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Introduction

FTX: NA KBLU Blue Canyon-Nyack Airport is a special triple pack which consists of three general aviation airports: Blue Canyon-Nyack (KBLU); general aviation Gansner Field (2O1); and Limberlost Ranch (CA21). These three general aviation airports are spread across a coverage area of approximately 8,000 square miles at the northern end of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This triple pack is the work of the Turbulent Designs 3D modelling gurus, Greg Jones and Russell Linn, who have combined with Orbx to bring us this impressive package. From the grass roots upwards, these guys have put in a great deal of time researching these three airports. Now, finally we have a triple pack of beautifully rendered 3D models, animated people, airport clutter, and more. There are even different ground textures for Blue Canyon-Nyack for a 'hard winter'. Check out more details further down in this review. Custom mesh included in the package is 8,000 square miles of 10m terrain mesh covering all three locations and the area between them to enhance your flying experience!

Airport Terminals

Blue Canyon-Nyack Airport (KBLU). Blue Canyon-Nyack Airport lies in the Tahoe National Forest area near Emigrant Gap on the I80. At an elevation 5,284ft AMSL, the area is remote and sparsely populated, making it ideal for star gazing trips and it even has several permanent observatories within the airport boundary. The airport has a single 3,300ft asphalt runway. During major bush fires, the airport is used as a helipad base for emergency response teams.


Gansner Field (2O1). Gansner Field is located 41nm north of Blue Canyon-Nyack Airport, near the town of Quincy. Situated in a wide valley, the airport sits at 3,419ft AMSL and covers an area of 88 acres. It has one 4,105ft asphalt runway. A number of FBOs operate from the airport and these are included in the representation of the airport. A number of custom modelled buildings lie around the area including the Feather River College campus, Quincy High School, shopping centres, churches, and gas stations. As a bonus, also included is the Plumas District Hospital and helipad (CL94), which you will find about half a mile to the west of the airport.


Limberlost Ranch (CA21). Limberlost Ranch is a small ranch airstrip located near Lake Wildwood. The single grass/dirt runway lies along a small uphill ridge. The entire airstrip has been accurately modelled to match the actual terrain and provide a realistic experience of landing in such difficult geography. Just 23nm east of Blue Canyon-Nyack Airport, the airport sits at 1,650ft AMSL and has an undulating and laterally uneven 1,700ft runway. A single hangar stands very close to the runway/taxi area.

Availability and Installation

FTX: NA KBLU Blue Canyon-Nyack Airport is available from the FlightSim Store (FSS) and is priced at £16.99 at the time of writing this review. As the usual method of purchasing Orbx products is from the FlightSim Store, FTX: NA KBLU Blue Canyon-Nyack is a 'download only' product with the option of a DVD backup available for an additional nominal fee.

At 1.23GB, FTX: NA KBLU Blue Canyon-Nyack Airport is a decent sized download file and this took me approximately 42 minutes to download and approximately four minutes to install. As I don't have the fastest internet connection available, it might be less time for others to download.

Having downloaded and unzipped the file you will find the FSS Installer application OrbxFTXBLU100.exe. Run this file and you are then presented with the product validation panel and this is where you enter the details sent to you by email from the FlightSim Store. Once completed, you are free to fly around the airfields included. I'm sure this procedure is not unfamiliar to most of you.


Scenery Coverage and Detail

The following features are included:
        • three highly detailed airports, Blue Canyon-Nyack (KBLU), Gansner Field (2O1), and Limberlost Ranch (CA21);
        • custom 10m mesh covering approximately 8,000 square miles;
        • highly detailed custom ground polygons;
        • high resolution buildings;
        • unique static aircraft models;
        • custom modelled surrounding POIs, such as, gas stations, hotels, schools, and churches;
        • includes Plumas District Hospital and helipad (CL94);
        • challenging hilltop landing on a fully modelled runway at Limberlost Ranch;
        • fully seasoned to match FTX: NA Northern California;
        • hand placed autogen vegetation and buildings; and
        • developed by Greg Jones and Russell Linn (Turbulent Designs).

