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Scenery Review : CYHZ - Halifax Stanfield International Airport by Airfield Canada A developer that is totally focused on North American Canadian scenery is Airfield Canada. Their first release was CYQY-J.A. Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport (not to be confused with Sydney, NSW, Australia) and now here is their second major releases in CYHZ - Halifax Stanfield International Airport, also in Nova Scotia. Halifax Stanfield International Airport is a Canadian airport in Goffs, Nova Scotia, a rural community of the Halifax Regional Municipality. It serves the Halifax region, mainland Nova Scotia and adjacent areas in the neighbouring Maritime provinces. The airport is named in honour of Robert Stanfield, the 17th Premier of Nova Scotia. The airport is positioned 27 kms and directly north from Downtown Halifax. The airport by regards is not an old pre or postwar development, but it was built in the early 1960's (there was a field in Chebucto Field, which was built as the Halifax Civic Airport by the City of Halifax in 1931 on the former site of Blueball Farm). But the airport was not related to the early aviation history of the trans-Atlantic staging posts that covered the North America to Europe routes, or Ireland in particular. However CYHZ-Halifax did have a significant part to play in the historic "Operation Yellow Ribbon" after the Federal Aviation Administration closed down U.S. airspace, after the 9/11 New York World Trade attacks. That noted the airport is still a major player as Halifax Stanfield is the 8th busiest airport in Canada by passenger traffic. It is certainly a busy airport as it handled a total of 4,316,079 passengers in 2018 and 84,045 aircraft movements in 2017. A key factor in building HSIA was to find a site near Halifax with a minimal number of days per year when fog would not affect airport operations. CYHZ - Halifax Stanfield International Airport by Airfield Canada First note is that Halifax scenery is very large (considering the size of the airport). It is a 5.3Gb download that is translated into a very large 12.6Gb install in your Custom Scenery folder. A good chunk of the install is the SAM Seasons Properties at 4.76GB, so if you don't need the SAM Seasons (but highly recommended here), then you need not to install that option. A patch is also included for those who wish to use the Ortho4XP textures rather than the default textures, this review is conducted in the default X-Plane settings. Halifax Stanfield International Airport Aéroport international Stanfield d'Halifax (French) Port-adhair Eadar-nàiseanta Halifax Stanfield (Scottish Gaelic) IATA: YHZ - ICAO: CYHZ - WMO: 71395 05/23 - 10,500ft (3,200m) Asphalt/concrete 14/32 - 7,700ft (2,347m) Asphalt Elevation AMSL477 ft / 145 m First impressions of Airfield Canada's CYHZ - Halifax Stanfield International Airport is extremely good. The airport is surrounded by forests, so that helps out in hiding any boundary conflicts, but the ground ortho textures have been very well intergrated anyway. There are two runways set in a northern T configuration, one 05/23 longitude is a massive 10,500ft (3,200m) and the top T runway is the smaller latitude 14/32 - 7,700ft (2,347m) long runway, and at their intersection to the west holds the terminal area. There only one large major terminal here at HSIA, but you could split it up into the main apron with Airbridges 14 -46 or twelve Airbridges, and the smaller Walkon/Walkoff stands (in blue) 2 - 9 to the south. The original Air Terminal Building (ATB) was built in the 1960's, but there is not much left of the original building since the complete redesign in 2000, and at the cost of over $200 million. It feels modern, because it is, as the terminal is clad in that beloved aluminium paneling... Airfield Canada has done a very good modeling job here, but it does feel a little clean... however the complexities of the terminal are highly represented in their detail and all the textures have excellent PBR (Physically Based Render) effects built in. All installed Airbridges are SAM-Scenery Animation Management active and can be user controlled. The mid-terminal ramp tower is really well done, with a full set of aerials, other roof mounted items include static placed aerials, covered ladders, air-con units and vents, and all are done well and gives a lot of external detailing to the buildings. Glass is also very good with textures that have PBR reflections, and the glass in some areas is highly realistic. There are no internal elements to the terminal, but with good