World Update X: KBID Block Island by Gaya

There is a bit of a mystery with the Block Island airport that is included with the World Update X: USA. Block Island State Airport was already released on Orbx by Gaya. It now is mysteriously missing from https://orbxdirect.com/category/north-america/msfs

The default KBID in World Update X

I noticed that in the original scenery, there were statis aircraft including the BN2 Islander and a helicopter. The Microsoft scenery seems to be the exact same scenery as Gaya produced, but lacking the static aircraft and in Content.xml, it takes priority over the Orbx one.

I restored the static aircraft, by editing Content.xml and setting active=false for package: 

microsoft-airport-kbid-block-island

The restored static aircraft in the Orbx Gaya scenery

Beach bars and Pubs in Flight Simulator

Sunset Bar, Sint Maarten

Perhaps the most famous of all beach bars near an airport, the bar at the end of runway 28 at Princess Juliana International Airport. The Sunset Bar and Grill is well depicted in Airworthy Design's Saint Martin and Grand Case addon scenery. There is a live feed from the bar of planes landing, flying over the little beach there. Officially on the Dutch side of the island.

Sunset Bar, Sint Maarten

Driftwood Boat Bar

At the other end of the beach, just to the north is the Driftwood Boat Bar. Available in the same Airworthy Designs scenery.

The Driftwood Boat Bar.

Bar Two-Six

This is both a cafe and a bar at the start of runway 26 at Castletown, Isle of Man. It overlooks Wigeon Pool a good area for birdwatching and is of course a great spot for plane watching. The scenery is by UK2000.

Bar Two-Six

Biggles Restaurant

OK, not strictly a bar, but it does serve drinks with food. Biggles is practically on the airfield at Denham, built during World War 1. This scenery is by Burning Blue Design.

Biggles Restaurant

The Riverside Inn Pub and Grill

Situated on the airport at Dundee, The Riverside has an outside play area, views over the runway and the River Tay. The scenery is by Orbx.

The Riverside

Premier Inn Beefeater

This hotel is just outside the Oxford airport. It's a travel Inn with a Beefeater restaurant and Bar. The scenery is by Pilot Plus.

Beefeater at Premier Inn, Oxford Airport

Royal Adelaide Hospital

The Royal Adelaide hospital is a POI from the Adelaide City Pack from Orbx. It seems to have had some development since it was first released. As can be seen from the following screenshots, the helipads have been developed and it is possible to land the Airbus H135 helicopter on it. My first legit landing on a helipad!

Initial release of Adelaide City Pack

Current version with updated helipads

Alpine Rescue H135

Sion, Switzerland

A (small) city in the canton of Valais. It’s know for it’s two hilltop castles, the 15th century cathedral and the old town.

Sion Airport LSGS, Switzerland

A great base for The Matterhorn, whose summit at 4478 metres (14692 feet), stands on the border between Switzerland and Italy. It is not the closest airport to the Matterhorn, that would be Raron LSTA. The closest International airport is Geneva LSGG. From Sion, fly east to Raron and then up the valley south to Zermatt. Zermatt is a popular winter sports and mountain climbing/hiking resort.

Sion Hospital

Also known as the Centre Hospitalier du Valais. Swiss Air-Rescue Rega has now a station in Sion in collaboration with the locally based helicopter company Héli-Alpes SA. The real life helicopter based here is a Augusta-Westland Da Vinci and is equipped with rescue hoist and is also used for transporting intensive care patients.

Geneva, Switzerland

The second most populous city in Switzerland, Geneva is located on the western banks of the Lac Léman (Lale Geneva). The north half of the lake is in Switzerland and the South side is in France.

Geneva International Airport LSGG

Geneva Hospital

Geneva Hospital HUG from Red Wing Simulations

Lausanne University Hospital

Lausanne CHUV by Red Wing Simulations

On flight simulator catalog

Innsbruck, Austria

The capital of the western Austrian state of Tyrol. Innsbruck has been a popular destination for winter sports. It is known for it’s both imperial and modern architecture.

