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Scenery Review : LRSB Sibiu, Romania by DAI Media


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Scenery Review : LRSB Sibiu, Romania by DAI Media

 

Route - LROP (Otopeni, Bucharest) to LRSB (Sibiu) - Return

 

Sibiu

The Carpathian Mountains snake through eastern Europe like a huge S-curled Chinese Dragon, These huge ranges cover from the Czech Republic (3%) in the northwest through Slovakia (17%), Poland (10%), Hungary (4%) and Ukraine (11%) to Romania (53%). In one part of this huge range in Romania just to the north of the Transylvanian Alps sits Sibiu. Sibiu is situated near the geographical center of Romania, but its history and the majority of its population was still ethnic German (until 1941) and only later counted with now a large Romanian community, as well as a smaller Hungarian one.

 

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The distance from the capital Bucharest to Sibiu is only 275km, only a few hours up the road. But the dark Transylvanian Alps create a barrier that is harder to navigate by air than by road, flight time is only 55min, but you spend most of that time either going up or coming down. The route is serviced by a TAROM ATR-500, however they do sometimes use a B737-700 that routes through Vienna. Speed is the key so I opt for the EADT x737 as I have not flown it much lately and I feel it will be the best choice aircraft for the route today.

 

Departure is from Bucharest's Henri Coandă at Otopeni on runway O8L. I am using DAI Media's other excellent Romanian scenery of LROP of which I reviewed while at Xsimreviews.

 

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Cleared to go directly 90º North, I turn and climb hard at 2500fpm (feet per minute) towards 22,500ft. Finding the balance between not dropping the speed below 250knts and the best climb rate angle the x737 powers upwards towards STJ VOR/Nav-Aid. 74nm from LROP. Once there and at altitude I cruise only a short while to BRV VOR, before starting the decent down towards Sibiu. The ILS is on RWY27 (110.70) and the Sibiu VOR (114.00) is already counting off my range to the airport. There are ranges on approach but are very low, for Sibiu and LRSB they sit well down in a valley.

 

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09/27 2,630m (8,629ft)  Concrete

Elev. 1496 ft

 

Arrival at LRSB

Sibiu International Airport (LRBS) has only one runway in 09/27, and the airport and is quite easy to align the aircraft to the long runway. Descent was in the 2500fpm but I pulled the speed back and held 220knts with the airbrakes to get the correct height to collect the ILS.

 

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Right on the flare I was distracted by a slight side wind of 6knts that crabs the aircraft and the ILS in X-Plane was not aligned with the runway. DAI Media do note this mis-alignment in the 3 page pdf, the ILS is not much out of alignment but enough to sit you on the left side of the centre-line. Worse I pulled the yoke back slightly and finely to find the edge of the angle of attack for the flare. Nothing, nothing......  still nothing then slightly more and then the nose finally rose, only giving me too much angle....  I glided along and above the runway, "damn". You can panic and force the aircraft hard down but I slightly stalled the x737 far more and the airbrakes kicked up and the height and speed finally dropped slowly away. Down and thankfully RWY27 is quite long, I hit the reversers and I needed only a touch of the brakes to bring the x737 down to a slow enough speed to do a complete U-turn to taxi back up the runway to the terminal area. You do however usually touchdown a fair way from the start of the runway anyway as the initial early area is not used as the eastern taxiway is quite short of the end point. There is no excuse however for any bad landing, and I'll admit that, but the decision point of to touch and then go around or to heavily stop here was minimal.

 

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The first thing you notice on landing is the great vegetation and grass. There is a long concrete boundary each side of the runway as well, DAI Media is very good with the edging of their runways and the absorbability of the underlay into the the surrounding default scenery. You can see the boundary but it is expertly done. Detailing along the runway is excellent with (red and white) markers, fences and stone surfaces.

 

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On the ramp the side view is excellent, as the scenery is authentic and you note it is a great visual arrival. The main ramp is mostly clear, giving you a lot of choice to find the parking space you want. Ground linage to and on the ramp is expertly carried out but slightly confusing in that parking areas 1 - 8 are turn-in curve and then a tight rotate back out to park, and 9 to 13 are straight in-line pushback positions (13A has a twist) and the rest 14 to 18 are more of the turn-in curve and rotate-park linage on the opposite side of the ramp area.

 

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From the air LRSB does blend in well with the surrounding countryside. The runway does look long and the ramp area wide. Sibiu International Airport (SIA) is located 3 km (1.9 mi) west of Sibiu. The flying activities have been developed here on a field (with grass) in 1943, and then the coming of the first Romanian operating airline - LARES. The first routes operated were Bucharest – Sibiu – Arad and Bucharest – Sibiu – Oradea. In 1944, Sibiu was then connected by air with some other cities like Bucharest, Brasov, Deva, Oradea and Targu-Mures. In 1959, it was inaugurated with a small airport terminal building with two floors, control tower, waiting room for 50 passengers and a store-room. In 1970, the airport was then made capable to do night operations. In 1975, radar facilities became operational and later in 1992 the airport was opened up for international traffic with flights to Stuttgart and Munich. In 2006 - 2008, the airport passed through the most important rehabilitation program in its history, with a 77 mil. € investment in a new terminal building and a major runway upgrade.

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Terminal (New)

The airport does look new with the large major modern terminal. The new terminal is very well reproduced by DAI Media, with excellent internal supports, great fitting glass areas and high modern facades.  Small detailing extends even to the well crafted skylights, Air-Con units and the mobile phone supports on the roof.

 

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The ramp side as noted is pretty clear. On the terminal entrance side the detailing of carparks/vehicles and fencing, lights and signage are simply excellent, and low points of view are very highly realistic.

 

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There are no blank areas here and every point has been covered. The grass areas and fencing is perfect. The highlight here is the signage which welcomes you to Romania and many other advertising boards.

 

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The large modern VAMA SIBIU building is well represented with the freight parking with trucks and buildings set out behind. Further East is a house and a large hanger.

 

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To be noted that on the RWY 27 Approach, there is a multitude of powertowers, which are not a problem on a ILS approach as you are too high, but on a lower GA approach you could find yourself in trouble.

 

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The Șoseaua Alba Iulia (Highways 1 & 7) is very well set out and are perfectly integrated into the airport scenery. Turn your traffic up high for excellent results and with rail movement as well. The road lighting posts resemble the real ones in Romania, here they are looking new however and not the rusted examples by the airport.

 

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West of the main (new) terminal is the old terminal building. Well sited and well created with excellent gardens in front. You can see what the old Sibiu Airport probably looked like just only a few years ago... Next to the Old Terminal is the New Control Tower.

 

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The control tower is very well detailed and placement is excellent, behind is a cargo/freight holding area stacked with pallets. It is to be noted on the really fine ground detailing in setting out the areas, most are surrounded by fencing. The fine detailing throughout the scenery is excellent and in the layouts. everything is placed well and perfect from all angles.

 

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Far West there is a blue freight building that is highly visable when taxiing in or out to the West.

 

Night Lighting

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From the air at night the whole airport is well lit. The runways are very well illuminated with both approaches perfect for low visibility landings. Taxiway lighting is simple but very good.

 

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The ramps with HDR "on" are lit with a yellowish cover and each set of beams are excellent from the high towers. However the lighting is only covered in the centre ramp area and the outer lighting or the lights on the outer towers giving any coverage. The main terminal is well lit as well, but most surrounding building are not. Throughout the carparks and general areas there are plenty of sets of spot lighting. You would think that the restricted lighting would create many dark areas, but overall it is not really noticeable. It helps with your framerate here also as the HDR does not have to work very hard to cover a lot of ground. So there is plenty of lighting cover on the ramps to work with and the highlights are the terminal and billboard signs that standout.

 

Routes

Air Bucharest - Seasonal charter: Antalya (resumes 12 June 2014), Rhodes (begins 17 June 2014)

Austrian Airlines - operated by Tyrolean Airways,  Vienna

Blue Air  - Stuttgart

Lufthansa Regional - operated by Lufthansa CityLine  Munich

TAROM - Bucharest (ends 28 March 2014), Munich

Wizz Air - London-Luton (begins 14 June 2014)

 

Route frequency is quite small, but I think you could get quite creative in making LRBS - Sibiu working for you. Run the TAROM service to Munich and then back to Bucharest and vice-versa would make that service more interesting anyway than this 55min flight, Wizz Air from London gives you a wider ride across Europe and the Lufthansa Regional Munich gives you a chance (If you own it) the CRJ-200 from JRollon a chance to shine. 222.827 passengers used the airport in 2013, but passenger traffic is building very quickly because Sibiu is big in tourism in Romania.

