Introduction What better idea for us icebound North Americans, smack in the middle of winter, than to use our private jets. I mean our private copies of FSX to go south and visit brand new airport sceneries with all that tropical warmth waiting to embrace us. This is usually the way I visit a new scenery title; I fly there, as there is no better destination than newly installed scenery. Although I will review 5 airports sets, they are available as single downloads and/or as bundles. The exact combinations are best seen by visiting the Tropical Sim website. This review was done in FSX only, but all the airports are available in FS2004 versions as well. I am using a commercial landclass add-on so the surrounding textures may not be the same as default FSX. Installation and Documentation
Installation was found to be easy, with a serial code insertion that is cut & paste friendly. If you're installing in FSX (it is also available in FS9), there is one insignificant oversight in that it asks you, in large caps, to make sure the install is directed properly to FS2004. Not to worry as you will probably ignore that if your installing in FSX. The path was already correctly set for my FSX version (which is on a separate partition than FS9) so there is no problem here, and as I do have both FS9 and FSX installed, there was no mismatching at all. Before the installation’s finish button arrived, the installation document appears. It is very nicely laid out in one page; simple, clear, and informative. (in Spanish and English) It informed me that I would have to manually activate them in my scenery library. It has its own folder, so be sure to follow the instructions, which can’t be any clearer. All 5 airports, made to work in FSX, required individual installations and activations, and have individual folders inside one parent folder in the FSX root folder. The documentation says there is an AFCAD, but it must be under another name other than AF2. I found an AFX_MUNN file; maybe that is one of them. I also noticed that there is a site-specific traffic bgl, so maybe its using FSX generic a/c (to be seen). I quote from their documentation: "The new ground traffic in FSX will detect the routes from our AFCAD, therefore you'll enjoy the ground traffic at our airports as you do at the default airports."
The 5 Airports
MYNN NASSAU So I loaded up FSX and the day’s weather in KMIA. First destination: MYNN, Nassau. Well, it’s raining in Miami (January 28, 2007) so I’ll load up the Lear and be on my way. MYNN Nassau Int’l Runways and taxiways have borders that merge well with the surrounding ground texture tiles and other runways/taxiways. This makes for a noticeably realistic visual approach. At night, the tarmac lighting is dispersed rather than cone shaped. I like its effect.
There is a tower on the terminal (ground control…?), which has nice features, but the other one out in the field (tower control…?) is not representative of the usual quality that the package has. It is, though, probably a better match to the real architecture, even though the default FSX one looks sharper. All other buildings are well designed and drawn.
The taxi light fixtures, which are 3D reproductions complete with bolts in the base, are nice while driving past them, again adding to the realism. A rare few are misplaced on the taxiways and can be run over if you’re not careful. The hanger’s doors seem to be operable but I did not find any documentation to this effect. I like being able to park inside, as I’d do in real life. Such attention to detail…there is a large decal on the tarmac of the GA section of the airport (Nassau JET center). This is there in real life, I checked closely on a Google satellite image photo I found. I didn’t
notice much road traffic in and about this island (actually none),
but airport vehicular traffic was obvious. There are 40
parking and gate assignments,
No fuel
trucks at this airport. The GA area has a nice decal on the tarmac.
I’m using UT-traffic
(for FS9) for AI and am not
getting any larger jets even though there are quite a few Jetways.
Looking at the gate list, there is only one for heavies. Now, to heat up the CRJ700 and fly to Cancun Mexico MMUN Cancun Mexico You need to download a patch that removes the trees from the runway. With that said, it does fix the tree problem completely. There is also a patch for crash detection.
As with Nassau (MYNN), the view while on approach is more realistic than most. I find their airports blend very nicely with surrounding textures. Comparing of a high altitude shot with a Google Map of the airport shows attention to detail. It seems likely that they used the Google Maps to create these airports.
There are 30 commercial
gates (23 for small, 7 mediums but none for heavies (?)…),
and 6 Ramp GA for small. Also, gate numbers on the jetways of the
7-jetway
Taxiway lights are all well positioned at this airport as opposed to MYNN where some were off by a bit. Night lighting effects for the tarmac areas is pleasant, but the windows on the main terminal building have the appearance of being covered or painted over. The previous airport, MYNN, did have nicer windows at night, so the developers are capable of making them more believable. Ultimately, MMUN’s night lighting is not as good.
Time to depart for Punta Cana (MDPC). MDPC Punta Cana Punta Cana is on the eastern end of a topographically delightful large island, but the nice mountains are on the other end. So it’s flat at our destination. This does however, make for friendlier frame rates during arrival. Without any ILS approaches, MDPC offers a VOR/DEM approach for runway 09, and VOR for 27. There is a tower, and approach control is available. I followed the 092 radial in but was off by 10 degrees, not sure why. With autogen at normal setting and scenery maxed, I was only averaging 10 fps, which is not a lot, but then this is FSX not FS2004, and it was smooth. Once again, the airport ground textures blend very well with the surrounding default tiles, which the default airport does not do at all. There is a full complement of service vehicles waiting at each gate, except, as usual, the fuel trucks. FPS while taxiing on the tarmac was 9-12, normal for my system in FSX.
Gate assignments include 3 for heavies. This is surprising since MYNN had only one and MMUN none. With no jetways or ILS at MDPC, this seems surprising. Gate numbers are clearly marked on the tarmac facilitating taxing to the correct gate, except at night when they are difficult to see. There are places for 19 aircraft, 9 gates for small, 3 heavies, 5 GA ramp for large and 2 GA ramp for small. I did not see much GA nor IFR AI aircraft parked at this airport even with both AI traffic set to 100% (using UT-traffic), but there was some. This is identical to what I got with the default scenery, so it has nothing to do with this add-on. Generally, attention to detail is up to Tropicalsim’s high standards, but not the fence that surrounds the entire airport. It appears to be just a gray stripe. I think they should have borrowed textures from the other airports, which have nicer fences. Night lighting is nicely spread out, but there appears to be some flickering of tarmac textures at times.