Innsbruck Airport LOWI

Innsbruck University Hospital

H135 Rega landing on the helipad at Innsbruck hospital

Chamonix-Mont Blanc

Chamonix Heliport DZDB

A convenient helicopter base for activities in and around Chamonix and Mount Blanc. Chamonix-Mon-Blac is a resort at the junction of France, Switzerland and Italy. The village is at the base of Mont Black, the highest mountain in the Alps at 4807 m (15774 ft). The mountain is popular with outdoor activities including winter spots and mountain climbing.

Chamonix DZDB Heliport, H135 Sécurité Civile

Aircraft

Airbus H135 (EC135)

Available as freeware from Hype Performance Group, this is one of the highest quality freewares available (there is also a payware luxury version). It can be downloaded from flightsim.to

Formerly know as Eurocopter, the H135 has excellent slope landing capabilities and can perform demanding mountain rescue intervention. It is currently used by services all over the world for Police, Coast Guard and MedEvac/Mountain Rescue. It is the number one EMS, emergency ambulance helicopter in Europe. 

Various addon freeware liveries are available for the H135, including the highly recommended Rega (Swiss).

VoloCity

A useful aircraft for landing on helipads, it seems much easier to land than the H135 for a beginner like me. Be careful as some helipads in the flight simulator are only for visual effects and you may fall through the object!

Volocity landed at Lausanne hospital

Key West, Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas National Park and Loggerhead Key

Key West is the southernmost city in the contiguous United States and the westernmost island connected by highway in the Florida Keys.

Dry Tortugas is on Loggerhead Key, although not currently rendered by default on Flight Simulator, it is present in the custom scenery by FSDreamTeam for KEYW.

In this review on YouTube, the two (early versions) are compared. I have since, found considerable detail in the Orbx version.

Orbx Screenshots

Runway 27 with Fedex depot in background

FedEx Terminal depot

This little easter egg in Orbx KEYW

Passenger Arrivals

Antonov at the end of runway 06

Fort Jefferson. Not sure if this is default POI or Orbx custom

Some nice custom POIs from Orbx

The Fire Brigade and baggage handling at night

FsDreamTeam Screenshots

Static aircraft and detailed animated baggage handling

Not the best texture here on the Fire department

Interior of control tower and static aircraft, some clipping issues

Runway and static aircraft

Key West KEYW scenery is available both from FsDreamTeam and Orbx. FsDreamTeam version is available on Marketplace in the simulator. FsDreamTeam does include custom POI of the lighthouse at Loggerhead and also a marked Seaplane base at Fort Jefferson and much better Naval Air Station with appropriate static aircraft.

Dry Tortugas National Park

The official map from the National Park Service:

Dry Tortugas National Park is made up of seven Islands. It is one of the least visited National Parks. Most of it is underwater. The islands are Loggerhead Key, Garden Key, Bush Key, Long Key, Hospital Key, Middle Key and East Key. You can come here by Seaplane or boat. Arriving by seaplane or boat, Garden Key is the arrival point next to Fort Jefferson, one of the biggest brick buildings in the World.

Key West Seaplane adventures is the only company with direct flights to the National Park. I believe they use the  De Havilland Canada DHC-3T Turbo Otter.

Glider hop from Bodmin Airfield to Dadivstow Moor

Burning Blue Design Bodmin Airfield EGLA, is a great airfield to fly the new Discus-2C glider from Got Friends. I used winch launch from runway 31 and flew on a hot, sunny day over to Davidstow Moor where the old airfield is, by the creamery. I used to drive my car on this airfield some years ago. The Bodmin Airfield is right next to the busy A30 dual carriageway.

Just before landing, we fly over Rough Tor on the west side and the open moor, with Crowdy reservoir to the left, before turning in to land at roughly 280 degrees onto the disused airfield. Lovely views over North Cornwall to the windfarm to the North. Davidstow marks the northernmost extent of the moor.

This is the most fun flying on the simulator. The glider is fantastic, even though gliders are not fully supported yet. Got Friends promises to update the model as glider support is added in the future by Microsoft.

