UK Airports

[Trevor Hannant]

Forgive me if this has been listed other than in John's -= 2013 =- thread, but is there a list of airports that are being done for the UK?  That list covers a lot of English airports and a few Welsh ones but nothing north of the border and I'm curious as to what will be added to that list with the soonish release of Scotland.

[John Venema]

We have not yet begun work on any Scottish payware airports but we do plan to offer a few perhaps by year's end.

Our roadmap for the remaining England and Wales airports will most definitely change because of poor sales in comparison to our NA, AU and NZ airports. We won't keep developing UK airports if customers aren't buying in the volume required to justify continued development.

I can confirm that Southampton International, Fairoaks, Damyns Hall, Deanland, Welshpool and Tim's historic WWII airfield are currently in development but that is the extent of the planned releases at this stage unless sales pick up.

We have rolled out 8 UK airports including EGFF in the space of less than a year but they simply do not sell in the same volumes as say PNW or NA airports, so as a company we absolutely must listen to the voice of our customers and create content in areas which there is demand. For that reason we are focusing our efforts through 2013/14 on new airports in NA, NZ, AU and for FTX Global (EU, South America, Asia, Scandinavia).

[Timmy74]

Great to hear that NZ will be getting a go!  Since the release of both NZSI and NZNI (with fantastic reviews), its a little sad that only Milford has been the only release thus far.

 

Thanks for the update John.

[Trevor Hannant]

Thanks John.

 

I've bought a significant number of airports/airfields over the past while but thanks to hours being cut back at work, I've had to now start to pick and choose rather than just buy as released.  Perhaps others are in the same boat or perhaps they're waiting for specific ones coming out.  Think the UK airfields are that little bit different also to, say, PNW - most of the UK airfields are in open space whereas there's more of a challenge around the PNW ones with the terrain etc - again, possibly a contributing factor, possibly not.

[jrrbolkin]

John, I for one WILL be buying all EU airports but not until Global is out and the need to switch off EU in central is negated.The current method to fly from say Manchester to Paris is made a bit fiddly as if EU remains switched on it can cause scenery glitches within Europe itself.Another deciding factor for people maybe holding back is that the UK itself is not completely orbx'd. So when finally Scotland and Ireland are finished and released that in itself will I think will encourage more sales,as people will be able to fly purely UK (British Isles) flights all without switching central on/off. So don't give up on the UK just yet it may yet be a big winner.

Thanks anyway for what has been completed so far and I look forward to many more superb ORBX products.

Regards

Gary

[JohnR]

John, I for one WILL be buying all EU airports but not until Global is out and the need to switch off EU in central is negated.The current method to fly from say Manchester to Paris is made a bit fiddly as if EU remains switched on it can cause scenery glitches within Europe itself.Another deciding factor for people maybe holding back is that the UK itself is not completely orbx'd. So when finally Scotland and Ireland are finished and released that in itself will I think will encourage more sales,as people will be able to fly purely UK (British Isles) flights all without switching central on/off. So don't give up on the UK just yet it may yet be a big winner.

Thanks anyway for what has been completed so far and I look forward to many more superb ORBX products.

Regards

Gary

 

This is making sense John, as a lot of us do like to hop over the Channel both on and off line!

[joe d park]

+1

[jaydor]

We have not yet begun work on any Scottish payware airports but we do plan to offer a few perhaps by year's end.

Our roadmap for the remaining England and Wales airports will most definitely change because of poor sales in comparison to our NA, AU and NZ airports. We won't keep developing UK airports if customers aren't buying in the volume required to justify continued development.

I can confirm that Southampton International, Fairoaks, Damyns Hall, Deanland, Welshpool and Tim's historic WWII airfield are currently in development but that is the extent of the planned releases at this stage unless sales pick up.

We have rolled out 8 UK airports including EGFF in the space of less than a year but they simply do not sell in the same volumes as say PNW or NA airports, so as a company we absolutely must listen to the voice of our customers and create content in areas which there is demand. For that reason we are focusing our efforts through 2013/14 on new airports in NA, NZ, AU and for FTX Global (EU, South America, Asia, Scandinavia).

