A little winter
wonderland.
I have been to the
real Geneva twice now. Both times for a skiing holiday and both
times the number of winter charter aircraft at the airport reached
extreme heights. With its large apron, equipped including 3
satellite buildings and a 12,750ft runway, this airport more than
capable of handling all the traffic that comes through.
The airport is ideally
suited to ski charters, and is the main airport for a large portion
of the Alps ski resorts. It shares the charters with Lyon. French
skiers need not worry about customs problems that they could avoid
at Lyon either providing they remain in the French sector of the
airport, as the airport runs along the French-Swiss border, and
therefore
Of course in the
summer, there is no snow! And so the number of charters slows up.
The airport is still busy though, with it being one of EasyJets
major Hub’s, and a lesser one for Swiss International Airlines.
There is also a large number of private jets there, due to Geneva,
and Switzerland being a major business city/country, and the
airports proximity to the centre of Geneva (3 miles) and its rail
links to Zurich and Swiss capital Bern.
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As you taxi about the
airport, or catch the bus form your parked aircraft to the terminal,
any number of business jets can be seen coned off. Infact, it was
something special to see 2 beautiful snow-framed 737BBJ’s parked up
after I landed there earlier this year.
The airport is also a
European Union freight HUB, despite Switzerland not being a member
of the EU, as the freight operations are accessible form both
countries. Farnair Switzerland and TNT base themselves at the
airport, but many other cargo airlines make regular appearances. |
Sunrise in Geneva.
The lake is filling. |
A small 2,700ft grass
runway sits parallel to the airports main runway (5/23) and caters
for the GA aircraft that fly into GVA. For this reason, if you fly
about in commercial aircraft, private jets or GA, you will find many
aircraft similar to your type when you land at Cointrin. Be aware
though that it will not take long for improper flying practices to
be processed at GVA, as the IATA (International Air Transport
Association) has a headquarters there.
As you approach the
airport, the aircraft flies through stunning scenery. The approach
to runway 23 takes us right over the sight that is Lake Geneva.
Looking across the airport form the terminal (facing north) air
airport finds itself with a backdrop of mountains, and it almost
seems like the airport is the only flat part of land nearby. And so,
with all this scenery around, you have to ask why the major
developers have not produced several versions of this airport.
Before DFS decided to
take on Geneva, there was Airport Geneva 2004. This, apart form a
freeware version was the only scenery fully compatible with FS2004,
and although good, it wasn’t up to the current standards of Airports
that we are seeing from FlyTampa and Cloud 9. One way of upgrading
your looks of Geneva was buying Switzerland Pro. Unfortunately this
was very expensive, and although groundbreaking, wasn’t worth the
price if you only wanted it for Geneva. And even if you did get it,
you were sill left with default scenery.
There are 3
satellites, which normally find themselves
occupied with easyJet aircraft. 2 have (no
operational in the scenery) jet ways. |
But thankfully, a long
overdue new version has been created. DreamFactoryStudio is a new
name on the scenery scene, but the person behind it certainly isn’t.
His work is well known and well respected, being found in the Sim-Wings
scenery’s – Scandinavian Airports, France 2 and Islands of Malta
being highlights. The new GVA scenery is fully compatible with
Switzerland Pro, but looks just the same with default scenery, or
Ground Environment which I am using.
I got it from
Simmarket, who, at the moment are the only available retailer. This
is not a complaint as their service was fast and efficient. There is
a link to the purchase page at the bottom of this review.
Installation was
completely painless and after a quick read through the 3 page manual
I loaded up and got ready to fly. It would have been nice to have
charts ready for the airport with the scenery, but unfortuntulatly
there are none. It would be nice to have an English speaking tester
proof read the manual, as there are a number of errors.(At Mutleys
Hangar are very picky about spelling and grammar)The exclude zone of
the airport is large. It took away most of my autogen in the
surrounding areas. Although this good for frame rates, it’s horrible
for looks. In general the frame rates are very high, and I had no
problem on approach, even in the frame hogging add-ons, such as
Captainsim and PMDG. The airport detail does pop up later than I
would like, but its all there at about 10nm out.
On the forum (which a
link for is placed in your start menu on install) there are exclude
files that reduce the area that appears flat. The bad news is that
they don’t reduce it enough, and there are still large flat pieces
of land. To be quite honest I didn’t notice much difference between
the original files and the new ones.
Just to complicate
matters further the number of sticky’s on the support forum, which
is hosted by Simflight, is humongous. Last time I checked there were
4 sticky’s and 9 announcements. The information these posts contain
could often be condensed into one post (and would benefit from doing
so) and more often then not the information is confusing to the
inexperienced user. The actual posts from people with support
questions follow similar conventions, and there are 2 topics
constantly arising. “Could you tighten the flatten more?” and “about
the AFCAD…”
Cargo terminal.
