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Scenery Review : Seattle Airports XP by Drzewiecki Design The Seattle Airports XP Package for X-Plane11 is part of two packs from Drzewiecki Design that cover the full Seattle, Puget Sound area of the American north west. X-PlaneReviews has covered the excellent city of Seattle scenery pack in a review here: Scenery Review : Seattle City XP by Drzewiecki Design The two packages are created to work seamlessly together, and the area covered is quite substantial from North Everett in the north, and right down to Federal Way in the south. As noted in the city scenery review, to cover such a wide area with so many objects is going to require a certain amount of power from your computer, and a few tricks on how to best run the packages are covered in depth in that city scenery review. In context these packages are created to a level of detail and are refined to their best ability to get the very best ratio of quality to quantity and still get the very best efficiency out of the packages, in this area Drzewiecki Design have done an outstanding job... certainly each package can be purchased separately as together they cost a substantial US$67.00 with this Airport pack being the most expensive at US$43.00. Personally were as the Seattle City XP scenery can be purchased and used with freeware airports, I don't think you could purchase the Airport pack without the Seattle City scenery, you would just lose too much of the iconic skyline to make it totally realistic (but there are a few Seattle skylines on the .Org if you want to take that approach). The airports covered in this package include: KSEA Seattle-Tacoma, KPAE Paine Field, KBFI Boeing Field, KRNT Renton and S50 Auburn and one major missing field is of course KTCM - McChord AFB of which was included in the Tom Curtis version of the Seattle area called "Gateway to Boeing Country". A few notes first before we deep dive into the airports. First is that if you do use both packages together then the custom scenery load order on the .INI is very critical in the scenery running correctly, Drzewiecki Design do or can set this load order correctly via the installer, but I prefer still to set my own .INI order as not to mess up a.. my already correct set ups and other scenery load orders, and b.. I'm a control freak! Second note is you have the options for both static aircraft visible or not and the quality of your texture mesh (personally the the difference between 2K mesh and 4K mesh in most cases is minimal), but it may make a difference in some cases. But with the static aircraft option is that it is all or nothing... this means that at every airport in this scenery you can have those lovely static aircraft or not. In most cases this is not an issue if you use WT3 or X-Life as static aircraft is switched off, but in this package it can make a huge difference? K-Man has created a set of perfection in WT3 ground routes and layouts for KSEA, so you will want to use these right? absolutely... but killing the static aircraft at KSEA to run WT3 also kills all those perfectly created static aircraft in various states of last stages of fitting out at the Boeing factories at Boeing Field, Everett (Paine) and Renton? The solution is to keep the static aircraft option on, but to use the overlay editor to clear away the static aircraft at KSEA. I really doubt you would need WT3 at the other airports and I found this option the best compromise in having KSEA active with traffic, but keeping the excellent visual aspects at the Boeing factory airports. This review is created in that setup of WT3 at KSEA and the rest of the airports with the custom static aircraft still in place. KSEA - Seattle–Tacoma International Airport or Sea-Tac (KSEA/SEA) Sea-Tac has had a long association with my flying and reviews in X-PlaneReviews, but not lately. Sea-Tac is also Laminar Research's own default airport for X-Plane and has been since X-Plane10, and the area is an excellent place to show off the simulator. Basically you have everything here from gorgeous backdrop volcanic mountains, great local VFR flying destinations with Canada and Vancouver on your doorstep. Most of my early flying was usually up (and down) the Puget Sound to Victoria or CYYJ airport and the learning curve of VOR navigation... it is simply a sensational area to fly around... but. I fell out of love with Sea-Tac for one reason, the runways. Every scenery from the provided X-Plane "Demo" to the payware versions of KSEA all have one major issue, as the runways at KSEA are all a roller-coaster of hills with the "Runways follow Terrain Contours" switched on, switch off the follow contours tickbox and then KSEA becomes then a plateau of "Lost World" proportions, with