Aircraft used: LVFR 320, AT7, PMDG 738
Live weather: on
DETAIL
Rockhampton is only a very small, regional airport and Orbx have captured its essence rather nicely. The terminal is beautifully modelled and features a partial interior (the areas beyond security) over two floors. The ground clutter is plentiful and all airside ground textures are very good, including the runway which is grooved to allow excess water to drain away. Sometimes the textures for these grooves look poor when viewed close up but here they retain their detail till you literally get right on top of them!
The terminal landside is pleasingly done to the same standard as the airside areas, with a fully modelled roadway featuring custom vehicles, signage, vegetation, etc.
Elsewhere on the airfield we find more excellent, high-res modelling with various hangars and peripheral buildings. The new Alliance maintenance facility is included and we get a handful of static rotary aircraft.
PERFORMANCE
Framerates are excellent and I’ve experienced no stutters. Stability is very, very good but not quite exceptional — I have suffered one CTD and a couple of black-screen incidents — but both are rare and only tend to occur with excessive drone use. Last time I flew into this airport I did so using a variety of exterior views and all was fine.
VERDICT
Smaller airports by their nature can be better detailed than their larger counterparts and Orbx’ Rocky is no exception. The terminal is beautifully crafted in high-res detail, inside and out, and arriving here really does feel like you’ve made it to small town Australia. The surroundings help with the immersion too as I’ve always felt Asobo did a particularly good job with Australia and New Zealand.
YBRK perhaps isn’t a significant enough airport to be for everyone but I highly recommend it, particularly if flying regional routes around Oz is your thing. There are a ton of other quality third-party airports available in this region and it’s therefore easy to build a decent operational network.
The very mild stability issue is so insignificant for it not to be a problem, unless you’re addicted to using the drone indiscriminately.
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