Parking can be a bit tight sometimes. |
The interesting
tower design overlooks the departing aircraft. |
Anyone for lunch? |
The latter comes
because of some problems found with the AFCAD file, that could be
solved but haven’t yet. AI aircraft are not assigned to specific
gates, which although wont affect users with no traffic, its
something I would love to have. Also; aircraft cannot take off
runway 23. They seem to taxi into position and sit there. The user
aircraft can then happily be given clearance to takeoff or land.
Apparently this is due to the fact that the hold point is missing. I
was also given some interesting routes to get to my stand after
landing. This included a trip across the grass runway in my 737!
A lot of developers
are playing with animation, and so at Geneva we see follow me cars,
baggage cars and the like zipping around the aprons. Unfortunately
some of these seem to pop up in unexpected places, like randomly on
a taxiway, then taxi right in front of your aircraft, and disappear
again. I like having the animation there, but would prefer it if it
came form a location we cant see, and then used routes that we would
either be unlikely to taxi over or are out of the way.
So far it’s not
sounding like the greatest package in the world. But I would like to
point out, that despite its bugs; Geneva has a number of factors
that do make it worth buying.
The first is the fact
that on the airport itself, detailing is superb. The textures are
very high resolution and always enjoy taxing into my stand. Right
down to wear and tear. Some yellow lines look really worn, and like
they need repainting! Any words (such as the stop marks for the
aircraft types) are very legible. The textures on building and
vehicles are also of a very high quality.
Night falls at the
bus terminal. |
Night falls on the
airport, and the apron is lit by terminal
lights. |
You will not be left
in the dark at night either. Full night lighting is included. The
lighting around the terminal buildings may not be to everyone’s
taste, but it does serve its purpose well. Cars headlights also
illuminate at night, just so you don’t taxi into them, and taxiway
lighting is perfectly balanced between visible and garish.
Ground textures blend
in well with the surroundings. This is another point worth
mentioning. Although the exclude zone is very large, I don’t feel I
am missing it when I fly in. Maybe this is because I am using Ground
Environment, but it is not as apparent as I first thought it would
be. Many trees are placed on the airport boundary, so that the lack
of autogen does not make it feel that you are looking out onto a
desolate landscape.
I would go as far to
say that apart form the strange animations airside, the airport is
perfect, and this is the most important thing about the airport, as
that’s the place you spend the most time!
With a single service
pack to fix the bugs and visual problems I have mentioned this
airport really could be scenery that you must get. I would certainly
say that it’s a must have for any Switzerland pro flyers, as it will
add an immense amount
I am very happy with
this scenery and will be making many more approaches onto the
massive runway throughout the year. Very few buyers will be
disappointed. An FSX update was planned, but Cornel (the man behind
DFS) cannot get his FSX frame rates up to a useable level, so there
won’t be one just yet, but this scenery certainly gives life to a
destination I haven’t properly explored in either simulator.
Mulletman's
photo gallery - Click on image to see full size. |
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Sunrise in Geneva.
The lake is filling. |
South west end of
the airport, with Lake Geneva behind. |
Airport detailing
is of a very high quality. Power lines are
something to avoid. |
Looking down only
the superb ground textures |
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Seasonal changes
(Autumn/Summer/Winter/Spring) |
Approach lights
are nicely modelled (Runway 23) |
Monitoring the
taxiway near the runway 5 hold point. |
The grass runway
on the opposite side of the airport… |
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..And the GA
terminal next to it. |
Night falls on the
airport, and the apron is lit by terminal
lights. |
Buses wait to take
passengers to their aircraft. Notice the
headlights. |
The stopping
system. These seem semi pointless without active
air bridges, unless you want to park without
using the external view. |
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Follow me car
(which is poorly animated, but well modelled),
and taxiway details. Look at the wear and tear! |
Cargo terminal.
Parking can be a bit tight sometimes. |
Not as much ground
clutter as I would like, but that’s a minor
criticism. |
Sometimes the
seasonal textures are incorrect. Here there is
no snow around the airport. |
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The interesting
tower design overlooks the departing aircraft. |
Anyone for lunch? |
You could
easily get lost dropping passengers off for
their flight. |
Charters are
common at GVA, Monarch being one of the main
charter airlines. |
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There are 3
satellites, which normally find themselves
occupied with easyJet aircraft. 2 have (no
operational in the scenery) jet ways. |
An AI A320 pulls
away form Geneva’s only runway capable of
handling such aircraft. |
The car types are
easily identifiable. Although there is plenty of
parking available. |
Detailing goes
right up to the very edge of the airport, but
unfortunately that’s as far as it goes. |
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That little white
truck is horribly animated. It disappears at the
bottom of this shot and appears at the top
(travelling along that road) |
A new thing for
scenery developers in this grass. Adding more
dimension to the flat fields around runways. |
Rain won’t stop
you. The runway is equipped with CatIIIb ILS
systems. |
One reason Geneva
is so popular is the World Trade Centre, on
site. |
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Links: |
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Dream Factory Studio. |
SimMarket product page. |
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Geneva Airport. |
Night falls at the
bus terminal. |
This area is now
taken up by a fire training craft, which would
make a nice addition. |
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