New System - Overclockers Evolution Envy Mini-S

After my last upgrade on my old AMD system, I was still not getting good frame rates on FSX, so I decided to bite the bullet and make a step change in my system. I went for a pre-built Intel Core i7 6700K (4.7GHz) system. It's a mini-iTx motherboard by Gigabyte GA-Z170N-Wifi, ASUS Geforce GTX 980 4096MB graphics, Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR4 RAM. I am not a fan of Windows 10, so had Windows 7 64 bit Professional installed. It has Samsung 500GB SSD for the Operating System and a Seagate 1TB 7200rpm Hard Drive.

It boots up very fast! I set FSX Steam on Ultra High graphics settings, only with global texture resolution to Very High and I am achieving 30 - 50 fps for even the most detailed sceneries, such as London City Airport and LAX.

The screenshots above show my graphics settings. I have REX Soft Clouds installed, so weather is using the recommended settings in that case. The PC is very quiet. I can highly recommend this PC.

Sumburgh EGPB

I return to Sumburgh, the main airport serving the Shetland Islands in in Scotland. My first post was based on the Orbx FTX Scotland scenery, where as now I am using the Orbx FTX Sumburgh EGPB scenery. It is a quite dramatic improvement over FTX Scotland, some really nice photoreal scenery (especially the cliffs), 1m mesh and a very detailed airport. As usual with FTX scenery, the frame rate is very good at high level of detail.

Destinations from here are Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Kirkwall, Bergen and Fair Isle. Operators Bergen Air Transport and Flybe (Loganair). The airport has two runways, the longest being 800 Yards (730m). Flybe operate Saab 2000 aircraft.

Full review here:

The scenery is available for download here:

Lajes field LPLA, Azores

Taking a bit more of an in-depth look at TropicalSim's LPLA scenery, which includes the dual civil/military airport of Lajes Field and the surrounding scenery of Terceira Island. Terceira Island is a small mid-Atlantic island of the Azores archipelago. It is actually one of the larger ones, roughly in the middle of the group. TropicalSim provide scenery covering all the islands and can be bought in packs or individually. Lajes Field is interesting as it combines a mility airbase and a civil airport. The runway is 33/15 with a length of 3314m (10873ft) and elevation of 55m (180ft).

Lajes Field Diagram

The military part is base to both the Portuguese air-force and the United States air-force. The island is at a strategically important place, but with mid-air refuelling, the airbase has become less used in recent years,

Aeriel view of the actual Airport

Lajes Island is about 400 square kilometres (155 square miles), 30km x 19.5km. It's highest point is Serra de Santa Bárbara at 1021m (3350ft).

Terceira Island Map

The frame-rate is good, with 35-40 fps with my iFly 737NG. The scenery settings are below:

Here is the iFly 737NG on takeoff with the military static aircraft in the background:

iFly737NG on takeoff at LPLA

And the Carenado Cessna 172 parked up in front of some detailed buildings:

C172 parked in front of airport buidlings

Invisible main menu text and ATC window text solution

After I installed a couple of addons, I found on my next flight, the main menu was working but had no text, same for the ATC Window. A quick Google, showed me that this was a common problem and the solution that worked for me was to copy the Verdana font from c:\windows\fonts to d:\steam\steamapps\common\fsx\fonts and restart FSX. I guess an addon installer had changed the font to Verdana, a bizarre bug that has obviously been there a while now.

Tropical Sim, Horta LPHR to Lajes LPLA field (airbase), Azores, Portugal

I am trying out Tropical Sim's sceneries at a couple of small islands in the mid-Atlantic owned by Portugal as they provide convenient stopping off points for general aviation flights from USA (e.g. FlyTampa Boston), to mainland Europe (Lisbon or Gibraltar by Aerosoft), via Madeira (Aerosoft). This is for my round the world flight. Both sceneries are fairly dated, so I cannot say they are good value for money, but LPHR is not a bad price. They are on separate, but very close islands. The frame rate is very good, with around 40 fps on my system. The sceneries do include the whole islands and not just the airports, also with good mesh. LPLA is both a civil and military airport.

Default Horta

Tropical Sim Horta

Compare default scenery (above) with the Tropical Sim scenery for Horta.

I took a short flight to Lajes field on Terceira Island from Horta on the island of Faial Island.

Leaving Horta

Approach to Lajes Field

Landing at Lajes Field

Military aircraft parked at the airbase

On installation, LPHR does require manual adding to the scenery library on FSX Steam. Overall, I would say this is a useful addon(s) for trans-atlantic island hopping, good frame-rate and reasonable value. Not in the same league as Aerosoft Madeira, but good for collectors and island lovers.

Also, there is LPGR Graciosa, the small island in the north of the Azores, covered my TropicalSim scenery. It's a pretty unremarkable airport.

LPGR by TropicalSim

For a good map of the Azores, one on the University of Texas Libraries site here. A cut-out from that map below:

Ultimate VFR Guam Scenery Steam Special

This scenery by Ultimate VFR I grabbed for 5 Euro, as I like island scenery and this one is right there in the middle of the Pacific. Quite a small island, but with an International airport (Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport, ICAO: PGUM) and a United States naval airbase (Andersen, ICAO: PGUA), used historically for B-52 and KC-135 tankers.

Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport, GUAM

The scenery is a bit drab and basic, not really up there with the Orbx FTX sceneries, but for 5 Euro for an unusual piece of island scenery and 2 airports, I think it is good value.

Gruman Intruder, takeoff from Andersen Naval Airbase

Battle of Britain Spitfire Sale on Steam

This aircraft is normally 35 Euro on Just Flight website, I just saw it on Steam for 10 Euro, so it's a no-brainer. Goes well with my Messerschmitt Bf 109, which I also picked up on special offer on Steam. Very easy to fly, great engine sound and looks great. I took mine on a spin from Southampton Airport (FTX) over to Old Sarum at Salisbury (UK2000). Here I am at the end of the flight parked up on the airstrip.

Just Flight Spitfire at Old Sarum

The Just Flight Spitfire is available on Steam, now at the normal price of 19.99 Euro. I am waiting for the Hawker Hurricane to complete my collection.