autogen housing clinging to the sides at very odd angles? so setting either choice does not work. Seattle–Tacoma International Airport Sea–Tac Airport IATA: SEA - ICAO: KSEA - FAA LID: SEA - WMO: 72793 6L/34R 11,900 (3,627m) Concrete 16C/34C 9,426 (2,873m) Concrete 16R/34L 8,500 (2,591m) Concrete ELEV 433 ft / 132 m AMSL Your first impressions of Drzewiecki Design's version of Sea-Tac is that it is superb, obviously the very best yet and believe me there has been a lot of different versions of KSEA in X-Plane. Currently Sea-Tac is under an expansion development, but the scenery here is noted with the newer expansion construction work as completed - with the new International Arrivals Facility, both Satellite Terminals modernised and with the additional structures added to the A terminal and with the amazing new Skybridge. But all that and even everything else is of now of no consequence if the basics don't actually work? but thankfully they do and are done here to best solution as well. So the first really big feature and to me this is the most important one, is that the KSEA runways have been built on a false base and are not allowed to follow the mesh contours, add in some really lovely and totally correct landscaping and walls, then you have perfection... .... and note the excellent approach RAIL lighting gantries on all the northern approaches, ditto the smooth and thankfully flat runways, this is finally a Sea-Tac we all deserve. Terminal Detail We have noted that these packages are created for their best efficiency, but that has not come with any real loss of quality and the trimming of detail. All the terminals and island terminals have been recreated in detail and with the correct reflective glass... ... as all of the internal terminal areas are fitted out and that can be seen from the ramps. Ramp detailing and clutter is also first rate with not only the service and ramp equipment, but 3d people as well external and internal. The airport's airbridges are all active but only a certain number have the guidance system, loads of animated vehicles move around the airport, but there is no an overwhelming amount of vehicle movement, however this is to the better and not to the detriment of the action with using the scenery. Maintenance and Cargo You could call that Sea-Tac is the supply depot for the north or further to Alaska. So all the cargo facilities here at KSEA are large and varied. These important areas are really well covered with this scenery... ... cargo zones (and there is a lot of zones to choose from) are all expertly recreated and with just the right amount of cargo clutter to make freight moving at KSEA a joy, there is also some great branding (mostly Alaska Airlines) and realistic ramp textures. South Sea-Tac are the prominent maintenance hangars for Alaska Airlines and Delta. Hangar detail is not just external which is very good anyway, but internal as well with aircraft under maintenance set out inside. Landside Detail, detail landside is not high high if you get what I mean, but the the amount of buildings and airport support infrastructure including the required hotels and carparks is immense. And in many ways the layout reminds me of Aerosoft's Frankfurt. Detail is not restricted to just the terminal side of the airport, but right around the the whole perimeter. Warehouses and a small GA ramp are notable to the southwest... ... working (or animated) radar tower is to the west and the concrete detail of the elevation of the field are all standouts. Control Tower The distinctive control tower is really well created and looks highly realistic. The tower has excellent internal detail as well, but with no set tower view? KBFI - Boeing Field or King County International Airport. (KBFI/BFI)  Except for the World War II period, when it was taken over by the U.S. government, Boeing Field was Seattle's main passenger airport from its construction in 1928 until Seattle-Tacoma International Airport began operations in the late 1940s. The Boeing Company continues to use the field for testing and delivery of its airplanes, and it is still a major regional cargo hub. King County International Airport Boeing Field IATA: BFI - ICAO: KBFI - FAA LID: BFI 13R/31L 10,000 (3,048m) Asphalt 13L/31R 3,710 (1,131m) Asphalt ELEV 21ft /6 m AMSL KBFI is a large and complex scenery in that it has so many different elements. It a Boeing Company airport but also a working one for light GA and private jet aircraft and smaller regional services (Including helicopters). The northwest area is dominated by the Boeing Company as it is a last fit-out area for overflow aircraft from the Paine and Renton plants... The main Boeing hangar is well reproduced as is the fit-out ramps which are highly