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Introduction

Sequim Valley Airport and airpark is a privately owned, public use airport located five miles northwest of the City of Sequim, in Clallam County, Washington USA. Sequim is superbly located on the scenic North Olympic Peninsula. The airport was originally established in 1983 and was just a grass strip but by 1985 a paved, lit runway came to fruition through the hard work and sheer determination of a group of local flying enthusiasts. In reality, Sequim Valley Airport was built by volunteers and is maintained to this day by volunteers. Nestled in the foothills of the grand Olympic Mountains and only a short hop from Vancouver, Seattle, and a host of other smaller airfields, Sequim Valley Airport is a debut release by Jordan Gough, so let's go and find out what Jordan has offered us. The airport is close to a golf course and a world-renowned gun range, both of which attract some visitors, and the town of Sequim also has a lavender festival in July which is also usually a busy weekend for the airport. They also have an event in August every year called the 'Air Affaire' which consists of a fly-in and static aircraft and classic car display.

Terminal

Strictly speaking, I would not designate any of the buildings here as being a terminal at all. It is little more than a glorified shed, although the members' lounge looks quite comfy. The immediate airport confines only cover approximately 150 acres. Currently, there are no permanent active operators at the airport. There is a maintenance shop in the large hangar which does annual inspections and general maintenance on aircraft. Approximately once or twice a week, a charter airline will stop by in a Cessna 206 or 172 to pick up or drop off passengers. The most common aircraft type visiting the airport are single piston engine aircraft. Approximately once per month the airport will see a multi-engine or turboprop aircraft visit. Approximately once per year a Cessna Citation size business jet visits. It also has the added benefit of having 24hr self-service avgas available, which is a bonus in this region of Washington. (Information supplied by Daniel Sallee - Director of Sequim Valley Airport).

Availability and Installation

FTX: NA W28 Sequim Valley Airport is available from the Flight Sim Store and is priced at AUD$14.95, or the equivalent on currency cross rates. As usual, the method of purchasing Orbx products from Flight Sim Store is as a download file with the option of a DVD backup, available for a nominal additional fee. The download file size is 1GB and a key code is issued via email and required during installation.

Once downloaded and unzipped to your temporary folder, run the .exe file whereupon you are faced with the routine FlightSimStore product validation panel which then proceeds through to installation. The installation took around 3-4 minutes.

Scenery Coverage and Detail

Features:
        • crisp 30cm and 60cm per pixel ground imagery;
        • detailed modelling with advanced shadowing techniques;
        • superb 1m per pixel imagery for the Olympic Mountains;
        • five seasonal variations, including Hard Winter;
        • only 85km from Seattle and 130km from downtown Vancouver;
        • blends seamlessly with FTX: NA Pacific Northwest;
        • PLEASE NOTE: 2WA1 Diamond Point is required for the Dungeness Spit to be photo real; and
        • debut release by Jordan Gough.

With the immediate area surrounding the airport covering around 40sq km at 60cm photo real resolution, and an area of almost 4sq km within the airport vicinity at superb 30cm photo real resolution, Jordon has covered a fair sized portion in his debut scenery. In addition to this is a vast area coverage of the Olympic Mountains at 1m per pixel resolution, giving the pilot hours of exploration time in the air.

Sequim Valley Coverage

Olympic Mountain Coverage

Airport Buildings & Objects

Jordan has executed his first airport very well indeed. There are not many buildings at Sequim Valley Airport in the real world but what buildings are there, he has covered in great detail. There is the usual clutter you would expect to find at any airport and also some well modelled buildings both at the airport and around the surrounding countryside of Sequim Valley. In the real world, there used to be two runways, one asphalt and the other grass. Whilst in this version there is the asphalt runway, there is no option to choose the grass runway for use. At this point, I got in touch with the guys at Sequim Valley Airport to enquire if, indeed, the grass runway was still in use. Here is the reply I received from Daniel Sallee, one of the directors.

“As far as the grass runway is concerned, we technically still have one. However, you can essentially divide the grass runway into three parts, west of the taxiways, east of the taxiways, and between the taxiways. We have NOTAM'd closed all but the east side grass runway. If you go to the ORBX website and go to the Sequim Valley Airport web page, click on the eighth picture and you can clearly see the grass runway immediately parallel to the right side of the runway (north side). Again, this is only open as far as that first taxiway that cuts across it.”

FTX Sequim Valley Airport

Real World Sequim Valley Airport

As is pretty evident here, Jordan has done a fine job of modelling Sequim Valley Airport as closely as he could. With the 30cm per pixel coverage, it looks pretty good indeed.

Main Hangar	Office & Car Park
Welcome Sign	RV

Apart from the buildings at the airport itself, there are literally hundreds of other carefully placed buildings of all sorts of descriptions, ranging from house to greenhouses, from farms to factories. All of these make navigating back to the airport fairly easy during a VFR flight.

Farmstead & Smokehouse

Combine Harvesters

Although this is a relatively small airport, Jordan has also included some of the characters that reside here. I never did like people reading over my shoulder!

Just Watching	Over the Shoulder
Owners House	Balcony View

Another aspect of this scenery add-on is the coverage of the majestic Olympic Mountains. Jordan has covered almost all of the peaks within this range and in fine detail too. Below are just a couple of screenshots to whet your appetite to go and explore this region.

Snow Capped Olympic Mountains

Dawn - Olympic Mountains

Seasonal Variation

The seasonal variations in this part of the world are quite subtle until, of course, a hard winter arrives. These changes have been covered very well with this package although I am only showing hard winter and autumn (Fall).