Encompassing an area of approximately 8,000 square miles, the three airports included in the scenery add-on will give you plenty of opportunity to explore this region of California. The area covered by each specific airport is detailed in the pictures below, but the connecting areas between each airport have also been covered with a 10m mesh, giving you uninterrupted scenery between airports.



The maps below show the counties in California where each airfield is situated, illustrating their proximity to each other.



Airport Buildings and Objects

Greg Jones and Russell Linn (Turbulent Designs) have produced some stunning scenery for the flight simulation world in the past and FTX: NA KBLU Blue Canyon-Nyack is, by far, no exception. Once again, the attention to detail is the mantra from these guys. There is plenty to feast your eyes on, with each of the three airport regions full of eye candy. Not only have they rendered the individual airports (if you can call Limberlost Ranch an airport), they have included a good sized area of the respective surrounding countryside. There are some beautifully rendered bespoke buildings both in and around the airports/airfields and plenty of the usual clutter and Orbx Object 'Flow' people going about their daily business. I have included just a taste of these below, showing what you can expect to see at each airport.

Blue Canyon-Nyack Airport (KBLU)
Blue Canyon-Nyack Signage	Blue Canyon-Nyack Buildings
Blue Canyon-Nyack - No Trespassing	Blue Canyon-Nyack - Fire Station
Gansner Field (2O1)
Gansner Signage	Gansner Buildings
Gansner Rusty Tank	Gansner Apron Details

Gansner Airport is the largest of the three airports included in this triple pack, and also includes the Plumas District Hospital (and associated helipad) and Snake Lake. Snake Lake is covered in lilies and appears almost totally green due to this vegetation cover. An anomaly that I found with the lake is that it is possible to land on the lake with wheels. This is due to the limitations with water masking in FSX and not an oversight on the part of Greg and Russell. Another observation, but one which more than likely relates to dated Google Earth imagery, is the runway data and alignment is consistent with current FAA data, but images from Google Earth show the runway marked as 06/24.

Landing at Plumas Hospital (CL94)	Plumas Hospital and Helipad
Lilly covered Snake Lake	Snake Lake - Winter
Limberlost Ranch (CA21)
Limberlost - Behind Runway 10	The Lonely Hangar
Deteriorating Runway Edge	An Undulating Descent

Limberlost Ranch may be the smallest airfield in this triple pack but it is far from the easiest to operate from. With approximately 97m of asphalt, you then find yourself racing down a steeply grassed, undulating field to complete your take-off. It is possible, however, to take off within the distance of the asphalt section, albeit in a microlight. Limberlost Ranch is sparsely populated with buildings, but the sheer thrill of take off, landing, and making a full stop in time, makes up for this. The nearby communities of Lake Wildwood and Rough and Ready (yes, there is a town named that) are both represented very well. Lake Wildwood gives you a very good marker for where to find the runway. With no fuel at Limberlost Ranch, you had better come prepared!

Seasonal Variation There are some awesome seasonal changes at Blue Canyon-Nyack Airport and Gansner Field, but not at Limberlost Ranch. The lack of seasonal variation at Limberlost Ranch is due to the fact that in this particular region of California they do not get such extremes of weather as the other areas. There are three User Control Panels that accompany this package, which will allow the user to alter the seasonal variations as they wish. Blue Canyon-Nyack and Gansner both have the 'Hard Winter' settings, and to make this appear you should make sure you have changed the grass and shrub settings prior to starting FSX. Here is a representation of the User Control Panels you will have, this one being the KBLU Control Panel.

I have omitted any seasonal screenshots for Limberlost Ranch for the reasons given above. They look the same no matter what time of year it is.

Blue Canyon-Nyack Summer	Blue Canyon-Nyack Winter
Gansner Summer	Gansner Winter

Lighting

It appears that not a great deal goes on at these three airports after dark, but considering this, what lighting is needed has been covered pretty convincingly. Blue Canyon-Nyack and Gansner both have runway lighting and some of the buildings have realistic down lighting on them. As for Limberlost Ranch, well, you must be either extremely desperate or stupid to want to use this airfield after lights out because there is no lighting to speak of. There is a rotating beacon on the roof of the hangar, but that's it. You could always coax some of the local youths to hold up their torches for you in a desperate attempt at landing in an emergency, but that's it I'm afraid.