Road traffic around the airport is more noticeable here as opposed to the two previous ones. TNCB Flamingo There are three airports in this package, a real bonus. Before leaving Punta Cana, there are two airports I must visit first: Included in this download for TNCB was Melville Hall airport (TDPD), my next destination: This scenery happens to be just south of the FSX demo set we were all glowing over last summer, and there are a couple of nice airports there. A small airport, Melville, has parking for 5 Ramp GA, and is a pleasant surprise on such a barren island. I’m not sure if this airport was fully modified to work in FSX because I got some flashing of tarmac textures while taxiing (nothing too serious).
The second airport, on the other side of the same island, is TDCF, Canefield Intl. A cute little airport settled between the slopes of the mountains and the beach. I didn't notice any texture flashing at this one. Both these airports do not have night lighting and should be approached during daylight and from the sea as the local terrain is steep.
On to Flamingo…. Flamingo (TNCB), on a rather deserted island, is quite pretty. The colors are truly pleasant and the architecture is nice: A real jewel in the middle of nowhere. This time though, the fence was way too close to the touchdown point for runway 10; in real life I’d be afraid of accidentally hooking it with my undercarriage. There are three parking areas, and there is no way of getting an aircraft from one to the other except by using the runway. So make sure you backtrack if using the NDB approach for 10. There is neither ILS nor VOR/DME, although there is tower service. It seems that the first entrance is for GA, the second for airlines, and the third is for long-term parking.
Parking includes 6 ramp GA (2 small, 1 large, 3 medium), 4 small gates, and 2 heavies’ gates. The runway is 10000 feet long, so heavies can land here (no ILS). There are pushback and luggage vehicles available but no fuel trucks. Night lighting is nicely done with nice effects applied to the buildings. The tower is well made and the whole terminal is rather pleasant to look at. I might add here that the use of a commercial landclass enhancement for this area helped a lot; otherwise the bland textures used in FSX default will have to do.
Off to my final destination, SBMO, Zumbi Dos Palmares Intl in Maceio Brazil…. SBMO Zumbi Dos Palmares Intl, Brazil For this scenery, I also downloaded the freeware mesh for South America by José Lôbo and Oséas Dourado (available at AVSIM). This is indeed the nicest airport of this set. Taxiways are wide enough for a 747 to pass without much ado. Textures once again meld nicely with adjacent tiles. There are vehicles for pushback and luggage but again no fuel trucks. Gate assignments are somewhat odd, in that there are 3 gates for heavies, but one of them is in the smaller commercial tarmac, and one is even in the smaller GA parking area (?), and only one with a jetway.
Of 17 gates, only one is for medium, 3 for heavies, and 13 for small, there are 8 large GA Ramps (only large?). So, the jetways are only assigned for small airliners except for the one heavy. The automobile parking lot has a few vehicles in it and even at a smaller airport, one would expect to see it near full.
Night lighting of the tarmacs has the usual pleasant dispersion, but the windows seem a bit unreal, too bright, especially those of the jetways. There was the occasional flashing texture on the main tarmac on my system using this scenery. It is a nice airport though.
Summary and Closing Remarks In conclusion, let me say that these 5 airports (actually 7) are quite well done considering there are only two guys making up TropicalSim. It seems to be a hobby of theirs that they try to support by only asking between $16 and $23 US per airport, with many bundled deals available. Some of the larger bundles offer up to 40 airports at a cost of about 2 Euros each… fairly cheap considering all the work that went into these small airport sceneries. For now they do seem to be mostly for FS2004 only with one or two for FSX per bundle. Nevertheless, the quality level is on par with what you pay for, as these are not the highest quality designs, but quite acceptable renditions. If I were flying in the Caribbean, I would want to check out the bundles. These 5 are made to work well in FSX, with minor glitches, but I did find it hard to navigate their site and to find the packages I’d want from Simmarket.com. In closing, I would like to say that my island hoping using these airports as destinations was a nice way to spend two weeks of simming. After SBMO, I went on to Rio with its fabulous default FSX detailed airport. So there is some nice stuff down in South America, and yes, it’s a nice change from the snow we’re getting right now in Eastern Canada. Would I buy these? As singles, maybe one, my favorites being MYNN and SBMO. I’d really like to see a bundle made for FSX. As of now, I only see an FS2004 bundle (you’d get 40 small airports to hop to and from) with one maybe two in the package for FSX. Visit the Tropical Sim site, although it may be hard to navigate. All purchases for non-Brazilians are made through Simmarket. Editor's Note: We received an email from Carlos Pereira of Tropical Sim and he had this update for us: "All things you mentioned as being wrong or needed to be enhanced, we agree about and had already noticed almost all of them: a little flickering on Melville Hall and on a few airports at night too (due to night light); the fence too close to the runway at Bonaire; the fence textures around some airports. Others, like the heavy airliner slots were a surprise and we will look at them. We
have produced so many FS9 sceneries (82 in fact) during the last
years and we can't make them FSX compatibles, so
we opted to
remake almost all of them (along new ones too). They will be genuine
new FSX sceneries built from scratch, using new tools. We have made
these 7 so far, and worked tomake them completely FS9 compatible
for our users. We are now working on Salvador/SBSV and
Rio's Galeão Intl/SBGL and they will be native FSX sceneries,
and will be FS9 compatible." |
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