OG39 Longview Ranch Review

Introduction

ORBX scenery is known for its high quality and for including extra animated features that FTX call ‘Flows’.

In this package the company did not hold back and included Texture Flow, Static Flow, Snow Flow, People Flow, and Creature Flow. We will be discussing all of these features in the review so if you are a little bewildered by all the Flows, everything will become clear.

ORBX has two product lines, the large scale regions like Pacific North West or New Zealand and individual airports. This scenery handles two small airfields in the Central Rocky Mountains.

Background

The two small airfields depicted in this package are Longview Ranch and Land’s Inn Ranch.

Longview Ranch is the bigger of the two airfields and consists of an asphalt runway of 5335 x 75 feet and a water runway of 3200 x 120 feet. The airport is designed for private use by the owner and can handle aitcraft up to small jets. It is also suitable to handle helicopters and is permitted to be used as an airport for agricultural planes.

The airport is part of a 52,000 acres ranch. Longview Ranch breeds horses for western riding.

Longview Ranch Runway

Land’s Inn airport is the smaller airport and consists of a single turf 2360 x 30 feet runway. The airport is a private airport that is used for Land’s Inn Fly-Inn Bed and breakfast. It is suited for small GA planes and is normally only open in summer from June to September.

Land’s Inn Fly-Inn Bed & Breakfast has a few cabins for rent and a possibility to camp out; several Fly-In events are organised each year.

Land's Inn Bed and Breakfast

The area around and in between these two airports is some of the most beautiful in Oregon.

The Longview Ranch airstrip is located approximately 100 feet west of the John Day River, approximately five miles south of the Kimberly. It lies to the north and west of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The John Day River meanders through the landscape between the two airfields and this provides a beautiful green strip of land in an otherwise barren landscape.

Another noticeable feature in the surrounding area are the Painted Hills.

Sightseeing

Now it is time to discover if Orbx has captured these sceneries to perfection.

Download & installation

Buying is simple when you use the FTX site. You are forwarded to the Flightsimstore.com site for purchasing the download or disc product and to PCAviator for the DVD product.

Downloading the 488 MB large packet went without trouble and installation was trouble free and is as simple as double clicking the .exe file.

What you get
Besides the two airports OG39 Longview Ranch and 49OR Land’s Inn you get the surrounding scenery including the John Day Fossil Beds and the Painted hills and the manual.

You also get a control panel to fine tune the settings in FS and the entries in FTX Central. The control panel on my PC missed the check box for the helicopter at Longview Ranch but that is not a major issue.

OG39 Longview Ranch

Longview Ranch is a very close representation of the real airstrip. Comparing Google Earth pictures with the Orbx product shows that the layout is almost perfect.

Overview - Winter

Water Runway

The airport consists of one asphalt runway and a parallel water runway. The runway has no lights although I did find one clue on the internet that the strip was lighted back in 2002.

The airport also has a helipad although I can’t find the helipad on Google Earth pictures.

Helipad

Further constructions on the airport are the main building, a generator shack, a dock at the water runway, the entry sign and a fence to keep the horses off the runway.

Ranch Sign	Main Building
Generator Shack	Dock

With items like oil drums littered around the airfield, it looks like it sees regular use.

Winter Objects

The airport area is surrounded by beautifully rendered fields and trees, the water runway is bordered by long grass and cane. In the summer these area’s come to live with butterflies and even bugs near the light at the dock.

The airport itself comes to life in the spring and summer with people working and talking outside, a lone horse wandering near the fence, an agricultural plane and a private plane at the apron and a rescue helicopter being washed at the helipad.

Butterflies and Bugs	Horse and People
Working Outside	Ducks In The Dock

The boat at the dock is in the water, and so is a family of very loud ducks! The irrigation system in the nearby field is also working and cars and horse trailers are parked near the apron. There is even a dog present at the front of the main building. All these animals and people are animated and give a very life-like feeling to the place.

In the spring the situation is identical as in the summer with the airfield and surrounding area brimming with life.

In the winter the place is silent. No bugs, butterflies, dog, horse or people to give life to the airport. The boat is pulled out of the water and sits on top of the dock. The water runway is frozen and all buildings, cars, trailers and items lying around are covered in a snowy coat. The rescue helicopter is gone and all in all the airport looks like a desolated place in winter.

Winter

Long Grass and Cane

The one noticeable thing in winter is that the long grass and cane is still present which normally would not be the case in winter.

Fall is a mix between summer and winter, and not always a successful one. The winter textures are absolutely believable given the geographic location of the airport and that the dog and horse are indoors seems logical. That the people still wander outside in their summer clothing, sitting on frozen cars talking in shirt sleeves is not believable. I know these guys are tough, but there is a limit. That limit is exceeded by the guy washing an invisible helicopter at the helipad.

Short Sleeves In The Snow

What's He Washing?!

All this can be corrected by disabling people flow with the ORBX Control Panel in the winter .

