Review & Discussion: Fly2High KHPN White Plains Westchester Airport

Test machine specs: MSI X670E, AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX, 48gb RAM

Add-ons: BATC, GSX Pro, GFX, Global Shipping '24

As many will know, Fly2 issued a very honest and humble public statement last month, basically apologising for sub-par work and highlighting the need to improve. Of course anyone can appease their customers with such statements but with their next project not far from release (at the time), the proof of their sincerity would soon arrive…

DETAIL

First thing to point out is that KHPN in no way feels like a Fly2 airport — and I mean that in a very positive way. If someone had dumped this scenery on my PC, with zero information, and asked me to guess the developer, I’d have said either Verticalsim or Marcus Nyberg — two highly-respected creators known for their authentic texturing. Every inch of this airport is beautifully textured, from the runways, taxiways and aprons, to the terminal and various FBOs (this place is a big bizjet hub). No single area looks or feels neglected. To be honest, some of the ground textures get a bit blurry when you’re right on top of them but since I don’t plan on frequently getting an ant’s eye view of the airport’s surfaces, I’m cool with it. Certainly from the flightdeck, everything looks fantastic. The airport has a runway elevation profile but that’s become such a prerequisite in 2026 that I usually only mention a lack of one.

The terminal building looks incredible. It really does. The weathering is outstanding and the apparent lack of repetition in the texturing (apart from in some of the brickwork) makes it all the more impressive. There’s a highly-detailed, near-full interior, although some of it is difficult to access due to collision exclusion (pretty normal in FS2024). It’s filled with people and there’s an animated ceiling fan in the main airside lounge (which is more of a hall than a lounge). Of particular note are the custom airbridges (or jetways, for our American friends), which are some of the most detailed I’ve seen.

Out on the ramp there’s a good amount of GSE clutter, including some ‘Westchester County’ boarding ramps (I suspect these are re-used assets from Fly2’s Tweed, simply rebranded for this scenery) and a selection of Delta/United baggage dollies. The attention to detail really is superb.

Moving away from the terminal, the workmanship doesn’t deteriorate. The FBO’s have received the same attention as the terminal, with the Million Air building featuring an interior that’s possibly more impressive. Again, the texturing is first-class, everywhere you look.

The airport’s landside areas I’ll discuss as a whole, because they’re consistent across the scenery. Annoyingly, the terminal’s landside is probably weaker than the FBOs’ landsides, but ‘weaker’ doesn’t mean ‘weak’ — the main issue with the terminal’s outdoor landside is that it features no people, and I personally think there are too few cars. Speaking of cars, they’re all custom models (the same as those seen in the Tweed New Haven scenery) and every single car-park is filled with them. There’s good variety too, with some even featuring accessories like roof-racks and canoe boxes. Each landside area boasts abundant fixed assets such as road signs, streetlights, advertisements, memorial plagues, barriers, bollards, etc. It appears very little detail has been missed.

So, is all this lovely detail wrapped up inside a custom and complete perimeter fence? You bet! In fact, the perimeter fence comprises a couple of custom models, and unlike previous Fly2 projects, there are no huge gaps every few hundred metres! There’s one area where a section does sink into the ground but this is fairly common when and where fences are placed atop uneven terrain.

Night-lighting is excellent (some of the best I’ve seen, actually). There’s really not a lot more to say about it. BATC compatibility seems solid, though I only saw a handful of arrivals/departures while exploring the field with the drone. Still, no anomalies, except for AI aircraft parking slightly short of the stands’ stop markers. Decent AI traffic compatibility is definitely another first for Fly2!

PERFORMANCE

I did have a few stutters during approach but since SU5 dropped, I get random stutters at most airports (where I didn’t before). Some users of KHPN have mentioned excessive VRAM usage at night, especially when the Million Air facility is in the frame, but I’ve not noticed anything bothersome. That said, I have a hefty 24gb of VRAM available to me.

Fly2 airports are often resource-hungry so if you have a less capable machine, it may be wise to approach this product with caution. It’s not a large or particularly busy airport but it is just a stone’s throw from the dense PG of Manhattan, and sits in its own area of PG.

VERDICT

As I said earlier, any dev can promise the world but Fly2 have delivered, just weeks after vowing to improve. In fulfilling their promise, Fly2 have earned themselves a new fan, and will no doubt continue to collect them as this scenery gets its deserved exposure.

Is it a perfect scenery? By Fly2’s previous standards, certainly; but like all other third-party payware airports, it does have its flaws. Not many, mind — if they can get AI aircraft to park right on the stop bars, fix the sunken fences and tackle any VRAM issues, this airport could be a candidate for the year’s best. In fact, it already IS a candidate for the year’s best, in its present state!

The texturing across the entire airfield is noteworthy for its realism (an area in which Fly2 have never been poor, to be honest), and the place is made to feel alive by the sheer number of little custom details crammed into every nook and cranny. There are even, for the first time in a Fly2 scenery, a few small details outside the perimeter fence. Furthermore, the typical sloppy LOD mess we usually get with this dev is nowhere to be seen.

What Fly2 have achieved here is remarkable: they’ve churned out an airport that feels unbelievably distant from any of their previous releases. And to top it off, they’ve priced it at a very reasonable $16.49 (£12.25 or €14.20).

It’s currently available from the Fly2 store (from which the above price was quoted) and Orbx. If you fancy a little discount at the Fly2 store, use code AVIATIONBROS. :wink:

On a final note, there are two other versions of KHPN available, by V Pilot and MSFSceneryBuilders respectively. Needless to say, it’s easy to hazard a guess as to which is the best of the three…

IMAGES