Aircraft used: AT7, PMDG 738
Live weather: on
DETAIL
The terminal looks good and features a sufficient amount of detail, including an interior for the airside portion. It’s not intricate, by any means. but it’s just enough to make arriving here feel convincing. The landside detail is perhaps on the sparse side but what is here is nice enough. We get a fully modelled car-park, which is sort of atop a plateau and connected to the departures level of the terminal by a covered walkway. The arrivals level, on the floor below, is less detailed but still features a few assets, such as cars, benches and a modelled stairway leading down from the aforementioned car-park. All landside roads are custom so there’s no default satellite imagery bleeding through (thankfully).
Moving airside we see a slight improvement in the detail and perhaps the first thing you’ll note is the quality of the animated flags, which are among the best I’ve seen. The gantry-style floodlighting, so typical of Scandinavian airports, is also very well done. There’s a noticeable lack of ramp clutter but I guess this isn’t abnormal for such a small airport. What is here is mostly custom.
The cargo area, west of the terminal, is very well modelled and comes complete with DHL and Fedex vans/trailers. There are also MM Sims branded vans dotted around which, surprisingly, don’t look out of place.
One of the standout features of this airport is its ground textures, which are excellent, particularly on the runway. There’s some nice terraforming, too. There are a few very small anomalies when you’ve snow on the ground but this is a sim issue rather than something the dev has failed to do.
PERFORMANCE
About average given the size and complexity of the airport. I’ve flown in and out multiple times now and it’s fine, even if you use exterior view. It will even take some drone punishment but overuse will eventually lead to black screens (it took two successive outings with the drone to trigger them). Stability isn’t exceptional but it’s certainly decent.
Framerate-wise it’s buttery smooth. No issues so far.
VERDICT
MM’s EFTU is a nice little airport surrounded by some quite remote wilderness. The city is, however, just a stone’s throw away and although not rendered in PG, it does have a few hand-crafted POIs that are often visible when on final approach to either runway end. It’s a good scenery, without offering anything truly exceptional.
I picked it up in a sale for GB£8.79. At this price it’s good value but less so if you’re paying full whack (over £13). If you’ve little interest in flying in this part of Northern Europe, it’s probably not for you. But if you’re curious and fancy a decent little airport in the southwest of Finland — within easy reach of some of the regions major cities — it’s well worth grabbing (particularly when discounted). It’s also a good buy if you’re into freight ops as it’s the country’s second-largest cargo hub.
The one thing I’d really like to have seen is more internal development in the terminal (i.e. the landside areas), which I feel they could easily have done.
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