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Introduction

How many times have you been flying a GA aircraft and wanted somewhere to pop into to have a break on the way to your destination? Well, if you are flying in the central Rocky Mountains region and you want to explore the peaks of the Cascades Mountains and the famous Mount Rainier, then Cle Elum Muni would be an ideal place to visit.

FTX: NA S93 Cle Elum Municipal is collaboration between between Orbx developers Mischa Cajic, Scott Armstrong and Magnus Almgren. It is designed to fit seamlessly into Orbx’s Central Rocky Mountains regional scenery and offers most of Orbx’s ‘Flow’ technologies.

As a bonus addition, also included is fully rendered and modelled scenery of De Vere Field (2W1) just a couple of miles southeast of Cle Elum.

Location

The name Cle Elum, which means "swift water" in the language of the Kittitas Indians, was given to a river, a town, and also a beautiful tranquil lake created by the construction of the Cle Elum Dam.

The town is located just left of centre of Washington State around 60 nm on a 085 radial from SEA Seattle and 20nm on a 280 radial from the ELN Ellensburg VOR.

Cle Elum Municipal Airport is located one mile east of the City of Cle Elum on a flat narrow platform of land and is surrounded by forested mountains to the immediate north and across the valley to the south. Cle Elum Airport is located at an elevation of 1,944 feet above sea level.

Airfield detail:

Cle Elum

Coordinates:		N47°11.66' / W120°53.01'
Location:		1 mile E of Cle Elum, Washington on 160 acres of land.
Surveyed Elevation		1944 feet MSL.
Traffic Pattern Altitude:		1000 AGL (2944 MSL)
Magnetic Variation:		20° East
Runway 07/25:		2552 x 40 feet / 778 x 12 meters
Surface:		Asphalt in Good Condition
Edge Lighting:		Medium Intensity
		Runway 07		Runway 25
Elevation:		1944ft		1938ft
Traffic Pattern:		Right		Left
Displaced Threshold:		Right		130ft
Glide Slope Indicator:		P2L (4.00° Glide Path Angle)		P2L (4.00° Glide Path Angle)
REIL:		Yes		Yes
De Vere Field
Coordinates:		N47°10.65' / W120°51.16'
Location:		3 miles E of Cle Elum, Washington on 12 acres of land
Estimated Elevation		1800 feet MSL.
Magnetic Variation:		20° East
Runway 08/26:		2055 x 30 feet / 626 x 9 meters
Surface:		Asphalt in Good Condition
Edge Lighting:		Low Intensity LIRL
		Runway 08		Runway 26
Traffic Pattern:		Right		Left
REIL:		No		No
Source: Skyvector

Product Features (From Orbx)

    ● Large photoreal area at 30cm/1m resolution;
    ● Fully custom modelled airport and objects;
    ● Advanced rendering and AO techniques;
    ● Brand new vegetation and grass for amazing depth!;
    ● Includes FREE bonus 2W1 De Vere Field;
    ● Includes SnowFlow and freezing rivers and lakes during hard winter;
    ● Perfect base for flights to the Cascades and Mt Rainier;
    ● Expert 5 seasons colour matched imagery;
    ● FSX gmax ground poly runway, aprons and lights; and
    ● Designed to blend seamlessly with FTX NA CENTRAL ROCKIES in both P3Dv2.x and FSX/P3Dv1.4.

Availability and Installation

FTX: NA S93 Cle Elum Municipal Airport is available from the FlightSim Store via download. Weighing in at just under 270MB, the file size is tiny compared with any other FTX airfields. However, a download manager such as 'Free Download Manager' is a good choice for a faster and more reliable download.

Download times vary depending on the demand for the product and are subject to your internet connection speed. An internet connection is also required for activation where you need to enter your order number, date of purchase and serial key to unlock the product.

Installing this  scenery requires you to update your FTX Central Rocky Mountains region with the CRM.004 (or higher version) patch. This patch will ensure your airport elevations are correctly set, and all roads and traffic are correctly aligned. It will also ensure the coastlines and shores are corrected from the default CRM levels.

Once the installation is underway only a few mouse clicks are required to confirm the location and choice of simulator. The scenery layer is automatically activated and the scenery is ready to go, all in under 5 minutes.

Documentation

As part of the installation, an 16 page User Guide is provided in Adobe Acrobat format (.pdf) and is accessible from the FTX Central application or the FSX\ORBX\User Documents folder. Other than providing an overview of the FTX: NA S93, it also provides comprehensive information on the following:
    ● manual scenery library configuration;
    ● quick reference FSX / P3D settings;
    ● recommended FSX / P3D slider scenery settings; and
    ● autogen density slider settings.

Scenery Coverage Area

FTX: NA S93 Cle Elum Municipal Airport covers ~51 sq km (~19.5 sq mi), encompassing the town of Cle Elum, (unfortunately not the dam) and the two airfields. The area comprises of 1 m resolution textures with 30 cm textures for both airport environments.

Level of Detail

The scenery is designed to work with the scenery complexity slider set to extremely dense.     If you need to cut back the demands on your PC then the autogen vegetation and building density slider should be the controls you adjust first. The user manual will help with obtaining the optimal set up. The level of detail is controllable from a control panel available via FTX Central. The Control Panel will allow you to enable or disable scenery features of the airport to allow it to perform better with your PC setup. By default, all scenery options are enabled by the installer. The scenery itself comes in three area resolutions, 30 cm and 1 m and more detail is given below.

Airfields (30 cm Resolution)

Cle Elum (S93)


The airfield sits on a narrow strip of flat land surrounded by trees with road access via a feeder road from the north. The trees are very well modelled and look good close up, I wonder if they will be updated with the HD from the upcoming release by Orbx?

The Airfield comprises of 5 hangars of various construction with great attention to detail given. Some smaller huts and sheds greet you on entry to the airfield, again in superb detail. The airfield security comprises of a rope between two metal poles, very quaint! Close to the entrance is some signage which is remarkably clear and readable. One very nice feature is the handprints on the back of the notice board.

Entrance to Airport	Field in Summer
Notice Board	Hands Up!

There is some good ground clutter with a windsock, bins, caravan, gas cylinders and a utility pole with beacon. There are three static aircraft parked around the airfield, a Cessna 152 is parked up on the grass, on investigation into the registration, this aircraft crashed on take off from Santa Monica in 2010 and the pilot killed. I suppose this can be seen as a tribute to the pilot. Another Cessna, a is parked up next to a hangar and a Piper PA-36 Pawnee Brave out back. The Pawnee has some texture issues on the windshield but this is only a minor detail.

When out for a walk around the airfield you will notice how nice the wild grass and plants are, they're some of the best vegetation textures I have seen. A pause for a while, strangely there was nothing to hear, there is a selectable sound option but even on restarting the sim and trying at De Vere all I could hear was a faint rumble.

Not being phased by this, I moved onto a close inspection of the runway. The tarmac is is very good condition with little or no cracking, there are various dark patches which tell stories or earlier oil leaks. Opposite the taxiway the airfield name is printed across half of the runway making it easy to identify on an overhead join. One very fine attention to detail is the edge of the asphalt, it's not just a straight line, it's lumpy uneven and 3D looking. A quick look in the textures folder confirms this detail has been given close attention.

Old Hangar	The Main Hangar
Other Buildings	Poor Old Pawney!
Smooth Asphalt	Deer at Elum

Finally, what is a winters day without a friendly deer to look at! The Elum Deer is present all year around and not afraid of attention.

It would be easy to fly over this field and think there was noting remarkable about it and that was my first thought, but get down there amongst the detail and you are in for a pleasant surprise!

De Vere Field (2W1)


Now this little airfield really floats my boat! It a looks a bit more run down than its bigger brother but there's more in the way of interesting detail. The asphalt is in poor condition, severely cracked and not very wide, the low intensity light beacons are not on the edge of the runway but set back quite a distance, this gives an impression on a dusk approach that the runway is wider which makes for some butt clenching just before touch down!

The field is much more open than Cle Elum and you can just walk straight into it from the road, I wouldn't be surprised if they sometime had stray cattle from the adjoining field.

Welcome to De Vere Field	Animated Cattle on Approach to RWY26
Worn Asphalt Detail	Signage on the Main Office and Impaled Visitor

More very finely detailed signage again, with some humour attached. What there is of fencing has superb detail and imaginative placing. The wooden  posts are not all in a straight regimented line, they are very natural in their placement. The buildings are varied and well drawn, plenty of care has been taken to weather and age most of the buildings, this helps to heighten the realism.

There is far more clutter here with crates, trailers, glider trailers, drums benches and a barbecue to name a few. A wind tee (not animated) and circuit indicator are the westernmost place detail.  There are a couple of caravans which look permanently set up next to the buildings. The is/was a fuel station here but by the look of the rusty pumps to are likely to find more gas coming out or the animated Rottweiler!

The Main Building	Rusty Old Fuel Station
Animated Dog	Glider Trailer
Open Sheds	View from the West

Talking of animations we have humans here! A poor unfortunate lady has been badly placed meaning the fence rail passing through here crotch, it looks most painful. There are a couple of male characters on siting near the dog (also animated) and a guy in the aircraft shed who could do with loosing a few pounds! Around the airfield there are butterflies dancing around the fields.

The vegetation is just as good here and generally the airfield is far more scenic with a couple of ponds and lakes to the south.     

De Vere Field has a great character reminiscent of some of the early Orbx fields like Israel's Farm and Walter Sutton's.     

Additional Scenery Areas (1 m Resolution)

The 1 m resolution photoscenery acts a an accurate base for object placement. One of the most prominent features is Interstate 90 which separates Cle Elum and South Cle Elum. I would imagine this route followed by many a VFR pilot heading out west.

Generally the scenery portrays the town and surrounding areas well. Many stock buildings are used but there are a few custom ones too which you would recognise by their shape in Google Earth.  They are not minutely detailed but I wouldn't expect them to be. Other than the general layout of the town we get some detailed railway carriages parked up, but not on the railway track, so looks out of place.

1 m Base Textures	Interstate 90
Cle Elum Town	Railway Carriages
Timber Yard Out West	Sunset - Lake Cle Elum and Mt Rainier in the Distance

If you are following the Interstate 90 west then off exit 80 to the south you will see a timber yard with piles of timber stacked up awaiting transportation. This is pretty much at the extreme of the 1 m scenery. If you were to head NNW you will pass over Cle Elum lake which is not featured as part of this scenery package but is picked up quite nicely by the FTX Central Rockies Mountain scenery.     

Seasons

This scenery comes with additional SnowFlow technology, so when in the hard winter season the main airfield buildings have white roofs and the trees are covered with snow. The river gets frozen too as does the lakes in the distance. The snow adds a whole new element to the scenery and can be breathtakingly beautiful in areas, here are a few examples.

Winter at Cle Elum Airport

Snowy Town and Frozen River

Other seasons colouring is very good and the changes very noticeable, you will see traces of snow in the spring but realistically retreating back into the earth. Supper is of course very verdant and Autumn bring about some dramatic changes in the colour of the trees

Spring	Summer
Autumn	Winter

Night Lighting

There's only minimal lighting required and included in the scenery, both runways have edge lighting and S93 has blue edge lighting for the taxiway too. Some buildings have down lighters and lit windows and other small patches of light, there are no flood lit areas. You do get the benefit of the 3D street lighting and it really does boost the realism at dawn, dusk and night.

Cle Elum at Night

De Vere at Night

Quality of Buildings

Overall, the quality of individual buildings, particularly in De Vere Field are as good as you will see in most of Orbx airfields. In the surrounding scenery there are quite a few custom models which although not as highly detailed as those in the airfields, they are easily recognisable in Google Earth.

Performance

FTX: NA S93 Cle Elum Municipal Airport performed reasonably within the existing settings I have in P3Dv2.5. I have my frame rate locked at 30 frames per second with most of my settings set high to very high. Whilst I did not need to make any adjustments to compensate for performance issues, there was quite a discernable impact on frame rate performance. However, as I said, this was with all the features enabled in the S93 Control Panel. Of course, this is also system dependent and paying heed to the relevant sections in the User Manual should avoid any disappointment and provide optimum performance for your particular system.

Value for Money
For AUD$29.99 (USD$23.56, GBP£15.84), you are getting 2 airfields and some surrounding scenery which you can install in 3 different sims. I would say this represents good value for money. However, with the lack of places to explore locally, it's worth comes its design quality, and its inclusion in the ever growing network of small GA airfields.

Technical Requirements

With the exception of requiring a good broadband connection to download the270MB of installation files, nothing else is specified.

The following is included only as guide and not quoted by Orbx.
    ● Windows Vista or Windows 7 (32 or 64 bit), Windows 8 & 8.1;
    ● Microsoft Flight Simulator FSX with SP1 and SP2 (or Acceleration Pack) or Lockheed Martin Prepar3d Flight Simulator installed; and
    ● 2.0GHz single core processor (3.0GHz and/or multiple core processor or better recommended), minimum 2GB RAM (4GB recommended),
       2GB graphics card, and 1.1GB available HDD space.

Review Computer Specifications

The specifications of the computer on which the review was conducted are as follows:
    ● Intel i7 4770K o/c to 4.2GHz);
    ● GTX 690 4096MB GDDR5 graphics;
    ● 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1866MHz;
    ● Windows 7 Pro, (64bit);
    ● Lockheed Martin Prepar3D v2.3; and
    ● Additional major add-ons seen in screenshots include REX4 Texture Direct.

Pros:
High quality.
Good attention to detail.

Cons:
A couple of placement and texture issues.
Not a great amount to explore.

Conclusion

A high quality, well built countryside location worthy of the Orbx brand. Initially, I found the choice of the location a bit puzzling as there aren't many points of interest around, and this is true in the real world location too, but when considering this airfield as part of a wider network of GA fields, it fits the bill well. It was a good decision to include De Vere, which for me is the more interesting airport.

So, if you like VFR and smaller airfields, and wanting to add to your collection of quality US GA airfields, then this would be a good one for your collection.

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

Orbx FTX: NA S93 Cle Elum Municipal Airport is awarded an overall Mutley’s Hangar score of 9.0/10, with an "Highly Recommended" and a Mutley's Hangar Silver Award.