 

Maybe it is the influence of UK2000 airports that is having the disappointingly effect on UK sales John.  But it is still a big thank you to you and the team for bringing the UK to ORBX.

[Mr_Yeti101]

I am surprised as I thought simming was well supported in the UK and certainly in Europe, possibly due to the cost of real world flying over this side of the pond.

 

I also understood that England went well initially. Out of interest which has been the best selling airfield so far?

 

Its a real shame that Manchester Barton EGCB is not on that list. It is showing on the 'Airfield locator' on the home page and I was REALLY looking forward to having a base in the north to explore N.Wales, Peaks, Lake district and have somewhere to fly a longer route, from north to south.

 

Anyway, looking forward to future UK releases although now expect them to tail off.

[TalbotFlyer]

USA flyers have especially supported the Northwest scenery.

 

Perhaps a little East coast scenery would enjoy the same support.

From Wash DC up through New England both inland and coastal is a very interesting area and poorly supported by add-on scenery.

 

I do have England EU which is excellent but couldn't get into the scenery for airports.

[norfolk mike]

Hmmm, what was that clever saying used by the eminent evolutionist Richard Dawkin? "When something reaches a critical mass, there will be the initiation of a chain reaction". Maybe he was talking about the OrbX England airfields!

 

I have "Old Warden" and "Popham". I have been eagerly awaiting Southampton, but only in anticipation of Manchester, because that would make for a nice hop in the Dash-8. One without the other wouldn't be much fun! Edinburgh would be great too, but first we need Scotland. I'd start buying more airfields if here were more airfields, which sounds a little crazy, but that's the fact. I was waiting to see A big enough list of payware airfields so I could cover England, Wales and Scotland with well spaced fields, and then more fields in-between those, because I find the current southern sector monopoly a little restrictive. With more fields, and better spacing I WOULD definitely buy Elstree, as well as the others I'm sure. I think a lot of potential customers are "poised", and the various factors in that have been described quite excellently above by jrrbolkin. Fair enough with Welshpool, but what's with Damyns Hall, Saaaathampton and bleedin Fairoaks ? I can understand the team's photographers wanting to save on petrol or not have to cycle too far, but can't they be ushered North, just for the change of scenery?  The chips are significantly cheaper, and the portions substantially larger!

 

Man I was looking forwards to "Old Buckenham", but I appreciate my personal enthusiasm for that particular field won't keep OrbX afloat. I'll be there on Sunday, watching the P:51 Ferocious Frankie strutting his stuff, together with the Spitfire. What a great jaunt that would be from A.C.Gs freeware Duxford to an FTX Old Buckenham (with optional air show static objects) in A2As P:51/Spitfire. Actually, the default FTX "Old Buck" ain't half bad, so whilst its disappearance from the list is grim, it isn't entirely devastating.

 

We also have Global on the horizon, so that'll open up the European gateway as well as the wallets! Once the complete canvas is in place we can get decorating it with airfields so I wouldn't give up on the UK projects just yet. Manchester has got to be a bigger seller than Southampton don't you think? Unless you fill the docks with cruise ships to add some visual wow factor! Actually, you lot might just do that.  .

[tig52]

will be buying more airfields once scotland is released, and airfields are more spread out, don't give up on use just yet

[anfield ace]

Hi John & gang,

 

After having purchased every single scenery area, and every single airport, mostly at time of release, available from your good selves, I am very disappointed to hear that your continuation of UK airports may be winding down.

 

I fully understand the business reasons for this, and I will continue to support all future Orbx releases. I bet this will be good news to the people over at UK2000!  Any way, keep up the good work!

 

Mal...

[roger hopkins]

Well John, as you can see by the response regarding EU Airports sales I cant help but feel that you may have released to many airfields in such a short space of time, I have been fortunate that I did have £100 to spend on EU airfields, now that I have spent it I to have had to find moneys for the next release.

As it has been a little while since the last one I am now in a position to purchase another airfield.

I hope you can see where I'm coming from regarding further purchases, keep them coming but please give us a while in order to get some funds together,.also having purchased a number of airfields of such quality I am spending more time flying out of Compton Abbas and Stapleford that I haven't even looked at Wales yet and that's part of the reason I haven't purchased Popham.