detailed, and note the excellent static aircraft that were left in the scenery and not removed. The southern part of the Boeing zone is related to Boeing's military business, and here it is a separate area for those top secret military aircraft fit-outs (above right). Seattle Museum of Flight Nestled between the factories is the famous Seattle Museum of Flight and right beside the museum is the "Red Barn" that is also known as Building No. 105. Built in 1909, the building was used during the early 1900s as Boeing's original aircraft manufacturing plant. A lot of attention has been given into recreating the museum, not only in with the high detailed museum buildings, but the with all the correct aircraft on show as well. The eastern side of the runways is the private and business areas of Boeing Field. There is the historic terminal building on the east side with the original terminal that is still operating, but now as a cafe. And there is a huge amount of ramp area parking not only in front of the old terminal, but also for the use of a designated private jet service terminal next door as well. There is a huge amount of choice for parking GA aircraft and medium sized jets on the eastern side, so you can just make your extensive choice from the long list of branded operators located here, and so it is as well for helicopter services with HeliJet dominating with services to Victoria and Vancouver. Note the 3d grass which is excellent and covers all the airports in the package, clutter is again excellent and there are also a few animated vehicles moving around the scenery. Control Tower is mid-field west... ... the tower is well done and authentic with built in Fire Station... Tower View is actually correct! KRNT - Renton or Renton Municipal Airport (KRNT/RNT) Renton is really two airports set around one single runway. On the west side is the Renton Municipal Airport, which is really a General Aviation/Seaplane base, and on the east side is the Boeing Renton Factory that churns out the hundreds and thousands of B737 series aircraft. The factory has had an illustrious career in producing Boeing aircraft from the start of WW2 to today. Famous aircraft built here includes the Boeing B-29 Superfortress (built 1,119), Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter (built 943), Boeing 707/KC-135, Boeing 727, Boeing 757 (built 1,050) and the B737 series that is currently in production today. Renton Municipal Airport IATA: RNT - ICAO: KRNT - FAA LID: RNT 16/34 5,382 (1,640m) Asphalt/Concrete EVEL 32ft / 10m AMSL Renton is an extremely hard place to reproduce and to make it look authentic. It is situated in a valley and the autogen does not take to kindly to the mesh and so and intergration to make it look even believable is a task by itself, but Drzewiecki Design pulled it off by using custom placed objects to cover over the weak areas, so it works and it works very well. The highlight at Renton are the huge aircraft factory buildings... ... not only is the external buildings done to be realistic, but the internal production line is also created, it is all very basic texture wise but I do like the different variants of the B737 series in production, and not just the same single-800 variant. East Renton The eastern side of the runway is in two sections, one section to the north are several fit-out areas and in the south is a GA and business receiving area. The engine test building is the standout building and is well detailed at the rear.... the Ace Aviation hangar and Aero-Dyne Aviation are both well represented, and this is a very nice GA and usable arrival area. The overall idea seems to be "if you have a space then put a B737 on it!" but there are still lots of parking bays left over for your own aircraft, note again the required static aircraft setting as it makes a big if not huge difference with the correct static aircraft in various states of completion. Work ramp detail is again exceptional, highly detailed and "Boeing" branded. The highly visual sports fields including the Renton Memorial Stadium and Liberty Park are also well represented for detail. RWY 34 approach has numerous buildings for eye detail including a Walmart, McLendon Hardware and Fred Meyer store and more sports fields. West Renton The western boundary is "Renton Municipal Airport" but Boeing seems to have helped itself to most of the significant parking areas, so the area is a mixture of GA facilities and more Boeing fit-out parking bays. Renton Municipal Airport itself is sort of boxed into the centre, but there is still a lot of parking spaces if you land here in a GA. Animated vehicles are represented around Renton, but not too many. North is the seaplane base or the official name as the "Will Rogers - Wiley Post