ANSWERED Grass runways in PNW

[golish]

Hi all,

 

I'm a happy owner of FTX PNW - an awesome product, thanks to the Orbx team for all the hours of cool flying I got thanks to it!

Recently I started to play with grass strips and I seem to have some config/setup issue with those - they displayed properly back when I was using FSX default scenery but with FTX scenery I only see patches of standard grass where I would expect a runway (i.e. no runway markings or anything like that). I have most recently reproduced it on CYHE and S43 (note: this is the PNW version of the airport, not the stand-alone product). I'd be grateful for any hints how to debug the problem and get my grass runways back

Note that apart from FTX PNW I have also other products from Orbx installed - most importantly (or at least I think this might be important ) I have FTX Global and Vector (for use outside of PNW) and I'm flying in Global's hybrid mode to get smooth transitions between regions.

Any ideas where to start looking for the cause of this issue? Or any idea what more information can I provide to debug this? I tried searching the forums - apologies if I missed something.

 

Thanks.

[Stewart Hobson]

Hello and welcome!

 

First I would make sure that you're flying with NA checked in FTX Central, as long as you're flying in PNW (or PFJ, NRM, and CRM, for that matter).  Flying in Global Hybrid mode may be the reason for the grass popping up in unexpected places.  Worth a try...

 

Stew

[golish]

Thanks for the hint! I gave it a try but that didn't help much unfortunately - everything looks exactly the same in NA and Global hybrid modes.

[Stewart Hobson]

Well, it was worth a try.  Sorry it didn't work.  If you can figure out how to post a screen shot of the problem, perhaps somebody else can spot what's happening.

[Holger Sandmann]

Hi Marcin,

 

I assume you're referring to the default grass runway type? We don't use that at most of the NA region enhanced airports; for one it looks rather too geometric for your typical grass-covered airstrip, and it also requires a perfectly flat surface, which is something else you rarely find at these airfields. Instead, we use grass "vectors", which allow for sloped runways, can be curved, and blend better into the surrounding area. That also makes them a bit harder to spot, especially from the ground, but they do exist and the runway start positions in the Go To Airport menu should place you onto them. I've attached below a screenshot of how CYHE should look for you (in Spring).

 

Cheers, Holger

 

 

[golish]

Awesome, thanks a bunch, Holger! Now I know what's wrong here - my expectations as to how a grass strip should look like As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words and your screenshot explained everything - that's exactly what I see and yes, I was referring to the default runway texture which is vastly different from those in FTX. Anyway, thanks for the clarification and confirming that nothing is wrong with my setup - it seems I just need to work my eyes a bit harder here as after a few attempts I have even been able to spot the left runway at S43

Sorry to waste your time on this kind of silly newbie question

Just out of curiosity: in real life, some of these airfields seem to have runway markings on the grass runways, too - see e.g. the photo of S43 at http://www.harveyfield.com/. Are those impossible to add for the reasons you outlined or are you maybe planning to add that in some future update/new products?

[spud]

R/W marking on a grass strip are not used.  Think about it, every time the grass grew up they would disappear.  Although, as you said FSX does display markings on some airports, or developers will add them to addon airports it isn't realistic.

Of course there is always 'exceptions to the rule' and at times R/W numbers will be placed using white painted gravel so the grass doesn't grow over them but most of the time its just grass.

[TymK]

I think it really depends on where you fly. From what I've seen, most grass strips in North America are small private strips and typically have no markings.

 

CYHE is actually a location I like to visit in the sim, so I remember looking for satellite images, and those I found showed no visible markings. In the current satellite photos on Google, there are some discernible edge markings and numbers, but that's it. Same goes for Harvey -- while the picture on their website shows a nicely marked grass runway, in recent satellite photos you'd be hard pressed to actually notice there's one (the only thing that stands out are the Xs at the ends).

 

This is unlike England, for example, where grass runways are often operated by flying clubs and maintained to a high standard, including clear markings repainted on a regular basis (which is nicely reflected in FTX ENG).

 

Tym

[golish]

Thanks Spud and Tym - I guess that answers all my questions