Stephen Posted July 1, 2023 Report Share Posted July 1, 2023 Scenery Review - Svalbard XP by Aerosoft/Maps2XPlane Svalbard... No never heard of that place. Spitzbergen, yes I heard of that, a port in Norway somewhere? Probably related to the battleship Tirpitz, that was once sent to attack the garrison and destroy the settlements there, or as the English call it Spitsbergen. Otherwise no clue. But Svalbard is a place, a Norwegian archipelago set high in the Arctic Ocean, north of mainland Europe. it lies about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole (500 miles). The islands of the group range from 74° to 81° north latitude, and from 10° to 35° east longitude of an area 62,045 km2. The largest island is Spitsbergen, followed in size by Nordaustlandet and Edgeøya. The largest settlement is Longyearbyen, but all up only 2,500 people live up here within the Arctic Circle. (google) Well now Svalbard is available in the X-Plane Simulator. The scenery comes from the same team that created still the best overall scenic scenery in the Faroe Islands in the Simulator called Faroe Islands XP by Maps2Xplane. This scenery is an absolute personal favorite. Maps2Xplane also did Seychelles XP as well, another scenery worthy of your investment. So they are the perfect choice to deliver Svalbard. A note says in reality the islands were never in X-Plane at all, as they are positioned inside the Arctic Circle... anything 73/74th north lines of latitude is not available in X-Plane unless you own an add on scenery, say Grand Arctic XP12 By HSimulators that covers above Greenland to the North Pole, so there is no conflict with this addon from Map2Xplane, but both situated together will certainly cover in (or fill) this expansive area. Can you walk to the North Pole from Svalbard? well no, but the Arctic Pack Ice (Shelf) starts not far from the Northern part of the Islands in the winter, so Svalbard is usually the first stop of a base for any Arctic Expeditions. Which brings us to the weather... If you are flying into Svalbard then the time of the year to go is highly important. The average summer temperatures on Svalbard range from 3 to 7 °C (37.4 to 44.6 °F) in July, and the winter temperatures from −13 to −20 °C (8.6 to −4.0 °F) in January.The highest temperature ever recorded was 23.0 °C (73.4 °F) in July 2020 and the coldest was −46.3 °C (−51.3 °F) in March 1986. That is -13ºC to -20ºC EVERYDAY... it's cold, and the weather is usually overcast low cloud. Then there is the light. A December night in Longyearbyen lasts almost 24 hours and the days start about 11 hours later, or from mid November to mid January there is no sunset (or sunrise). In May and June, the sun is in the opposite position and above the horizon all the time, or a Midnight Sun. Having fun yet... So any flight into Svalbard is going to be interesting, and a place to really test your flying skills. The major airport here is "Longyear" or ENSB/LYR. If you could call it an airport, at least there is an airport here, and thankfully one ILS system to get you in (also out). Up for a challenge, I (stupidly) thought, I'll fly into Longyear (ENSB/LYR) from Oslo (ENGM/OSL), "That'll be interesting". I'm flying the Zibo Boeing 737-800. The B738's do run into LYR, as SAS and Norwegian.com, both have regular services (weather permitting) and at 2hr,55min, Oslo to Longyearbyen, it is also the longest domestic flight on the SAS route map. Route distance is 1,122 nm, but that is not the issue here, your going out on a limb, and the nearest Alternate is ENAT/ALF at VAKKER, back on the Norwegian Mainland, or 595 Nm back again? so your carrying INRES+ALTN 4514 kgs extra fuel. You don't really want to do a missed landing.... do you. I really love these civilisation to remote nowhere airports. The hustle and bustle of a large mega airport to the one small strip in an outlying bleak place. That was the attraction of Vagar in the Faroes, mostly you flew from Edinburgh in Scotland or my usual route from Kalstop, Copenhagen, here with another Maps2Xplane scenery I'm doing the same again, going out on that limb, but here twice as far. Once clear of the SID, it is a turn to the north and a climb to 34,000ft... then settle in for the long haul (pun intended). It's an impressive flight, tons to look at while you skim over the top and the coast of Norway, X-Plane 12 can dazzle sometimes and here it does. I am not going to deny it, I'm very apprehensive. Not only being a fair way out into nowhere, but the weather concerns with a very low cloud forecast, which you could take as normal for Svalbard. Thankfully I'm going into LYR in the peak of the