One other minor issue is that the vegetation does not move. Even in a hurricane the grass stays upright. Landing a helicopter stirs up dust, but not one blade of grass will move.

This is, of course, only nit-picking and is only noticeable because the rest of the scenery is so good.

The night textures are good and you can see the bugs near the light at the dock clearly. The lights at the main building do not have the same attraction to the bugs. It is also noticeable that the used textures for the windows are the same for each window. One last anomaly I found is that the irrigation system is on 24/7 in spring and summer. I expect it to be off at night. But once again this is only nit-picking.

Main Building At Night

Insects At Night

49OR Land’s Inn

If anything, Land’s Inn is even better than Longview Ranch. It has all the same qualities, but better.

The airstrip consists of one turf runway which blends in very well with the scenery.

Lands Inn - Summer

But for this airport, the strip itself is only the start of the fun!

Runway

The ranch itself is a fly-in bed and breakfast operation and has several buildings, including the Hangar Cafe.

All this means more buildings, more people and more objects. All these buildings are to the same high standard as the buildings at the Longview Ranch. The buildings included in this great little airport are a hangar, A-frame and double A-frame bungalows, the group of main buildings and a gas station.

Cafe	Hangar
Double-A Bungalow	Gas Station

There is plenty of long grass around and the wandering livestock is fun – and can be disabled if so desired. You also have your butterflies and bugs flying around and in summer there is plenty to see.

In summer you will have a couple of aircraft parked near the hangar, inside the hangar is a plane being worked on by a mechanic and at the outside tables of the Hangar Cafe people are engaged in pleasant conversation.

The inside of the hangar is nicely detailed and is a large contribution to the lifelike quality of the airport.

Double-A Details	Huge Gas Tank
Parked Aircraft	Grass Detail
Aircraft Maintenance	Cattle On The Runway

At this airport all people disappear as soon as fall begins, which is true to reality as the airport is only open from June to September (or until the weather changes). So during the Fall it seems like you have no confusion as you have at Longview Ranch with people in shirtsleeves outside in the snow.

Winter Runway	Double-A Winter
Cafe In Winter	No Work On Aircraft

I found a couple of anomalies with Land's Inn, at night, all buildings are lit whilst in reality the place depends on solar power and as it says on their website, when they run out of electricity it is until sunrise! and on the hangar roof LAND’s is painted in the real world but missing in the scenery.

Night Shot

The issue of the non-moving grass is also present here. But don’t let these small issues deter you, this airport is the closest to perfection as I have ever seen in FSX.

Surrounding Area

In the immediate surroundings of both airports nearby buildings are part of the scenery. Also included within the scenery are the John Day Fossil Beds and the Painted Hills. The terrain between the two airports is beautifully rendered as part of the package including the John Day River and the bordering land. The best way to see what is included in the package is to fly without the Central Rocky Mountains (CRM) scenery but this removes some of the fun of flying here.

Area Without CRM

This scenery is intended to blend in perfectly with ORBX CRM, which it does. You can fly without CRM but the borders between the scenery and default FSX will be painfully clear.

The surrounding areas don’t have people flow or creature flow but the textures do follow the seasons and it is a great enhancement of the package.

John Day River	View From Longview Ranch
Off-site Buildings	Extra Area Scenery

Go with the flow

As mentioned before the package makes good use of all the different techniques at disposal of the designers. Even with the small glitches the areas come to life in a way not seen before in one package. Creature flow, texture flow, snow flow, people flow and static flow are all used in this package and the result is stunning.

Peopleflow 1	Peopleflow 2
Peopleflow 3	OG39 Control Panel

The ORBX Control Panel is a great help to turn certain features off and it is possible to turn off the people during the fall at Longview Ranch, preventing the washing of an invisible helicopter.

Textures

The quality is dramatically better than default FSX and of the highest quality available. The night textures are a little disappointing in the sense that Land’s Inn has all buildings lit and Longview Ranch has the same texture for every window and the irrigation is even working at night, but these are small issues in a nearly perfect product.

Documentation

The download includes a 22 page PDF manual describing the airfields, installation and recommended settings in FSX. It even describes how to use the airports if you do not have other FTX products installed. The manual is very clear and informs of all you need to know.

Value For Money

A product of this quality for less than 17 Pounds, 20 Euro or 27 US Dollar is absolutely worth every penny or cent!

Pros:
            ● Extremely realistic depiction of two small airports for the price of one
            ● Very nice texture changes depending on the season
            ● Very good working Flows.
            ● Attention to detail
            ● Good performance
            ● Price

Cons:
            ● Some small issues concerning people flow at Longview Ranch
            ● I’d like to see more than one horse on a breeding ranch

Verdict

    • Level of detail:
    • Performance:
    • Scenery Coverage:
    • Quality of Buildings:
    • Flows:
    • Documentation:
    • Value for Money:

9.0/10
10/10
10/10
10/10
9.0/10
10/10
10/10

Final Mutley's Hangar Score 9/10

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