Memorial Seaplane Base", as it was here Wiley Post left for his fatal last flight. The water ramp and jetty is not as good as the Tom Curtis version, but it is still usable. Apartment blocks and light industry buildings are all custom made to fill out the open areas and this is a significant point of making the overall scenery very effective, the detail and even the style is very, very basic, but it still does a very good job alongside the autogen in creating a very realistic Renton. KPAE - Paine Field or Snohomish County Airport KPAE/PAE Paine Field was originally constructed in 1936 as a Works Progress Administration project. At the time of development, it was envisioned that the Airport would create jobs and economic growth in the region by becoming one of the ten new "super airports" around the country. Paine Field was taken over by the U.S. Army prior to entry into World War II as a patrol and training base. In 1947 it was transferred to the U.S. Air Force which continued that operational plan until the early 1960s. On July 25, 1966, Boeing announced that it would build the Boeing 747, a jet airliner capable of carrying nearly twice as many passengers as previous models. To build the giant jet, Boeing had to construct a facility large enough to handle the world's largest commercial jetliner. Land just north of Paine Field was chosen to construct the new facilities, including some development on the airport itself. Both the local government and the FAA concurred with the development. Work on the massive building began in August 1966 and the first employees arrived in early 1967. The 747 made its first flight at Paine Field on February 9, 1969. There has been numerous ideas to restart scheduled air passenger services or air cargo service from the airport, mostly by Allegiant Air and Horizon Air, but to date it is still Boeing that totally dominates the Snohomish County Airport. KPAE does however have four flight schools — Chinook Flight Simulations, Regal Air, Northway Aviation and Everett Helicopters — making it a popular destination for flight training. There are also a number of flying clubs on the field. Today Paine Field is the primary assembly location for Boeing's wide-body 747, 777 and the 787 Dreamliner aircraft. Paine Field Snohomish County Airport IATA: PAE - ICAO: KPAE - FAA LID: PAE  16R/34L 9,010 (2,746m) Asphalt/Grooved 11/29 4,504 (1,373m) Asphalt (not active) 16L/34R 3,000 (914m) Asphalt ELEV 606 ft/184.7 m AMSL You can never get your head around the scale of the Boeing aircraft factories at Everett, they are one of the huge step forward 1960's projects that stunned your mind, the other was the VAB building and Saturn 5's rockets that took men to the Moon. The Boeing Everett factory is still the largest building in the world by volume at 13,385,378 m3 (472,370,319 cu ft) and covers 399,480 m2 (98.7 acres; 39.948 hectares; 0.399 square kilometres)... big enough to build a 747 in! It is to great credit to Drzewiecki Design in that they have created all the assembly lines for the versions B748, B777 and B787, there is great detailing in not just shoving aircraft in the buildings, but to also have them in their various states of assembly... radar domes up, missing engines, or cowlings open, gantrys and all the clutter required to build aircraft. The huge triple engine test buildings are also really well represented... .... and the numerous bays are stacked out and full of out-fitting aircraft, did I mention about the required static aircraft... yes I think I did. There is the Boeing delivery centre with working airbridges and docking guidance, just the perfect place to take delivery of your new Boeing X-Plane aircraft. There is the new "Dreamlifter" operations centre over on the western boundary... and it is highly detailed with a Dreamlifter and cargo. Snohomish County Airport Internally within Paine Field is a commercial airport called Snohomish County Airport. Over the years commercial passenger traffic has declined almost to nothing, so Snohomish County Council has created with a private company a new passenger terminal that was commenced on June 5, 2017. The 30,000 square foot building will have two gates and will be capable of handling about 16 flights per day. That terminal is represented here as complete and is due to open now or Sept 2018. Opposition to the new facility was fierce by local communities, but note the overwhelming heavy commercial operations by Boeing... I doubt a few Dash8's or B738's are going to make that much extra noise or traffic in or out of KPAE? Terminal detailing is excellent, with a full interior and reflective glass... Alaska Airlines, United and Southwest all have plans for services. Attached to the new terminal is a new control tower, again