[kevinfirth]

It's a shame that development might stop for UK airfields if they apparently aren't selling in sufficient numbers.

Months ago I did make the suggestion that for those of us who use photo scenery and not FTX regions then the current development parameters mitigated against us buying them which has the obvious consequent effect of marginalising a potential market and thus reducing potential sales.

Whether or not this is a relevant factor here I cannot definitively say, but perhaps it would be worthwhile testing the market by doing one airfield in such a way as to make it compatible with photo scenery and then compare how it sells? Obviously, selection of a location may have a significant impact, but I'd suggest a larger GA aerodrome such as Barton or Gloucester perhaps?

Also, another potential suggestion, which may be heresy in this forum but I'll think the unthinkable anyway...is there any mileage in considering doing airfields in slightly less detail and marketing them either at a different price point or in packs of 2 or 3? Maybe, maybe not, but I do think there's demand in the market here to be satisfied, just the offer needs tweaking a little

Please don't take this as criticism or a rant, it's meant as a positive contribution that might illuminate a way forward that would enable development of UK airfields to be continued and which would therefore benefit everyone.

K

[Dibidut]

To be frank John, i think you are giving your NiCHE, on the marked, away for 99$  

I, as a costumer, I love your move. (personly i think you will win a SimPrice for this move) and do the life, as a FSX/P3D Simmer, mutch easier.

Ive got almost all of your produkts, and i love every single piece of it and will continue to buy your produkts.(I buy produkts, and also support

OZx and RTMM and others, so it is not an acid remark).

I hope You have a longer plan for continuing the BIZZ.

Kind regards

Henrik

 

 

 

 

 

[Andrew 737]

It's a shame that development might stop for UK airfields if they apparently aren't selling in sufficient numbers.

Months ago I did make the suggestion that for those of us who use photo scenery and not FTX regions then the current development parameters mitigated against us buying them which has the obvious consequent effect of marginalising a potential market and thus reducing potential sales.

Whether or not this is a relevant factor here I cannot definitively say, but perhaps it would be worthwhile testing the market by doing one airfield in such a way as to make it compatible with photo scenery and then compare how it sells? Obviously, selection of a location may have a significant impact, but I'd suggest a larger GA aerodrome such as Barton or Gloucester perhaps?

Also, another potential suggestion, which may be heresy in this forum but I'll think the unthinkable anyway...is there any mileage in considering doing airfields in slightly less detail and marketing them either at a different price point or in packs of 2 or 3? Maybe, maybe not, but I do think there's demand in the market here to be satisfied, just the offer needs tweaking a little

Please don't take this as criticism or a rant, it's meant as a positive contribution that might illuminate a way forward that would enable development of UK airfields to be continued and which would therefore benefit everyone.

K

This whole thread (while quite sad) is very interesting.

A different approach may well be the answer?

[jrrbolkin]

Adding to my earlier post #5 remember a lot of us are already waiting for Global,then to enhance this, a world wide, or many regional land-class mesh has been suggested as a good idea to enhance it.

We are all awaiting Scotland and adding all this together plus all UK airports counts for a pretty penny/pound/dollar or two.

So I reckon we will probably all get anything you guys put out, but probably all at different stages,for me money is tight, I work but we are talking well over £150.00 to get the whole shooting match.

In a nutshell just sit back and relax I am sure things will start moving I just need to convince the "good lady" that my PC is broken "again" and to fix it I will need to buy some software from a company called Orbx Again!!!!

[VH-JLC]

Thats great news I might start buying airports again..

I think the hubs that you can fly a 737 into ie YHBA, Jackson Hole, YSCH etc etc.. will be most sucessful as the grass strip GA isn't very appealing at all....

[namal245]

well making every small airports in UK maybe not wise just work on one or two major airports and move on to different region people not going just buy small airport addon's i think maybe wasting time when time can be spent on major airport. that could be why you have not had sales on these, people fly into more major airports not tiny ones out of no where.

[mutley]

hi John,

 

I agree that there is a huge potential market in the UK for top quality, detailed airfields. However, I would say that GenX does have a strangle hold on the photoscenery market for the core community of UK simmers.  

 

UK 2000 airports come with a GenX option and has sold very well even though they really are not a patch on Orbx. We have grown up with good photoscenery since FS2002 so anything else seems like a compromise.

