Introduction
The third airport in Scotland to come from the UK2000 production
team. A small airport in the great scheme of things but
nonetheless important.
It nestles in the Scottish central belt 16nm miles North of
Glasgow along the M8 corridor. The original grass airfield
opened in 1966 before the current modern tarmac runway and
airport building was built in 1989.
Centrally located next to the town of Cumbernauld, the airport is
easily accessible from central Scotland on the A80 motorway from
Glasgow to Stirling. The airport offers full facilities
including a coffee shop, departures and arrivals lounge,
training and hanger facilities.
Cumbernauld Airport (EGPG) is primarily used for the training of
fixed wing and rotary wing pilots, it also has an aircraft
maintenance facility. The airport has a CAA Ordinary Licence
that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or
for flying instruction as authorised by the licensee, Cormack
Aircraft Services Limited. The airport was opened by the
Cumbernauld Development Corporation in the late 1980s.
Operators
Training organisations: Border Air Training,
Leading Edge Flight Training and Scotia Helicopters.
Other Operators: PDG Helicopters (helicopter
charters) and Hebridean Air Services Ltd (twin engine
Britten-Norman Islander charter).
Maintenance Organisation: Cormack Aviation
Services Ltd.
There is also a cafe called "Cumbernauld Airport Cafe" within
the Airport buildings, located on the first floor and open seven
days a week.
Also located on the airfield is the active West of Scotland
strut of the Light Aircraft Association (formerly the Popular
Flying Association).
Included
Not only have UK2000 included the airport but you also get some
very nicely detailed industrial buildings with 3D cars and
trucks, some of which are animated. This makes up the general
Cumbernauld Airport area.
There are 2 large hangers, several smaller
hangers a control centre and airport cafe. Here are more
features as listed by the developer:
| * Full detail Buildings | * Industrial estate | ||
| * Realistic Ground Markings | * Animated Fire Vehicle | ||
| * Hi Res ground image | * Open Hanger | ||
| * Grass effects | * Terrain blending | ||
| * Stone,asphalt and concrete detailing | * Shading | ||
| * Airport Vehicles | * Night lights | ||
| * Excellent Frame Rates | * Road Traffic | ||
| * Animated objects | * Bushes, trees and shrubs | ||
| * Refuelling station | * Static Aircraft | ||
| * Full set of signs | * Manual and Options | ||
| * Fencing | * Special 'Effects' |
Installation
The installation is fully automatic; it will search the
Windows registry for the location of your FS9/FSX folder and
use this as the default initial location. You can install
Cumbernauld Xtreme to any location but please remember where
you placed it, as any future updates released will need to
know where to be placed.
It will also install FS2004/FSX AFD data (via an AFCAD file
for the airfield) to allow the AI aircraft to taxi and park
correctly. The FSX version also routes the default FSX
vehicles away from AI routes.
This product does not include any large airliner AI, as this
may conflict with the users AI add-ons.
After the basic installation of the files, the ‘Options’
program will auto-run. This program is needed to add the new
scenery area to you FS9/FSX library and for you to select
certain options.
The chart shown here is available
from
www.ais.org.uk
Display settings
For both FSX and FS2004 set Global Max texture to ‘Massive’,
this to ensure the 1024 size
Images are displayed corrected, (if not set they will be
blurred)
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I used the settings advised by UK2000 as above but you will have to play with your individual settings to get the best from your own graphics cards.
Cumbernauld Xtreme also comes packaged with the ‘Options Program’, which you can use to change the scenery to meet your particular needs or preferences. It can be accessed at any point (you don't have to reinstall) Click START-ALL PROGRAMS-UK2000 SCENERY-UK2000 Cumbernauld XTREME-OPTIONS.
When you run the program, you will be faced with this options display. From here you can decide what you wish to install.