 

Departure

Turnaround at Sibiu is very quick at 25 minutes, I am powered up and ready to leave on-time. The huge Transylvanian mountains to the south give you a great scenerio around the airport, early morning arrivals or late departures from LRSB are very nice on the eyes.

 

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Departure is by RWY 27 and the taxi is very short to a power up and a nice easy takeoff. Note the excellent runway textures which are well marked and grooved.

 

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Again I flew a hard left 90º turn and was soon climbing hard at 2500fpm. Another 90º turn to put the aircraft parallel with LRSB and the mountains on my right while still climbing very hard to 20,000ft. picking up my outward track I turned south towards Bucharest.

 

Once over the highest points I then was able to descend down towards LROP (Bucharest), but I had more space here in distance as I was landing at Henri Coandă on RWY 08R (113.30). So my descent was more less pitched at 1800fpm. I fell into the airport circuit and this time I wasn't going to use the ILS.

 

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I felt totally in the groove with the x737 on the return service. Every speed point and flap retraction and extension was right on the money at the exact height I needed to be in, With a slightly now more heavier cross wind (9kts), I found myself flying the aircraft down my own tunnel-vision. ILS, off. I was a stick, rudder and throttle man and I was going to hit put the x737 down on the money.  My speed was 149knts and I was touching the aircraft 300fpm perfectly down to the runway.  A slight lift in the flare and the landing was mine to the applause from the passenger cabin. All in all a great flying day.

 

Conclusion

I will admit I am a fan of DAI Media's scenery, The 3d building work is slightly bettered in the textures by other highly-graded designers. But the buildings themselves are well crafted and usually awkward shapes to create, and DAI Media do that well.  But the craftmanship here is in their ground textures, theirs are the best in the business as they are perfectly aligned and integrated into the background default scenery. The result is a perfect view and experience from the scenery, noted is the way they also use the default roads to their advantage. Detailing is first rate, just enough and full in every area that creates great scenery. Carparks are full of vehicles and fencing is perfect right around the airport and within the boundaries, small stuff I will admit, but it makes a huge difference when you want a good visual landscape around you. As scenery goes LRSB - Sibiu is very good in every area (except the lighting in centralised around the ramps).

What the issue comes down to is can you use an airport in Romania?  Well I didn't think so either. But if you are collecting other DAI Media sceneries then you can get an interesting portfolio of destinations from Europe. Sibiu is great as a fly through destination, just like the return services I did today, services from Vienna and Munich have great appeal, and I am surprised on how much I have flown into LROP (Bucharest) over the last year and that is a testament to the quality of the DAI Media scenery. Now they have turned their attention to Spain and Europe (Barcelona is next) and that can only be a better thing. As scenery LRSB-Sibiu is very good and great value at only 14.00 €.

 

You can purchase LRSB - Sibiu International 14.00€ from DAI Media - LRSB  Sibiu International

 

Requirements

- Software plataform: X-Plane 10.25

- Specification: same as like X-Plane 10.25, (runways follow contours)

- IVAO / VATSIM, compatible.

 

Download 24.4mb - Expanded to 41.3mb in your Custom Scenery folder.

 

Installation

I found the download package only in .exe and I use a MAC... changing the .exe to .zip worked but I had to use a professional unzipper to open the package? (The Unarchiver). The ILS RWY27 in X-Plane is out of alignment and will need to be corrected to match the scenery, details are in the provided .pdf.

 

Developers Site :  DAI Media

Review By Stephen Dutton

 

1st March 2014

 

©copyright 2014 : X-Plane Reviews

 

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

- X-Plane 10 Global ver 10.25 (final)

Addons

- Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle

Aircraft

- x737 EADT (free) eadt

Scenery

- LROP Bucharest's Henri Coandă - DAI Media - 19.99€

 

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