glass you don't need it here. The Walkon/Walkoff stands are very good, but what looks blue is actually highly reflective silver, lots of detail and clutter (love the long mobile walkon ramps), they again do come across as a little to perfect and clean? Landside The ALT Hotel dominates the landside, as does the massive undercover single carpark. The terminal in detailing is again excellent. and all the Canadian flags are also nicely animated, as are all the abundance of flags in the scenery. There is a lot of real advertising set out on the walls and buildings, and they look up to date and authentic. The Landside modern steel and glass shelters and framework is again exceptional work. As brilliant as all this is, it still all feels a bit souless, and dead, you can't really put your finger on it, and in the bigger picture it doesn't really change anything about the quality of this scenery, but it all feels a bit "Walking Dead". Carpark glass reflections are very, very good and really well done in the right lighting conditions, and carpark's lovely cross-rib external paneling is again exceptionally well done. . Still it is the ALT Hotel that dominates the Landside areas, and has also lovely two-tone external cladding, and the smaller details set out around the hotel, just highlight the building more. Jazz Aviation LP, or as it is known as Jazz Air is based here at Halifax. Once it was a subsidiary of Air Canada (Air Canada Jazz), but was sold off in 2011. There is the main administration building and a maintenance hangar, and both are very well done here, and I really like the lettering on the roof of the maintenance hangar. There are some nice quality Q400s also to fill out the scene. The main taxiway that services the long 05/23 runway is taxiway A. It is also a frontage of most of the Halifax airport's services including most of the airport's maintenance hangars. The entrance service road is guarded by a fearsome checkpoint structure that is really well done (there are several checkpoints like this in the scenery with another over by the Jazz facility). IMP Aerospace & Defence is a Canadian national organization that is headquartered here in Halifax, and most of the infrastructure that is on this service road is credited to them, they are the owners of Air Atlantic, Cascade Aerospace and the Fairey Aviation Company, plus a load of other aviation service industries. The IMP infrastructure is first rate in detail and authenticity, there is a lot of detail to feast your eyes on and explore, to the front and rear of the hangars. The second big tenant here at Halifax is Air Canada, which have a huge maintenance hanger mid-field... Five of the hangars here are animated via the SAM control system, and you have a lot of choice of which hangar door you want to open... externally and internally the Air Canada hangar is a standout in detail... ... the Air Canada administration building set next to the hangar is also excellent as well with a very creative ribbing construction. Next is EHS LifeFlight and PAL Aviation Services, and again both of the hangar doors can be opened... ... all hangar internal detail is top notch and very well done. The idea is you park up your own aircraft (the biggest size is noted), but you feel the odd one should have a few static aircraft placed inside. Next is HNZ Helicopter Offshore Oil and Gas Support is next with CanJet with a large hangar, and again there a a few nice staic Q400s to fill out the ramps... ... the last two large hangars are again IMP facilities, and impressive they both are in detailing. The largest hangar here does not have the animated doors which is oddly a shame as it is an massive structure. Airfield Canada have installed quite a lot of detailed infrastructure, but too many to actually note here, but here are a few highlights. There is a really well done Irving Petrol (Gas) station, with modern pumps, Jiffylube, Inland Technologies who are a turnkey glycol recovery and recycling service based here at Halifax Airport. Menzies Aviation, Avis/Budjet Car Rentals, Tim Hortons and the Quality Inn Halifax Airport, detailing and signage on all is first rate. Halifax City There have been a few objects created to fill out an outline of Halifax City.... Both the Angus L. Macdonald and A. Murray MacKay Bridges are nicely represented, the distinctive red and white funneled Nova Scotia Power Station, the famous Bedford Institute of Oceanography and the two Point Pleasant and Fairview Cove Container Terminal docks, there is a container ship and a nice passenger liner in the picture as well. Overall it is a nice