SimFlyers caught a really big fish as the new scenery-project: A so called “desert-fish” for Raffaele Fiore has chosen Phoenix Sky Harbor as the new American airport to design for Fs 2002 and of course FS 2004. In this region rainfall is pretty rare. Maybe not even after some rain-dances performed by native Indians like the Pajute, Hopi and Navajo – successors of the old culture of the Anasazi having dwelled there some millenniums ago and having left some important historical heritage – who are still living there in some reservations.

 

 

Raffaele has been occupied by his project for several months and his beta-testers were busy with this new airport for many hours because of some gimmicks he included for the simmers which will be covered further on later. Whether all the time was worth to spent with designing and testing this review will tell you – hopefully.

 

Reality

 

Since 1889 Phoenix has been the capital of the mostly independent (Washington is far, far away for the people’s side of view here ;-) US-state of Arizona. Of economical importance are the airplane- and electronical industry, and of course food- and textile-merchandising. The climate, the nature and the overall economical structure – established after WW 2 – have made Phoenix one of fastest growing cities within the United States.

 

Important educational facilities are the Grand Canyon University (founded 1949) and the University of Phoenix (founded 1976). Famous are the Pueblo Grande Museum, the Arizona State Capitol Museum and the Heard Museum.

 

Since about 300 BC the culture of the ancient Hohokam has been present in the whole region. The City itself was founded in 1871 and in 1887 it was connected to the fast spreading railway-system. The completion of Theodore-Roosevelt-Dam in 1911 secured the support of electrical energy made by water-driven generators which was (and of course is ;-) needed by the town itself and the industries there. As of the mild climate Phoenix is a holiday resort for an immense lot Americans and many retired people has settled down here. Phoenix in 2000 holds around 1.32 million inhabitants.

 

Phoenix Sky Harbor

 

The international airport (did you know that the term “international” mostly means flights between US-states?) of Phoenix is located southeast from the city-centre. It is an almost flat region with only few hills within. The whole region has been a huge lake some million years ago. “Phoenix Sky Harbor” itself has been built up with three parallel runways of which two are close together in the north and the other one was risen in the south. In between there are all terminals, car parks and cargo-facilities.

 

 

A bigger screen is only a mouse click away…

 

On July 16th, 1935 at 04:10 p.m. the former little airfield of 285 acres (1 acres = 4.046,9 m²) has been bought by the city-authorities of Phoenix for the amount of 35.000 $ and 64.700 $ mortgage in total, As the airfield in this times more looked as an field it was called “the farm”. Times are changing J

 

Data 

 

Codes 

ICAO = KPHX

IATA =    PHX

 

Terminals

3

 

Terminal 1 has been opened on October 13th, 1952 after construction works for 835.000 $. In 1990 is was demolished after the opening of terminal 4. The airport-authorities have decided not to name any new terminal number 1 for this was very important for the development of the airport and should have a retirement in honour…

 

Terminal 2 came into business in spring 1962. With its additional capacity the airport for the first time has ben able to grow to more than 1 million passengers per year.

 

Terminal 3 has been opened together with a very big car park in 1989. The passengers well accepted the additional space: passenger numbers grew over 7 million for the first time in the history of “Phoenix Sky Harbor”.

 

Finally terminal 4 opened his doors to the public in November 1990. The authorities reported 15,4 million passengers who had checked in here in 1991 – more than 70 percent of the overall volume of the airport. Terminal 4 in addition consists of 7.400 parking lots and passengers love the short ways form the car to the plane…

 

 

You want a bigger picture? Just click within!

 

Parking Positions for Passenger-Planes 

101

 

Airlines 

23

 

Destinations within the US 

89

 

Destination (really ;-) International 

17

 

Statistics

 

 

 

Runways

 

07L/25R            3.139 x 46 Meter

07R/25L            2.377 x 46 Meter

    8/26             3.502 x 46 Meter

 

 

The central area and the runways are surrounded by the cargo-cities and the Air National Guard of Arizona!