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If you have any Photo Scenery for this area, you can select
to check the box if you wish. Also, depending on your system and your personal choices you may select Options 1 or 2 at the bottom of the pop-out. This will determine what method of animation you wish to use. Choosing option 1 will give you the best smoothness and is also linked to your FPS. Again it’s all personal choice. |
This scenery is complex, but it is programmed in an efficient way. Compared to other products this scenery is very good on frame rates. But please don’t set your FS2004/FSX at maximum settings and expect to get a smooth ride. Most of the frame rate problems have nothing to do with the add-on scenery. AI aircraft , water effects, Autogen and default FSX airport vehicles will slow your PC the most. I can get Cumbernauld to display at 150fps (FS9, no autogen, no AI) or 8FPS (FSX, MAX AI ADDONS, MAX Autogen) it is all down to settings.
As Cumbernauld doesn’t take up such a large area as Glasgow Xtreme or Edinburgh Xtreme, it doesn’t have a very big impact on Frames-Per-Second so, for a small airfield it is quite feasible to set your sliders quite high with no ill effects.
Try several settings with your individual set-ups and see how high you can take them before you notice any difference.
Seasonal Change
Here are the screen shots I took from the same spot but just altering the month. As you can see, the team at UK2000 have given us a good balance of light and shade for each season.
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Apart from some of the extremely green surroundings, which I have attributed to FSX, the overall job the guys at UK2000 have done with Cumbernauld Xtreme is pretty much on the money as far as I can see.
Around the airfield itself are some stationary airport/field objects that you would expect to find at such a small but well equipped airport.
Such as oil drums, fuelling station, static aircraft etc etc. There are also some animated objects such as, the fire truck, the wind sock, some people are animated also.
FSX
Default versus Cumbernauld Xtreme
There is absolutely no doubt at all that UK2000 have
succeeded in creating yet another lovely little airfield.
When compared to the default FSX Cumbernauld, it is almost
unrecognisable as you can see in the screen-shots below.
Cumbernauld Xtreme breathes life into such dull area, as the
default FSX.
 FSX Default |
 UK2000 – Cumbernauld Xtreme |
 Real World |
General Tips
1) You MUST set the Global Max Texture size to ‘Massive’. This product uses many large images. If you set this any lower then these images will be blurred. This setting can be found by clicking OPTIONS-SETTINGS-DISPLAY-HARDWARE.
FSX users also need to set Mesh resolution to 19M or better and Texture resolution to 60cm or better.
2) Do you hate the new fixed MIP setting in FSX?
This means everything gets blurred in mid-far range. I’m sure some users and Microsoft like it that way, but there’s plenty who don’t (like me!) You need to edit your FSX.CFG file to solve this problem. Add MipBias=8 to the display section of the fsx.cfg file for maximum sharpness, or use MipBias=6 for something halfway.
Runways
| Direction | Length | Surface |
| 08/26 | 820m 2,690ft | Asphalt |
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Conclusion
As I have already stated, Cumbernauld is not a very large airport, nor does it have the facilities associated with airports like Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham etc etc.
There are no heavy tube liners going to be landing here but, what you do get is a well detailed small airfield that is used primarily as a training base for wannabe pilots. It is quite a busy little field and is well situated in the Central Belt of Scotland. It is easily reached within minutes from either Edinburgh Xtreme or Glasgow Xtreme.
Verdict
I would recommend adding Cumbernauld Xtreme to your scenery
library if you enjoy flying in Scotland and because it is
made by UK2000. The detail of the airfield and its
surrounding retail and business parks, makes it a must have
in my view.
I shall certainly be watching 2012 closely for the release
of Aberdeen, Inverness and Prestwick airports from UK2000,
to complete my Scottish airports package.
I have enjoyed flying around Cumbernauld and would award
Cumbernauld Xtreme a Mutley’s Hangar score of 8.5.
Purely for its size. If it were as large as Glasgow or
Birmingham for example I’m sure it would have warranted a
higher rating.
Thanks to UK2000 for another great product. Keep up the
great work guys.
Brian Buckley
Review machine Spec: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 3.15 Ghz |
4Gb 800Mhz DDR2 Ram |GTX285 Graphics |Windows 7
64bit
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