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Scenery Review : LRTR - Timișoara "Traian Vuia" International, Romania by DAI Media


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Scenery Review : LRTR - Timișoara "Traian Vuia" International, Romania by DAI-Media

 

Route : LIPZ - Venice Tessera Marco Polo (venezia) to LRTR - Timișoara

 

Another release from DAI-Media in their collection of Romanian airports is LRTR at Timișoara (IATA: TSR, ICAO: LRTR) . Traian Vuia International is the third largest Romanian airport in terms of air traffic, and the main air transportation hub for the western part of Romania.

 

Timișoara's first airport (Timișoara Communal Airport) was built a few kilometers away from the current airport's position, in the village of Moșnița Veche. The first airplane landed there on 17 July 1935. And the airport was then rebuilt in its current position in the 1960s and then became known as Giarmata Airport. The domestic flights terminal was opened in 1964 and In 1980, it received International Airport status with flights to Frankfurt, New York, Chicago.

On February 6th 2003, the airport found its spiritual identity in the person of the world aeronautics pioneer - Traian Vuia and the airport was then named after the pioneer who was born in Banat. Then on May 19th the transit terminal was also inaugurated and the airport become an air hub, linking important cities in Romania with cities in Italy and Germany. Traian Vuia International has ILS CAT-IIIa status.

 

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Giarmata Airport was home to the Romanian Air Force RoAF 93rd Air Base, founded in 1953. The 93rd Air Base was disbanded in August 2004 with the MiG-21 Lancers and IAR-330 moving to Câmpia Turzii for reassignment to 71st Air Base. The air base also operated the MiG-23 Flogger, which was retired in early 2002. Over 30 MiG-23s are in storage at Timișoara Airport. Today the military section of the airport is an annex of the 71st Air Base and operates the 714th Transport Helicopter Squadron, with the IAR 330 in service.

 

First Impressions of LRTR - Traian Vuia

 

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Hungarian Wizz Air dominates "Traian Vuia" as an operating base and as headquarters for Carpatair. So it was only fitting to use their Airbus A320 to fly into LRTR...  You don't have much choice on aircraft with Wizz Air as they only fly one type of equipment and they are all A320-232's with another 37 on order, an order for 26 A321-200's will expand the fleet out into the future.

 

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11/29  3,500m  (11,483ft)  Asphalt - Elev 348ft

 

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Departure was from LIPZ runway 22L and then a reverse course East towards Slovenia and crossing the coast just south of Trieste. From there it was directly to Zagreb, flightlevel was FL320. There are not very many fixes or Nav-Aids surrounding LRTR, certainly no runway approach line of fixes to guide you in. There is an ILS (Cat-III) on runway 29 (109.30mhz), but there are notes in the manual to add in RWY11. The odd thing the ILS for RWY11 was in there anyway?  So flying in with a programmable FMGS was going to be a little tricky, but I found an excellent STAR arrival in MAVIT (1A) and the problem was solved. MAVIT (1A) points you directly at the airport before starting a left hand circuit at GOVOX back to RWY29. At the point at the right turn at GOVOX I found the airport hard to position from the air, It was just not there?  A couple of notes is required in that 1) you need the "Runways Follow Terrain Contours" switched on with LRTR, unless you will get the plateau effect with the runway situated high on top of a flat plateau. (I call it the "Lost World" look)...   and 2) I had to fine adjust the alignment of the Runway 29 to the scenery in X-Plane's edit mode on the Local Map.

 

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After completing the required 90º two turns I was on a direct approach to RWY29, and at 2200ft (I make very low approaches, with included Apt Elev 348ft), LRTR was still a darker smudge on the horizon than a full airport of buildings and distinct objects. You will find that most of the terminal buildings are obscured by trees and the Military Zone facing the west approach means they don't stand out. Over the threshold and the runway is now very distinct and well detailed.

 

One of the specialities of DAI-Media is their excellent ground textures, and Timișoara does not disappoint. The use of textures and photo underlay is excellent in creating a perfect realism from the air and from the ground, and all areas are blended perfectly into the surrounding X-Plane default textures. No big large square flat ugly photo plates here. Once on the runway the grass is well laid out and the surrounding trees and bushes complete the whole immersion effect.

 

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Runway and taxiway textures are also first rate with excellent taxiway signage and detailing. I found the ramp lineage excellent in quality but slightly confusing in how to park the aircraft?  It looked like a nose in parking, but the static aircraft where situated nose out?, so i did a uturn and parked in the line up.

 

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The ramp was excellent, with good static aircraft a ramp detailing in vehicles and equipment, nothing was overloaded and it all felt realistic, only the static aircraft textures were slightly more softer and more poorer in lower texture settings. Sitting in the cockpit and resetting the aircraft ready for the next service to LIRF (Rome) it looked very realistic out of the windows, but there is no ground traffic animation.

 

LRTR -  "Traian Vuia" International

 

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The earlier views are deceiving because there is a quite a complex and detailed scenery layout when you get in closer. Everything is very well laid out and perfectly formed from the runway to the concrete taxiways.

 

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The ramp area is very large with plenty of space and as noted very well marked out with excellent linage. There are no blank areas or areas that have been just thinly designed, the whole scenery is very well detailed and full of objects and buildings.

 

Terminal Area

 

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The central terminal area is dominated by two terminals and both very modern in design, Terminal one has the well crafted Control Tower built above it. Annoyingly the "Tower" view is down low on the ramp?...  a minor oversight.

 

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The metallic blinds on the terminals do flash noisily as you move around, but that is caused by the fine detail. But you simply can't fault the detailing in the area. Everything is close to perfection and with so much detailing that every angle is covered, from the carparking to the static cars to small signs, the excellent fencing and lighting towers and the perfect road and carparking linage.  Perfectly formed also is the green areas with trees and bushes which complete the full picture.