summer, I would hate to think what it is like from Nov to Jan, with no light and low dense cloud... I have to get the approach into ENSB perfect, spot on, but to be honest I don't know what I will be faced with until I get there. Time to descend, but I do a long slow descent to get a feel of the weather and to study over and over the approach charts, imprinting it into my mind. From waypoint INPAR, you turn 24º heading and below is the huge Fjord of Isfjorden, you can't see it until you drop out of the 2,015 ft cloud, but you do get some breaks through the clouds to see the landscape... yes it is all very Faroe in the approach. But Longyear is still covered in murky goo, nothing ahead to see. Then a bit of turbulence as well, "Why not", double scare me... Entrance to the approach is LALAD, and final turn to (95º) to LYR is at LOLVO, height 2,500 ft. I have set the Boeing up with full flap and gear down early, all my attention needs to be on the approach... the one I still can't actually see. I would love to take in the magnificent scenery, but there is no time, your busy, focused. I'm looking for the ILS beams (110.3 LB) for runway 10, the opposite approach in Rwy 28 has a RNP approach profile (but X-Plane notes an offset beam 109.5 LA)... the go-around notes are very specific, I hope I don't have to use them. As I start the ILS descent, suddenly the runway appears out of the murk, the airport is jutting out on a piece of land, hard to see. I follow the beams, but ready now to take manual control as I can now see the threshold, my heart is thumping, I need to get this right. On that note the width of the ILS beams are very narrow, you have be almost perfectly aligned to collect them, stray slightly out of the box and you will not engage, or a go-around procedure. 1000 ft and I take manual control... Steady, focus... slight flare. Main gear touches at 132knts, As soon as the nosegear touches, I hit the reversers and brakes, the runway length is 8127 ft (2477m), not that long, but enough for a Boeing 737. Runway surfaces are really well done, asphalt with a ribbed surface to help braking. Once the speed is arrested and everything is folded back up, I can finally look out of the window... before me are ships, and a port (Longyearbyen) is further away down the coast, the town is only 5 km (3.1 mi) northwest of the airport. If you are expecting a large international airport out here, then you are going to seriously disappointed, the facilities are small, but there is a terminal building... There is a lot of the same quality feel as Vagar (Faroe), so it all works quite handsomely, the feeling is of real authenticity, but you know you are also in a very remote place on the earth. Seriously impressed.... and totally relieved to be down and parked. Svalbard XP To install the Svalbard scenery you will need to use the Aerosoft One client installer. You get a authorisation number on purchase, and then you enter the Product Key lower left. Both X-Plane 11 and X-Plane 12 installations are available. Then the installer will check your storage space, and then start the install process.... it's a big install of 6.52 GB, so you have to have both the storage space, and the graphic card VRAM to run the scenery, it notes a 4Gb card will work, but I recommend at least a 8Gb graphic card. When the installation is completed, the installer has inserted seven files, five airports, XTRA folder and a large MESH file. It is important to note that this scenery is basically all about the textures. Because of the huge scale of the area, your not going to get the very high-definition of the Faroe Island detail. But the quality and detail here is still highly customised and scaled far higher than the X-Plane default textures, so the quality is somewhere in the middle between the two extremes, but more to the Hi-Def Faroe quality than the average X-Plane textures. Delivered here then is very high resolution mesh that creates a full landscape of detailed coast lines and the shapes of glaciers. __________________ There are five separate sceneries that cover the only airports/heliports on the islands... Svalbard lufthavn, Longyear (ENSB), Svea (ENSA), Ny Alesund (ENAS), Barentsburg (ENBA) and Pyramiden (ENPY). (google) Svalbard lufthavn, Longyear (ENSB) Svalbard Airport is the main airport serving Svalbard in Norway. It is 5 km (3.1 mi) northwest of Longyearbyen on the west coast, and it is the northernmost airport in the world with scheduled public flights. The first airport near Longyearbyen was constructed during World War II. In 1959, it was first used for occasional flights, but could only be used a few months a