 

Gen X photoscenery is too big a product to sweep aside in the UK, the reliance on FTX has proved to be a hard nut to crack.

 

So maybe Kevin's idea may be worth a punt, personally I think your sales for UK airports would go through the roof, there is a huge credit card wielding FS population just waiting to snap up your detailed UK airports if only they worked with Gen X.  Since John Farrie at VisualFlight hung up his boots we have had no serious contenders.

 

Perhaps we will have to wait for Misha at MCA and develop them?

 

Good luck however you progress, I for one want more UK airports please.

 

Regards,

Joe

 

 

 

[Ripcord]

We have not yet begun work on any Scottish payware airports but we do plan to offer a few perhaps by year's end.

Our roadmap for the remaining England and Wales airports will most definitely change because of poor sales in comparison to our NA, AU and NZ airports. We won't keep developing UK airports if customers aren't buying in the volume required to justify continued development.

I can confirm that Southampton International, Fairoaks, Damyns Hall, Deanland, Welshpool and Tim's historic WWII airfield are currently in development but that is the extent of the planned releases at this stage unless sales pick up.

 

I have them all in the UK.  Wasn't really planning to get them but the first one or two were good so I got the rest.  Just hope the wife doesn't find out.  : )

 

There may well be a couple things at work here -- the UK2000 line does seem to be good airports (do not have any myself yet but considering), but those are the larger airports.  With the one exception of the freeware Cardiff that came with FTX Wales, all these have been smaller GA airfields... which are great if you like those.  The other consideration I agree is that whole UK proximity to the EU issue; that has been discussed in great detail already.  So I am wondering if the slow pace of sales for the UK airfields is somehow related, particularly now that folks know that FTX Global is on the way and there are plans to eliminate the need (eventually) for the FTX Central switcher.

 

Regarding the airports planned for Scotland, will they all be smaller/medium size, or might we see some larger airports?

[Neil]

Well maybe the list was too big, 30 airports in 2013, pretty aggressive. Perhaps folks were just waiting for the ones they wanted. I keep buying mostly because of the progress in quality, just love to see improvement with each one.

[kevinfirth]

Thinking a little more on this, it is difficult to determine the best way forward without some metrics as well, but these are likely to remain confidential.

It would be interesting to learn how many copies each airfield in the UK sold, as well as the proportion of FTX-England purchasers who also bought airfields, and the numbers of people who bought airfields that DID NOT purchase the region....but that's for JV and team to mull over.

One of the differences with UK airspace is that it is much more crowded than the US, and the challenges faced by pilots (rw) are around airspace restrictions rather than terrain in the main. If some people aren't buying because England is flat, then is there an opportunity for some product evolution to include some mission extensions perhaps, that would challenge people flying between 2 GA airfields? That might leverage the uniqueness of the local environment and incentivise people to buy a product they wouldn't ordinarily go for?

I don't think there's much of a competition between OrbX and UK2000, Gary Summons' airports are marketed differently both in their general size and quality. However, there may be lessons to be learned there? Gary's airports do generally sell well, albeit being not as detailed, and they are usually significantly cheaper, as well as being compatible with both GenX and FTX. Is some of the core UK market looking at OrbX airfields and thinking that a small grass strip is overpriced at £30 when they can pick up a heavy for £20? Do they really want/need butterflies, cows and animated people etc or can they live without them if it brings the costs down a bit? On costs, I wonder where (if?) the opportunity to reduce overhead could lie though, is it with airfields (do they charge for access?), base photo imagery providers (very NOT cheap I know!), or just the people time it takes to put it all together?

Where there is definite room for competition though is the pretty large range of mid to small regional airports and large GA aerodromes that Gary hasn't covered in his Xtreme range. Some of those aren't likely to be covered for years yet and I think it would be really interesting to see something like Blackpool or HalfPenny Green done by OrbX.

All interesting considerations, but for me the killer that stops me buying is still the compatibility with my photoscenery!

K

[Ciki]

Here is my opinion:

 

I don´t think the problem lies in England, but it lies in selection of airfields. These airfields, which had been done already, are i superb quality indeed, but far less interesting for mainland europe customers than i.e. Aberdeen, Inverness, Belfast City or Isle of Man. Big FS market in EU is Germany and I don´t think Germans will be particulary interested in such airfields.

