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Scenery Review : ENGM - Oslo Gardermoen by Aerosoft


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ENGM Oslo_Header.jpg

 

Scenery Review : ENGM - Oslo Gardermoen by Aerosoft

 

Some sceneries makes a big splash on release, they are all bangs and whistles in that they take a lot of the air out of anything else around them. This is certainly the case with many scenery releases, but you will need to always check out that one scenery that just slips silently on to the lists as you maybe missing something special.

 

It has happened twice now, in first that excellent JustSim scenery for ELLX - Luxembourg Findel Airport last month and now again here with Aerosoft's Oslo airport at Gardermoen.

 

Gardermoen is a new airport by most standards and opened on the 8 October 1998. Like all Norwegian airports it was a military base and in fact the area was an army camp as far back as 1740. Mostly Gardermoen played second to Oslo's main gateway at Fornebu, but fog restrictions required a more permanent facility. The airport is modeled partially on Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, with with two parallel runways and a single terminal with two piers on a single line but with a Norwegian flavour, and is located 19 nautical miles (35 km; 22 mi) north-northeast of Oslo city center.

 

Although SAS (Scandinavian Airlines, often shortened to SAS (was previously Scandinavian Airlines System) is a Swedish based airline and it has major facilities including a SAS Museum at Gardermoen, there is a also a SAS built complex with 55,000 square metres (590,000 sq ft), including a technical base, cabin storage, garages and cargo terminals that was built the same time as the airport was under construction.

 

ENGM Airport layout

Oslo Lufthavn Gardermoen

IATA: OSL ICAO: ENGM

 

ENGM-Layout.jpg

 

01L/19R - 3,600m (11,811ft) Asphalt/concrete
01R/19L - 2,950m (9,678ft)  Asphalt/concrete

Elevation AMSL     681 ft / 208 m

 

First impressions will always last in the memory. On first viewing ENGM Gardermoen my first thoughts were "wow", that is good. Surprised, yes I was as it is good scenery. The main point is of course does it fit in with the surrounding (X-Plane) landscape, that is always my starting point in good scenery and Aerosoft's ENGM is very good, it looks highly realistic and fits in naturally.

 

ENGM-Layout 1.jpgENGM-Layout 2.jpgENGM-Layout 3.jpgENGM-Layout 4.jpg

 

Central terminal area is a simple T, but looks really good from the air, with the modern wooden roof of the newly constructed Terminal 2 is an excellent standout.

 

ENGM-Layout 5.jpgENGM-Layout 6.jpg

 

Terminal

Main terminal construction is excellent, the original 1998 Terminal one has two wings on either side of the central main terminal building.

 

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The newer just added beautiful wooden roofed Terminal 2 is another fine construction, it has great detailing and nice reflective glass work... 

 

ENGM-terminal 1.jpgENGM-terminal 2.jpgENGM-terminal 3.jpgENGM-terminal 17.jpg

 

Internally T2 is catered for as well, and the roof is just as a great piece of work from the inside as much as the outside, the passing view inside out on to the taxiways is excellent.

 

ENGM-terminal 9.jpgENGM-terminal 10.jpg

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Both wings and gate areas are exceptional, with really great textures, signage and lots of detail. (you will need your "Texture Quality slider right up though") and the ground objects are very good as well, but you have too pick your gate though as most have a lot of objects, but a few don't have many or none at all.

 

ENGM-terminal 18.jpg

 

Full guidance and autogate docking is available (Marginal's plugin required) and the system has been adjusted to fit the local airbridges, which work very well and the aircraft looks great when docked. If there is no airbridge then you get a animated guiding marshall.

 

ENGM-terminal 11.jpgENGM-terminal 12.jpg

 

Like T2 the wing areas are completed internally as well, but you can't see the aircraft through the windows?

 

ENGM-terminal 14.jpgENGM-terminal 13.jpg

 

There are a lot of great remote parking areas and a Low Cost Terminal on the western side of the main terminal. Cargo terminal is however small.

