Hi all.  I was given a free copy of Model Instrument's The Last Days of Kai Tak by mrueedi to review so here is my review of it.  So first things first, I originally had the freeware version of Kai Tak by ali501 at flightsim.to.  That version of Kai Tak was quite good, but the two problems of that freeware version are: 1) there are AI passenger vehicles running all over the airport, including the taxiways and the runway, 2) the maker of it, ali501, has gone AWOL and stopped supporting it.

I also have the SamScene3D Hong Kong City Times scenery installed so it was important that The Last Days of Kai Tak scenery is compatible with Sam Scene 3D.  Overall, my impression of The Last Days of Kai Tak is it's very good, and the compatibility with SamScene3D's Hong Kong City Times is also very good.  The best part about it is, there are no random AI passenger vehicles running around the airport, something that ali501 didn't solve before he went AWOL (yes, you can get rid of the random AI passenger vehicles if you turn it off in the MSFS settings, but that defeats the purpose because then on takeoff and landing, all the streets around Hong Kong are empty of traffic).  The rest of the detail of the airport is quite good and I didn't notice any significant FPS drop with The Last Days of Kai Tak scenery (if there was any FPS drop, it was probably due to Sam Scene 3D's Hong Kong City Times scenery but that is a must have scenery for Hong Kong as it makes Hong Kong look way better than the default Hong Kong scenery). I also didn't notice the ferry terminal next to the runway that comes with the default SamScene3D Hong Kong City Times scenery so it looks like Model Instruments has cleaned that up too.

The price of The Last Days of Kai Tak at Sim Market is also quite reasonable at 12.90 Euro.  If you frequently takeoff and land at Kai Tak, and you don't want the random AI passenger vehicles running around, I think this is a good purchase since the price of it is very reasonable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And you can see the Kai Tak 1998 The Last Days Are Back scenery blends in well with the SamScene3D Hong Kong City Times scenery:

 

 

 

 

 

Also, here is the Youtube video that was created for Kai Tak 1998 The Last Days Are Back scenery by the developer if you want a video view of the scenery:

 

 

That... music. My word. 

Can users outline what's so special about the Flytampa version? That always seems to be referred to with great reverence. 

11 minutes ago, superspud said:

Can users outline what's so special about the Flytampa version? That always seems to be referred to with great reverence. 

Yeah, I would like to know about why all the love for FlyTampa version too. 

15 hours ago, superspud said:

Can users outline what's so special about the Flytampa version? That always seems to be referred to with great reverence. 

Speaking mostly for myself, it had less to do with the airport modeling and more to do with the city. It was nicely modeled (for its day) in a way that was unusually frame rate friendly and had some nice little touches (like visible illuminated humidity at night, good night lighting). Mostly though, it was one of the first really nice addon sceneries I can recall for FSX that went beyond workmanlike modeling and had some…artistry to it, if that’s the right word. It tried to capture the *feel* of Hong Kong in a way that felt like new ground for FSX scenery. Since then, other top developers have tried to capture similar magic, so that’s (happily!) no longer a novelty.

The airport itself? Let’s face it, it’s a pretty straightforward, frankly ugly thing with not much to it. In MSFS we already have the city pretty well covered (whether by freeware or Sam scene), so any Kai Tak addon is by definition going to be less value/wow factor added than the FlyTampa one.
 

James

OP. I too have Samscene Hong Kong and purchased the last days largely because of your review. When I run both together I get CTD when selecting VHHH. Without last days I have no CTD. I do have exclude installed. 

Did you see anything like this and if so how did you resolve?  If not any suggestions. I do have other Asia add ons installed, but none in the area (I think :-))

Thanks for the review and since it works for you it will work for me. Just need to find foot cause. 

-btacon

Just now, btacon said:

OP. I too have Samscene Hong Kong and purchased the last days largely because of your review. When I run both together I get CTD when selecting VHHH. Without last days I have no CTD. I do have exclude installed. 

Did you see anything like this and if so how did you resolve?  If not any suggestions. I do have other Asia add ons installed, but none in the area (I think :-))

Thanks for the review and since it works for you it will work for me. Just need to find foot cause. 

