Classic British Flight Sim

I got ORBX England a few days ago and have had a little chance to have a fly about so, for those who are interested, my opinions so far...

First flight was from my local airport, Leeds Bradford in a Chipmunk.

My initial thoughts were that the airport looked pretty good, everything seemed to be in the right place. The first "error" was that there isn't the huge drop off at the threshold of Rwy 32, but I've never seen this modelled anyway.
I chose November as my season and got the weather from Active Sky. It does look like England.

I took off from 32, and headed west towards the VRP of Keighley, a town about 8 miles from LBA. The Aire valley stood out nicely and spotting where Keighley would be was easy. Off to my left was Lister's Mill, a landmark in Bradford and the moorland I walk the dog on was in the right place. Approaching Keighley I could make out the canal, river and by-pass and had no problems following the route up to Skipton. A quick turn around and I cross countried over to Halifax, before heading over Bradford and back to Leeds.Finding them all was easy.

Ok, its not photoreal, the buildings aren't a true representation but its ok to navigate in an area I know well. The industrial estate in Keighley had warehouses on it, and the valleys looked like they do from the air. Overall, it looked like I was in England, the colours seemed right, and looked great in the weather that was occurring- a bit miserable with occasional rain.

I've also recently purchased the Captain Sim 737-200. So I did Leeds to Heathrow whilst I'm getting the hang of it (great aircraft by the way, just the usual Captain Sim errors that'll eventually get sorted when they stop going off half-cocked and issuing a model that enthusiastic customers have to write fixes for- rant over )

Again up at FL250, it looks like England, right colours, and just the right feeling, its hard to describe. I can't fly over my house and go, ooh look, there's my car on the drive, and my grass looks nice, but I can follow the M62 and think, ah, good old junction 26, there's some cars going along it, that's Bradford and there's Emley Moor mast with Leeds city centre in front.

Snow textures look good and I have to say, I've very impressed. I'll update with more when I get chance (first baby very close to being born in the Crabtree household ).

I'm going to plan a VFR flight in an area I don't know and see if its good enough for visual nav. I'll report back.

Ta,

Paul

Thanks for your update and views on ORBX Paul, I will be buying it next month now and good to hear what it is like.


Regards
Nigel

Thanks for that, Paul. It sounds pretty good for the money, although there are obviously some areas that aren't as accurate. With Service Pack 1 due in a couple of weeks they have hopefully addressed the most contentious issues and it will be acceptable to more people. I'll be interested to hear comments after that.

I'll probably wait until they release one of their promised WWII airfields. That idea captures my imagination more than flying over present day England. But you never know - I could take the plunge at any time

Ian

I had a bimble earlier on, RAF Linton on Ouse looked pretty realistic. It's my Cadet Sqn parent station so quite used to looking at it.

RAF Linton on Ouse looked pretty realistic.

Oooh!! Wonder if they would do RAF Swinderby then not only could I relive my square bashing days I could also relive my gliding years there, may not be any K8,13, 6 or Olympian gliders in FSX but we did have an ex- air cadet T21 that flew like a brick and Ricks' flies well!!

Then there is always the Auster to take up and fly a couple of circuits before the next aero-tow job + cross country flights as I used to do, or am I just being a sad git in me old age??

Nigel