 

Navigational aids

 

VOR DME (H)   „PHOENIX/PXR“            115.60 MHz                              …at the airport

 

07L       ILS                   „IPHX“                           111.50 MHz      078 °    CAT I

07R      ILS                   „IAHA“                         110.75 MHz      078 °    CAT I

 8         ILS                   „ISYQ“                          111.75 MHz      078 °    CAT I

 

 

25L	ILS	IRJG	110.75 MHz	258 °	CAT I
25R	LBC *	IPHX	111.50 MHz	258 °
26	ILS	ICWJ	111.75 MHz	258 °	CAT I

 

 

* LBC = LOC (BACK) CRS – please see the explanation below!

 

LOC (BACK) CRS

 

This navigational rarity is available here (again) for some months now. Runway 25R features a newly established LOC-(BACK)-CRS-approach-procedure after it has been replaced by an GPS-procedure for years.

 

Flying a LOC-(BACK)-CRS-approach the (pc-)pilot responds to the backward-beam of a normal ILS. Therefore additional technical facilities are not necessary. Two points have to be taken into account:

 

1. there is no indication of a glide path because there is no “backward” glide path

2. compared to a precision-approach there are higher minima for safety reasons – LOC (BACK) CRS are defined to be non-precision-approaches at all

 

 

As I said: A mouse click… The drawing is taken from my PC Pilotenseminar which is – I apologize for this – only available in German e.g. at www.fsc-ev.de!

 

To correct the course the (pc-)pilot has to do this vice versa: Is the needle to the right he has to correct to the left!

 

 

 

Phoenix Sky Harbor on the web

 

The airport's web presentation is very big and very informative. All relevant data like connections, how to get here, shopping and dining at the airport, environmental activities and the economical impacts are shown here. Please click:

 

 

 

Simulation

 

The scenery of „Phoenix Sky Harbor“ has been published in July 2004 by SimFlyers and is ready for use with FS 2002 and FS 2004.

 

Availability

 

The scenery consists of

 

SFSetup-KPHX.zip (35 Mb)

KPHX-manual.zip (1.8 Mb)

kphxArmada.zip (325 Kb)

SFUpdate-KPHX.zip (391 Kb)

 

All files can be downloaded from the SimFlyers website at

 

http://www.simflyers.net/dlkphx.htm

 

The code for the non-limited use of the scenery costs

€ 18,50

to be paid via Simmarket

 

http://secure.simmarket.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=11&products_id=849

 

Please take care of the reduced bundle-prices if you want to buy more than one scenery!

 

Contents of delivery

 

SimFlyers have made a 18 page manual to explain the airport

 

 

the scenery itself and it integral gimmicks. There are the

 

ServiceArmada ™

 

which is offered as a separed download for the first time. The pc-pilot has to decide by him- or herself to use this feature together with JetDock ^TM or not. For sure not installing the armada will save another frame rate… All the functionality is explained in the manual.

 

 

The Safedocks are fitting to the present plane as well as…

 

 

…the ServiceArmada ™, if the feature has been installed before!

 

A (first?) patch is available now to correct a problem with FS-built-in ATC which causes some trouble with the height in the region around the airport. Downloading the patch is recommended for all users who have downloaded the scenery before July 13^th, 2004.

 

A part of the new scenery is

 

SimFlyers Display Tool

 

too. With this tool it is possible to switch objects and effects on or off. SimFlyers Display Tool offers a variety of options to find out the best performance-setting for the own pc.

 

 

Setup

 

The installation is as easy as it should be. Double click on the executable file and the scenery will be set up for both simulators correctly in the folder

 

…\SIMFLYERS\KPHX

 

An entry in the SCENERY-.CFG is made in addition so you can use “Phoenix Sky Harbor” after the next start of the simulator.

 

Uninstall

 

To uninstall the scenery simply again double click on the EXE-file and this will remove or repair the installation.

