Mega Airport Vienna

Vienna Located at the heart of Europe and on the threshold to Eastern Europe, Vienna International Airport is the most easterly "western airport" A key feature of Vienna International Airport is simple and uncomplicated entry to markets in the East.

But the question on everybody’s lips is, has Fly Tampa produced a high quality airport wanting the individual to stay put, or is it jump on the nearest aircraft and lets get out of here?

The magnitude of the task to create an extremely accurate portrayal of an airport in flight simulation has come some way since the heady days of brick built boxes at the end of taxi-ways. The gleaming renditions today have become so good that it’s hard to see any flaws in the projects. No longer do we hope and pray that the money we just spent on improving our visual treat within the simulator will be worth those few extra coins of hard earned cash! On the face of it I was really looking forward to seeing this latest rendition from the Fly Tampa team, having long been a fan of their stunning scenery sets.

On opening the box version out jumps the Mega Airport Vienna charts, nicely put together in an easy to view knee board style pad. Plenty of information here supplied by Jeppersen Sanderson Inc. regarding the Sid's and Stars which will aid you in and out of Vienna. As we delve deeper into the package, the CD is removed and we arrive at the Manual for this mini masterpiece.

System requirements and installation are followed by the airports frequencies along with the runways and approach frequency.

(Q&A’s) Questions and Answers follow, and it always worries me slightly when a new product arrives to find this kind of input, for instance one question asks “The refinery smoke seems too big and clips behind cloud” Refinery, smoke, cloud it’s worrying I have not even placed the disk inside the PC yet and already we have the fire brigade on full alert!

Another section of the manual reveals Known Bugs, not the ones found commonly around your home or garden, oh no these are the ones that should, yes SHOULD be sorted before the release, but hey it’s only a crater, CRATER. The whole idea that this is going to be something fantastic is already sending mixed up messages to my brain. First fire and cloud now craters, is this really Vienna airport or the State of Emperor Ming with Captain Buck Rogers due in on the 15.25 rocket powered Boebus from earth!

To finish the manual we have some recommended display settings and the resource section to help everyone receive fuller support if need be for this product.

Books away! Time to load this beauty, a simple installation program loads automatically for you and the only detail required is the key to install the software safely into FS2004. With this achieved time to pop in our FS2004 disk and run.

I get my welcome screen and change the airport country to Austria and select Vienna as the airport I would like to visit, it’s getting exciting now, believe me on this one.

Open eyes I see this little chap waving frantically at me, the signaller calling me in, beautiful fluid motion here not the erratic up, down, up, down motion has seen with other animations. Time to gaze around, I initially went for a parking gate someway away from the main building and all I see at the moment is a building site to my left. I told you this was worrying!

High rise cranes line the horizon their T shape making me wonder if indeed a cup of T is beckoning! Time to look around to the right, some static aircraft are located on the airfield and these do add to the enjoyment of the scenery, however you can remove these if you use one of the many add-on programs available for extra traffic. Talking of traffic, the wonderful car, bus, trucks, are just as much a part of the entertainment on offer here as the aircraft, wherever you go be on the lookout for drivers, they do stop but remember these guys have work to do too. The streets outside the airport give us cars and buses pulling up to drop and collect passengers from the arrival and departure halls. It all adds a more realistic touch to the whole affair.

The external buildings have been rendered beautifully as you would expect from any Fly Tampa release, from the World Trade Center to Hotels, alas the biggest and most tearful moment happened when I thought to myself lets have a look inside them.

Now before you say, what is this man on about, inside them. If you have ever had the opportunity to see the Dubai scenery created by these guys you will fully understand where I am coming from on this! If you have not well it’s not going to make much difference.

The beauty for me is not just a well finished model outer building but the inner sanctum also, on Dubai it was absolutely unbelievable, passengers, video boards, shops, palm trees you name it, the scenery had it. For Vienna however it’s a different story, you take a peek in through one door and see straight through to the other side, in other words no internals, I even looked at the chimney stacks, they had no smoke in them!

I am fussy I guess, I want the whole thing, indoor, outdoor, everything. On saying this the Dubai scenery was something a little special and spoiled me for any other future scenery sets I may have decided to purchase. Overall most sets show just external shots, and this is the case here. The essence of flight simulation for me is the complete journey, you take off, fly to your destination and take a look around as you would in the real world. I feel Fly Tampa have missed an opportunity here to make a real difference with their scenery and to place it on another level from the rest. Maybe they will go the extra yard in future airport developments.

The one thing about developers and the people who buy the products is there will never be a moment when everyone is completely happy, whether it be animated gates missing, or catering trucks not coming to meet you on the apron. Neither of which do in this particular scenery. On the other hand the detail around the taxi/runways, here was stunning.

This aside, do not let my ramblings put you off, this is still a work of pure genius I loved exploring every square mile of this place and would recommend you do too. Whether you fly in the morning, afternoon, dusk or evening there is always one thing you can be certain of, Vienna is the land of the famous waltz and you will dance with joy when your eyes see the magic for the first time.