Aircraft used: ATR
Live weather: on
DETAIL
Lord Howe Island is only tiny and so it’s no surprise that its airport follows suit. It’s like a smaller version of their more recent Hamilton Islands scenery, with plenty of detail and some general improvements to the island’s coastline. The terminal is minute but superbly detailed, inside and out. It’s little more than a big shed so there’s likely not much to the interior in real life but what is there is beautifully modelled — a small check-in area, a tiny shop-cum-cafe and a few seats. There are animated ceiling fans and a handful of detailed, static people. Outside we see more people, heading out to the parked Qantas Dash 8-200 (presumably the largest aircraft that can operate here). The whole place really does have a small island community feel — with some animated cows near the runway end doing their bit for immersion! Sometimes animated animals act quite unnaturally but these are fluid and look great, even close up.
As with all AUScene airports we get an old VW Campervan, which is parked at the beach at the end of runway 10. There are a couple of bathers/surfers here too.
Other details scattered around the island include a small, custom ship (moored at an area called ‘the Jetty’), a rescue centre, utility buildings and several small boats, canoes and dinghies. They’ve also modelled the offshore rock formation known as Ball’s Pyramid.
PERFORMANCE
Having already reviewed AUScene’s Hamilton Island, I can say that stability is worse if applying a detail-to-area ratio. It’s not terrible but for such a tiny island I expected better. Being fair there is quite a bit of intricate detail and it can take quite a bit of exterior view punishment — but using the drone excessively typically results in black screens. CTDs aren’t common but I have had the odd one. By being mindful you can enjoy this scenery without too many problems.
VERDICT
If you have Hamilton Island, you pretty much know what to expect. Same level of detail here, but on a smaller scale. Unfortunately stability isn’t as good as Hamilton if you take into account that scenery’s more expansive detail area — but that’s more a testament to how well optimised Hamilton is rather than Lord Howe being particularly poor. It’s a great little airport to fly into but it won’t reach its full potential till we get a flyable stubby Dash 8 in the sim!
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