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Introduction - A Brief History

The Prestwick Airport site was first used as an airfield for light aircraft way back in 1934.

In 1935 the land was acquired by a Mr. David McIntyre who had the intention of using the field as a training base for pilots. With the construction of a control tower, hangars and various buildings for tuition purposes, the inception of Scottish Aviation Ltd had taken place.

World War II marked a new era for Prestwick Airport, training was halted and the site was used as a base for US aircraft deliveries. Scottish Aviation Ltd began production of aircraft at Prestwick - a role which was upheld until 1998 when BAe shut down the the Jetstream 41 production line.

In 1941 the original factory was added to when the Palace of Engineering, originally sited in Glasgow, was moved to the Prestwick Airport site. This building still stands on the airport grounds today.

In 1958 plans were underway to develop the airport, by 1962 the new control tower had been erected, and in 1964 the new passenger terminal was opened.

After WWII the 17th century Orangefield House, which the airport had been built next to, was put into use as a terminal building. Orangefield house was demolished in 1966 to make way for a new taxiway. However, all was not lost, the wooden floors of the house can now be found in the Aviator function suite of the new passenger terminal.

At present, Prestwick Airport has roughly 20,000 aircraft movements per year and is home to four airlines, with one terminal and 2 runways moving approximately 1.9 million passengers each year.

One of Prestwick Airport's claims to fame is it was the location of Elvis Presley's only (official) visit to the British Isles in 1960.

It is known as Glasgow's second airport although it sits 32 miles from Glasgow and 1.2 miles from the town of Prestwick. In actual acreage, Prestwick Airport is Scotland's largest commercial airfield but in passenger numbers, it lies in fourth position after Edinburgh, Glasgow International and Aberdeen Airport.

Airport Terminal - 55°30'34"N 004°35'40"W Elevation - 65ft - 20m AMSL Runways Direction   Length                   Surface 12/30        2,986m - 9,797ft    Concrete/Asphalt 03/21        1,905m - 6,250ft    Asphalt

Main Terminal

Availability, Installation and Documentation

Prestwick Xtreme is available from UK2000 via their website here , priced at £16.99 for the full download. Also, there is a 'try before you buy'  demo option which has 3 large spoiler cubes on the runway which are removed if you decide to buy, or, a free version which has limited features as listed below.

This table gives you an idea of what features are available in both the full and free versions.


The space required on a hard drive is 380MB for the full version and 138.4MB for the free version. The choice is yours but UK2000 give you the option to try before you buy, so why not use it. I have always found I invariably went on to purchase the full versions of the airfields I own from UK2000.

From download to installation only takes a matter of minutes. Once installed you will be faced with the Options Setup. This enable you to set the various options to match both your system and/or your preferences. With only 8 options to choose from, it is simple and easy to use.

A 6 page .pdf user manual is included with the installation. The manual gives some background information on the real world airport as well as (limited) advice on display settings and explanation of the options setup panel above. The manual also has a URL link for charts which bounce off the UK2000 website to the NATS Aeronautical Information Service web page.

Scenery Coverage and Detail

As there is no documented evidence of the coverage area, I made a quick area measurement using Google Maps and found that UK2000 Prestwick Xtreme covers approximately 5.5 km². So in terms of area covered for your money, it works out at around £0.31 per m², which is an excellent bargain.

Airport Buildings and Objects

As with all the UK2000 airports that I own, the detail is remarkable. From the stunning grass textures to the highly detailed terminal buildings. The team at UK2000 have once again produced an airport worthy of any collection.

Ryanair plays a very major role at Prestwick and this has influenced the amount of detail given to the buildings and aircraft on the site. The Ryanair maintenance hangar, is quite beautifully rendered as are static Ryanair aircraft dotted around the airfield. The static aircraft included in Prestwick Xtreme are quite simply some of the best I've seen. Gone are the angular looking boxes included in some other add-ons, these aircraft look like they are part of your flyable stock aircraft. From humble little Cessna's, the Royal Mail and TNT aircraft, right up to the massive, very nice looking, 747 parked near the Ryanair and Polar Air Cargo hangars.

747	Hangars
Freight Centre	Tower
Default Terminal	UK2000 Terminal
Terminal Frontage	Gates Airside
Terminal Daytime

The amount of detail afforded to the numerous buildings around Prestwick Xtreme can only be described as incredible. All the buildings and various structures have been given the same quality in terms of detail, which makes it a joy to just taxi around the field and admire the work that has been put in to this airport. One negative point I found is the 2D people. Whilst there are plenty of them, it is very strange to see them disappear when you are viewing them side on.

Here are just a handful of screenshots depicting the pure quality of the various areas of the airfield.

Spirit Aerosystems
Flying Club	Flying Club 2
HMS Gannet	Mk.5 Sea Kings

HMS Gannet, based at Prestwick Airport, is the base of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm Search and Rescue division (SAR). The  Mk.5 Sea Kings are on constant alert and are scrambled almost on a daily basis. They provide S.A.R services covering an area from the North West of Scotland down to the Lake District and from Northern Ireland to Edinburgh. Prestwick Xtreme has the S.A.R base completely represented in the sim. The base has its own entrance from the road and you will see the entrance signs at the security gate in the scenery. The large hangars and buildings are all custom built and instantly recognisable as the real thing.  The base has its own apron and helipads so if rotors are your thing, HMS Gannet would be an ideal opportunity for you to base your S.A.R business, whilst also using Prestwick Airport from UK2000.