VFR visual on the 05 Runway approach. Control Tower The CYHZ Nav Canada Control Tower, is set way across the field and a long distance from the terminal area, but it is beautifully detailed and also unusual in it's purple colouring. Credit to Airfield Canada, this tower is really well done. Tower view is set correctly, but slightly low, so you get the aerial poles in your view, but all the four approaches are clear. Ground Textures All the ground textures here at CYHZ are first rate, with great graining and nice stoney edges. All the various surfaces are also very well represented, so overall they are faultless. However there is no 3d grass, and the main field areas are only ortho-photo detailed, so the actual field looks a bit flat? But you can't beat the quality of these textures, tar fills, nice rough taxiways and smooth runways, old tired concrete, it is all here to be used... ... ramps are nicely worn with nice oily dirty grunge, and the linage is faded in nicely as well. Burnt-in ambient occlusion effect works very nicely as well in the right lighting conditions, which are all mostly low-light here in Canada. One of the major features with Airfield Canada's scenery of CYHZ Halifax is the use of SAM Seasons. The seasons take up a very large part of the download and your harddrive/SSD space, but they are totally worth the use. Default, Spring, Summer and Autumn are basically the same, but turn on the "Deep Winter" setting and everything is transformed brilliantly. Snow piles and windrows are everywhere. Blankets of snow, cover absolutely everything and you have a spectacular winter wonderland to fly into. Runways and taxiways are perfectly mush, and who would want to work on those freezing cold ramps, well us really, this is a deep winter to get really frozen over. I love it, as I love any winter texture adventure... and here at CYHZ you get one of the best. Lighting The lighting at CYHZ is a little eccentric or inconsistent? Runway and taxiway lighting is very good, but runway 14/32 does not have any centreline lighting (as per the real runway). Navigation signage is good, but basic with only very faintest of reflections? Overall the ramp and apron lighting is good, but far better on the Walkon/Walkoff ramp. On the window lighting I am not sure at all? I understand what sort of lighting effect Airfield Canada were aiming for, that sort of translucent see through feel. But I think it doesn't work, mostly because the glass is far too bright, anyway most windows are a one tone colour which does not work at all in any context either? Landside, and it is even worse? Lighting is done by spotlighting only, so it all looks patchy, and mostly dark in the wrong areas? The issue is that the internal road street lighting is either too dim, or not done at all, so your road network in and out of the central area is not actually lit? The streetlighting peters out as well before it has even left the landside areas, so the south is mostly very dark. Even the excellent ALT Hotel looks bland and boring... but there are some highlights. The Air Canada administration and maintenance hangar is excellent.... and looks and feels even better with the doors open. Most of the lighting on the service hangars is downlighting with a lot of spot lighting thrown in. It is all very good... ... but small important lighting is missing, like the business signs and petroleum refueling brand signs that are not lit? The Petrol (Gas) Station is lit nicely, but still looks so dull around it? So in areas there great is really good lighting effects, but in others it is all a bit hit or miss, but overall the lighting just does not live up to the high standards the daylight achieves in it's reality of detail.. Gooood Morning Canada! ___________________ Summary This is an exceptional release from Airfield Canada of CYHZ - Halifax Stanfield International Airport, after their earlier CYQY-J.A. Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport. Exceptional it is, but it does have a few odd quirks. The layout and general first experience of Halifax International are very good. So is the modeling which uses the reflective aluminium paneling as it's main building facades. In fact all the building facades are exceptional in this scenery from the multi hangars to the smallest buildings in there texture use and ribbed designs and all textures have great PBR effects, the central ALT Hotel is a standout, as is the Air Canada offices and maintenance hanger. The SAM (Scenery Animation Manager) is wildly used through out this scenery and masterly so. You have animated Airbridges, Five