[rockliffe]

It's interesting, but I wonder how many others are like me, eg. I fly all my GA in PNW, Alaska and NZ. To me they are the ultimate places to fly for GA, The mountains, the lakes, the interesting terrain, IMO a far more enriching flying experience than the UK. OK, I know we have Wales and Scotland, but they are a very small areas in comparison. To a point and I know I've come under fire before for saying this, but I prefer the areas to Aus also. New Zealand however, is a great place, again because of the interesting scenery and terrain. As for the UK, I fly the biggies like the NGX and do so throughought Europe. So it means I need airports from the likes of UK2000 and Aerosoft, to which I have more than a few! While I understand the need to produce the airports for Orbx areas, I am nevertheless not surprised that sales are not as high as expected, this I would put down to the existing availability of superb airports from UK2000 and Aerosoft and also perhaps others who may share my love of GA flying elsehwere other than the UK.

[Andrew 737]

Who would buy GEN X/ORBX Region compatible airfields with a reasonable surrounding area to get rid of the 'flatness' of photo at ground level?

That to me would be awesome, best of both worlds and added value for money - either use Photo with ORBX airfields or simply switch back to EU if the mood takes us.

That way ORBX can open its market to a wider Audience

Just a thought

[Simnut]

"Here is my opinion:

 

I don´t think the problem lies in England, but it lies in selection of airfields. These airfields, which had been done already, are i superb quality indeed, but far less interesting for mainland europe customers than i.e. Aberdeen, Inverness, Belfast City or Isle of Man. Big FS market in EU is Germany and I don´t think Germans will be particulary interested in such airfields."

 

 

 

I think Ciki has hit the nail on the head tbh, the airfields you've done can be and are by all reviews quite excellent, but if they are not where people want to fly you're borked. Nonetheless, business decisions are what they are, the numbers need to add up so I can't say this comes as a surprise. It would be of hugely interesting to know what the bottom line number is to make a project viable, don't suppose you'd let us know?

[fusions]

I have too agree with some of the above posts, for me personally living in the uk although the scenery is being produced at a superb level I don't see me wanting to fly to the likes of Popham very often. I do have Elstree and Shoreham but even these are not visited very often after the first couple of weeks after purchase as quite frankly the novelty wears off for me, this is such a shame as the detailing you put into the products is second to none and they deserve more use. I understand this is purely a personal preference but the larger regional airports (Exeter, Blackpool, Southend and so on..) offer more variety to a larger group of simmers especially now the Dash 8 -400 is with us, they offer plenty of variety to GA pilots and simmers looking to recreate airline ops that I'm afraid the smaller airports can't and in this day and age when people have to pick and choose their purchases a bit more carefully this needs consideration. I for one would buy every decent sized regional you could produce for the uk (and a good few for other areas) but the smaller fields I'm afraid are very much down to personal interest. Leave the big stuff if you like to UK2000 (although if you decide to replicate some don't let me stop you....) but your superb quality aimed at the regionals I'm sure would be a winner.

Ian

[Andrew 737]

Quite a few people need to get paid: the Dev's, flightsimstore, ORBX (staff, bills etc), the 'Bank!, HMRC - the list goes on?..

Im sure it would need to be a fair few of 'Her Majesty's' finest 20 pound notes (the cost of an airfield) to 'break even' at least - hence (I suppose) why ORBX strive to make the best scenery possible.

I hope we see a few more fields after Global changes the switching issue - EGSC?

[moorpark]

Really do hope that you continue with developing uk airfields, especially in Scotland. Scotland has always been overlooked by developers and as you can see by the screens released recently, it has something special to offer on par with the North American wilds.