year. Construction of the new airport at Hotellneset started in 1973, and the airport was opened on 2 September 1975. It is owned and operated by state-owned Avinor. In 2014, the airport handled 154,261 passengers. Scandinavian Airlines operates daily flights to Tromsø and Oslo in mainland Norway. Lufttransport also provides services to the two other airports on Svalbard: Ny-Ålesund and Svea, using Dornier 228 turboprop aircraft. There are also regular charter flights. One runway 10/28 - 2,484m (8,146ft) Asphalt Jutting out on Isfjorden. Svalbard's main (and only) international airport is breathtaking, yes again I will compare it to Faroe, as it has the same feel and look as the southern neighbouring islands. The textures give great photo realistic detail, but because all of the islands are based on the same texture tones, there are no airport boundaries matching up to the X-Plane default, it is all in a pure and a perfect transition into all of the surrounding areas. Basically the airport consists of two large maintenance hangers, a control tower, admin and airport work facilities... dead centre is the small terminal. All the facilities are quite dark in dark-greys and matt-blacks, but the detail is in there with a feel of great realistic Arctic worn textures to the buildings. Internally the terminal is well modeled, with waiting passengers. When on the ramp it is highly realistic with the see-through glass. The control tower is mid-complex adjoining the terminal, again clad in very dark material, it also well done... tower view however puts you in-between all the aerials on the roof, but the approaches are clear. The biggest building and also the most seriously impressive here is the Luftthavn maintenance hangar, really authentic in detail, with a magnificent scenic view set out behind. There is a smaller (for the Dornier 228's?) hangar at the opposite end, again really well modeled and designed. North of the airport is a small port with a huge oil tanker in dock.... Longyearbyen (the capital) is just a bit north, again there is a well modeled cruise ship, and a few basic buildings on top of the photo ground textures. As per Maps2Xplane you are wanting more to cover the flat photo images, like Tórshavn in Faroe, it is all a bit bear and of wanting more fill. Svea (ENSA) Sveagruva or 'Swedish Mine', or simply Svea, was a mining settlement in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, lying at the head of Van Mijenfjord. It was the third largest settlement in the archipelago (after Longyearbyen and Barentsburg). Around 300 workers living in Longyearbyen commuted to Sveagruva for work on a daily or weekly basis. The mine was operated by Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani. There is no road to Longyearbyen or any other settlements. The airport featured a gravel runway measuring 800 by 30 meters (2,625 by 98 ft). Flights were operated about thirty times per week by Lufttransport using their two Dornier 228s. Magnificent and remote, Svea is a great destination... the site is very well modeled as the mining town with a very workmanlike feel to the place. Small tower and operations building is excellent in detail and realism. As is all the well modeled mining accommodation and main site... ... highlight is the very realistic gravel runway, great stoney textures as well. Seva is also the most southern airport in the scenery. Ny Alesund (ENAS) Ny-Ålesund Airport, Hamnerabben is an airport serving the research community of Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard, Norway. The airport is owned by Kings Bay, who also owns the company town. The only flights available are to Svalbard Airport, Longyear, operated two to four times a week by Lufttransport using Dornier 228 aircraft. The services are organized as corporate charters and tickets are only available after permission from Kings Bay. Between 1925 and 1928, Ny-Ålesund saw four air expeditions to the North Pole, two of which required the construction of an airship hangar and mast. The first proposal for an airport in Ny-Ålesund was launched in 1956 by Norsk Polar Navigasjon, who proposed an airport at Kvadehuksletta. Soviet protests against the airport caused the Norwegian authorities to oppose the plans, which were laid to rest in the early 1960s. Construction at Hamnerabben started in 1965 following the decision to build Kongsfjord Telemetry Station. ENAS has only one runway 12/30 - 808m (2,651ft)- Gravel. The same great gravel textures as Svea. Based here is the Kongsfjord Telemetry Station a satellite ground station. It was used between 1967 and 1974 as one of the four initial ground stations