Night Lights at Blue Canyon-Nyack	Lights at Dusk at Blue Canyon-Nyack
Night Lights at Gansner	Gansner Runway 25 at Dusk
Night Lights at Limberlost Ranch	Lost Lights at Limberlost

As you can see, landing at Limberlost Ranch after dark would be an extreme measure.

Documentation

A 21 page PDF document is included and this guides you through the setup and subsequent refinement of the FSX sliders so that you will get the very best out of the scenery. Basically, 'it does what it says on the tin'.

Performance

Since installing Steve's DX10 Fixer, I have been able to run my system almost at full potential. With almost all the sliders to the right, I am still getting in excess of 40 fps. By adhering to the settings advice in the manual, and with judicious use of the User Control Panels supplied for each airport, there should be no problems in achieving reasonable frame rates for your individual system.

Value for Money

Overall, FTX: NA KBLU Blue Canyon-Nyack Airport is considered exceptional value for money. With three airports and scenery covering a vast area, you certainly get your money's worth.

Technical Requirements With the exception of requiring FTX: NA Northern California installed, there are no other stated, specific system technical requirements, other than a system capable of running FSX / P3D. The FTX: NA KBLU Blue Canyon-Nyack Airport User Manual provides some excellent advice on the various scenery slider settings and Control Panel settings which will maximise the performance of the software and FSX / P3D for a range of hardware specifications. Note. Whilst FTX: NA KBLU can be installed without the FTX NA Northern California product, full functionality of the software will not be realised.

Review Computer Specifications

The specifications of the computer on which the review was conducted are as follows:
        • Asus P8Z77-V motherboard, Intel i7 3.4Ghz 'Sandybridge';
        • Asus Strix Geforce GTX970 OC 4GB, graphics card;
        • 16GB, DDR3, Corsair Vengeance, 2400Mhz RAM;
        • 128GB, Corsair Force 3 SSD - OS Windows 7 64 bit;
        • 500GB, WD Velociraptor – FSX; and
        • additional major add-ons include: Orbx FTX Global BASE; Orbx FTX Global VECTOR; Orbx FTX Global openLC EU; Orbx FTX Trees HD;
          Orbx FTX region series; Orbx FTX airport series; and Steve's DX10 Fixer.

Compatibility

This product is compatible with the following simulators:
        • Lockheed Martin Prepar3D V1,
        • Lockheed Martin Prepar3D V2, and
        •*Microsoft Flight Simulator X.

Special Thanks

My special thanks goes to John Allard for producing (at very short notice) the airport diagrams used in this review.

Conclusion

In my mind, when Turbulent Designs joined forces with Orbx, it was a marriage of design excellence in the flight simulation world. Long may it last, in my opinion. What the team has done with FTX: NA KBLU Blue Canyon-Nyack Airport is a beautiful work of art and imagination. Not only do you get one very good airport, you get three and a bonus helipad to boot. There are not enough hours in the day to explore everything this package has to offer, so it's longer days and sleepless nights for me for quite a while I think. Enjoy! I certainly am.

Verdict

Considering that FTX: NA KBLU Blue Canyon-Nyack Airport is a triple airport pack, it is surely an absolute no brainer to purchase and add this add-on to your scenery library. It blends perfectly with FTX: NA Northern California, which gives you thousands of square miles of flying heaven to explore. There is so much more than I could fit in to this review, so purchase it and find out for yourself just what a great work this is.

Pros:
Excellent area of coverage.
Exceptional level of accuracy and attention to detail.
Exceptional value for money.

Cons:
Runway lighting anomaly at Gansner Airport.
Minor issue with misaligned traffic with roads.

Road Anomaly

Lights Anomaly

Having spoken to the developers of FTX: NA KBLU Blue Canyon-Nyack Airport about the noted anomalies, they are looking into creating a patch to rectify them. 'Watch this space.', as they say. Neither of these anomalies detracted from my enjoyment of this add-on.

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

Orbx FTX: NA KBLU Blue Canyon-Nyack Airport is awarded a Mutley’s Hangar score of 9.8/10, with an "Outstanding" and a Mutley's Hangar Gold Award.