Review of Swedflight Airport Package 2

ESSB

I decided to start my virtual journey in Sweden by making a trip in my favorite Dash 8-Q300 (by Oleksiy Frolov) from ESSB (Stockholm-Bromma) to ESGJ (Jönköping/Axamo). I arrived at the airport the night before my flight was going to leave. Walking across the airport I could not believe how well this scenery was done. Extremely realistic textures and wonderful lighting with working lamps illuminating the ground underneath and head lights of moving cars on some nearby roads. The next day when walking to the plane I was again struck by the incredibly realistic textures created by the Swedflight team. Once inside the cockpit I could not stop looking around. My amazement certainly did not get less while taxiing to the active runway. Small hills, realistic ground textures and trees, everything you need to get the impression that you are really there. This is definitely unlike the textures you find in some other commercial packages. After take-off I got an incredible view of the city of Stockholm underneath. I simply could not resist to make an extra round or two above the city. The textures are really stunning. They give a great impression of depth and the way the airport of Stockholm-Bromma blends in with the surrounding scenery is just perfect. Of course, the boundary to FS2002’s scenery is clearly visible at some places, but this is mainly the result of the inaccuracy of FS2002 coast lines and the fact that the Swedflight’s fixed-color water does not always match the color of FS2002’s water that is varying with illumination. Anyway, it was not too disturbing to me. By the way, I checked whether Swedflight’s Stockholm scenery textures change with the seasons. And you might have guessed it already … indeed, they do.
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ESGJ

After making a last high altitude pass over the airport I headed towards ESGJ, a flight of approximately 150 nm. After an uneventful landing I could start enjoying another wonderful scenery set. Again realistic grass textures and rolling hills covered with trees of varying texture. The trees close to the runways and taxiways are three-dimensional and the feeling of really being there is overwhelming. When you know how much effort was spent to get the natural environment to look right, you will understand that the buildings are again photo-realistic and extremely detailed. It was during daytime that I landed, so I had to return at night to enjoy the beautiful night scenery of this airport as well. According to the authors a new technique of making taxi and edge lines was invented in this project (and that is used also at Jönköping airport in this package). This resulted in sharp 15 cm lines with smooth curves and placed with high precision - not found in any other scenery as far as they know.
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ESGJ
 

The next day I decided to continue my journey in MAAM’s B-25J Briefing Time that happened to be in Sweden for a promotional tour. After a last 360 above the airport I set course for Kristianstad, which lies approximate 100 nautical miles to the South of Jönköping. After a short flight I arrived at ESMK, the airport of Kristianstad/Everöd. While making a tower pass-by I noticed that quite a few people ware awaiting the B-25J’s arrival already, since the parking lot was quite full for such a small airport. Once on the ground I noticed the same attention to detail Swedflight had shown in the other airports. For instance, through the windows of the buildings I could see furniture and some office stuff.
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I must say that I enjoyed the scenery of this little airport so much that it has been my home (read: default start-up) airport ever since.

EKCH

This airport is the place to be if you prefer flying the big jets, although smaller commuter turboprops are certainly welcome. It may start sounding boring by now, but again it looks terrific. From the nicely lit passenger hall at night to the highly detailed arrival gates, it all looks perfect. Apparently runway, taxiway and apron systems are as close to reality as possible. At present the EKCH Bonus Scenery is complete at Kastrup North, the main apron and hangar area, with all buildings, hangars, terminals and gates represented and with high quality photo textures both in day and night versions.
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CONCLUSION
 

After making the trip described above I am absolutely certain that I will make many more flights in the Southern part of Sweden. And as I said at the beginning of this review, my start-up situation now puts me at this little gem called ESMK. Although this is a small airport, it keeps me fascinated every time I visit.

Pro’s

· Easy installation

· Very detailed documentation with many charts

· Highly realistic rendition of real-world counterparts

· Extremely detailed photorealistic textures (night and day)

· Excellent blending with surrounding area

· Reasonable frame rates (also while landing) even on fairly low-end systems (< 1 GHz).

Con’s

FSCentre

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This scenery is most commonly available as a payware download that, once installed, and all updates are applied, will take up 147mb of hard drive space. ..... There are some nice .pdf files that contain maps and histories of the airports, instructions on setting up the scenery, and descriptions of the docking systems, and things like that. All in all, this is a very thorough package, even though it is download-only.

Arlanda
My first flights were to/from the largest of these three airports, indeed the largest in all of Sweden—Stockholm Arlanda (ESSA). This airport gradually replaced Stockholm Bromma in the 1950s and 60s. Arlanda looks good, with very complex and impressive terminal buildings, taxiways, and so forth. It is worth noting that many of the lesser important buildings are not included in the scenery as of yet. They are promised for a future service release of this scenery. There are enough terminal buildings, jetways, and static aircraft that you won't miss those other buildings very much.

Landvetter
On approach into Gothenburg Landvetter (ESGG), I noticed how good the night lighting looked—both the runway/taxiway lights and the large floodlights that illuminate the ramp areas. Landvetter is complete in terms of the extra buildings that Arlanda is lacking. Things like cargo centers, parking garages, hotels, and warehouses are all present. One "old school" scenery design trick that the creators have used to good effect is to put a ring of trees around the airport to make the airport look like it blends in to the surrounding terrain. The visual effect is especially good in this case. I did a little exploring at Landvetter, and found a billboard with pictures of the scenery designers on the road leading away from the airport. Nice touch!