which were part of the European Space Tracking Network (ESTRACK) serving the European Space Research Organization's (ESRO) first generation of satellites. The station provided radio tracking, telemetry and commanding services as well as data download. Although owned by ESRO, the facilities were constructed and operated by the Royal Norwegian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (NTNF), also represented is the Ny-Ålesund Geodetic Observatory. The dish here still works... and it will follow the sun as it changes direction in the sky. The central area of Ny-Ålesund is a company town that is owned and operated by Kings Bay, which provides facilities for permanent research activities by 19 institutions from 11 countries. The town is ultimately owned by the Ministry of Climate and Environment and is not incorporated (i.e. is not recognised as a town by the Norwegian government). Ny-Ålesund has an all-year permanent population of 30 to 35, with the summer population reaching 114. Barentsburg (ENBA) Barentsburg is the second-largest settlement in Svalbard, Norway, with about 455 inhabitants (2020). A coal mining town, the settlement is almost entirely made up of ethnic Russians and Ukrainians. The distance from Longyearbyen to Barentsburg is about 55 km (30 mi) but there are no roads connecting the two settlements. Most contact between the two is by boat, snowmobile, or helicopter. Basically this scenery is only made up as a large Heliport H.... 4 km (2 mi) north of Barentsburg, as the township itself is sadly not represented in the scenery as seen below. Pyramiden (ENPY) Pyramiden; literally 'The Pyramid') is an abandoned Soviet coal mining settlement on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard which has become a tourist destination. Founded by Sweden in 1910 and sold to the Soviet Union in 1927, Pyramiden was closed in 1998 and has since remained largely abandoned with most of its infrastructure and buildings still in place, the cold climate preserving much of what has been left behind. Since 2007, there have been efforts to make it a tourist attraction; the town's hotel was renovated and reopened in 2013. In summer there is a population of six caretakers. Here it is only another Heliport H At least at Pyramiden you have a custom if abandoned township, all nicely done right on the Sassenfjorden. __________________ Lighting As you spend three months of the year in total darkness in Svalbard. Lighting is important. Thankfully it is very good, even excellent. At Svalbard lufthavn the approach lighting is nice and bright, which conforms to the X-Plane 12 official standards. Not only do you have excellent tower lights (white and beacon red), but nice dropdown lighting on the buildings. Ramp lighting is absolutely brilliant, bright and effective. Longyearbyen is pretty basic, but still some nice fill lighting. Sadly the cruise ship is not lit up. Seva is obviously basic, but well done. Approach and runway lighting is all very good, highlight is the lit control tower/receiving building, the town is mostly just street lighting, as they usually are in these remote places. Ny-Ålesund is pretty similar to Seva, nice (with RAIL lighting?) approach and runway lights, lit apron area, and a nicely lit township... highlight here is the red lit receiving dish... glows nicely in the dark! Barentsburg has the Hangars and buildings lit, but Pyramiden is completely dark, and neither Heliports have any Pad lighting?... pretty basic. __________________ Seasons Like Faroe, you get all the seasons up here, X-Plane 12 has of course seasons. For X-Plane 11 you get the two different seasons in summer and a white winter in provided textures (Generic Mod Enabler). It's an odd feeling though... In reality there is the nice summer season which is seen mostly here throughout the review (June), But move only to October and your already in the snow and ice, you can't really see the full winter experience because it's hidden away in the dark? This is mid-September... a little more snow. Move to mid-October and the light is already fading, now with more thicker snow and ice coverage that highlights the valleys... Fly here to Svalbard anytime between March to October and then vary the dates around, and every flight will reveal a totally different feel, light and snow coverage.... Then fly around these huge islands for some extreme scenic vistas, there is so much to explore and discover. A bit of trivia... the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, is a secure facility built into the side of a mountain on Spitsbergen. This amazing project is built into the side of a mountain