Hard Winter

Autumn (Fall)

The eagle eyed readers out there would have spotted that in the hard winter screenshot above, there appears to be a whole avenue of conifers missing on the approach to the airfield. I have brought this to Jordan's attention. They only appear to be missing when January is selected. Along with the trees, there are some other anomalies which I have also mentioned to Jordan and the hope is to bring out a patch at some point.

Lighting

The night lighting textures have been well done, although, for some reason, I just couldn't get any runway lighting to show itself. In the User manual it states that there should be runway lighting from Dusk till Dawn, not so on my system. The building night lighting is illuminated however.

No Runway Lights

Night Lighting

Performance

Since installing Steve's DX10 Scenery 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. Admittedly, some people may not have the same specifications in their system as I have, so it will just be a “suck it and see” scenario for them. With judicial use of the User Control Panels supplied with each airport/field, there should be no problems in achieving excellent frame rates despite what specifications individual systems have.

Anomalies

When I install any new airport, I like to have a good long flight around the area covered and try to spot the abnormal, or should I say, the more interesting points included in the scenery. Most often, this flight goes without too much hassle. I do tend to spot odd discrepancies now and again and I can forgive those if they are the developer's oversights. I know how much work goes into making these sceneries, so a little forgiveness is warranted. Here are the ones that “poked me in the eye”, so to speak.

No Avgas in January
Split Waste Bin	Traffic Anomaly

Apart from the missing conifers, there appears to be no avgas in January either. Whilst walking around the hangar, I found this waste bin was half inside the hangar and half outside. I would like to see you try and open that one! Then there was the traffic alignment anomaly, where half the traffic was driving off road! This is the pedant in me I know and I have brought all these to Jordan's attention.

Documentation

FTX: Sequim Valley comes complete with a 17 page pdf manual and its own specific Control Panel, as per most, if not all Orbx airports. The manual takes you through the best settings for your machine and offers support on how to get the best from your machine. I advise you not to skip reading it if you really do want to make the most of Sequim Valley.

Value for Money

Overall, FTX: NA W28 Sequim Valley Airport is considered exceptional value for money. The representation of the airport and the excellent coverage and representation of this area is a total package.

Compatibility

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

Technical Requirements

The specified minimum system requirements for FTX: NA W28 Sequim Valley Airport are:
        •  Windows Vista/7/8 (32 or 64 bits);
        •  FSX (SP1 and SP2, Acceleration, or Gold Edition), or Lockheed Martin Prepar3d v1/v2;
        •  Pentium V, 2GHz or similar;
        •  512MB graphics;
        •  2GB RAM; and
        •  1GB available hard disk space.

To get the best out of this add-on, it is necessary to have Orbx's FTX: NA Pacific Northwest installed. If you do not have FTX: NA Pacific Northwest installed, you will be missing out on the following:
        •  blending of the airport photo real into the surrounding terrain;
        •  moving traffic on roads, properly aligned to the photo real ground terrain;
        •  enhanced FTX Global 3D lighting system with improved FPS in urban/township streets around the airport ;
        •  Orbx’s modified houses and trees which match North American houses and trees; and
        •  the FTX Central application, which is used to launch all of the Orbx tools and to switch between different Orbx regions.

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;
        • 16GB, DDR3, Corsair Vengeance, 1600MHz;
        • 128GB, Corsair Force 3 SSD - OS;
        • 500GB, WD Velociraptor – FSX;
        • Windows 7, (64bit);
        • 1.5TB flight simulator add-ons; and
        • additional major add-ons include: Orbx FTX Trees HD; and Steve's DX10 Scenery Fixer.

Conclusion

Given that this is Jordan Gough's debut scenery for Orbx, I feel he has done a tremendous job with FTX: NA W28 Sequim Valley Airport. Ok, there are some items which need ironing out and he informs me that these are being worked on as I write. Overall, this is a small, well executed piece of scenery and one that will remain in my scenery library. Sequim Valley Airport is a great little stopover or drop-in should you require some extra fuel (not in January at the moment though) whilst on your route around the Pacific Northwest. This add-on also includes the smaller airport of Grand View International (WN23), which is a bonus for flight simmers, as it is now closed in the real world. This being Jordan's first airport scenery, I look forward to what he is going to achieve in the future for our enjoyment.

Give this a try, at only AUD$14.95 what have you got to lose? There are some nice little surprises in this scenery which I leave for you to find.

Verdict and Rating

In my opinion, if you own FTX Pacific Northwest, then FTX: NA W28 Sequim Valley Airport is a “must buy” at the price. What else can you get for this value that would last you as long as the time you will have flying around the Olympic Mountains, and from the comfort of your home “sim pit”? I know it has some anomalies but half the fun for me, at least, is coming across them whilst I'm flying. They certainly do not detract from my enjoyment. Congratulations Jordan Gough, on your debut release under the Orbx banner, and I look forward to seeing more from you.

Pros:
Extremely good value for money.
Superbly crisp detailed textures.
High resolution.
Custom modelled buildings.
Bonus airport (WN23).
Huge mountainous area to explore.

Cons:
Anomalies noted above.

Links:
Sequim Valley Airport
Discovery Trail Farm Airpark

Scores:
● Scenery Coverage:	9.0/10
● Level of Detail:	7.5/10
● Quality of Objects:	9.0/10
● Performance:	10/10
● Documentation:	10/10
● Value for Money:	10/10

Orbx FTX: NA W28 Sequim Valley Airport is awarded a Mutley’s Hangar score of 9.3/10, with an "Highly Recommended" and a Mutley's Hangar Silver Award.