"From Rennweg, begins the orient" Prince Metternich once said of
the road outside his home. He wasn't wrong. Vienna sits at a
crossroads geographically between the western European capitals
and the exotic Eastern European counties that straddle the Russian border. Vienna itself has been the home of the one of the
great empires, of royals and rebels and some damn fine coffee.
Today though Vienna is a more sedate city, the kind of place you
go to relax after you've grown tired of Barcelona's nightlife. If
the city though is a place to relax, sip coffee and enjoy the
cultural niceties that are on offer, It's airport lives up to its
historic billing, being a crossroad where east meets west.
Vienna international is located just 11 miles south of the city
centre and is less than an hour from Bratislava in Hungary. Though
it's called Vienna airport (Or Flughafen Wien) It's still generally
known as Schwechat airport by the locals, due to its location in
Schwechat. Originally serving as a military field dating back to
the first world war, It became Vienna's international airport in
1960. Today the airport is as busy as most major European hubs and
is Austria's busiest airport with passenger numbers reaching in
excess of 16 million in 2010. All of which makes this airport a
worthy addition to the discerning FS pilot. So enter Aerosoft and
Fly Tampa with their Vienna X scenery.
What do I get?
Welcome to Vienna international
This is no ordinary airport - the mega airport series very often aren't. Just sitting at the gate I became aware that Vienna X is a little bit special.
To the northwest of the airport, towards Vienna itself is a large industrial complex. I passed it myself on the train from the airport when I had the opportunity to visit Vienna last year. Here in the sim though, I found this land mark to be fully modelled despite being outside of the airport itself. Smoke even escapes from the large chimney's found there. So this airport is something special. With this in mind I thought I'd deal with the scenery provided by splitting it up between airside and landside.
Landside
A trip up the refinery and industrial complex revealed the detail that fly Tampa have gone into. This is no simple set of generic buildings placed on top of the custom mesh. It's a fairly detailed rendition of the refinery, missing only the train line that runs alongside the road. Still it's impressive and a great landmark for the approach to runway 11 take-off from 29. The smoke from the various chimney's just add to the ambiance.
If you need to pick up a few things, the supermarket is waiting for you |
A little advertising to tempt you |
Even the coaches are modelled |
Detail is everything |
Heading back to the airport reveals more eye candy. Within the airport perimeter sits the brightly coloured 'Billa' supermarket; modelled in all its bright yellow loveliness, styled with 'Billa' written in large red letters on the roof, it certainly easy to spot. It's a nice touch. There's lots of them in fact.
From the main terminals signage to the NH hotel held opposite the arrivals hall, there's plenty to see. There are even custom Vienna airport lines buses to sit in the bus station. Sneakily along with the advertising for Starbucks on the terminal 1 building, there are several adverts for fly Tampa products and Aerosoft as well. If airside is a nice as this, then I may need sedation.
Airside
As nice as the landside parts of Vienna International are, the
reason you buy a new airport is to get the airside version.
Sitting at a gate, and with reference to my previous quote, I had
to call the nurse. The view before me was crisp. The air bridges
all feature custom signage. And there are many air-bridges.
The main terminal is made up of two piers, east and west. Both curl around to form a lovely looking bowl shape that reminds me a little of Berlin's old Templehof airport. There are some lovely little touches. Around the old east and west piers, the 'Welcome to Vienna' titles are faithfully recreated whist just up on the arrivals hall roof sit two small aircraft, again faithfully recreated for us here.
But it's not just the old piers that are beautifully rendered. Indeed, fly Tampa have pre-empted real life and provided us with the brand new 'Skylink' terminal for us to use prior to its opening just this month, June the 5th. In fairness the terminal was due to be opened in time for the European Championship football tournament in 2008. Due to some accounting irregularities and a few inflated (vastly inflated) invoices billed to the airport authority, the local government halted the project until it could be investigated. The result was a 4 year delay and many aircraft parking at the gate only to have passengers bussed to the open terminals.
Austrian Airlines have their own hangars here at Vienna |
some of the remote stands for the Smaller aircraft that call Vienna Home |
the new ‘Skylink’ terminal Now open |
the refinery at night |
Here, the new terminal 3 is available for all aircraft to use. It looks a little imposing but it's a welcome addition. Behind it sits a few remote cargo gates and to the west there are many remote gates for the various Fokker F70's and ATR's that call the airport home.
But it's not just the terminals that look great. There are various engineering companies with hangers to the north of the terminal and they, like the rest of the airport, are all recreated in stunning detail. A visit to the Austrian Technik hangars reveal open hangers and engine exhaust diverters all placed with precision. If your flying in with a private jet though expect a lengthy but scenic taxi from the from runway 34 as the business terminal sits way up to the north West of the airport. At least the scenery is pleasant.
It's even better at night, with the custom lighting lifting the
airport to near photo realism. If around the airport is nice,
approaching it is even better if your arriving from any direction
you'll get to see the custom land class that reproduces the
surrounding fields in photorealistic glory. If you're approaching
from Vienna itself to either runway 16 or 11, then it's a VFR
delight as both the refinery and the eponymous Danube river makes
an appearance, whilst approaches to 34 and 29 also offer the
refinery as a great landmark. Keep an eye out for the long queues of
taxiing aircraft as Vienna is a very busy airport.
Watch out on approach as queues are likely
Verdict
What can I say about this amazing airport. Nothing bad that's for
sure. During taxiing trials, my frame rates never dropped below
30. And that was with 100% traffic from UT2. Indeed, even poor
weather failed to bring the frame rates down to below 20.
Admittedly that was on a relatively high end system, but still
it's impressive. Compare that to Aerosoft's Heathrow and I'm
barely pulling the high teens.
It's not just performance that elevates
Mega Airport Vienna X
above others. It's the little touches. From the refinery to the
advertising, right through to the small aircraft on the arrivals
hall, it's these touches that make this a must have. There are
even seasonal textures included to add to the realism.
All in all, this is a must have airport. It's busy, bustling and
just about perfect.
Mutley's Hangar score of
10/10
Jessica Bannister-Pearce
Review machine Spec:
Intel i5 2500K @ 4.5ghz | 8Gb Ram |590GTX
Graphics |Windows 7 / 64bit