 

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Lots of great animated vehicles constantly roam the airport's pathways and roads. The vehicles in X-Plane11 (version) are custom models made for Oslo airport and they are nice quality vehicles as well in that they fit in perfectly with the Scandi surroundings.

 

ENGM-ami 2.jpgENGM-ami 1.jpg

 

Control Tower sits airside behind the main terminal is workable, but it is no piece of art and the textures are basic, "Tower View" is not set either, so you only see a ground view of a western ramp area, which not good enough for any pay scenery...

 

ENGM-tower 1.jpgENGM-tower 2.jpg

 

The airside areas are empty of vehicles, so that area looks a little blank, if fact there is not much attention to the airside at all except for the required buildings and ramps. Even a few vehicle objects would have filled out anything over here and which would have been than nothing?

 

a320neo_airside 1.jpga320neo_airside 2.jpg

 

ENGM-terminal 4.jpg

 

Airfield Features

Aerosoft has always been been known on how to create great grass effects and here at Gardermoen it is no different.

 

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Runway signage, lighting and linework is all very good as well as are the different ground textures.

 

SAS Technical facility is well done but totally boring. A few static aircraft or ground objects are really needed to fill out the empty space. So you will need to hit the Overview Editor to help lift it a little with this area.

 

a320neo_SAS 2.jpga320neo_SAS 1.jpg

 

General Aviation and Fire Station

On the western boundary by runway 01L/19R is the General Aviation and Fire Station area.

 

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Certainly this area is part of the original Gardermoen airport as it looks and feels far older.

 

a320neo_West 5.jpga320neo_West 6.jpg

 

The GA ramp with the Fire Station is mostly just the objects placed on the base, there is no fill in equipment or static aircraft (aircraft shown is WorldTraffic), so it is all a little bland out there, a few vehicles would have made it more realistic.

 

Military Area

The Military area is to the north of the main terminal complex. It is very much the same as the GA area with just basic fill of buildings and not much else.

 

a320neo_Mil 1.jpga320neo_Mil 2.jpg

 

Gardermoen flystasjon is the location for the 135th Airwing and the 335 Squadron of the Royal Norwegian Air Force, which currently operates four of the originally five (see: 2012 Norwegian C-130 crash) recently procured C-130J-30 Super Hercules transport aircraft.

 

So the point of just adding in a few C-130's as static aircraft would have been nice...  a wasted opportunity

 

Otherwise there are a lot of nice old fashion hangars hidden in the trees with a very visual tall radar tower that is the centrepoint of the airfield. To round off there is an engine test bay that is noticeable when landing or taking off from 01R/19L and taxiways S and H.

 

a320neo_Mil 3.jpga320neo_Mil 4.jpg

 

Lighting

Generally the lighting is very good, In the areas you need good lighting it works well and gives you great coverage.

 

a320neo_Lighting 1.jpga320neo_Lighting 2.jpg

 

Runway, taxiway lighting and night signage is excellent with a very realistic approach at night. Focus is of the lighting is on the main terminal and ramp areas.

 

a320neo_Lighting 4.jpga320neo_Lighting 3.jpg

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There is not much variation in the lighting colours, but the actual lighting towers are really well done and look great in the daytime as well as working lit at night.

 

a320neo_Lighting 8.jpga320neo_Lighting 10.jpg

 

All ramp areas are great to work in at night, you get nice coverage and it feels great for any departure or arrival once the sun goes down.

 

Terminal lighting is basically dark (grey) at night, so the buildings don't quite light up, so they loom around you a little dark. Off terminal areas are well lit like the de-iceing areas (There are four in Alpha South, Alpha North on RWY's 01L and 19R and Bravo North 19L).

 

a320neo_Lighting 7.jpga320neo_Lighting 9.jpg

 

Services

SAS and Norwegian Air Shuttle dominate ENGM Gardermoen as it a hub for SAS, while it is the main hub for Norwegian. Most main European carriers including British Airways, Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Air France (HOP!), Aeroflot, KLM, Swiss, TAP and more but a lot of charter airlines like Thomas Cook, Thomson, TUi also fly seasonal. Widerøe is the big local regional airline to be based here.

