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Scenery Review : KBUF - Buffalo-Niagara by Butnaru


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Scenery Review : KBUF - Buffalo-Niagara International by Butnaru

 

Route : KLGA (La Gaudia, New York) to KBUF (Buffalo, New York State) - Niagara Falls/Niagara

 

Buffalo Niagara International Airport (IATA: BUF, ICAO: KBUF, FAA LID: BUF) is in Cheektowaga, upper New York state, and is named after the Buffalo – Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The airport serves Buffalo, New York and Southern Ontario, Canada. It is the busiest airport in Upstate New York, and the third busiest in New York State by number of enplanements, after New York City's LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport.

 

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Elevation 728ft (222m)

5/23  8,829ft (2,691m)  Asphalt

14/32  7,161ft (2,183m)  Asphalt

 

The Buffalo Municipal Airport (as it was then known) was opened in 1926 on former farmland, thus making Buffalo one of the oldest public airports in the country. The first passenger and airmail service began in 1927 with a service to Cleveland. A WPA-built Art Deco terminal building featuring a v-shaped terminal with a large cylindrical tower began construction in 1938, and was completed and opened in 1939. A new apron was added a only few months later with roadway and parkway improvements made later in the 1940s and 50s. The terminal's first expansion was to 11 gates, which then tripled the terminal's square footage and added a restaurant was constructed in 1955 to keep up with the increasing traffic and larger seat aircraft. In 1959, after being acquired by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA), the name was then changed to the Greater Buffalo International Airport.

In 1961 renovation/expansion remodeled the main terminal building and built a new control tower and another concourse for American Airlines. A second terminal (the "West Terminal") was built in 1971 while it was hoped that an all-new airport would be built in the near future. The West Terminal was built to last ten years and had nine gates. Despite the addition of the new West Terminal noted as the original terminal, the "East Terminal" then received one more expansion in 1977. New ticket lobbies were built for American Airlines and United Airlines, and the original 1938 building was turned into a baggage claim area and jetways were also added to the building for the first time. In 1982 two gates were added to the north/east end of the West Terminal, used by Eastern Air Lines. The landside of the West Terminal was enlarged also, and the originally blue building was around that time repainted gray.

 

In 1991 it was decided that it was no longer economically viable to keep renovating and expanding the old dated terminals, and an all-new terminal was now required. Construction of the new building designed by the Greater Buffalo International Airport (GBIA) Design Group, which was a joint venture composed of Kohn Pederson Fox Associates, Cannon Design, and William Nicholas Bodouva began in 1995 in between the two existing buildings.

 

The new terminal (at newly named Buffalo-Niagara International Airport) opened on November 3, 1997 with 15 gates. The old terminals were demolished immediately to allow for the new expansion. The new building was expanded again in 2001, increasing gates to 25. In 2006 the main runway was repaved and extended 750 feet (230 m), which was it's first major upgrade since 1980, and the secondary runway was extended 1,000 feet (300 m).

 

A large Curtiss-Wright plant once existed at the Airport. Built in1942, the building was sold to Westinghouse in 1946 following the end of World War II. Westinghouse sold the facility to Buffalo developer Paul Snyder in 1985, who turned the building into the Buffalo Airport Center industrial park. The building was abandoned in 1991 and demolished in 1999 to make way for the expansion of the airport's second runway.

 

First Impressions of KBUF

 

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The distance to Buffalo from La Gardia (New York) is 292 miles or 470 kilometers and the flightime is just under an hour at around 58min (average), Just a jump across the state really. With this it is quite easy to do a shuttle service of three or flights for a good  afternoons simming, So "Delta Connections" had a good few hours of work out of me. It all started out quite calm but by the time I had my last dusk service it was getting pretty breezy at 15-18knts crosswind. But fun I had, and over the services I came to enjoy the constant back and to filghts to Buffalo. My Equipment was the CRJ-200 (JRollon) of which I needed desperate time on the airframe, It is an aircraft I never quite mastered completely and I wanted to get more up to a better level of competence and the only way to do that is work the aircraft hard over a full day shift.

