You mention you want an airport to be "in the middle" of many international airports at a radius of max 800nm. This means that London is a poor choice as it is at a "corner" of europe. It would be more logical to pick a more "centralized" airport for example like (in random order) LOWW, LSZH, EDDF, EDDM, EDDS, EDDL.

I did not specify that the airport had to be located in a position surrounded by other major international airports. In fact, London seemed suitable exactly because of its "corner" location. From London City, I could fly the C510 north to other British airports. After returning to London City, I could make a short commute to Heathrow. From Heathrow, I could fly the B747 across the English Channel to Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Geneva, Munich, Paris, Vienna, and Zurich.

 

While I agree that some of the German airports you mentioned are more strategically located, (1) the existing Aerosoft renditions are of average quality and (2) flights from Heathrow to other major European cities involve crossing the English Channel, which I would really enjoy.

 

Regardless, I am still considering Geneva, as I am interested in FSDT airports, which seem of higher quality than current UK2000 releases. My only concern is that there might be a lack of large aircraft and traffic at Geneva. I am so used to the chaos of Hong Kong air traffic!

PS: You said you need a plethora of good international airports close together, and yet you do not mention Europe at all. There is no other continent that is better covered, with good international airport sceneries, than Europe, in FSX.

 

I agree! After spending many, many years hardly leaving the US just because I preferred to fly Southwest routes with their non-hub type route system, I have gotten bored visiting the same airports over and over again. I have since moved to Europe and am currently flying SAS routes. They have bases in Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Oslo(all of which have excellent payware versions available - I have them all). As is mentioned here, in Europe, there are a lot of international airports to fly to and just about every single one has at least a very good payware version available. Some have excellent freeware(I just flew into EDDL last night which has decent freeware version out there). Anyway, back to the point. It seems to me there is way more coverage in Europe than any other continent - especially for payware version of airports. Maybe I'm wrong. But, I can think of only about 15-20 good US payware/freeware airports where in Europe, every destination on the map seems to have a version available. It's costing me a lot of money. I think one could easily spend over $1000 on payware for Europe and still probably have airports/areas left to buy.

For me flytampa KBOS is not good on framerates (the only flytampa scenery with such behavior for me), and the whole New York area, even in default scenery, is very-very heavy on framerates. On the other hand, both airports on the pacific coast perform very well here, so I would pick among them.

Interesting. Thanks for the information! This is helpful, as it eliminates one side of the country to worry about.

 

You might want to consider their Gatwick instead of Heathrow.

Is there a reason you prefer Gatwick? If I select Heathrow, I might stay at Hong Kong until UK2000 releases its third version of Heathrow.

 

'

Then perhaps you could outline the areas, cultures and landscapes you are considering so that we can discard the rest, and be better able to help you.

From my previous post (for different reasons, but still true regardless):

I would prefer to stay out of Africa, Antarctica, Oceania, and South America (not to be biased or anything) because of the sparsity of high-quality payware products that fit the criteria above.

 

For FSX, payware Japanese sceneries simply do not exist.

I was thinking of Aerosim, Overland, and others, but I now see that some of them are only for previous versions of FS. There are various scenery packages, both freeware and payware, for Japanese airports, so it is easy to get confused.

 

I agree!

Did you also not see my previous posts involving London?

 

Thanks for the information and opinions!

Is there a reason you prefer Gatwick?

 

One objective and one subjective:

 

o -> Aerosoft's Heathrow is not good, and UK2000's is going to be updated.

s -> For some reason I do not like the terminal and taxiway layout of Heathrow.

 

I was thinking of Aerosim, Overland, and others, but I now see that some of them are only for previous versions of FS.

 

Exactly. The only payware (and good) scenery at that whole region (Japan or close to Japan), is Overland's Seoul-Incheon (RKSI).

For FSX, payware Japanese sceneries simply do not exist.

 

This is not correct.

 

There are some fantastic FSX payware Japanese airports, available here :-

 

http://www.aerosim.c...igo/page1_e.htm

 

:smile:

My only concern is that there might be a lack of large aircraft and traffic at Geneva. I am so used to the chaos of Hong Kong air traffic!

Well, it probably depends on whether you use an addon (no matter which) for traffic, or just the default AI traffic, and of course LSGG won't be as chaotic as is Kai Tak, but it still can be crowded, and if you're flying a heavy jet, it might eventually be hard to find a free parking spot.

The chaos at Kai Tak is probably unique, because it's apron is realtively small considering the amount and size of the planes, and the little number of taxiways, though. Anyways, LSGG is a great airport, and IMHO approaching Geneva from the East at sunset gives you a really great and pelasing view. That's one of my favorite approaches, especially with some smaller plane.

 

Regards,

Flo

This is not correct.

 

There are some fantastic FSX payware Japanese airports, available here :-

 

http://www.aerosim.c...igo/page1_e.htm

 

:smile:

 

As everything Aerosim -> €200 per airport or plane. Sorry, I'll pass.

Well, it probably depends on whether you use an addon (no matter which) for traffic, or just the default AI traffic, and of course LSGG won't be as chaotic as is Kai Tak, but it still can be crowded, and if you're flying a heavy jet, it might eventually be hard to find a free parking spot.

The chaos at Kai Tak is probably unique, because it's apron is realtively small considering the amount and size of the planes, and the little number of taxiways, though. Anyways, LSGG is a great airport, and IMHO approaching Geneva from the East at sunset gives you a really great and pelasing view. That's one of my favorite approaches, especially with some smaller plane.

I use Ultimate Traffic 2 set to approximately 75% or 80% of full traffic density. Also, I primarily use Chek Lap Kok, although I occasionally fly to Kai Tak in smaller aircraft or for special occasions. I have been too lazy to set up the ILS information with Kai Tak in the navigation database.