 

The ramp side of the terminals are much darker in appearance and are harder to get as much light into as on the sunny southern side.

 

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Airport signage is outstanding, really well done and nothing in detail was spared.

 

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Cargo warehouse is small but very well done. Outside of the central area there is a mixture of modern office and administration buildings with some old Romanian buildings that give the area an eastern European look. The texture quality however is a slight mixture up close, with some perfect and some textures slightly poor in resolution. The airport however is away from any major complex default scenery (Timișoara is well to the south-west of the airport) that can hurt your framerate. So that means you can run your texture settings quite high, you don't need to be extreme but any settings in the middle of the range will give you the difference in texture quality. Overall you just can't fault the detailing here.

 

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On the western boundary it becomes a little more spacious, with fewer smaller buildings and one large military hangar. The taxiway work is again excellent in design and lineage. Note the excellent fencing.

 

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To the east of the main terminal area are the old military sites. From above they are hard to make out (as they should be), but at ground level the old hangars and stored Mig warplanes are well sited and very well done. The groundmanship of the foliage is really excellent. Note...  the old fuel storage tanks behind the hangars.

 

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Middle between the main ramp and the military sites is are maintenance hangars for Carpatair.

 

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There is an older brick hangar and a newer larger steel and glass hangar. The detailing is again excellent and all hangars come with a special feature. Between certain hours of the day or night, the doors will open and close. The times of operation are noted in the manual.

 

Night-Lighting

Night-lighting with HDR on is also a highlight.

 

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There are great contrasts in the lighting between the working areas like on the ramps and the other public areas. The lighting is highly detailed and very well laid out.

 

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The softer arrival side lighting to the terminals is very good with well lit and with highly realistic signage, all roads are lit and lighting throws are very good. The terminals are well lit and with very subtle inside scenes and the internal detail is more noticeable in the darkened control tower.

 

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Away from the terminal areas the lighting and good spot lighting is up the same standard.

 

Night Departure

With the LRTR - LIRF service loaded and the departure time close it was time to get clearance to leave.

 

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With the excellent ramp lighting you are not stuttering around in the dark. Lines with taxiway signage and lighting is perfect in finding your way around the airport and easily finding the runway. There is a feature that shows you the red stop lights at the entrance to the runway. When you have ATC clearance the red lights will go out allowing you to pass...  Clever.

 

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Runway lighting is the best in the class, as all lighting is perfectly realised. As this is a CAT-III there is an approach lighting system (ALS) with sequenced flashing - RAIL lights as well. Which will be good with fog bound landings.

 

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Operators and Routes

Passenger

Fly Romania operated by Ten Airways : Bucharest, Verona

Lufthansa Regional operated by Lufthansa CityLine : Munich

TAROM : Bucharest

Wizz Air : Barcelona, Beauvais, Bergamo, Bologna, Dortmund, London-Luton, Madrid, Rome-Ciampino, Treviso, Valencia.

 

As noted WIZZ Air dominate the schedules, but charter airlines are quite frequent during the summer.

 

Aegean Airlines - Seasonal charter: Heraklion

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

Freebird Airlines - Seasonal charter: Antalya (begins 12 June 2014)

Tunisair - Seasonal charter: Tunis

Tarom - Seasonal charter: Skiathos

 

Cargo

ABC Air Hungary : Budapest

Farnair Hungary : Budapest, Vienna, Zagreb

TAROM Cargo : Bucharest-Henri Coandă

UPS Airlines operated by Farnair Switzerland : Cologne/Bonn, Sofia

 

Like LRSB Sibiu you can get quite a lot of work flying regularly between Italy and Germany, and combining LRSB and LRTR with these destinations it is very interesting point to point flying.

 

Summary

At first glance there seems to be not a lot at LRTR - Traian Vuia, but that is very deceiving really. This is first rate scenery and perfectly done. From landing to departure you are well within this scenery and it is a great destination. Combined with other DAI-Media sceneries of LRSB Sibiu and LROP (Otopeni), Bucharest you can build up a very nice little regional airport network. Great small features in the opening and closing of hangar doors and end of runway stop lighting are clever and interesting...  some ground vehicle animation would be nice though and the tower view position is annoying.

 

Lighting all round is exceptional. DAI-Media's sceneries are mostly medium to large airports and their is one I use almost all the time and are all of a high quality. Ground textures are always of a very high standard and so is the integration into the surrounding X-Plane countryside... Here again LRTR is of no exception with the same quality and cost that you have come to expect from this excellent scenery designer house. So from DAI-Media here is another great airport in LRTR - Traian Vuia which is also very good solid extremely well detailed scenery that is great to go to at anytime as a destination.

 

Yes! the LRTR - Traian Vuia is now Available from DAI-Media : LRTR - Traian Vuia

Price is Euro 17.00 € (US$23.00 - current conversion 17th June 14)

 

Installation : Download is 165.70mb that is unzipped into your "Custom Scenery" folder (178.70mb) with a 3 page "read me" manual. Charts are noted but you have to join (and pay) to acquire them.

 

Requirements:

- Software platform: X-Plane 10.25

- Specification: Same like X-Plane 10.25, runways follow contours

- IVAO / VATSIM, compatible.

 

Review by Stephen Dutton

 

17th June 2014

 

©copyright X-Plane Reviews 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

- X-Plane 10 Global ver 10.25 (final)

Addons

- Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle

Aircraft

- JARDesign Airbus-A320neo - X-Plane.OrgStore $59.95

Scenery

- ISD Project - LIPZ Venice Tessera 2010. Geppetto

 

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