Introduction
Orbx customers are well used to Orbx surprising us with the
locations of their latest releases, and this one is no exception.
One thing Orbx is very good at is choosing unusual small
airfields in interesting surroundings, so you get plenty to
discover. The airfield will more than likely link up with
another of their developed fields not too far away, in this
case, Diamond Point (2WA1).
Their latest airport release is Sekiu Airport, which fits well
into the category “scenic”. It has been developed by Misha Cajic,
one of Orbx’s rising stars. From the advertising blurb it sounds
good, so let’s go take a look.
Location
Sekiu Airport (11S) is a public airport serving the small community of Sekiu, in Clallam County, Washington, United States. It is owned
by the Port of Port Angeles and allows convenient access to some
of the more remote – and most beautiful areas on the Olympic
Peninsula.
It’s a great spot to fly into for those who are looking for
scenery, wildlife or beach life. It has a 2,100 foot lighted
runway with a VASI visual approach indicator. The airfield is at
an elevation of 350 feet at a distance of about a mile from
Sekiu.
Availability and Installation
FTX US 11S Sekiu Airport is available from the FlightSimStore
(FSS) as a download for GBP £13.38 or as a download
and CD-ROM at GBP £4.45 more.
Being an FTX airfield, you must have a copy of the (award
winning) FTX: NA Pacific North West patched to PNW.007 or higher
before installation (PNW.008 now available). After installation
you must install the latest Orbx libraries from their support
page as Orbx no longer include them in the product download.
Control Panel |
The actual installation was flawless. Fill in the Order Number, Date and Key when requested. This information would have been emailed to you when you purchased the download version of 11S from FSS. The choice of FSX or P3Dv1 was offered, there was no option for P3Dv2 although it is planned for a future update. Once installed, Sekiu Airport has its own control panel where you can change the level of detail (See image left). |
Documentation.
A user manual is available after installation and is available from FTX Central or from your FSX/Orbx/User Documents folder.
Being an FTX user, you will be familiar with the layout which provides useful information about the product and its set up. Even if you think there will be nothing in there for you, you may miss out on a new feature or extra scenery that is in included in the package.
Scenery Coverage
The airport environs are presented in 30cm resolution, the coverage area also includes the Clallam Bay area, the township of Sekiu and its boat docks at 60cm, as well as Pillar Point and the Pysht River delta in 30cm detail. It also extends to cover the Clallam Bay Corrections Centre and helipad at 30cm detail.
Level of Detail.
FTX US 11S’s level of detail is good, albeit custom objects are a bit sparse. The flying salmon sign at the airport is a nice touch but there is an equally quirky statue, "Rosie", on the road into town next to the "Sekiu Welcomes You" sign which was missed. It would have been fun to spot it from in the air.
There’s a lot to explore and what is impressive is many of the objects are seasonal and weather aware, so many a return visit is a must, to see the changes in the scenery.
It’s the attention to detail that sets Orbx apart from other developers, this peninsula now has a life and a reason for you to visit.
11S features many custom modelled objects in Gmax, like the ground polys for the runway, aprons and lights.
Let’s have a look at some of that detail.
Airport. The airfield has a 2997ft runway with a 900ft displaced threshold, it’s my guess you will be happy about that as both runways have trees on the approach. The approach to Runway 26 has a 2 light non-standard (4.00° Glide Path Angle) VASI system on the left of the runway. These lights were not working when I started this review, but Orbx are aware and they will have been fixed in V1.1. There is also a fix to an APX file that corrects the runway headings for ATC (previously they were showing as Runway 18/36).
View from the north |
Very low approach to 26 |
The runway is bordered with meadow-type grass that sways in a high wind, that’s all thanks to NatureFlow a unique technology that helps boost realism. The trees sway too and CreatureFlow gives us butterflies everywhere and between September and March a couple of finely detailed deer arrive, one of them roams across the runway irrespective if you are hurtling towards him approaching V1!
Runway textures are very realistic |
Deer roaming on the runway |
Grassy borders |
Animated figure fixing aircraft |
Another two characters are shooting the breeze outside the toilet block, one sitting on a bench and the other standing, both animated with either cellphone or newspaper. This little touch is typical of the added details as are the two plane spotters taking random photos.
More animated people |
Spotters |
Hangars |
Flying salmon |
Frozen salmon |
Frozen deer |
Prison. As an added extra, a nicely modelled representation of the local prison is included. There’s not a lot of detail inside the prison walls, the buildings look fairly featureless but the double skinned perimeter wall and watch towers look real enough to me.
Onsite is a helipad which doesn’t have a designation other than 23, written on the pad. Awaiting your arrival is a dodgy looking character shuffling from foot to foot, his Nissan Xterra is fuelled up and ready to go.
Prison |
Prison helipad |
Pillar Point and the Pysht River Delta. This is another smallish high definition are included at 30cm. It looks it’s best in the summer but retains its interest in the winter as the river freezes up. This is a good VRP when approaching the airfield from the east. The detail of the mud flats and frozen delta is very good thanks to the use of some photoscenery base textures.