HMS Gannet Apron 1

HMS Gannet Apron 2

Seasonal Variation

I was running Prestwick Xtreme with Orbx FTX Global, the pictures below show the changes throughout the seasons. Although there was no snow on the airfield itself, there are subtle changes to the colouration of the area covered to sufficiently portray the feeling of winter.

Lighting

The general night lighting is very atmospheric and realistic, although in some areas it is quite difficult to see where the light is cast from but this doesn't detract from the overall enjoyment of this scenery.

The runways, taxiways and aprons all look extremely realistic and well lit and are very easily navigated.

Night Lights	Dusk
Runway 21 Approach	Runway 30 Approach

Performance

As I followed the recommended settings in the manual, I had no problem with stuttering frames or indeed, low frame rates. By following the advice in the manual, I was experiencing frame rates between 30 - 65fps quite comfortably. This was a very nice surprise considering the amount of exquisite detail Gary has put in to Prestwick. Admittedly, I have respectable system specs but I don't see why anyone with a modest spec machine could not replicate these figures, with some judicial use of the Options Setup panel.

Value for Money

As I mentioned earlier, my rough calculations regarding the area covered, at £0.31 per m² it is simply a no-brainer when considering whether to add Prestwick to your scenery library. At £16.99 for such a super detailed airport, it represents considerable value for money.

Summary

How to summarise this product without sounding almost sycophantic is quite difficult for me. If you have read any other reviews I have written, you will know that I live in the Highlands of Scotland and as such, any airport covered in Scotland is dear to me. All I can say is that Gary and UK2000 studios have produced yet another superbly detailed airport for the flight simulation community. It is both resplendent in textural quality and interest, which I find incredible considering the frame rates I achieved. So with that in mind, I would not hesitate to recommend Prestwick Xtreme to you as either another very well presented airport to add to your library but also a very good base to set yourself up, in the search and rescue world. Either way I would be astounded if you failed to enjoy this product.

Congratulations and thanks go to Gary and the team at UK2000, for yet another superb addition to their airport portfolio and to my scenery library.

Compatibility

Prestwick Xtreme is compatible with FSX, FS9 and Prepar3D. It also sits extremely well on to ORBX scenery.

I also had installed ORBX FTX: EU Scotland, Active Sky Next and REX4, and the sim ran without problems.

System Requirements

        • Microsoft Flight Simulator X (SP2, Acceleration Pack or Gold Edition), Microsoft FS9 or Lockheed Martin Prepar3D (v1 or v2);
        • Windows XP, Windows VISTA, Windows 7, Windows 8 (Windows 7 64 Bit recommended);
        • 3.0GHz processor (Dual Core processor recommended);
        • 4GB RAM;
        • 1024MB 3D graphics card (minimum);
        • 64 Bit operating system highly recommended;
        • Download size - 383MB; and
        • Installation size - 453MB.

Review Computer Specifications

        • Asus P8Z77-V motherboard, Intel i7 3.4Ghz 'Sandybridge';
        • 16GB, DDR3, Corsair Vengeance, 1600MHz RAM
        • Asus Strix Geforce GTX970 OC 4Gb, graphics card;
        • 500GB, WD Velociraptor - FSX;
        • 128GB, Corsair Force 3 SSD - OS Windows 7 64bit;
        • 1.5TB flight simulator add-ons;
        • Matrox TripleHead2Go - 2 x 23" Acer LCD monitors; and
        • Operating System - Windows 7, 64 Bit.

Verdict and Rating

Pros:
        • Hand crafted 3D objects, buildings and objects.
        • Excellent third party compatibility.
        • Great looking Static Aircraft.
        • Superb Ground Textures.
        • Very low impact on frame rates.
        • Value for money.

Cons:
        • 2D People, unconvincing.
        • Some lighting issues.

Links:
         • Prestwick Airport: http://www.glasgowprestwick.com/
         • Prestwick Airport on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Prestwick_Airport
         • UK2000 Scenery.com: http://www.uk2000scenery.com/newsite/default.htm
         • HMS Gannet: http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/gannet

Update

Since writing this review an update has been released, version 1.1 with the following changes:
        • More houses and trees on the north side.
        • The large 'Goodrich' building added on the north side.
        • Latest AFD and GSX files.
        • Fixed ATC approach, so you can select the ILS when talking to ATC.
        • Fixed FSX/P3D Options so that the correct Ground flatten file is installed if you are a FTX user.

Scores:
● Scenery Coverage:	10/10
● Level of Detail:	9.0/10
● Quality of Objects:	9.5/10
● Performance:	10/10
● Documentation:	8.5/10
● Value for Money:	10/10

UK2000 Prestwick Airport is awarded a Mutley’s Hangar score of 9.5/10, with an "Outstanding" and a Mutley's Hangar Gold Award.