 

International is covered by Emirates, PIA, Qatar Airlines, Turkish and Thai Airlines.

 

Summary

The core of Aerosoft's ENGM - Oslo Gardermoen is excellent, this is certainly a great destination and you get a great feel and a lot of use out of the airport when you use it. The main terminals and associated buildings and ramp areas are also very good, beautifully constructed and very realistic of the real modern Gardermoen with fully animated vehicles and full docking features on every stand and gate.

 

The airports layout is excellent as well with great intergration into the X-Plane landscape, nice ground textures and lots of great grass to take away the flat photgraphic feel of the ground plates. Full ground routes are implemented (although I might note the front in parking is maybe a turn around parking setting).

 

Negatives are in reality small, but still highly noticeable. No "Tower View" is really a no, no for payware developers...  Outside of the central terminal areas there is very little vehicle or static aircraft placement and it is very visible in creating empty spaces where there should be none, diitto with just the basic building objects and textures to fill out an area, and a bit more building creativity and fill could have been used.

 

But totally overall ENGM is excellent scenery to get a lot of use out of if you need a very good northern Scandinavian port then you can't go past this scenery as to be part of your collection. I already love flying in and out of this Aerosoft scenery and is certain to make a use of it in the future, so for me it is a certain addition to the network, you just have to add in only a few vehicles and static aircraft to make it a total 100% perfect scenery.

 

ENGM could have easily been an airport to very easily slip under your network radar, but Aerosoft's ENGM - Oslo Gardermoen shouldn't be...  as it is good to great scenery that will be good scenery for great long future use in the simulator.

____________________________________________________________________________________

 

X-Plane Store logo sm.jpg

 

Yes! ENGM - Oslo Gardermoen by Aerosoft is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here :


Airport Oslo XP

 

Price is US$24.95

 

Features:

Features:

  • Realistic recreation of Oslo airport Gardermoen
  • Highly detailed Terminal models and photo real textures
  • High resolution runway and taxiway textures
  • Highly realistic night time effects
  • Interior models included for Terminal buildings
  • Supports X-Planes „runways follow terrain“ features
  • Custom Jetway animations (Autogate plug-in required)
  • Custom Aircraft marshaller (Autogate plug-in required)
  • Visual Guidance Docking Systems (Autogate plug-in required)
  • Replaces X-Plane 11 ground equipment models with custom local models (X-Plane 11 only)
  • Highly detailed clutter objects
  • Custom Wig Wag models
  • Custom animated windsock model
  • Seasonal Textures included (seasons plug-in required)
 

Requirements:

XPlane 11  or  X-Plane 10.50 
Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 10 or Linux or Mac
2GB+  VRAM Video Card
Download-Size: 320 MB

 

Installation and documents: Download is 344.80meg and the scenery is deposited in the "Custom Scenery" X-Plane folder in this order...

 

Aerosoft - ENGM Gardermoen (958.60mb)

Aerosoft - ENGM Gardermoen - Roads (9kb)

zzz_Aerosoft - ENGM Gardermoen - Mesh (12.50mb)

 

Note the zzz_ mesh must be positioned below the other folders, use the "scenery_packs.ini" (text) to adjust the order.

 

Marginal's jetway and docking guidance system plugin is required for the animated marshall and jetways : AutoGate plugin 1.72

 

Full manual is provided (24 pages) in German and English.

Full set of charts are also provided (49 pages)

____________________________________________________________________________________
 
Review by Stephen Dutton
24th May 2017
Copyright©2016: X-PlaneReviews
 
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions)
 

Review System Specifications:

Computer System: Windows  - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - GeForce GTX 980/SSE2 - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD 

Software:   - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11 and also used in X-Plane v10.52

Addons: Saitek x56 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose  Soundlink Mini

Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro US$69.90 : JARDesign Ground Handling Deluxe plugin - US$14.95 : WorldTraffic 2.0 Plugin - US$29.95

Scenery or Aircraft

- Airbus A320neo by JARDesign (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$59.95

 

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