Hi,

I know this is a strange question, but I have never really focused on Europe for FS. Most of my flying is in the US/Canada/Caribbean/Mexico.

I'm looking for a British home base for flights to/from holiday destinations. I'm probably looking at Gatwick, Birmingham or Manchester. Other suggestions welcome. Main thing I'm looking for is a well done and well performing product in v4.2. I know there are a lot of competing products out there - mega airports, extreme airports, mega extreme airport X... It is a bit difficult to figure out which one to pick.

And yes, I know this is a little like asking what the best US airport is, but I'm mainly interested in getting 787's flying in the Caribbean, and bulking up on UK scenery seems like a good way to start. I have Fly Tampa's Amsterdam, but I am waiting for a full installer.

Thanks!

Manchester, but then I'm biased. Fly to pretty much anywhere in Europe or the world from there in any size of aircraft and you aren't taxed with the performance hit of being near London.

Uk2000 version is good, I haven't tried the aerosoft version to compare though.

Chris

5 minutes ago, tutmeister said:

Manchester, but then I'm biased. Fly to pretty much anywhere in Europe or the world from there in any size of aircraft and you aren't taxed with the performance hit of being near London.

Uk2000 version is good, I haven't tried the aerosoft version to compare though.

Chris

This one? http://www.uk2000scenery.com/newsite/My_Homepage_Files/Page23.html

Good point about staying away from London. I had one of the Heathrows in FSX and flying there was pretty pointless due to performance.

Edited June 5, 20188 yr by duckbilled

I vote for Manchester as well. Using UK2000 here.

Another vote for uk2000 Manchester, just had a really nice sunset landing there after departing Munich earlier this evening in a boeing 717, and as with tutmeister, I've flown 747s down to the little D8 Q400 at Manchester, 

Cheers

Thanks. UK2000's stuff is pretty reasonable priced. Off to purchase now.

Yes one more for UK2000 Manchester , I fly real jets out of Manchester and find the UK2000 scenery version excellent.

The UK2000 East Midlands EGNX and Doncaster EGCN are also very good if you want somewhere quieter.

If the budget allows Orbx England adds realism to your descent and climbout scenery 

Yes orbx England with uk2000 until they release true earth England!

Chris

Edited June 5, 20188 yr by tutmeister

Pretty much any UK2000 airport will work for you - they’re very good. If you don’t mind a slightly smaller airport then Edinburgh UK2000 is good since it’s a beautiful approach, especially from the north east, and you won’t spend a lot of time taxiing to and from gates. (... and, yes, Manchester is good too 😉)

Uk2000 Manchester or gatwick if you want to fly 787’s to the Caribbean 

Even though I am from Manchester and I work on the ramp there, which might make me seem biased, I would suggest Manchester would be a good choice for you, for a number of reasons:

First up, there's very good scenery available for it from UK2000, which is accurate in terms of layout and function (not obsessively so graphically, a sensible lid has been kept on the detail levels with an eye to keeping the frame rates up), and there is also accurate scenery for the neighbouring Liverpool airport also by UK2000, which amongst other things means AI traffic on departures out toward the west from Manchester and inbound from the west are accurate because they are steering around traffic coming into the similarly accurate, but FPS-friendly Liverpool scenery from UK2000.

Second, traffic at Manchester is particularly interesting and varied, with tons of destinations served all over the world, and specific to your preference, there are a lot of 787 flights into there, Thomson (TUI) do loads of them every day for example. But there is a lot to suit many simmers: Manchester still has many scheduled 747-400 passenger flights (Virgin Atlantic), the Airbus A380 is a regular visitor too, with Emirates operating many flights daily, Thomas Cook operate loads of A330 and A321/320s into there and occasionally an A340 shows up too, Norwegian (launch customer for the 737 Max) fly the 737 Max into there, EasyJet fly the A320 NEO into there, SAS operate the 737-600 NG into there and Ryanair and Jet 2 fly loads of 737 NGs in and out all day long too. For turboprops, Aer Lingus fly the ATR-72 into there, FlyBe operate the Dash8 Q400 and there are other interesting ones seen regularly such as Dorniers and SAABs. Embraer E-Jet are often seen there too. The Boeing 757 is a regular sight there, as is the 767.  A319s show up regularly too and occasionally an A318 tips up there as well. So, loads of interesting airlines, flying in and out of there, European, US, Chinese, Eastern European, Arabian, you name it. There's a big cargo ramp as well, so there are often unusual heavies coming in there such as some of those big Russkie transporters, as well as some more familiar stuff from Fed Ex and UPS including 757s. So, there's plenty of variety, in terms of aircraft, it even has the most famous Concorde of all located there: G-BOAC.

Operationally, with twin runways, both of which have full ILS capability, it can and does handle a lot of traffic for the UK and is often a favourite place for diversions too because it is known for being flexible with regard to slot times. Flights from mainland Europe into 23R or 23L are scenically interesting because they pass over the Peak District, which puts your flights quite close to some interesting terrain before your turn for the localiser if coming in that way up through central England. Weather-wise of course, the UK is split directly between four regions of differing weather, which means atmospheric conditions can vary from day to day, so runway allocation and usage is often subject to interesting changes at Manchester. It is rarely snowed in, so it doesn't have a dedicated de-icing facility as it doesn't really warrant the expense of one, however, several service companies can offer de-icing there although as noted, rarely do so. Although quieter at night, operations do  take place throughout the entire day, including many fast turnaround 737 flights at night, as well as freight and passenger operations on the remote stands.

Last but not least, the Fairey Apron (near the Control Tower) at Manchester is a major aircraft repair facility, with Thomas Cook having a big maintenance place there. There is an engine test site alongside of it, so that sometimes sees some interesting activity, for example, one of the first ever major B787 composite fuselage repairs took place at the Thomas Cook Fairey Apron after an airport vehicle hit and damaged a 787 fairly substantially at Manchester. After some detailed inspection, it was determined by Boeing engineers that its composite fuselage could be repaired on site at the Thomas Cook facility with parts flown over from the US Boeing plant, this was good news all round for Boeing's Dreamliner users, as it proved to be something of a test case for the longevity of composite airliners, which do occasionally get the odd ding in them and the fact that they can be repaired in situ should damage occur to them.

 

 

Edited June 5, 20188 yr by Chock

As others have said Manchester is good. If you like the 737 then you could always go for Stansted as well as Ryanair have a wide selection of destinations from there.

All my airports in the UK are UK2000 have to support a home developer, as for ORBX true earth I suspect they will test with a local scenery, I'm not worried about UK2000 performance but more like true earth. 

In Europe I use Aerosoft pro T2Gate FlyTampa 29Palms LLH

Edited June 6, 20188 yr by rjfry

10 hours ago, regis9 said:

Uk2000 Manchester or gatwick if you want to fly 787’s to the Caribbean 

You could add Glasgow to that list.

Another +1 for UK2000 Manchester. I don't actually own it, but Manchester airport is a great choice (and only an hour from me), with a massive variety of real world routes and aircraft, and it's away from the performance-sucking area of London. @Chock summed it up extremely well.