Here’s my review of the new Catalina airport by Orbx.
It has always been one of my favorite GA airports due to how challenging and scenic it is. The quality is really, really good. Great modeling and great texturing, lovely level of detail, and the people, while static, really contribute to creating a believable scene. It’s one of the most “Diorama-like” airports on the market and I really like that. The additional scenery for the city of Avalon and other areas of the island ties the bow on a really good package.
Unfortunately, they did not notice that the runway has been repaved to a brand new concrete surface recently, so that’s the one major flaw here. Research on recent updates to the airports they make is the one field in which I think Orbx really needs to up their game.
Other than that, the airport is great and functionally awesome with the humpy runway and all, but I really hope they update it.
As usual, there’s plenty of video content in the review in case you wanna make your own opinion Comments and feedback are very welcome.
Great review with obviously a lot of knowledge of the realworld counterpart. Before this AddOn was released i watched many videos explaining the difficulty that a pilot can face due to the sloped runway, the weather and the visual final approach. You had all that covered and even more with the PVASI system that i honestly was not aware of.
Great work, was a pleasure to read. I will add it to my library on the weekend.
Funnily, I’ve actually never been to the real airport (it’s on my bucket list haha). I just tend to research a lot when I review an airport because it is an important part in the quality of an add-on, after all.
I’m not fixed on repeating the same routes too much so bigger or smaller is not really the issue - I find your reviews to be very well done and I appreciate that you take the time to research and add videos.
Your reviews certainly helped me make some informed decisions.
Thanks for the kind words. It’s really nice to hear my reviews are helpful
I do enjoy a healthy mix of big and small myself nowadays. I used to be an airline-only guy, but MSFS has converted me to at least dedicate part of my time to GA, especially thanks to the Arrows by Just Flight, which are just a pleasure to fly
The new runway color would be nice, and the DC-3, ‘use to’ unload on the southwest side, open space near runway 4’s number. (this is minor, I agree) But, having the DC3 is a nice touch.
I didn’t know that. It’s unfortunate that the DC3 doesn’t fly there anymore
I’m still gonna do it as soon as Aeroplane heaven releases theirs. This runway is scary already to land on with a Piper, can’t wait to do it on something bigger.
Decent airport… flown there many times. I really wish they would animate the people at the airport. I really thought this was a technology they were pushing with their releases. These airports need to feel alive… to static.
It was called Orbx Peopleflow, Animated People Tech they introduced years ago. What ever happened to that. I feel their airports look great, but flat and lifeless… thank goodness for MSFS airport workers. Orbx needs to step it up a bit for this platform…
Oh, I wasn’t aware of that. I was talking about recent releases. Aerosoft has been the one that has had major releases with animated people.
Personally, I’m fine with static when they’re arranged well, and in this case, they’re very well arranged, probably the best “scene” I’ve seen in an airport as of late. Doesn’t feel lifeless at all personally, so we’ll have to agree to disagree
Comments and feedback are very welcome.
