Aircraft used: PMDG 738
Live weather: off
As a headnote, I purchased this airport originally about three months ago and had to get a refund as it would invariably crash within a minute or two of either spawning or arriving there. The optimist in me, motivated by the 30% reduction during the weekend’s big sale, decided to buy it again — after all, Sim Update 13 had improved many previously unusable airports for me.
DETAIL
I couldn’t really gauge it the first time due to the CTDs but every inch of this airport — like its slightly smaller sibling, Sitka — is intricately detailed. I doubt there’s any need to go into more detail as there’s really very little to fault; and the images later will give an indication as to what you can expect. If I HAD to have one moan, it would be that the parked vehicles landside aren’t the sharpest, but this in no way detracts from the beauty of this scenery.
I will say that this airport has the most detailed interior I’ve ever seen in MSFS. Exactly like Sitka, but more of it. Pyreegue and IniBuilds take some beating for terminal interiors but this takes the crown! Honestly, the images below don’t quite do it justice.
PERFORMANCE
As I said, Juneau was almost totally unusable pre-SU13 but I’m happy to report that it IS now usable. That said, the high-res detail still places a strain on the Xbox’s limited memory and so you need to be careful using exterior views and the drone, particularly in the vicinity of the terminal. Limited drone/exterior view use should be okay but any more than about five minutes and it will black-screen. It’s quite likely to crash soon after, but not always — in fact I’ve managed to hop back into the 737 and depart, with the screens being restored a couple of minutes later.
I have spoken to the dev about this issue and he told me his Alaska airports are designed with very high-end PCs in mind, and simply ported to Xbox unaltered. This I can attest to, noting that absolutely every corner of the airfield here has been done using very high-res textures. He has said he will be revisiting the Xbox versions soon to lower the texture resolution in order to reduce VRAM usage.
VERDICT
As with NSS’ Sitka, my head tells me not to recommend this airport but my heart has fallen in love with it. It’s a real pleasure to explore every inch (in as brief a time as possible to avoid a crash!), marvelling at the insane level of detail. Even with the texture resolution reductions, this scenery will still look amazing, so long as the bulk of the changes are confined to more out-of-the-way places. Pyreegue managed to work wonders with his EGNX for console, in just a few days, so hopefully an update to NSS’ Alaskan airports won’t be too far away.
In my opinion, this collection is too good to ignore, irrespective of the stability issues (which are much better than they were). I imagine it’s difficult to buy one without then wanting the entire collection. This was certainly the case with me — the plan was originally to buy only Sitka and now I have the lot (except the ‘not-on-sale’ Petersburg)!
If you can look beyond the stability issues (which might only be temporary, based on what NSS said) — and don’t mind confining yourself mainly to the flightdeck during any crucial stages of your flights — this airport is an absolute pleasure to own and visit.
If other Xbox owners of these airfields want to help me out, please email the dev at northen.sky.studio@gmail.com and highlight the stability issues — the more people there are making a noise, the more compelled he should feel to rework his products for console. Believe me, stable versions of all his airports (Hawaii included as I imagine they’re developed similarly) would be such a joy to own!
IMAGES
The detail really is incredible — just look at the rust on this chainlink fence!
The quality of the wooden floor here is nothing short of stunning!