and is intended to safeguard the seeds of the world’s food plants in the event of a global crisis. The site was chosen for its cold conditions and permafrost deep in an old mine, which would help preserve the seeds in the event the vault’s cooling systems failed. Construction began in June 2006, and the vault was ceremonially opened with its first consignment of seeds on February 26, 2008. It is positioned just south of Longyearbyen just behind Svalbard lufthavn, a dot in this huge landscape, I don't know if Maps2Xplane modeled it, but it is worth a look and see where real seed bank is situated. These sceneries are what you call scenic vistas, but there is a realistic side to them as well. Svalbard has both, an exciting destination, with a lot of square mile exploration... Summary Svalbard is a set of islands, a Norwegian archipelago positioned high in the Arctic Ocean, north of mainland Europe. it lies about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole (500 miles). It is quite a bleak but exotic place that has three months of darkness in winter, and a Midnight Sun in Summer. The scenery comes from the same team that created still the best overall scenic scenery in the Faroe Islands in the X-Plane Simulator, called Faroe Islands XP by Maps2Xplane. This scenery is an absolute personal favorite of mine. Maps2Xplane also did Seychelles XP, so Maps2Xplane specialise in photo realistic landscapes, perfect for these sort of highly scenic sceneries. In the X-Plane Simulator anything north 73/74th lines of latitude is not available in X-Plane. So this scenery provides a complete set of photo realistic textures covering an area of 61000km² of high resolution mesh, that creates a full landscape of detailed coast lines and the shapes of glaciers, a landscape that comprehensively fills out this remote territory. Like Faroe XP this is exceptional scenery and visually amazing, highly realistic, it covers the main airport Svalbard lufthavn, Longyear (ENSB), single runway Svea (ENSA), Ny Alesund (ENAS) and two heliports in Barentsburg (ENBA) and Pyramiden (ENPY). All the settlements are well represented except the township of Barentsburg, where's there is only the Heliport... Svalbard lufthavn is exceptional with terminal interior and great lighting. Seasonal textures are provided, built in with X-Plane 12 and winter textures for X-Plane 11, used with the Generic Mod Enabler. Other extras include a custom Lufttransport livery for the Carenado B200. Granted Svalbard XP is not cheap for a scenery, but if you loved Faroe Islands XP, then you will know what a brilliant investment this scenery will be, it delivers in every area, scenic, incredible scenes to absorb, challenging flying with low light and extreme Arctic conditions, plus a huge massive area to explore... if you want the best in scenery then Svalbard XP is at the top, literally at the of the world and quality scenery. __________________ Yes! Svalbard XP by Aerosoft - Maps2XPlane is now Available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Svalbard XP Price Is US$38.99 Requirements: X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 2.6 Gb (Using Aerosoft One) Current Version: 12 (June 23rd 2023) Installation and documents: Installation of Faroe Islands XP is done through Aerosoft one installer: Aerosoft One Universal Svalbard XP is download of 2.6Gb download. There are seven folders as part of the installation; Svalbard4XPlane - MESH Svalbard4XPlane - XTRA Svalbard4XPlane - ENAS Svalbard4XPlane - ENBA Svalbard4XPlane - ENPY Svalbard4XPlane - ENSA Svalbard4XPlane - ENSB 6.52Gb is installed into your Custom Scenery folder (via designated drive) There are options with the scenery Supplied X-Plane 11 Winter Mesh Custom livery for the Carenado B200. Documents There is a supplied manual in both English and German. Also provided is a png Map with airport locations Manual_Svalbard_XP_de-en.pdf Map_Svalbard_XP_de-en.png __________________ Review System Specifications Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane 12.05r1 (This is a Release Candidate review). Plugins: Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00 : RK Apps XPRealistic v2 - US$34.99 Scenery or Aircraft - ENGM - Airport Oslo XP by Aerosoft (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$24.95 -Boeing 737-800X (ZIBO mod)- Free __________________ Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton 30th June 2023 Copyright©2023: X-Plane Reviews (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) All Rights Reserved Cami De Bellis 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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