AVSIM Shareware Review

It's been a while since I've been able to review scenery of the United States. My sim travels lately have taken me to Spain, Austria, England, Germany, and beyond. Now I'm back home, and we have a nice scenery package for Philadelphia International Airport. It's hard to believe that there hasn't been a detailed scenery for KPHL before, but it must get overlooked in favor of JFK, LaGuardia, Washington National, and other airports in the Northeast. So, without further ado, here is Philadelphia International.

Reader Survey This survey is intended for those that have used this product or add-on. If you have used it, please let your fellow simulation enthusiasts know how you rate it by taking this survey. Please, if you have not used this product, do not take this poll (you can view the poll from the "Results" link below). - Review Poll - Have you used Simflyers' KPHL Scenery? Excellent Good Average I can live with it Taking it off my system Results

Installation, Display and Documentation

The historian in me thoroughly enjoyed the documentation for this scenery, since it contained a good history of the airport and its use. Also included is good information about the future plans for the airport. Did you know that 1/2 of all Americans live within a day's drive of KPHL? Just remember that when you can't get a decent flight from KATL, KCLE, KPIT, KCLT, etc... Ha ha... The scenery also comes with a very nice airport diagram that also lists important NAVAID and COM frequencies that you will need when flying in and out of Philadelphia.

You can download the 3.1mb zipfile containing the scenery from the SimFlyers Associated website. Unregistered, you can run the scenery, but without textures displayed. Once you've registered the scenery for the equitable price of $15, you receive a password that you enter during installation. The install process is trouble-free, as are most scenery installs anymore. Maybe we're almost to the point where I can stop talking about the install process. Also, the SimFlyers website has both static and dynamic traffic add-ons that you can download at no additional charge.

Once you have the scenery installed, you will find it in the "Go to Airport" menu under "Scenery from FS98 and before." There are starting points for all four major runways, but it would have been nice to see starting points for some of the gates. (Update: Just as I was complaining about the starting points, I see that the designers have an update at their website that includes more start points, per suggestion of one of their users. Talk about service!)

If you've been reading my recent reviews, you know that this is the part where I tell you what features the scenery designers promise to deliver in their scenery. Rather than confuse you by doing something different, here you go:

- Accurate and detailed scenery of Philadelphia Intl Airport (KPHL) including buildings, runways, taxiways and airport objects
- Realistic buildings and objects with full night and seasonal texturing
- Active docking system at nearly each gate
- Numerous static and dynamic aircraft (parking, taxiing, taking off and landing), vehicles, objects, cars, buses, fuel trucks, service vehicles - everything is illuminated and lit at night
- Documentation with airport map and background information about Philadelphia Intl yesterday and today
- SOON AVAILABLE: Free FSTraffic tracks for download from our website in addition to the dynamic traffic that's included with the scenery

Test System P-III 1000 MHz Windows 2000 SP2 384 Megs RAM GeForce DDR 12.20 Detonator Drivers 48X CD ROM SoundBlaster Live! Value CH Flight Sim Yoke CH Pedals Sony 17 " Monitor Flying Time: 6 hours over 6 days   Nighttime on the E Concourse – I'm even at the right gate this time... Takeoff from RWY 27R – Farewell TWA! Landside view from the west The A Concourse is quiet... Notice the stained ramp concrete

It is very evident that this scenery delivers everything as promised, and I have no disputes with any of those claims.

A nice thing I discovered about this scenery is its proximity to other big airports. I was able to fly nice short hops to/from KDCA, KLGA, KJFK, and KBOS. The BA747 screenshots are a little phony, in that I only flew down from Boston, not all the way from London Heathrow, but that's not important, is it? When you fly around all these airports, all about 100 miles from each other, you can understand how much air traffic there is in the northeast corridor. The air traffic controllers in that region must be doing a fine job.

On my first approach into KPHL (that BA747 from KBOS), I was surprised how many ground vehicles are included in this scenery. There are dozens and dozens of baggage carts scattered around the ramp at various gates. There are also portable stairs, pushback tugs, fuel trucks and other unidentified vehicles waiting for use. I also didn't realize how big an airport this is for US Airways, as a majority of the gates have US Airways signs. Taxiing your way around the airport is no problem, thanks both to the included diagram and the good signage. The markings on the ramp are especially good in that regard, indicating the stop points at the gates, showing the engine warning areas (or whatever they're called), and other information. This scenery might have the best ramp markings I've seen. There are even oily stains marking the position of aircraft at the gates.

One minor disappointment is that if you get too close to the terminal buildings, you can see that the edges of some of the textures are see-through. Whether that is an alignment issue, video card issue, or other error, I don't know. But if you fiddle with your spot plane view, and get yourself to within a few feet of a terminal, you can see what I'm talking about. Don't let that make you think the terminals aren't well done, because they really are. They all seem to be distinctly different, too. I guess that's what happens when an airport is continuously added to over a long time.

Frame rates are very good throughout the scenery, partly due to the fact that the scenery visibility range is somewhat low. If you take off from RWY 27R and make a 180 degree right turn, the terminals will have disappeared before you get completely turned around and headed east. I guess you can't have it both ways.

Conclusion

I have to give you a reason to spend $15 on another airport in a part of the world where there are already many sceneries. Well, there are no other high-quality KPHL sceneries that I am aware of (if there are, I apologize!), and there are many features that this scenery has that the others don't have. Plus, flying into KPHL is a lot of fun, making the approach down the Delaware River, over the bridges and past downtown. Maybe it's somewhat like Washington National in that regard. Anyway, this is a very nice scenery package, and it makes me repeat my standard request to the folks at SimFlyers Associated (and all other scenery designers): Please create scenery for Lambert St. Louis International Airport. It is probably the busiest airport that has had no detailed scenery created for it. Sorry about the whining. This is a fine scenery package, and you can find out more from the SimFlyers website here.