Davidstow used to be the location of RAF Davidstow Moor in WW2 from late 1942 until 1945. Roughtor (Row Tor) summit rocks, Little Roughtor and Logan Rock is protected by the National Trust

Launched from EGLA Bodmin Airfield

Soaring over the A30

Roughtor

On final approach to Davidstow Airfield

I dropped my pasty somewhere...

I know I parked my VW Transporter by that building

Stuttgart Airport EDDS

So the World Update VI came with a custom hand-crafted version of Stuttgart airport, convenient for flights to the Black Forest or Munich and Bavaria. How does it compare with the real-life?

Maybe we need to wait until Aerosoft can release a better version, but for now I think it's pretty good free version from Microsoft. There is also a version (available on Orbx) from FeelThere and a version by JustSim (available on SimMarket). I have Sim-Wings version of Munich, which is my favourite airport of the region.

Main terminal with the Bosch sign on the parking.

Microsoft free version, Bosch Parkhaus mysteriously missing

South Side of Airport runway 26

The free version from Microsoft

MSFS Safe Mode Error

Since installing World Update VI, I have regular been getting the following warning message on launching Flight Simulator. It is annoying, because it pauses the load waiting for a selection and only once "Safe mode" or "normal mode" selected, does it continue to load.

The official support documentation tries to level the blame at 3rd party addons, but in fact this error is common, even with no addons. The trigger that causes this, is a lock file that is created on launch and is meant to be deleted on exit, but often is not.

The file path is:

C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_<key>\LocalState

running.lock

Once you exit the simulator, safely check for and delete this file and you will start next time without any annoying error dialog.

Flight Simulator Catalog

 Microsoft Flight Simulator has  been out now just over a year. Released on August 18th 2020, I pre-ordered and have since been trying to keep up with all the add-on scenery released. Initally, in a spreadsheet, I keep track of the new scenery products that I buy, but have since created a website to track both my purchases and my explorations in the game.

A new feature of the game is Points of Interest (POI) and I am slowly creating a database of all the default POIs and those added with some 3rd party developers.

For all payware scenery addons and a growing list of POIs,  please visit Flight Simulator Catalog.

CRJ-700 Taking off from Princess Juliana International Airport

Blank rewards screen on FSX Steam edition after installing DLC

Very frustrating to find my rewards screen is blank. After searching some forums and trying without success to run the Log recover program, I found the answer in a Steam forum:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/314160/discussions/1/627456486410539855/

Just browse to the DLC sub-folder of the FSX folder, e.g. mine is:

D:\Steam\steamapps\common\FSX\DLC

and add an empty sub-folder named "rewards", restart FSX and now the rewards page should be populated thus:

Bucknall, Lincolnshire

A short flight around the small farm, grass strip airfield of Bucknall in Lincolnshire, England. Disused now and dificult to find on Google satellite view. Very challenging takeoff and landing for a Cessna. Scenery provided by UK2000, VFR Airfields volume 3

The road and farm building match those on Google streetview

The scenery is pretty accurate model of the farm buidlings and surrounding fields and tree lines.

Paring with static aircraft

Checking out runway 25

It's a tricky landing avoiding trees, electric lines and touching down early enough to have enough time to stop before the end of the runway. I landed on 16.

Just stopped before end of runway 16/34

Full HD video of my flight here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFCxKkdjEHw

RAF Leconfield

The former RAF airbase (ICAO: EGXV) was used by Spitfires in WW2 and now is used by MoD Defence School of Transport. The runways are disused, but there is parking for helicopters. The custom scenery is provided by UK2000 as part of VFR Airfields volume 3.

There are some helicopters parked at the helipads near where the flight starts, careful to avoid the wire fence and then I took off from the disused runway and did a quick crcle of the airfield. Some quite good detail on the runway textures and the buidlings of the MoD facility.

The short flight is available in full in HD video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inHoowKNSGY

An aeriel photo of the actual airfield: