Some thoughts on FTX regions in NA and Europe

[AviatorMan]

Now that I have flown in FTX regions with their detail and general accuracy to the real world, I hardly ever fly anywhere else. I think ORBX have done a particularly good good job with the NA regions: several regions that take in most of the West Coast  areas from Alaska in the North to the border in California with Mexico in the South, and extending Eastward into the Rocky Mountains. So we have a continuous area of connected FTX regions where we have over a thousand miles of excellent scenery for flying. I would like to suggest that Europe would benefit from a similar approach. We currently have the UK and Ireland, five regions of contiguous coverage, and these are great. But then we have Norway and North Germany. Annoyingly, these regions are all separate. True, you can fly from Britain to Norway over water, but If you want to fly from Britain to North Germany, you will have to go through the Netherlands or Belgium or northern France (none are FTX regions).  If you want to fly from Germany to Norway, you will have to go through Denmark (non FTX region). While OpenLC Europe helps, it is just not the same as the FTX regions. There seems to be an easy fix for this: Denmark and Netherlands are small countries, which if developed as FTX regions, would give connectivity for all of these Northern European regions. Anyone else have views on this?

[Stewart Hobson]

Mike,  If you're flying from Britain to North Germany via Netherlands or Belgium or France, unless you plan to stop over in those areas, there would be no real need for the detail one finds in a full fat region.  Flying at altitude, the detail provided by a full fat region is wasted, it seems to me.

[Cristi Neagu]

Well, one can only dream that FTX quadruples their developers and start modelling the entire planet... And i'm not being sarcastic. FTX scenery is so good, it's a bit hard going anywhere else.

[paulb]

1 hour ago, Stewart Hobson said:

Mike,  If you're flying from Britain to North Germany via Netherlands or Belgium or France, unless you plan to stop over in those areas, there would be no real need for the detail one finds in a full fat region.  Flying at altitude, the detail provided by a full fat region is wasted, it seems to me.

 

Well Stewart, to quote you "different dog, different fleas". Personally I would love more full fat regions for Europe.

 

I fly low and that it why I now only purchase orbx scenery (full fat). Theirs is simply the best!

 

Have a look at my post  here in general discussion  "Austria?" earlier in April. There is huge support for European full fat regions.

 

I agree that if you are flying a tubeliner, then only your departure and landing airports really matter.

 

But, for those - like me - who just want to explore and fly low (if not always slow!) one cannot beat a full fat region.

 

Cheers

Paul

[pmb]

2 hours ago, Stewart Hobson said:

Mike,  If you're flying from Britain to North Germany via Netherlands or Belgium or France, unless you plan to stop over in those areas, there would be no real need for the detail one finds in a full fat region.  Flying at altitude, the detail provided by a full fat region is wasted, it seems to me.

Certainly true if you fly airliners. However, I am a pure GA pilot. I am happy about any larger connected region to fly at 3000 ft. I am exactly in the same boat as Paul.

 

Kind regards, Michael

[John Venema]

If you have openLC EU installed, then crossing from England to Norway to Germany is not an issue

[Stewart Hobson]

 

43 minutes ago, paulb said:

 

Well Stewart, to quote you "different dog, different fleas". Personally I would love more full fat regions for Europe.

 

I fly low and that it why I now only purchase orbx scenery (full fat). Theirs is simply the best!

 

Have a look at my post  here in general discussion  "Austria?" earlier in April. There is huge support for European full fat regions.

 

I agree that if you are flying a tubeliner, then only your departure and landing airports really matter.

 

But, for those - like me - who just want to explore and fly low (if not always slow!) one cannot beat a full fat region.

 

Cheers

Paul

 

6 minutes ago, pmb said:

Certainly true if you fly airliners. However, I am a pure GA pilot. I am happy about any larger connected region to fly at 3000 ft. I am exactly in the same boat as Paul.

 

Kind regards, Michael

Ok, Guys, please don't misunderstand.  I fly only GA, both low and slow pistons, but also twin turboprops--no jetliners.  I fully understand the desire for European full fat regions, believe me.  But the OP's post stated he wanted to fly from Britain to Germany, over and not stopping at, Netherlands, Belgium or France, at least that's what I understand from his post.  Thus my comment:  If you're not going to stop in Holland, Belgium or France on your way to Germany, why install a full fat region for those areas?  That was my point.  As it is, I explore a lot in Italy, Greece and the Balkans and would be happy to buy any full fat region that covered those areas.  Austria?  Of course!  And Germany is a no-brainer, imo--waiting for Southern Germany to come out to go with GEN.

[Gypsy Pilot]

I would love to see Orbx finish out the USA with full fat regions starting with the balance of the American West, state by state ( ala Mega Scenery ) if necessary.  It would be expensive but well worth the price to be able to fly with Orbx detail over your own state.

Like the song says "Sea To Shining Sea".

 

[jalbrech]

The Open LC fills the void both in the North America and Europe areas for both FSX and P3D (my new preference).  Open LC is incredible.  I'm looking forward to other (both full fat and) open land class areas as they get released.  

[AviatorMan]

Thanks for the suggestions. As a VFR flyer, navigating by VOR and NDB and landmarks, who likes to make many stopovers, I am keen that everything I am flying over look fairly accurate to the real world. Over the last few days, have tried some VFR flying in Belgium (also en route from Britain to N Germany), using official aeronautical charts to navigate, and found that the OpenLC EU in this area does in fact seem pretty accurate to the charts, though not quite FTX region quality. Am stopping off at all of the ORBX freeware airports in Belgium, and they do look pretty good. But the stock airports are pretty disappointing, no surprise. Otherwise, I expect we can live with OpenLC. But still hoping for more FTX regions in Northern and Western Europe.

 

By the way, if you buy the Netherlands and French charts, you don't need to buy the Belgium chart. The France Nord-Est and Netherlands charts overlap and together cover all of Belgium.