-btacon

Hi, @mrueedi is the creator of the scenery and he does post here in the Avsim forum so maybe you can send him a private message, or he may respond to you in this thread.

First things first, I did remove the freeware version of Kai Tak from flightsim.to (the one created by ali501) before I installed Kai Tak 1998 The Last Days Are Back scenery in my Community folder.  

It did not CTD for me (I spawned on Runway 13).  And I have the latest version of Sam Scene 3D from the MSFS marketplace.  I don't have the exclusion file either that is made by Sam Scene 3D.  The Kai Tak 1998 The Last Days Are Back scenery worked fine for me without the exclusion file, and I don't see any ferry terminal next to the runway.

Beyond this, I think the best way for you to troubleshoot your problem is to remove everything from your Community folder (copy it to a backup folder).  Try to load the Kai Tak area without any add ons.  If that loads and works for you, then only add the Kai Tak 1998 The Last Days Are Back scenery into your Community folder and load a flight again at Kai Tak.  If that loads successfully and doesn't CTD, add the Sam Scene 3D scenery and try loading a flight at Kai Tak again.

And hopefully, @mrueedi can give you further help or you can send a private message to him.  Cheers.

8 minutes ago, btacon said:

OP. I too have Samscene Hong Kong and purchased the last days largely because of your review. When I run both together I get CTD when selecting VHHH. Without last days I have no CTD. I do have exclude installed. 

One more thing. Kai Tak is VHHX.  VHHH is Chek Lap Kok.  If you're CTDing at VHHH, that is really weird. I just did a flight from VHHH to VHHX for fun and I didn't CTD at all at VHHH.  I also have the WF Scenery Airport for VHHH and it worked fine when I spawned there, for a flight from VHHH to VHHX.

Love the stutters in the video. The dignity.

Edited July 10, 20214 yr by Colonel X

8 hours ago, honanhal said:

The airport itself? Let’s face it, it’s a pretty straightforward, frankly ugly thing with not much to it

Imho, the platform-like terrain is challenging and the FlyTampa scenery has not modeled it at all. All is flat on sealevel. In reality Kai Tak has 4 aircraft bridges and I have not yet seen any other scenery than the reviewed one, that models these bridges.

Its this (FlyTampa):

vs. this (Kai Tak 1998):

3 hours ago, Colonel X said:

Love the stutters in the video. The dignity.

Fully agreed. I suffered with my hardware (GTX1060) when I recorded this video. I even had to replay the recorded flight with only 25% speed and the stutters still occured. An up-to-the-task new PC will soon be ready on my side...

Great work on this airport! Definitely a must have.

Loved the shot from street-level between buildings of the 747.

 

On 7/10/2021 at 9:55 AM, abrams_tank said:

One more thing. Kai Tak is VHHX.  VHHH is Chek Lap Kok. 

Wolfman Jack

Hi all,

I got recently this scenery and am pleasantly surprised 👍

I set up an early morning approach to R13 with low clouds, was marvelling about the scenery... and about the time I was capturing GS the sim CTDed 🙃 (most likely down to the knew G1000 nxi combined with the default D42).

I got a question to you all: Did you manage to tune in and track the CH VOR 112.30 MHz which is a part of the STAR for R13?

I am not sure whether the VOR is included in the scenery. LittleNavMap does not show it up (only CH DEM) so I suppose it is not in the base sim.

Strangely enough, the D42 was able to identify it when tuned in manually but the G1000 received no signal from it (so not able to track a radial).

I asked the developer by an e-mail but so far received no answer (it is holiday season, so I understand...).

Thanks!

Just an update: It seems that even though the base sim contains the navaid in question labelled as CH VORDME on 112.30 MHz, it actually acts as a DME. While the avionics can show a distance to the station, it is not able to track a radial to/from. Pitty.

Nevertheless, the STAR can be flown via a default CC NDB on 360 kHz.

Interesting thing to note is that the MI Kai Tak scenery actually adds another CH navaid which on the MSFS map shows up as DME only however there is no frequency assigned to it and it also adds another CC NDB in slightly different location with the same frequency as the default one. Any comment on it would be appreciated, @mrueedi. Thanks!

Edited August 11, 20214 yr by apollon01