Stephen Posted January 27, 2020 Report Posted January 27, 2020 Quick Impression : KTLH - Tallahassee International Airport by Rim&Co A bit of history first. Rim&Co came screaming on to the X-Plane scene a few years ago with AYE - Ayres Rock - Connellan Airport that was a very good scenery debut, with an excellent rendition of Ayres Rock (Uluru) and the nearby Olgas (Kata Tjuṯa) and the actual scenery of YAYE was also very well executed. But the scenery suffered with an overload of objects (in outback Australia?) that was a foreboding of what was to come next, but overall for AYE it was an excellent scenery. Rim&Co's next scenery releases was SAWH - Ushuaia Malvinas Airport, but that release was followed by a quick "cease and desist" notice to a developer as they had stolen pro objects and doctored them to their own use, in the aftermath the two earlier sceneries were then also quickly pulled from sale from stores. So Rim&Co are back and with two sceneries in succession in first KPIT - Pittsburgh International Airport and now this secondary release of KTLH - Tallahassee International Airport (I will get around to reviewing Pittsburgh). So the question remains, have Rim&Co done enough here at Tallahassee to win back our support and more importantly our trust. Tallahassee International Airport IATA: TLH - ICAO: KTLH - FAA LID: TLH 09/27 - 8,000ft (2,438m) - Asphalt 18/36 - 7,000ft (2,134m) - Asphalt Elevation AMSL - 81 ft / 25 m Tallahassee is dead central X-Plane.Org territory, it is the central base for all your X-Plane needs, so in your needs if you want to go there virtually then a good scenery on arrival would make the ride worthwhile. On first viewing the scenery looks actually top grade, it is well intergrated into the surrounding mesh with lovely field Orthophoto textures, but the nasty joins are thankfully covered by the trees and the tree line is still of a slightly different colour, but overall it is nothing to see or worry about. TLH layout covers 2,485 acres (1,006 ha) and is L shaped or corner shaped which ever way you want to look at it, with the shorter 18/36 runway positioned north and the 09/27 runway eastwest. Although the airport is noted as an International airport, it really isn't but only a regional facility. The International moniker is because the the city is Florida's state capital, however, international passengers are allowed to exit the airport via Tallahassee International due to the facility's "service port" for the use of U.S. Customs. Runway 09 (27) is being lengthened and the construction is well highlighted in the scenery... note the seven wind turbines on the right Terminal The current terminal was opened on December 3, 1989, but the buildings looks far older and tired, an upgrade at TLH is currently in progress. Overall the terminal is not very large in size, but has eight active airbidges. The airbridges are all SAM powered and the open/remote stands have (SAM) VDGS or marsallers. Terminal design is very Rim&Co in a design so you feel more than what you see, but the detail is very, very good and this is very well designed and produced scenery. Landside is excellent with well cluttered carparks, trees and fauna and very good signage, only kink is the entrance airport logos are reversed. Apron clutter is excellent, but not local branded, and a few of the vans are animated to give movement to the airport and one van takes a trip all around the taxiways... and it travels around very, very slowly, so watch out for it? Rim&Co have always done in the past some questionable object placement and they don't disappoint here? Two vans block the taxi route to stands A7 and A4, but one is animated, a Gulfstream jet is also positioned at gate B2, but it doesn't look right standing in that set non-stand position. Ground Textures The runway and ground textures are excellent here at TLH. Runway detail and textures are nicely varied and the concrete detail on the taxiways are also very good as well with really nice transitions to old and newer asphalt which is done really well... .... grass is all 3d and bountiful, and all textures are PBR (Pyhsically Based Rendering) active (reflections, wet) in the right weather conditions Tallahassee City are wanting to expand the cargo facilities at TLH, and they are quite good for a regional airport already. The Cargo ramp is well done and quite large with four parking stands. FedEx cargo building is nicely done. There is significant amount of General Aviation, Private jet parking and services available at KTLH, and they are segregated into three areas in South, Central and North. South Apron could be noted as the original partition section