With the current sale, I’m thinking of expanding my number of quality payware airports and found the below airports on sale over at OrbxDirect. Would appreciate any input from those of you who already have any of these which ones are great and which of them not so great.
I have quite a few of these, just a some comments:
- Belfast by Pyreegue is one of the best airports for MSFS, amazing detail throughout, yet fair to the performance, definitely my top recommendation out of this bunch!
- I like Kristiansand, it’s really well-made and one of my favourites in Norway
- Florence is a good one, with some atmospheric details such as the train, it’s already a bit dated in some aspects, but still a good one!
- I find the MK Studio airports solid in general, they are not top notch, but I find them as fair additions in general, I would skip their Vagar one though, as there is a good freeware option for that.
- Ivalo is probably the best one M’M have made, I found it quite cool, I would rate it along the same level as the MK ones
- Skiathos improves the surrounding area and has some nice details, but the airport itself is a bit let down to me, with no interior (this is not important to everyone) and some low res textures etc, but the airoport is fun to fly into, so if you like the location it’s worth getting
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That’s great input, much appreciated.
Thanks!
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EGLC (London city) is nice but they have no plans to update the airport to as it is today in the real world so does not have the full length taxiway. Its sad that they don’t update it.
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Agreed. A nicely done airport with beautiful and a bit challenging approaches, but the creator’s unwillingness to update the taxiways is bugging me.
Tromso is very nicely done graphically but pretty hard on my frame rates; probably because of the very detailed terminal interior. Also, I had some weird light posts in the middle of some of the parking spots and they didn’t seem to be 3rd party add-on related…
In general: be aware that there’s very good Norwegian scenery on flightsim.to Absolutely payware quality.
I’m really liking their airports in the Pacific Northwest like Concrete, Darrington and Orcas Island. They were my favourites on FSX as well.
Concrete was a bit cut down compared to the FSX version, which featured a nice rendition of the actual town of Concrete. The MSFS version only has a generic town with autogen buildings.
I hope they will bring some of their other airports to MSFS. Some more favorites of mine like Warnervale, Cessnock, Aeropelican and Tamworth in Australia are sorely missing in MSFS.
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I have the following Orbx airports (PC):
EGCK - Caernarfon
EGKA - Shoreham
EGLC - London City
EGNM - Leeds Bradford
EGNT - Newcastle
EGPB - Sumburgh
EGPN - Dundee
EGSG - Stapleford
EGTR - Elstree
ESGG - Gothenburg
ESMS - Malmö
ESSB - Bromma
I have to say I am pleased with them all. Orbx is by far my favourite third party developer for FS2020.
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I have decided not to buy any more scenery developed by orbx now because they will not update London City. I will still buy airports in orbx from other developers but it if very important for me that when I buy an airport it is kept up to date so when flying online or offline you are not seeing an out of date airport it does bug me. Others developers can and do do it so why orbx will not when people have paid good money for there product is very disappointing for me.
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Whenever I buy airports I look for 1) the airport is well-done 2) the approach is interesting, either because it’s challenging or beautiful.
I really like ENAL, the location is very interesting with typically difficult weather, and big enough for liners. A favorite for sure.
There’s a flight I enjoy doing a lot between two of their airports, EGPB to EKVG or conversely. Those airports are a bit less well-done, but also cheaper. The interesting thing is that the weather is almost always poor and windy and is great for liners.
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Thanks for the additional input guys!
Overall, Orbx usually means you can expect a certain quality. These days though when they started also selling other developers airports, I’m not sure if that is still true. I like to think though they don’t sell stuff not living up to a certain standard.
Just speculating, haven’t bought much from them yet for MSFS.
One of the things I don’t like with many of their airports is how they like to add static aircraft which can’t be disabled. Static aircraft when flying exclusively online is truly frustrating!
Anyone in here knows about a good place to read reviews on MSFS payware airports? Or a good YouTube channel dedicated to reviewing airports?
FilbertFlies is the best in the business when it comes to airport reviews IMO.
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I have a few of these also,
highly recommend LIRQ (by GAYA sim) . now an older airport but holds up very well and with a few more airports popping up around Italy, is a handy stopover
If you like Norway, ENAL Alesund Vigra Airport is very good quality and makes for a nice hop to ENML
Greek islands cant go past LGSM. this is by Terrainy Studios and has a challenging approach in very nice part of the world
I have Venice (by BMOTW) and few others from this dev. quality is ok but not top notch. some of the buildings look cartooney IMO. ive since deleted this one and will look out for something better
also I think EGGP that came with the UK update is fairly good. might be waste of money to buy another when the free one is payware quality
I would avoid Terrainy Studios, many of their airports have inverted windsocks (as in blowing opposite to the wind) and despite multiple reports they don’t bother fixing them.
I’m so grateful for this type of input. Knowing about these kind of things before you spent your hard earned money. Keep this input coming!
I agree Filbert Flies is awesome when it comes to airport reviews. Lately though, he hasn’t done any and when I asked him about it, he said he rarely have time these days. I guess doing streams is more both fun and lucrative.
I have all of the Parallel 42 strips. They’re small and inexpensive but I like them all. There is in fairness some freeware that’s at the same level, but us STOL addicts need places to go.
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Do NOT get the airports via Markeplace! The ground vehicles cant be removed in an easy way, and is showing up on the VFR map as well (as airplanes so the whole airport map is cluttered). Also it takes some CPU power. It’s seem like the only option you have is to RE-BUY them from the orbx store, where you also get this ORBX app where you can configure the airports, ground vehicels etc. But you cant do that when youve got them from Markeplace.
IF anyone have a solution for this, please send tell us. =)
Good advice and I never buy from the Marketplace for that reason but also because of how long you’ll have to wait for updates.
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