it is well created with internal control room, but no tower view? And note the lovely pre-war hangar on the new terminal ramp, it is a nice reminder of early Paine Field. Southeast is still the older remnants of Paine Field including the very small GA runway 16L/34R... and RWY 11/29 which is now only for aircraft parking. To the south there are more Boeing facilities, but also a few museums with the "Flying Heritage Collection" and the "Historic Flight" Museum. There is a huge amount of custom buildings to the south and to the west of Paine Field to give you a great approach and visual stimulation, like at Renton the buildings are still quite basic and light on detail, but they serve a purpose, however a lot of the buildings to west tend to float? S50 Aurburn Auburn Municipal Airport is known as "Dick Scobee Field", after Francis "Dick" Scobee, an Auburn and Washington native who was the commander astronaut for the Space Shuttle Challenger. Scobee was killed in the 1986 Challenger disaster. The small airfield is also part of the "Emerald Downs Horse Racing" complex. Auburn Municipal Airport Dick Scobee Field IATA: none - ICAO: none - FAA LID: S50 Overall there is not much here at Auburn Municipal Airport except for GA hangars and loads of excellent stand parking... .... but that is not to say it is not the best place to use to base your GA to fly and around the Seattle area, in fact it is the perfect location, and so expect this field to show up a lot in a few GA reviews in the future. All of the airports in this package have excellent runway textures and excellent realistic reflective surfaces. All runway and taxiway signage is top notch and correct for navigation via charts... oh and a lot of 3d Grass is thrown in on top of the deal. Seattle Airports Night Lighting The lighting throughout this extensive scenery is excellent and quite varied. KSEA - Sea-Tac Sea-Tac scenery is very good, but the most basic scenery with only a few tones, overall it looks and is very good to fly into and use on the ground... ... but on closer inspection sees okay look and feel with the see-through glass to just plain greys for some other terminals and outer buildings, internal areas inside maintenance hangars are excellent and highly realistic. Branding and hotel lighting is fine and well done. Ramps including the cargo stands are well lit and the highlight is the nice upward spot lighting on the control tower. King County Boeing Field is not a 24hr airport in operations, so the lighting reflects that aspect, it is well lit, but in areas the lighting is only sporadic... The fit-out flightline is the brightest area as are the other Boeing work zones, the control tower is well done and looks authentic on arrival. Highlight is the lovely private jet terminal that looks welcoming at night on arrival.. note the nice ramp reflections and textures Renton Overall the best lighting in the package goes to Renton... ... different lighting tones separate the manufacturing/carparking areas from the airfield, and it looks spectacular around the main assembly buildings. There are different tones also to note the football (soccer) field and the many other sports facilities, the Ace Aviation building is the highlight. Again the Boeing fit-out stands are very well lit as are all the surrounding apartment buildings. The approach into Renton at night from the south is excellent and certainly well worth doing. Everett Paine Field is a lot like Renton in lighting but more spread out in area. Different areas have different tones but not to the full extent of Renton... ... fit-out areas are again very bright, and the internal work areas of the factories are well lit for 24hr aircraft production. Highlight is the amazingly lit delivery centre! (below) Snohomish County Airport is lit well one side with the carpark... but dark on the airside? The control tower looks however lovely in great lower area/ground lighting. Southern areas are sporadic but well done and overall KPAE is a well lit scenery. Auburn Municipal Most lighting at S50 is indirect, but it looks nice at night from above, but it feels a little odd on the ground as the lighting can be bright in one direction and very dark in the other, but overall S50 is a daytime operation airfield... disappointing is the racetrack and the Emerald Downs Horse Racing complex is in the dark... ... note however the amazing surface textures with the indirect lighting. Summary Where do you start with a scenery this expansive and so highly detailed. Price of course and value. Yes it is US$43.00 for just this Airport package and another US$24.00 if you then add on the Seattle City package. Breaking that down and just take KSEA Sea-Tac as a scenery alone, and what would you expect to pay