 

Departure of KLGA is via RWY 31 (Until the wind shifted to use RWY 04), and the climb was to FL250, a short cruise and then a descent to going right by KBUF (6000ft) heading East, for for a hard turn back to the North-East and a landing on KBUF's RWY 05. You have to be aware on this approach because it crosses over the approach of the arriving and departing flights to/from Toronto Pearson International Airport. Most of these flights are coming from or going out to destinations towards the south. However, the altitude for these aircraft is still well above 10,000 feet and therefore does not affect landing aircraft traffic using BUF.

 

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KBUF is not very hard to find. The scenery has very brightly coloured orthophoto underlays, that makes it stand out quite markedly from the background default scenery. The sets of runway layout is a hard + cross set at SouthWest-NorthEast (RWY's 05/23) and SouthEast - NorthWest (RWY's 32/14). It is noted to keep your "Runways follow terrain contours" off for best results.

 

Once on the hard stuff I was directed down taxiway "Alpha" to taxiway "Juliet" to cross runway 14/32 to follow taxiway "Kilo" or sometimes "Kilo One" to gate 14 (or sometimes gate 25). The photo underlay is quite flat and colourful as noted and there is no grass to break up the blandness, It's not that bad but you do miss something. Runway and taxiway lines and signage are excellent. No issues there, as you can easily find your way around the airport. Locating the gate and aircraft parking lines are good as well, with the gate full of airport equipment to help in your arrival. A notable thing was that all gates have airbridges, but you disembark via stairs on many many commuter aircraft like the CRJ-Dash8 series and there seemed to be no entrances into the Terminal from the ramp level?

 

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Terminal Areas

KBUF - Buffalo-Niagara is one long concourse with the entrance to the terminal in the center. From high above the terminal and close areas look excellent with the photo ground effects. However down at eyeview it looks more sparse. You have Gates 1 to 22 right down the front of the terminal and Gates 24 and 26 at the tip, around the rear North-East is Gates 25 to 9, It is gated 1 - 8 in line and then from 9 to 25 it changes to gates diagonally numbered on each side of the building. Directly across from the Terminal entrance is a very large two-story carpark.

 

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Glass always features prominently in Butnaru's scenery, and here at KBUF it is no exception, He creates vistas inside the glass areas to give a realistic feel to the terminal areas, and KBUF has these items right down inside of the concourse. Design work and the execution of the main building is first rate, certainly in the noted glass features. All building textures and set out airbridges are well designed and laid out. A nice touch is the logo's of the airlines that use certain airbridges are located on the side of the structures.

 

There are animations set around the airport...

 

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There are baggage trains, AvGas Tankers, vans that track around the ramp perimeters and excellent walking ramp personal that are highly realistic. Some textures on the vehicles are quite blurry however and some of the static aircraft are of the same poor quality. To be noted I am set at "Too Much" here on the Texture Resolution, just one down from the top setting of "Extreme" and in most parts that is totally fine, but some are just a little bit to low and blurry. There is a lot of default city urban autogen filing in around you so you have to moderate the distance there if you have average computer performance.

 

Cargo

Directly opposite the main terminal area and Runway 05/23 is the Cargo area.

 

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The cargo infrastructure that includes the large ramp, warehouses and storage areas is excellent, there are two areas really here in the larger one for parcel services (DHL, FedEx and others) and a smaller ramp with a huge warehouse set to the North. There are also areas of new airport construction being carried and noted by diggers and other small earthmoving equipment and that makes it visually interesting.

 

General Aviation

Directly North in the top of the X of the runways is the General Aviation area.

 

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The General Aviation (GA) area is dominated by two large storage hangars and a private reception building for Prior Aviation Services. There is plenty of marked parking and a spacious ramp area, the "Prior" signage is excellent and the area is very well completed with carparking and fencing.