opening hangar doors and the excellent use of the SAM Seasons with "Deep Winter" snow and drift features. Ground textures in runways, taxiways, ramps and aprons are faultless and all come with excellent Burnt-in ambient occlusion effects. Detailing is very good and comes with quite a variety of custom objects, including the Jazz Air Headquarters, Irving Petrol (Gas) Stations, Tim Heatons fast food, and extensive coverage of all the resident IMP Aerospace facilities including offices and hangers. The Control Tower is also very well detailed and reconstructed. Halifax City also get a few VFR visual points as well including two ports, power station and two bridges. The quirks are really odd ones? The landside feels a bit soul-less, it is very good, but there is something missing to make it all realistically believable? Lighting is odd in that the terminal window lighting is average and in parts or only a single tone, missing roadway lighting is a big deficit, and most lighting runs out too early and makes most of the south areas too dark, a rethink on the lighting ideas is required. Oddly the inner and outer hangar lighting (Air Canada's is exceptional) is simply excellent? So you just can't work it out? Overall though this is excellent scenery, very detailed and pleasant on the eye, and certainly make use of the low-Canadian light and winter aspects to get the full impact of use of this scenery. I would have loved to give CYHZ - Halifax Stanfield International Airport by Airfield Canada the full 5Star+ treatment, it is very, very close, certainly well worth the investment, but loses a few 10ths on those odd quirks, but... Highly Recommended. _____________________________________ Yes! CYHZ - Halifax Stanfield International Airport by Airfield Canada is now available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : CYHZ - Halifax Stanfield International Airport Price is US$24.95 Feature List: 3D Models With over 150 highly-detailed custom buildings and objects, this airport was built from the ground up over two years from pure passion. It looks and feels like the real thing, with painstaking attention to measurements, materials, doors, windows, and other minor details. All buildings and objects feature PBR. Ground Textures Custom high-quality PBR ground textures and markings, including custom striated runway markings, hundreds of hand-placed lines and decals, and a weathered-look where applicable. Orthophotos cover the airport property and adjacent properties. Custom terrain The airport features a custom mesh developed by Maps2Xplane, with real-life terrain details included, such as the steep hills at the ends of the runways. A patch is included for those who prefer Ortho4XP Lighting At Airfield Canada, we love night flying, and our lighting for Halifax Stanfield is a reflection of that love. Every light on the airport property was placed manually and precisely. From the custom taxiway lights to the custom approach lights, your eyes will be pleased. Ground Vehicles Custom modelled and animated vehicles (with people) have been included for the airport property, such as tugs, baggage loaders, and catering trucks. Animations Optional custom animations have been included for all 12 custom aircraft jetways, 5 hangar doors, 2 types of windsocks, a radar antenna, nearby wind turbines, and custom a follow me truck - all of which require the SAM plugin. Seasons Optional spring, summer, autumn, winter, and deep winter seasons are supported through the SAM plugin. Simply select “deep winter” to show 3D snow piles and windrows. WT3: WorldTraffic3 GroundRoutes are not provided and Traffic Global operates perfectly. Requirements: X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 5.6 GB Current and Review version: 1.0 (February 28th 2021) Installation This is an extensively large download of 5.3Gb download that is translated into a 12.6Gb install in your Custom Scenery folder. A good chunk of the install is the SAM Seasons Properties (Winter Textures) at 4.76GB. Install order has to be the 05-Mesh at the bottom. The Install (INI) order is: CYHZ - Halifax Stanfield 04 - Downtown (914.8Mb) CYHZ - Halifax Stanfield 03 - North Beaver Bank (26.2Mb) CYHZ - Halifax Stanfield 02 - Airport (7.52GB) CYHZ - Halifax Stanfield 01 - Seasons (5.12Gb) CYHZ - Halifax Stanfield 05 - Mesh (10.9MB) Total scenery install is: 12.6Gb (but Seasons is optional) A patch is included for those who prefer to use Ortho4XP. To do this, you copy the patch to Ortho4XP_v130/Patches/ +40-070/+44-064/CYHZ.patch.osm and re-create the corresponding Ortho4XP-tile (important: do not rename