Addon scenery a "must"?

[Orjan Polman]

Hello all

 

First timer here, in regards to VATSIM.

I just wonder: how important/needed are addon sceneries when flying online?

 

I have FSX-SE and it is quite limited in VAS usage as you probably know

And some of the airports I have looked at use pretty much of this...

 

Could I use default airports as long as the gates are the same? Or almost...

 

 

Thanks, Orjan.

[Nick Warren]

I think it's a mix. By and large you'll be fine with default airports, but realize that the airports are modeled circa 2006 so many things have also changed. The changes that will affect you on the network are runway number changes, runway additions and/or subtractions, and taxiway changes. If you find that commercial addons are not feasible because of the VAS issue, then perhaps find an updated freeware AFCAD file for the particular airport that will hopefully provide an updated, yet system friendly update.

Edited December 17, 2018 at 07:08 AM by Guest

[Robert Shearman Jr]

Most of the time, controllers are aware if their airports have undergone significant changes since 2006, & have an idea what the major differences might be, so they can often accommodate FS9, FSX, and P3D pilots who are working with outdated layouts. But the changes are often pretty significant. Heathrow has undergone quite a few modifications to taxiways and terminals. In the US, Dulles, Atlanta, and Minneapolis have each added runways since the FSX scenery was made. Miami changed runway numbers due to magnetic variation. And don't get me started on Chicago O'Hare.

 

Freeware updates are the way to go. You'll get differing levels of quality, but, normally the runway and taxiway layouts are good enough to be functional. I got in the habit of starting every FSX flight by jumping on AVSIM.com or flightsim.com and doing a search under FSX Scenery on my origin and destination ICAO codes, then quickly downloading & installing any updates I found there. I've since switched to XP11 but I still generally do the same with the freeware scenery packs.

[Nestor Perez]

I don't know how often this happens in other parts of the world, but around Spain there's quite a significant problem with people using default scenery (I believe mostly people with < X-Plane 11). For some reason all of those sceneries are "shifted" towards some side; be it north, south, east, west or any other combination. In other words, the actual scenery and taxiways are all good, but when the pilots taxi for example beside the rwy, they actually appear on the rwy for both other pilots and us controllers. Even though, this issue seems to be generally solved since most XP users moved to XP11.

 

I have to agree with Robert too. It won't take you more than 2 minutes to do a quick search for a working, updated and (normally) free scenery and afterwards, you won't have as many doubts regarding "Where have I got to go now?" and the controller won't have to worry about getting others out of your way so you can taxi to the one and only stand that's closest to you...

 

Cheers,

[Orjan Polman]

Thanks a lot guys!

Many great suggestions here

I do use Hervè Sors navaid update, but that will not do anything to the taxiways and stands...

Looks like I'm going searching..

Thanks again for your [Mod - Happy Thoughts]istance gentlemen.

[Trent Hopkinson]

Head out on a flight to Kobe airport in Japan, ICAO code RJBE

 

If you're using default scenery for FSX or P3D you will find the RNAV/GPS approach for runway 09 will be needed because you won't be able to tune the ILS for the runway.

 

When you get to your Decision Height, you will find... nothing but water.

 

Back when the FSX scenery was finalized, in very early 2006, the airport was still under construction and looked like this

 

There is nothing there but Water.

 

Since October 2006, some 8 or 9 months after FSX was created, Kobe Airport was open, and now looks like this

 

Without addon scenery for the airport, you can't land there unless you use a Sea plane that can land on water.

 

The real airport handles Boeing 777-200's on a daily basis.

https://flightaware.com/live/airport/RJBE/arrivals

[Andreas Fuchs]

An excellent starting point in your search for adequate freeware sceneries is http://www.freewarescenery.com/fsx.html

[Orjan Polman]

Thanks for the heads up Trent! Happened to me once before, only on land. Arrived in the dark and came to the point where the landinglights illuminated the ground: no runway, but a small slope that resulted in a touchdown speed of 800-900FPM... I'll check up on that.

 

Andreas, thank you! So far I found one on AVSIM for EHAM, and it worked great!

Will surely check that link you provided

 

Many thanks guys!

Orjan.

[Andreas Fuchs]

The website that I have linked will also point you to AVSIM, Flightsim.com and other servers, but at least you can look for the airports in a more orderly manner.

[Robert Shearman Jr]

There's always the time I was cleared to land on runway 32 at KBOS only to find I was lined up with the Boston Harbor...

[Magnus Meese]

I've never been too bothered about getting the mega airports and what have you for airports that I don't regularly visit in FS, so I've always gone for AFCADs with updated parkings and gates, unless googling quickly reveals a good free full scenery (or a demo, e.g. UK2000 and DD).

 

My normal approach is to use the Avsim library, searching with ICAO code as the term (I search all categories, you can narrow it down to FSX or FSX AFCADs if you wish), and sort results by date. You'll find most international airports on there, and most people do a pretty good job. If it's made by a guy called Ray Smith, you're pretty much golden, he's been doing it for years so some of his early works are sometimes not revisited for a post-release real life update, but it's rare. Almost always this results in you having an airport layout matching real charts and other aircraft, without losing half your FPS and maxing out your VAS (if not x64). And of course, you don't have to chip in $20 for an airport you're only visiting a handful of times.

 

There's always the time I was cleared to land on runway 32 at KBOS only to find I was lined up with the Boston Harbor...

Or diverting after a 12 hour flight because VTBS isn't there by default in FSX...

[Don Desfosse]

There's always the time I was cleared to land on runway 32 at KBOS only to find I was lined up with the Boston Harbor...

I will admit it was fun to watch...

[Ken Pryor]

I was very pleased to find this thread. I was flying from KORD last night and using the FS Dreamteam scenery which features the old airport layout. There was no ATC and only a couple other aircraft there, so I was able to go where I needed without any trouble. But I wondered how best to handle things, which led me to this forum where I found this thread. Thanks to all for the helpful advice. I've been away from FS and VATSIM for a while and just getting back into it, so I need all the good advice I can get.