 

 

Scenery

 

Now the time is high to have some in-depth-looks on „Phoenix Sky Harbor“ and to rate it. Beside my homemade screens following there are lot more here at SimFlyers

 

http://www.simflyers.net/scrkphx.htm

 

and at Simmarket

 

http://secure.simmarket.com/product_info.php?products_id=849

 

to be seen. We are approaching the airport from the west at day and night time:

 

 

The first to see is the nearly perfect blending into the FS’s (the review was made based on FS 2004 only) surrounding here. On the other hand the light effects Raffaele implemented here are remarkable.

 

We continue with the branch of Southwest Airlines at the airport which has built up an own hangar. The airline uses “Phoenix Sky Harbor” as one of its most important major hubs.

 

 

The amount of details at the aprons…

 

 

…the drawings on the ground and all the lightning there, which consists of 3D-edgelights…

 

 

…lighted terminals and other buildings plus garages. Also stunning and remarkable are nearly

 

 

…all the buildings which surround the airport like storages and fuel stations and…

 

 

…partly roofed parking-positions for propeller-aircraft 3D-PAPI’s and of course the tower of the airport-radar:

 

 

A special mentioning the designer deservs for the different levels which he implemented at this airport. Gone are the times where designers had to fake tunnels and bridges by placing some shadows – please have a look at SimFlyers KFJK and you will see what I mean.

 

Designed the new way the streets at the terminals are “really” beneath the level of the aprons which establishes – together with

 

 

…the transparency-effects at the glass-mounted gangways – a complete new optical feeling. Raf’s idea making “real” bridges out of the taxiways R, S, and T I call sensational for the pc-pilots can really roll over this bridges watching cars going by one level below. He indeed designed a “multi-level”-airport:

 

 

This picture may proof it definitely:

 

 

 

Remarks   SimFlyers have reworked two of their older airports:   1. Atlanta   The scenery was newly built up from scratch with smooth GMAX taxilines, markings and optimized lightning. Textures have been remade with a higher resolution which makes a better look for the terminals and aprons. Here some comparisons *:         The Update available at:   http://www.simflyers.net/files/SFSetup-KATL2.zip   The price for the update key (for existing users) is € 8,75 at   http://secure.simmarket.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=11&products_id=812   2. Orlando   The new features of Orlando are the same as for Atlanta. the comparing screens * may show the differences between the old and the new version:       The screens were taken from SimFlyers website!   Orlando 2.0 can be downloaded at Simmarket’s internet-location at   http://simmarket.com/online/simflyers/SFSetup-KMCO2.zip   The price for the update key is € 8,75 as well and is to be paid here:   http://secure.simmarket.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=11&products_id=894

 

What’s positive? Or should I better say „megative“ J

 

1.         Highly detailed scenery where ever you look around!

2.         Stunning 3D-effects!

3.         No lack of performance despite number 1 and 2!

 

What’s negative?

 

1.         Nothing discovered right now…

 

Conclusion

 

The Italian designer Raffaele Fiore had closed a further gap in the FS’s US-scenic world. He did do well that I call this scenery one of the very best (!) ever published. With this work he made himself to a front-leading person in the simmer’s business and strengthened his rank as number 1 in between the designer’s team at SimFlyers. He underlined his position eye to eye with the best designers of the world.

 

I rate “Phoenix Sky Harbor” with 10 out of 10 FSC-Boeings and…

 

 

…want to say my heartfelt congratulations for this outstanding new product. This American airport should be used by every simulant who loves to virtual fly over the american continent. Of course other pc-pilots should think of buying it without the danger of unwanted side-effects as we all are depending from our hobby in full; didn’t we?

 

The reviewer now has found his third most loved airport in the US beside Las Vegas (made by Raffaele for SimFlyers as well) and San Diego (designed by Martin Brunken/FlyTampa).

 

Always three greens, yours

 

Bert Groner

August 19th, 2004

 

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