Aircraft used: default 32N, AT7, PMDG 738
Live weather: on
DETAIL
JF’s GCRR is now 1.5 years old and development has moved on quite a bit since its release in June 2022 — so can the veteran dev’s first Canary Islands airport go head-to-head with the best 2023 has offered? The answer is… almost.
The best thing about this scenery is the building and apron texturing, which actually puts 99% of 2023’s releases to shame. The buildings look incredibly realistic, with their weathering and imperfections, and the detail is done in such high res that it holds up immaculately, however close you choose to get. Particularly impressive is the fact that many of these imperfections — such as the crumbling whitewashed walls — are done in true 3D (rather than just a placed flat texture), resulting in some beautiful effects when the sun casts shadows.
The apron looks fantastic and they’ve generally done a lot of work with the ground, including some accurate terraforming. I love seeing taxiways going up or downhill and it’s incredibly immersive having to apply that bit more thrust to climb an incline (or to set throttles to idle and coast down one!).
There’s a good amount of ground clutter, much of it custom and all done using high-res textures. The terminal interior is mediocre by 2023’s standards, with a lot of the shops being simple 2D overlays, but there is some 3D modelling and you do get animated passengers both inside and out. The landside roads in the immediate vicinity of the terminals are done pretty well and there’s more stunning texturing in some of the car-parks. The vegetation is absolutely superb and you get quite a variety of palm trees, all of which are animated. Unfortunately the good landside modelling stops rather suddenly, not too far from the terminal, and is replaced by some pretty horrendous, low-res satellite imagery. They’re attempted to mask some of it with custom buildings and vehicles but it sticks out like a very sort thumb!
There’s not a great deal dotted around the airfield perimeter but JF have included some typically Canarian houses which are nicely modelled but a little repetitive. Those close to the 03 threshold look great when on short finals, as do the custom approach lights located on a large steel gantry that juts out into the sea. At the 21 end there’s a SuperDino supermarket, however get too close and you realise that the textures are much lower res than those found elsewhere.
A single static aircraft is included (Binter AT7) and features animated passengers walking out to it from the domestic terminal.
Night lighting is excellent but my favourite time to fly in is around sunset — the place just feels so incredibly authentic when the light’s low!
PERFORMANCE
It would seem that JF cut exactly the right corners in order to strike a good balance between detail and performance. I’d say this airport is a candidate for best performer on console — I’ve never had black screens or a CTD and I’ve done many, many flights in and out, using every camera angle imaginable. There’s not really much more to say — no stutters, and 100% stable.
VERDICT
Despite being over 12 months old GCRR can generally cut it with anything 2023 can offer. The terminal interior is dated, and many of the landside ground textures are disappointing, but the airport sufficiently excels in other areas so as to make the shortcomings easy to overlook. Add the stellar performance and you have quite an underrated MSFS airport that’s actually one of the best in the sim. When I land here, I really feel like I’m landing in Lanzarote — they’ve done a tremendous job blending the airfield into the default scenery with it’s barren, rocky hills and volcanic craters.
IMAGES
Just look at the quality of these wall textures!
The animated palm trees look stunning!
Beautifully done car-park.
Amazing detail on the whitewashed walls of the domestic terminal — just look how the imperfections cast shadows!
Insane amount of detail here!
The terminal interior looks dated in 2023.
Some of the landside ground textures away from the terminals look poor.
SuperDino supermarket, located under the approach for runway 21.