 

Keep up the good work guys

[joe d park]

I have too agree with some of the above posts, for me personally living in the uk although the scenery is being produced at a superb level I don't see me wanting to fly to the likes of Popham very often. I do have Elstree and Shoreham but even these are not visited very often after the first couple of weeks after purchase as quite frankly the novelty wears off for me, this is such a shame as the detailing you put into the products is second to none and they deserve more use. I understand this is purely a personal preference but the larger regional airports (Exeter, Blackpool, Southend and so on..) offer more variety to a larger group of simmers especially now the Dash 8 -400 is with us, they offer plenty of variety to GA pilots and simmers looking to recreate airline ops that I'm afraid the smaller airports can't and in this day and age when people have to pick and choose their purchases a bit more carefully this needs consideration. I for one would buy every decent sized regional you could produce for the uk (and a good few for other areas) but the smaller fields I'm afraid are very much down to personal interest. Leave the big stuff if you like to UK2000 (although if you decide to replicate some don't let me stop you....) but your superb quality aimed at the regionals I'm sure would be a winner.

Ian

 

+1, I would love to see more regional airports for the UK, Prestwick, Inverness,Wick, Derry/Londonderry,Teeside,Norwich and thats just a few

[Capt Pugwash]

I have resisted purchasing anymore Orbx UK airfields after Goodwood & Shoreham...and sure enough I am back in PNW & SAK, I even purchased Felts last week rather than populate more of my Orbx UK regions...

I think Howard hit the nail on the head, it needs to be exciting!

We had John ask us a while back for our lists of preferred UK airports and I noticed the majority of feedback was from UK residents.

But if he was to ask for a top ten wish list for PNW or SAK, I bet he would have an amazing responce on a global scale.

The "Orbx Factory" is tooled up to manufacture high quality airports/airfields/scenery...they should have polls for airports for USA, EU, AU, Rest of the World etc, they should give us 20 of their choice on a poll for each area for starters and then manufacture the most voted!

Global will give their "manufacturing" the volume it requires to exist and grow, if they ask customers for their favorites without narrowing down the options it would turn into a fiasco, with guys wanting little grass strips in unknown forests and others wanting Hubs in cities throughtout the world

Like a restaurant, if you have too many items on the menu, your will screw up the head chef and his staff and the customers take forever to choose what they want! Narrow the menu options...

[KLM480]

John, I for one WILL be buying all EU airports but not until Global is out and the need to switch off EU in central is negated.The current method to fly from say Manchester to Paris is made a bit fiddly as if EU remains switched on it can cause scenery glitches within Europe itself.Another deciding factor for people maybe holding back is that the UK itself is not completely orbx'd. So when finally Scotland and Ireland are finished and released that in itself will I think will encourage more sales,as people will be able to fly purely UK (British Isles) flights all without switching central on/off. So don't give up on the UK just yet it may yet be a big winner.

Thanks anyway for what has been completed so far and I look forward to many more superb ORBX products.

Regards

Gary

+1

 

Hans

[Dr_Watson]

I don't own any uk airports. First problem for me at least is that I like to fly uk to Europe without switching FTX central. Orbx know the problem here so I am not buying airports for a scenery that is uninstalled. The airports chosen are not very interesting to me. Grass fields are not interesting as I don't think fsx depicts grass very well ( even with the Orbx enhancement) and the way the aircraft handles on grass is not well done. I have all uk2000 packages and can't justify buying again. I also see a bigger fps hit with the latest airports I have and I would be more than happy to have a light version of airfields with ess fps hit.

For me to buy any more airfields they have to be either cheaper, come in a pack, lighter version airfields, or preferably larger fields like Birmingham, Aberdeen etc, but many have been one in uk2000.

I think I am all in th minority group who look at h latest Dundee airport shots and see the detail inside buildings as simp ps killers. A complete one off benefit for a screenshot and that's all. I'm sure resources could be used to make a light Dundee, Cumbernauld, Fife airport pack, a third the detail, half the development time, maybe not 100% accurate and the same price, I would buy that without question.

[petehowell57]

Hi everyone.

 

A very interesting and thought provoking set of posts.

 

My personal take is this......

 

I love the "representation" of Australia and North America. I don't know the areas so am very happy with what I see and of course the amazing airfields ORBX has produced. I am also looking forward to the release of FTX Global.

 

However, for me personally, I live in the UK and my preference is to use photoscenery to fly over the "real" thing.  I love visiting an area (especially coastal) and then "flying " over it to see how it fits into the surroundings. I don't really want a "representation" of the UK, brilliant though it may be.  This precludes me from purchasing what look like the amazing airports ORBX has produced for the uK - which is a great pity.

