a quick process,
but looks and feels superb. The actual Armada models are
well modelled and textured too, and this adds to the
realism. As they depart, they follow the road markings,
and join other vehicles whizzing around the airport.
A demo is
available from the Gatwick Pro site, and I highly
recommend you give it a try because you will see just
why I love this destination so much. No matter what
continent you love to fly over in FS, you will return to
this location over and over again. Be warned, that if
you pay with the small cost to get this scenery, you
will not be spending much time away from it.
Links:
http://www.uk2000scenery.com/main/index.htm
http://www.uk2000scenery.org.uk/main/My_Homepage_Files/page12.html © Fred
Clark 2007 |