the osm-filename). SAM Plugin - Scenery Animation Manager - Suite 2.0 is (Absolutely) required for this scenery ShortFinal Global SFD plugin is highly recommended with this scenery. Documents One Readme pdf (4 pages), with About, Install and Airport details READ ME pdf ___________________________________________ Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton 6th March 2021 Copyright©2021 : 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 Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 1Tb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane v11.52 Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini  Plugins: Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00 : Scenery Animation Manager - Suite 2.0 - Free : Environment Engine by xEnviro US$69.90 Scenery or Aircraft - Default Boeing 737-800 by Laminar Research

Airport Release : CYHZ - Halifax Stanfield International Airport by Airfield Canada A developer that is focused on Canadian scenery is Airfield Canada. Their first release was CYQY - J.A. Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport (not to be confused with Sydney, NSW, Australia) and now here is their second major releases in CYHZ - Halifax Stanfield International Airport. Although in the same area geographical of Nova Scotia, Halifax Stanfield airfield was not part of the early transport trans-Atlantic stopping off points, like St Johns (CYYT), Gander (CYQX), Moncton (CYUM) and Sydney (CYQY), but it did have a significant part in the historic "Operation Yellow Ribbon" after the Federal Aviation Administration closed down U.S. airspace, after the 9/11 New York World Trade attacks. As part of the operation Halifax airport took in 47 flights, and more flights than any other Canadian airport involved in the clearing of the skies, carrying about 7,300 passengers. As an aviation facility it is still a major player as Halifax Stanfield is the 8th busiest airport in Canada by passenger traffic. It handled a total of 4,316,079 passengers in 2018 and 84,045 aircraft movements in 2017. It is a hub for Air Canada Express, Cougar Helicopters, Maritime Air Charter, PAL Airlines and SkyLink Express. Features 3D Models With over 150 highly-detailed custom buildings and objects, this airport was built from the ground up over two years from pure passion. It looks and feels like the real thing, with painstaking attention to measurements, materials, doors, windows, and other minor details. All buildings and objects feature PBR. Ground Textures Custom high-quality PBR ground textures and markings, including custom striated runway markings, hundreds of hand-placed lines and decals, and a weathered-look where applicable. Orthophotos cover the airport property and adjacent properties. Custom terrain The airport features a custom mesh developed by Maps2Xplane, with real-life terrain details included, such as the steep hills at the ends of the runways. A patch is included for those who prefer Ortho4XP Lighting At Airfield Canada, we love night flying, and our lighting for Halifax Stanfield is a reflection of that love. Every light on the airport property was placed manually and precisely. From the custom taxiway lights to the custom approach lights, your eyes will be pleased. Ground Vehicles Custom modelled and animated vehicles (with people) have been included for the airport property, such as tugs, baggage loaders, and catering trucks. Animations Optional custom animations have been included for all 12 custom aircraft jetways, 5 hangar doors, 2 types of windsocks, a radar antenna, nearby wind turbines, and custom a follow me truck - all of which require the SAM plugin. Seasons Optional spring, summer, autumn, winter, and deep winter seasons are supported through the SAM plugin. Simply select “deep winter” to show 3D snow piles and windrows. The scenery features a full custom mesh that has been developed by Maps2Xplane, custom modeled ground vehicles and extensive SAM Support, with animated airbridges, spring, summer, autumn, winter, and deep winter custom seasons, and animated hangars (SAM 2 is required) Images courtesy of Airfield Canada Airfield Canada's Facebook page is here ____________________________ Yes! CYHZ - Halifax Stanfield International Airport by Airfield Canada is now available from the X-Plane.OrgStore CYHZ - Halifax Stanfield International Airport Price is US$24.95 Requirements X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 5.6 GB Current version: 1.0 (February 28th 2021) ____________ News by Stephen Dutton 1st March 2021 Copyright©2021: 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.