Introduction Discovered in 1788 by the ship HMS Supply some 375 nm (700km) off the eastern coast of Australia (due northeast of Sydney), the Lord Howe Island group is, since 1982, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This special subtropical destination preserves some 565 square miles (1,476 square km) of unique coral reef, volcanic geology, rainforest fauna and 32 species of birds. The main island itself is only 11km long and 3 km at its widest point, and sports a lagoon 6km long. Two thirds of the main island is a designated natural park. According to the tourism office, only 400 visitors are allowed at a time, controlled through advance booking at the various accommodations. The primary means of transportation is on foot and bicycle.
Air service is currently offered through QuantasLink Dash-8s with daily flights from Sidney and weekend flights from Brisbane. The choice of aircraft is somewhat limited with a short runway (2,900ft) and the nearest airport is some two hours away which presents range and safety concerns. Clearly, YLHI is not the bustling airport yet it can offer a good flight challenge, especially in inclement weather as there are no navigation aids to speak of (one navaid). In fact, I found YLHI is notably absent from many add-on navigation databases, including from those aircraft with STOL capability. This may not be a bad thing if you’re into dead-reckoning as it makes for great navigation practice. The size of the island can be summed up in this statement: The travel site I visited mentions that you are personally met by your inn-keeper at the airport. How’s that for service? Packaging Aerosoft’s e-commerce web site will make the 171Mb download available to you upon receipt of payment. As is usual with Aerosoft, the download link is valid for 1 year, although it is well advised you keep the zip file in a safe place. The zip file contains a single 180Mb executable and a separate PDF format documentation. Installation Installation is a simple affair. After selecting German or English as the setup language, you are prompted to optionally replace tree textures. A backup of the original files is made if you select this option. I’m not sure what the replacement textures do as I couldn’t see any difference. This review has them installed. A word of warning: texture replacements are global to FSX scenery. While tree textures can be installed through the installer, the setup program does not offer to install the optional hi-res runway textures. This is covered in detail in the manual, but left me wondering why the setup program has an option for tree textures but not the runway?
Documentation I found the 22 page PDF manual fairly exhaustive for a scenery add-on covering a relatively small area. The documentation is a welcome part of the package as so many add-ons these days are content with a simple readme.txt file. The information about the history, and the references to the approach patterns, suggested aircraft, and the flight-plans included with the product are definitely worth reading. I found myself wishing for a map of the island, with points of interest, but alas it was absent. A quick web visit to the local visitor’s bureau website quickly fixed this gap. Visuals Lord Howe Island is majestic and the virtual re-creation is equally impressive. Arriving at the site is reminiscent of an adventure movie scene, especially on a hazy day where the island just appears from the middle of nowhere. I am positively enthused by the rendering of the coral reef, lagoon and other geological features. Seagulls fly in the air on the northern side of the main island, sailboats move in the bay, and the cliff sides of Mount Gower and Mount Lidgbird on the southern end of the main island are only outclassed by Ball’s Pyramid to the south-east. Just the type of scenery you want to escape to after a hard day.
The scenery uses photoreal textures, which are very effective for the sea and vegetation from a distance. Closeup however is a mixed bag. The shadows don’t line up with the sun and there are few objects in some cases to compensate. The high resolution mesh helps quite a bit. The documentation already states to increase the settings to 10m and 1 pixel per meter texture, yet trees are relatively absent at the highest settings. From a distance though, the textures work well. The airport and immediate surrounding area are rather detailed, yet the attention to detail can be sporadic outside of a few areas (jetty, some houses, animated birds in the north east). Overall, it makes for a good atmosphere, although the hills and mountains could use a bit more “3D'ing” to wrap up the spectacular scenery.
Night lighting is realistic, with the understanding that Lord Howe has very little habitable space with the majority of the area being a natural park.
There are very few cars on Lord Howe Island, which is also true to life. There are a few static vehicles represented in the scenery. I didn’t see any traffic or people outside of the immediate terminal, along the roads or otherwise. The only animated objects seem to be the birds to the north and some boats in the bay. The FSX AI had aircraft flying in and out of the scenery, including Dash-8s. My add-on AI aircraft package had no problems creating traffic to/from the Island, and I had a QuantasLink Dash-8 coming in for landing while I was spooling my engines on the ground. There are no seasonal textures provided in the scenery that I could notice, and this is not unexpected because of the island’s latitude. All seasons look alike.
Performance
The relatively small size
of the area covered by this scenery and scarcity of AI objects makes for
good performance. I would venture that a video card
with enough memory would do well, even with the high resolution runway textures.
The scenery is not nearly as intensive on the simulator as some of the larger
airports in FSX. The manual does state that the large textures used can impact
some systems significantly. My system didn’t see a blip. Conclusion Lord Howe Island is a unique product. Little can describe the approach to the island the first time as it comes into view. On one hand, the product feels right out of a movie set, reminiscent of the helicopter approach to the island in the movie “Jurassic Park”. On the other, it is 400 miles (740km) from the mainland, has a short runway that makes most fast movers unwelcome, and it covers a relatively small area. The airport is a great place to practice touch and go’s or even launch a seaplane tour with hard to beat visuals.
Lord Howe Island screams to become the perfect demo to neighbors and friends, yet the lasting appeal may be a concern due to its remote location. |
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