for that US$25 or US$28.50... it is certainly worth that in benefit, so in context then the full five airports are all good value. Object count and clutter numbers here are in the outrageous category, you are bewildered just on how much detail there actually is in here and the coverage is uniform across all the airports, ditto the amount of custom objects surrounding the actual airport boundaries as well to make up a significant visual viewpoint of almost visual perfection (in context) of what you have in the Seattle area... and this all comes with an amazing efficiency and not creating overbearing pressure on your computer's hardware, and even in the context of a lower texture quality setting, you still get a sensational high quality visual package... in other words it all more than usable and even if you only have a 4K graphic card. Negatives are few, with only a few floating buildings and some night textures that are a bit bland, and many custom objects are created for a high efficiency more than detail are noticeable, but the objects are not positioned of where it counts. Many tower views are not set correctly? Scenery like the Seattle City/Airport packages are not your usual purchase... they are a major future investment for your simulator. Yes all up the packages are expensive, but the return of what you actually get and also to get to future proof your Seattle area for years to come and with all the significant flying you can do here in Seattle... and that then all adds up to a worthwhile investment of including and using extremely good high quality scenery in X-Plane. The jury will always be out on what is the very best scenery currently in X-Plane, in absolute detail then no, but in expansive and with the absolute sheer volume of coverage and detail you get here, then certainly this Seattle Airports XP package is right at the top of the list. ____________________________________________________________________ Yes!... Seattle Airports XP by Drzewiecki Design is Available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Seattle Airports XP Price is US$43.00 Scenery Features 5 high quality airports included: KSEA Seattle-Tacoma, KPAE Paine Field, KBFI Boeing Field, KRNT Renton and S50 Auburn in the most up-to-date versions possible, including the new International Arrivals Facility and Satellite terminals at KSEA and the new passenger terminal at KPAE. Extensive though performance-friendly internal modeling including Boeing Everett Factory (the whole assembly building with 747, 777 and 787 assembly lines), both delivery centers of Boeing (at KBFI and KPAE) and all terminals at KSEA. Autogates, VGDS, many custom animations, advanced lighting Highly advanced performance-friendly design World Traffic 3 compatible Recommended for use with: Seattle City XP Price is US$24.00 Review is here: Scenery Review : Seattle City XP by Drzewiecki Design Requirements : X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4Gb VRAM Minimum - 8Gb+ VRAM Recommended Download size: 1.2Gb Current version: 1.1 (September 6th 2018) Download and Installation Installation : Download file size is 786.41mb and is inserted into your X-Plane - Custom Scenery Folder. Installed file size is 2.70gb. Package comes with installers for both Win (.exe) and Mac-Linux, and be sure you download the correct version for your system. DD Seattle Airports ARoads (66kb) DD Seattle Airports XP (2.43gb) DD Seattle Airports XP Documents (6.9mb) ZZZ DD Seattle Airports XP Terrain (23mb) If both the Seattle City XP and Airport scenery XP files are installed then the correct .INI order is required, but the installer will arrange that for you. Recommended is K-Man's KSEA WorldTraffic3 in WT3 ground routes and layouts Editing is required if you want to keep the specialized static aircraft. For the full visual impact the "World Object" (autogen) setting is required at the "maximum" setting, and it is well worth the framerate drop. Extras and Documents: Manuals for installation are in English, Polish and Russian. Airport charts are provided for KRNT, KPAE, KBFI and S50 KBFI Diagram.pdf KPAE Diagram.pdf KRNT Diagram.pdf Mac and Linux manual install - English.pdf Mac and Linux manual install - Polish.pdf Mac and Linux manual install - Russian.pdf S50 Diagram.pdf SEATTLE_AIRPORTS_XP_MANUAL.pdf ______________________________________________________________________  Review by Stephen Dutton 12th September 2018  Copyright©2018 : 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) Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.25r2 Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro v1.07 US$69.90 : WorldTraffic 3.0 Plugin - US$29.95 : BetterPushBack - Free Scenery or Aircraft - Boeing 737-800 - Default X-plane by Laminar Research