 

Tower Complex

 

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Towards the east section is the airport tower which is very well constructed and so is the extensive complex below. I am not sure but the buildings look far to big and far too many just for airport operations?  Could it be a ATC center?

 

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There are a huge selections of buildings spread around the airport's perimeters and on the road system coming into the terminal area. All are well replicated from the original versions, however some float quite badly East of the airport tower complex even with the correct runway "contours" switched into the correct position?

 

Night-Lighting

 

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Overall the lighting is very good and certainly around the terminal itself and the ramps. The lit aircraft tails with their distinctive logos do stand out very well. Certainly the excellent glass helps in the terminal lighting here and it looks very good from the ramps. Not so great is the bland lighting of the carparks and some roadways, It seems a cheap way of filling in areas quickly.

 

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The outstanding lighting is over on the Cargo areas. Great ramp throw and different lighting sets make the area stand out and working on the ramps a treat...

There is the feature with KBUF in that you can change the textures if you don't want to or can not use the X-Plane HDR feature. There is a double set of folders for textures in both modes available and you can install which version you want to use.

 

Niagara Falls

The attraction of the airport is Buffalo's close proximity to the Canadian Border and the wonder of the huge tourist attraction that is "Niagara Falls". So I needed to check out this wonder by air to see how it comes up in X-Plane. My ride is the AS350B3 Plus by Dreamfoil Creations. There is a dedicated helicopter facility at KBUF (just slightly North-West of the tower complex) that is my departure point. It is tricky as well in both departure and at the return of the flight by the high fencing around the landing pad. Get your tail-rotor wrapping in that fencing and its "Goodbye Mr Chips".

 

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It is easy to get your airports mixed up here as there is "Buffalo-Niagara Internatiional" which is KBUF and just north is "Niagara Falls International" Airport at KIAG which is four miles east of downtown Niagara Falls. The difference is that there is the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station based there (It was also famous for the large Bell manufacturing plant next to the airport, where during the war it built over 10,000 P-39 Airacobras and P-63 Kingcobras.  After the war, the plant was the development site of the Bell X-1 used by Chuck Yeager to break the sound barrier in 1947).

 

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The "Falls" are about a 25min ride North-West of KBUF and are a huge disappointment in that that the rushing falls of reality are barely a trickle in X-Plane...  Goat Island does not even exist, but the roadways do?   Disappointed it was time to head back and the flight was in the cool afternoon and in the failing light, KBUF was a welcome sight.

 

Operations

Since deregulation and onset of LLC (Low Cost Carriers) then KBUF has done very well. It is still dominated by the big four in American, Delta, United and US Airways (soon to be American). however most flights are commuter runs by the majors affiliated groups than the main line services. As noted Southwest and Jet Blue now make a significant contribution to the traffic.

 

Airlines

American Eagle -  Chicago-O'Hare

Delta Air Lines  - Atlanta, Detroit, Seasonal: Minneapolis/St. Paul

Delta Connection  Detroit, New York-JFK, New York-LaGuardia, Seasonal: Minneapolis/St. Paul

JetBlue Airways  - Boston, New York-JFK, Orlando, Seasonal: Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers (ends October 30, 2014)

Southwest Airlines - Baltimore, Chicago-Midway, Las Vegas, Orlando, Phoenix, Tampa, Seasonal: Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers

United Airlines - Chicago-O'Hare, United Express  Chicago-O'Hare, Cleveland (ends June 4, 2014), Newark, Washington-Dulles

US Airways - Charlotte, Seasonal: Philadelphia

US Airways Express - Boston, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Washington-National

Wiggins Airways - Charter: Jamestown

 