Sorry, I obviously misread that. Anyways, Geneva is much smaller than Chek Lap Kok, either, thus it's quite normal that traffic isn't as much a chaos. Still there are lots of international flights, and also some heavies regularly visiting LSGG, so it may be worth a try. And btw, all the FSDT airports can be downloaded as demos first, so you can try them for something like the first two minutes after starting the flight, and then decide, whether you like it or not.

 

Flo

Narita really needs to get done by someone, as does Tokyo city.

Toronto - CYYZ

Great hub for all north american points, Easy jump to Europe. Not nearly the delays of most large airports close by (JFK, ORD, etc).

Top notch winter operations....it never closes.

Most important point, I am a controller there on Vatsim, so we could always use more traffic.

I am in the process of confirming or selecting a base for most of my operations, which are flown by aircraft from the size of the small Cessna C510 to the size of the large Boeing B747. I am brainstorming suitable major international airports that possess all or most of the following characteristics:

• Located moderately closely to other large international airports (under 800 NM) so B747 and B777 flights are possible and realistic
  
• Possesses a high-quality FSX counterpart (this may include the default version, if the scenery is adequate enough)
  
• Preferably located near large bodies of water (rivers and similarly sized bodies of water are a last resort)
  
• Serviced by a variety of aircraft of various nationalities and sizes
  

Currently, I am based at Hong Kong (VHHH). This allows me to make short flights to Kai Tak as well as "longer" flights to Beijing, Shanghai, and Taipei. The default scenery is only decent (but better than most), but I am not sure whether I want to upgrade to the Imagine Simulations version after experiencing the high quality of FlyTampa products. Hopefully a newer high-quality version will be created in the future.

 

In Japan, candidates include Kansai (RJBB) and Narita (RJAA). Both are located relatively closely to other large Asian airports, and have challenging winds, which I like.

In the United States, candidates include Boston (KBOS), New York (KJFK), and San Francisco (KSFO). All seem like decent options with great payware scenery and proximity to other large United States airports. KBOS and KSFO also have challenging winds.

In Europe, the sole candidate is currently London (EGLL). EGLL is located conveniently in relation to other British airports and other European hubs such as Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and Paris.

 

Airports that are attractive but too isolated include Anchorage, Auckland, St. Martin, and Sydney, I would prefer to stay out of Africa, Antarctica, Oceania, and South America (not to be biased or anything) because of the sparsity of high-quality payware products that fit the criteria above.

 

I would also appreciate opinions about existing payware options for the airports mentioned above. Frame rates are always important, but quality comes first. I downloaded the FlightBeam KSFO trial, and was impressed by the quality, but the performance was less good than expected.

 

Sydney is great.

 

But I use the VHHH by Imaginesim and the only complaint I have with their software is that it is not as good as Flytampa. I forgot the name for it, but it is 'oversharp' so the images are trying to show more than what they should be. There is a technical term for this, I tried to reprocess each image but I couldn't understand it completely. It worked but many images were missing due to my misunderstanding.

 

I am very happy using the Imaginesim airport at VHHH with the Hong Kong scenery by Flytampa. It works well. Only thing I would wish for is a way to place photoreal scenery in there, as Flytampa doesn't I think?

 

Does anyone have any Chinese airports? Like Shanghai? I am thinking to do a few Dragonair A330 flights.

 

By the way, would love a RJAA and RJTT scenery for FSX.

This is not correct.

 

There are some fantastic FSX payware Japanese airports, available here :-

 

http://www.aerosim.c...igo/page1_e.htm

 

:smile:

 

There are only 3 addon airports for FSX. And no Narita even though they made a great rendition for FS9

Perhaps you could use KDTW- Detroit Metro/Wayne County, where I do most of my flying.

• Close-ish major airports include KMSP, KORD, CYYZ, KPHL. Ones that are farther away include KJFK, KIAD, CYUL, KATL and KBOS.
  
• There is an OK scenery for it created by BluePrint simulations (http://www.blueprintsimulations.com/BluePrint_KDTW.html), and Aerosoft has done Detroit X (http://en.shop.aerosoft.com/eshop.php?action=article_detail&s_supplier_aid=11574&s_design=DEFAULT&shopfilter_category=Flight+Simulation&s_language=english)
  
• Located on Lake Erie, which is not that large of a body of water, but Lake Superior, the largest freshwater lake in the world, is located about an hour north with the Atlantic being nearby (about 1.5-2 hours away)
  
• Served by Air France (Paris CDG), Lufthansa (Frankfurt), and Delta Airlines to a large variety of destinations throughout the world. You would be able to fly the Airbus X, NGX, the PMDG 744, and upcoming T7 on real-world routes for Delta.
  

Detroit is also not an incredibly busy airport (eg. not as busy as O'Hare, JFK, LAX, etc.), but still has enough traffic around to keep you on your toes a bit. Also, weather can get pretty challenging there in the Winter. Also, if you are looking for a good practice field (long runway, small amount of traffic) head up to Sawyer Airport (KSAW) in Marquette, located about an hour northwest. The runway is about 12k feet with plenty of wide open spaces around.

Thanks for all of the suggestions. While many of the suggestions are very good (and suitable as future destinations), I believe I will choose my base in Europe.

 

The final candidates are Geneva, London, and Zurich, and I will decide after comparing the quality of their existing payware sceneries. I prefer London for its convenient location, but the scenery seems a little poorer than that of the two Swiss locations. Then again, FTX will soon release its England package, which should be nice when coupled with Aerosoft London City and UK2000 airports.