Sturup
The terminal buildings at Malmö Sturup (ESMS) are distinctively yellow—very Scandinavian. Sturup is a much smaller airport than Arlanda, about on par with Landvetter. After following the docking system's instructions and getting parked, I did some exploring of the airport area. This airport is complete just like Landvetter, and if Arlanda is completed to the same degree, it will be very impressive.

Conclusion
While there are only three airports in this package, it is the basis for what should be a very nice collection of airports. Future plans include coverage of Copenhagen Kastrup (EKCH - hooray!), Stockholm Bromma (ESSB), Kristianstad (ESMK), Sundsvall (ESNN), Trollhättan (ESGT), and Jönköping (ESGJ). It would be especially nice to see some attention paid to the buildings and monuments of Swedish cities and towns, for those of us that do a lot of VFR flying. Overall, this is a good scenery package, and if you have an interest in all things Swedish, you should give this one a look.

AVSIM

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Review: Swedflight 2002

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Die 3 Flughäfen im FS:
ESSA ist natürlich der größte aller Flughäfen. Alles sieht toll aus, der Flughafen ist ziemlich groß, verfügt über die 3 Start/Landebahnen, eine erhöhten Tower und Terminal die über Stege miteinander verbunden sind, Parkhäuser und alles was ein Großflughafen sonst zu bieten hat. Man kann ohne Probleme zwischen älteren und neueren Bauten vergleichen. Es gibt Airport Offices, Maintenance Bereiche, Versicherungshäuser und vieles mehr. Die meisten Apronpositions haben Anschluss an Gangways. Klar haben hier SAS Flugzeuge Vorrang.

ESGG ist der zweitgrößte, hier findet man sogar Boeing 777. Auf dem Flughafengelände finden wir Hügel und Baustellen. Es gibt Werbeplakate, sogar mit dem Entwicklerteam. Hier gibt es einen großen Cargo Bereich und wie in ESSA und ESMS die Anflugbeleuchtung. Zudem trifft man hier auf mehrere Außenpositionen. Was hier wohl zur Hauptreisezeit los ist? An Gebäuden gibt es hier einiges: Wohnhäuser, Hallen der Cateringfirmen, Büros und einiges mehr.

ESMS ist etwas kleiner, zu vergleichen mit Nürnberg, nur kann man hier nicht mit größerem Gerät landen. Die Gebäude stehen in fast nur gelblichem Ton auf dem Gelände, der Tower kommt mir fast zu groß für den kleinen Flughafen vor. Der GA- Bereich verfügt über eine eigene Start/Landebahn. Hier gibt es Hotels und Hangar Hallen. Auch hier die schönen Waldränder.

Performance:
Die Framerate ist auf allen Flughäfen sehr freundlich. Es gibt keine Diashows, man ist mit 700 MHz auf jeden Fall dabei. Es lohnt sich wirklich. Sie ist mit den GAP fast gleich also wenn man nicht mit einem PSS Airbus oder einer DF 737 hier landet, dürfte es keine Probleme geben, und selbst mit diesen Typen fällt es nicht all zu oft auf.

Die Nachteffekte:
Alle Airports sehen Nacht auch genauso toll aus wie tagsüber, die Runways, Taxiways und Terminals mit den Parkpositionen werden naturgetreu wiedergegeben. Die Strahlen wirken nicht zu übertrieben. Die Landebefeuerung und Scheinwerfer werfen sogar Schatten.

Weitere Features:
Auf den Flughäfen findet man, Einweisungsschilder, Anflugbefeuerung und Marshallers die dich dann einweisen,  seht einfach selber. Leider gibt es keine Fahrzeuge oder andere dynamischen Objekte. Die Flughäfen wirken abgesehen von den stat. Objekten als langweilig. Bei den Gangways gibt es jedoch Andockhilfen. Trotzdem hätte man deutlich mehr daraus machen können. Schade.

Fazit:
Alles im allen ist die Szenerie sehr gut gelungen es gibt nur kleinere Bugs, die zwischenzeitlich schon behoben wurden. Es macht wirklich Spaß mal von Deutschland in das Land der Elche zu fliegen. Ich empfehle ein Mittelstreckenflugzeug, A319 oder B757, man kann überall mit ILS landen. Das Programm erhält darum von mir 89% für gelungene Arbeit.

flugsimulation

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Flugsimulatorclub
FSC e.V.

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THE MANUALS
A few PDF files as provided in the package; one map for each airport, and two handbooks, covering ESSA and ESGG/ESMS respectively. The maps are excellent tools for finding your way around the respective airport. The airport handbooks on the other hand, are much more informative... They contain Installation Advice, Airport Data and Airport History. The installation advice are great for getting everything just right, especially if you are having problems with framerate. The data section contains some interesting facts, as well as elevation and ILS frequencies. The history sections came as a surprise. Lots of information about how the airports came to be as well as other bits and pieces I did not have a clue about. Definitely recommended reading!
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CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY
The package combined with the patches for AI and progressive taxi makes this one of the best packages available for Swedish airports today. I am thoroughly impressed with the amount of work that has gone into this product, and the result is in parity with that effort. A wonderful scenery for the three largest airports in Sweden, some great reading and oustanding detail. I sat down and discussed the final score with the initial receivers of the package - my cats. They said that it was packaged in a cat-proof package, thus in their eyes lowering the overall score. After a bit of thinking and some candy for the cats, I decided to give this package 94%. I can't think of a way why not.

Flight Simulator Nordic