Destinations

1  Atlanta, GA  - 301,000  Delta

2  New York-JFK, NY - 300,000  Delta, JetBlue

3  Orlando, FL  221,000 - JetBlue, Southwest

4  Chicago-O’Hare, IL  - 204,000  American, United

5  Baltimore, MD - 197,000  Southwest

6  Charlotte, NC - 151,000  US Airways

7  Chicago-Midway, IL - 139,000  Southwest

8  Boston, MA  138,000 - JetBlue, US Airways

9  Detroit, MI  109,000 - Delta

10  New York-LaGuardia - 101,000  Delta

 

There is some odd things to note on the major routes out of KBUF. First there is no routes to Canada? not even to Vancouver. And almost all traffic except for the close major cities, all goes straight south to Atlanta and the very popular Fort Lauderdale in Florida?

 

Cargo

Cargo is covered by the usual suspects in:

 

DHL

FedEx Express

UPS Airlines

Worldwide Flight Services

and

Southwest Cargo

Ameriflight International

 

Summery

KBUF - Buffalo-Niagara International by Butnaru. If you want to get the best out of this scenery, then I recommend using KBUF like I did as a commuter hub to the nearby cites of Chicago, Boston and New York and the odd flight south. Work your aircraft hard and do many flights in and out and enjoy the work. Cargo is fun in connecting up to the large hubs and overnight distribution. The price of the scenery is the great attraction here, it is not going to break the bank if you enjoy all that commuter work.

 

Coming in and out many times you enjoy the ramp turnaround and the terminal areas are excellent, so are the taxiways and runways to allow changes to the wind direction. For GA users it is a great stopover for fuel and a stretch of the legs if you are coming across the border from Canada or going West-East or vice-versa.

 

With Butnaru's sceneries you know pretty well what you are going to get, they are good value and well positioned. The othrophoto underlays are a distraction, in the air and on the ground. And why don't the animated loaders work?, there are plenty available to use and wasted standing still with the animation provided with the scenery, ditto with the animated jetway/airbridges that are also available. The extra set of HDR on or off textures for night operations is a clever and welcome feature.

 

But the main design of the airport with the terminals is solid and good value, KBUF covers a large area and by and large is it a great destination and one that can used to great effect.

 

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Sorry got to go...  Last flight of the day to La Gaudia calls.

 

Installation: Download is 88.20meg to an expanded 357.60meg in your "Custom Scenery" Folder. Install HDR on or off feature by changing the supplied textures in the scenery folder. Notes on how to do this are in the 2 page .pdf.

 

Yes! the "KBUF - Buffalo-Niagara International" scenery by Butnaru is now Available from the X-Plane.OrgStore : KBUF - Buffalo-Niagara International

 

Price is  US$14.95 (KBUF - Buffalo-Niagara scenery is only available for X-plane10)

 

Features

Accurate runways

5/23  and 14/32. 5/23 is 8,800 feet long.

All Terminals

Passengers and cargo

All gates

KBUF can accommodate up to 26 aircraft gates

Night and day textures

Many static objects

All .dds textures for performance increase

Photo real ground textures

Animated Ground Traffic use Ground Traffic by Marginal

 

Review by Stephen Dutton

 

Copyright © 2014 : X-Plane Reviews

 

29th April 2014

 

Technical Requirements:

Windows, MAC or Linux - X-Plane 10.20 or higher - 32 and 64 bit compatible.

512Mb VRAM - 1GB VRAM Recommended

Current version: 1.0 Last updated: April 23rd 2014

 

Review System Specifications:

Computer System:     

- 2.66 Ghz Intel Core i5 iMac 27”

- 6 Gb 1067 Mhz DDR3

- ATI Radeon HD 4850 512mb

Software:     

- Mac OS Mavericks 10.9.2

- X-Plane 10 Global ver 10.22 (final)

Addons

- Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle

Aircraft

- CRJ-200 JRollon - US$59.95 X-Plane.orgStore (CRJ 200)

- Eurocopter AS350B3+ Dreamfoil Creations - US$34.95 X-Plane.orgStore  (Eurocopter AS350B3 Plus)

 

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