Pillar Point - summer |
Frozen river delta |
Sekiu Town. This is a very small town and a totally believable representation when compared to Google Earth. Obviously, with fishing being popular here, there are quite a few boats moored up, however, they look more like sailing boats than fishing boats. Although there is nothing special about the town (the buildings are fairly generic) the view from around the bay with the street lights on at sunset really looks superb.
Sekiu town |
Sekiu town harbour |
Surrounding Area. A lot of thought has gone into the surrounding area. It is a location with beautiful vistas and you will find yourself making many a (left hand) circuit to take it in. Have a look as some random shots below, there are many more like this and some areas look better at different times of year.
Autumn colour |
"Summer" bay |
Seasons. A full blown 5 season area, that’s 5 times the fun and more likely to reflect what’s happening in the natural world at that time of year. No more summer textures in the depth of winter. SnowFlow, an Orbx technology, will ensure that those roofs and objects will have snow on them when the time is right.
Night Lighting. I have already described the airfield specific lights above, however, the scenery has 3D light poles, house lights and lights on static cars, etc. At dusk, the whole area is dotted with these which creates a feeling of serenity unlike no other time. It’s easy to spot the prison, as it has a row of 8 high intensity lights, the helipad is not lit but I bet that dodgy character is still lurking around!
Dusk |
Night |
There are a few obvious custom designed buildings. The hangars do not hold a great amount of detail so sort of fade into the background. However, in the real world, the hangar next to the toilet block houses a fire engine, a brush/wild land fire truck and an ambulance, a trick was missed there I feel.
Next to the apron there is the toilet block which is drawn to a very high standard with clear, well-aligned textures.
Toilet block |
White house |
Very near to the airfield is a very distinctive white house, my first thought was “Amityville Horror” house! It sticks out like a sore thumb, in summer months you will see a couple on the balcony taking in the scenes and in the winter, smoke pouring from the chimney.
The house looks better than the prison but neither are very complex in their design, most of the other buildings look to be stock from the Orbx Library, but I could well be wrong.
Performance
I found that I could run with all the features switched on with no problem with the scenery settings below. I enjoyed smooth animation at a fixed 30fps. You will not get the same results as me with the same settings, you may get more if you didn’t peg your fps or less if your machine spec is lower than mine. It’s all a question of degrees but getting a good balance of detail and smoothness was not an issue here.
Sekiu V1.1 Update
After I had completed my original review and a couple of days before publication, Orbx released a full update which addressed most of my concerns. As it turned out, the original software was not complete. The 1.1 update has brought us these extra features and updates.
● Photo real coverage area extended by almost 2x original;
● VASI added at 11S, default setting is on 24hrs a day, but Dusk/Night/Dawn mode (which is the most realistic) selectable in control panel;
● All APX issues fixed, as reported by customers as well as some issues found by Misha;
● CVX file rectified to make way for Holger's adjustments in PNW SP8;
● Helipad at Clallam Bay prison upgraded with new textures, and hardened so as to not kick up dust;
● Some autogen buildings in Clallam Bay Town replaced with custom models; and
● Other minor fixes around airport and to autogen.
Neah Bay and Makah Bay is included in 60cm resolution and lies around 15 miles west of Sekiu. Being photo real, the beach textures look really good, on the negative side the extra scenery is at a disk cost of 189Mb. As mentioned in the features list above, this area has extended the PR content by 100%. The actual relevance of the PR areas to the town and airport are debatable but do give some extra eye-candy to admire.
Neah Bay |
|
Makah Bay |
The VASI is now a fully working model and makes all the difference to night approaches, the runway edge lights guide you in from the distance but on final you really need those red and white beams.
VASI in action.
The sails have gone.
No more dust from the helipad
Value for Money
With a price point of just GBP £13.38, I don’t think anyone could complain at that for what will give you hours of enjoyment.
Review Computer Specifications
FSX Acceleration (SP2)
CPU: i7 4770K o/c to 4.2) c/w CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro H100
GPU: GTX 690 4096MB
RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1866MHz
Conclusion
This is a high quality, well developed product. The subject matter is both interesting and scenic, ideal for adventurous pilots who like a flying challenge.
As you can see from my review, Sekiu is a little short on features, but that is true of the area itself.
Pros
● Super quality
● High performer
● Great Value
Cons
● Missed a trick with unique landmarks.
Product Link http://fullterrain.com/product_us11s.html
Verdict: | ||
• Scenery Coverage: | 10/10 | |
• Level of Detail: | 9.0/10 | |
• Quality of Buildings: | 9.0/10 | |
• Performance: | 10/10 | |
• Value for Money: | 10/10 |
Mutley’s Hangar score of 9.6/10, "Outstanding" and a Mutley's Hangar Gold Award. |