of Tallahassee Airport... ... The Million Air FBO terminal, Aviation Centre and the William B. Martin Hangars are all based here (the William B. Martin is not to be confused with the Ivan Munroe Terminal that is the official Tallahassee terminal name). Central Apron is dominated by one large hangar for "Flightline Group Inc" North Apron covers the more local GA area, with open and covered parking, and wide open and numerous apron parking areas. There is a huge amount of clutter and detail set out in here, and it certainly does a great job of filling out the scenery... but the question starts to rise up on how much of all these objects and buildings are actually authentic, and even then also relate to the actual Tallahassee Airport scenery? "Austin's Bar & Grill" doesn't exist (I checked), "OzGas" Fuel is based in Australian and New Zealand... there are NYFD fire trucks, NYP Police cars and enough 76 petroleum stations (four) and one entrance sign (below left) is used three times (twice with the signs reversed)?, oh and another BP service station as well... did I mention the hundreds of Range Rover sports, there are less of these high rollers in Los Angeles than at Tallahassee Airport?... it all starts to feel a bit questionable on the authenticity question? Across RWY 09/27 is the Control Tower, well done but the tower view is "sorta" set but the viewpoint is still set too high in the air? Lighting Lighting is in the "not bad" zone. Again outwardly TLH looks very good at night.. ... but a few airbridge gates in B1 and B4 are in complete darkness? The terminal is an odd selection of lit and areas of darkness... .... a lot of the terminal like the entrance and landside is dark with no lit windows, and the external lighting which is the only lighting covering over the dark sided buildings, which is a cheap and time way of cutting development, the areas that have been completed show great window lighting, so it all comes down to what could have been, more that what it actually is. South, Central and North apron lighting is not bad but there are some dark areas, and even some of the apron lighting facing is away from the actual apron areas? Overall in context of the whole scenery the lighting is not bad, but could have been far better. Feature list is very good, with a lot of dynamic X-Plane11 features provided. Buildings: Realistic rendition and 3D-recreation of most airport buildings, vehicles, clutter and other infrastructure, served with nice textures for day and night Ground: Detailed ground textures with dynamic PBR properties, 4K asphalt/ concrete textures Lighting: Accurate and vivid lighting for night-flying operations Vegetation: Thousands of hand-placed 3D-trees Accurate Airport Layout Gangways: SAM usage including jetways and safe-docks for most gates Traffic: Ground traffic files included WT3 and TG: There are no ground routes available for WorldTraffic3 but a generation did create the required routes, but with absolutely no traffic action. Traffic Global was far better in creating a realistic traffic feel at KTLH but even that was very infrequent (most arrival flights are after 11pm?), and the better TG traffic is what is shown here in this review. First Impressions On a first viewing then Tallahassee KTLH looks brilliant, and a great place to use as an excellent regional airport (KATL - Atlanta is only 260 mi north), the airport comes with a nice layout, intergration and excellent ground details. Modeling is very good but not exceptional and you get PBR effects and SAM active airbridges and stands. So from that viewpoint the scenery is highly worth of it's four stars. It is in the closer details and the question of authenticity is where you going to have to take some liberty, over clutter, non-related clutter, buildings and other items are all questionable if they are to be a replication of an original Tallahassee International Airport and the lighting is also a bit underdone, but accept these odd Rim&Co quirks and overall the scenery is very good. Four out of Five stars ☀️☀️☀️☀️⭐ KTLH - Tallahassee International Airport by Rim&Co is now available from the X-Plane.OrgStore here: KTLH - Tallahassee International Airport Price is US$15.99 Requirements are: Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8GB+ VRAM recommended Download Size: 1.1 GB Current and Impression version : 1.0 (January 25th 2020) ________________________________________ Quick Impression by Stephen Dutton 27th January 2020 Copyright©2012: X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this preview 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) Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.