 

I do have all the UK2000 stock and they work well with my needs.

 

John, we need ORBX to carry on and succeed, as it has reinvigorated FSX for the flight community, but would you please reconsider the possible introduction of standalone airports. I'm sure there would be a large number of sales waiting.

 

 

Whatever, best wishes for the future and roll on FTX Global!!

 

Pete

[Chrjs]

I said this before. I think it would be better to develop airports that suit both VFR/GA-Flyers and bigger IFR/Jet/Turboprop-flyers (KJAC for instance was the perfect example). The grass-strips surely look nice, but a large portion oft the flight simulation community is going to ignore it, including me. I'm not talking about the big Mega-Hubs but regional, smaller airports that have a busy GA-traffic and also handle bigger airplanes up to a 737 or A320 (let's face it, these are the planes used by most simmers). Since many simmers want to fly realistic routes i would even consider airports that not only can handle small to big(ger) planes, but also are regurlarly severd by popular airlines. In the UK i know that many are already covered by UK2000, with some exceptions like Inverness, Prestwick or Aberdeen (just have a look at EZY, RYR or BEE Route Maps).

[awralls]

_{I can only echo the sentiments of others such as Howard above; this is simply probably down to the choice of product rather than anything specific about the UK market. Probably 50% of the potential market want to fly airways on short-haul or regional routes. Of the remainder, the VFR GA types want a flying challenge and that isn't evident in short trips around the south of England. These highly detailed grass strips and small GA airfields look great but they're a novelty and I'd suggest that they simply are not what the public wants. However, that doesn't seem like the reason to quit making UK airfields....just make what the market will pay for. You've had enough prompts - EGPD, EGAC and so on. Proof of the pudding will be the sales of EGHI - if that doesn't hit the spot, I'd be very surprised and since it's already in production you've got a ready-made market test right there.}

 

_Andy

[anfield ace]

Hi Guys,

Many interesting points with this topic, it's all down to personal choice really, my own favourite choice of flying is the local small grass fields of the UK for GA flying, so as far I'm concerned the more small detailed fields like Popham (which I think is brilliant!) and Compton Abbas the better! Also I hope Barton and Caernarfon are still in the pipeline?

Thanks,

Mal....

[jaydor]

We have not yet begun work on any Scottish payware airports but we do plan to offer a few perhaps by year's end.

Our roadmap for the remaining England and Wales airports will most definitely change because of poor sales in comparison to our NA, AU and NZ airports. We won't keep developing UK airports if customers aren't buying in the volume required to justify continued development.

I can confirm that Southampton International, Fairoaks, Damyns Hall, Deanland, Welshpool and Tim's historic WWII airfield are currently in development but that is the extent of the planned releases at this stage unless sales pick up.

We have rolled out 8 UK airports including EGFF in the space of less than a year but they simply do not sell in the same volumes as say PNW or NA airports, so as a company we absolutely must listen to the voice of our customers and create content in areas which there is demand. For that reason we are focusing our efforts through 2013/14 on new airports in NA, NZ, AU and for FTX Global (EU, South America, Asia, Scandinavia).

 

Dare I say it, but her goes. 

 

"England is a very boring area to fly in", I know this will bring in a lot of critical response, but it is true.  The area that has set the ORBX standard is PNW and we have been expecting all other area's to follow in this standard.  With the exception of Northern England the Midlands and the South are just flat boring landscapes when seen from the perspective of an aircraft.  Also the majority of Airfields produced by FTX for the UK have all been southern area based.  That has not helped you.. 

 

Also as mentioned UK flyer's have been spoilt for choice with scenic addon's.  All good quality stuff by all producer's.

 

I do not know what the answer is as far as trying to help improve the situation for you John, other than as been mentioned in here already is maybe Europe is the next PNW type area you need to challenge.

 

Germany and Austria should be your next stepping stone and if you are going to split those countries into sectioned release, you will have to think hard as to what area to release first.

 

The southern half of Germany into Austria is one of the most amazing scenic area's in the world and if you have not been there then I suggest you visit yourself and then make a decision for future growth from there.

 

As you are the CEO I wish you the best of luck to you and your team.

 

James