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FTX NA KTVL Lake Tahoe Airport
For FSX/P3D/P3DV2 Published by Orbx
Reviewed by Joe Lawford
August 2014

Introduction

FTX: NA KTVL Lake Tahoe Airport is the third airport released for use with Orbx’s latest region FTX: NA Gold NCA - Northern California. This release was a culmination of many months work masterminded by Orbx’s rising star Misha Cajic. This scenery extends far beyond just the airfield, it also includes 500sq km of surrounding countryside, including the mountains of the Sierra Nevada range.

Lake Tahoe's nearest neighbouring FTX airport is Redding KRDD, about 144nm away on a heading of 313 degrees, or, if you have the FTX Global Freeware Airports NA Pack 16 installed, then you will have KMEV, Minden-Tahoe 13.5 nm away on a rough bearing of 60 degrees. Otherwise, there are many smaller airstrips, some of them enhanced by the NCA regional pack.

Location

Lake Tahoe Airport is situated south of the suburbs of South Lake Tahoe City, California. The city itself resides on the southern shores of North America’s biggest alpine lake, Lake Tahoe, and borders with the state of Nevada.

Its location within the alpine slopes makes it an ideal tourist centre for outdoor adventures such as backpacking, cycling, camping, golf, sailing, skiing, and fishing, and if you fancy a bet or two just over the border in the community of Stateline, Nevada, there are 5 casinos 4 of which are classed as resorts.

Airport

Airfield detail:
Lake Tahoe (TVL)(KTVL)
Coordinates: N38°53.63' / W119°59.72'
Surveyed Elevation is 6269 feet MSL.
Magnetic Variation from 1985 is 16° East
Operations for 2010: 23540

Runway Specifics


If you are flying a normally aspirated engine then the first thing you will need to come to terms with is the airfield elevation, at 6268 ft, mixture control should be foremost in your mind.

At 8541ft, the take-off distance available allows airliners such as the Q400, B738 and A320 to operate so an accomplished NGX pilot should have no problems visiting here.

Product Features (From Orbx)

    500sq km of pristine photoreal imagery;
    Stunning mountain location;
    Fully custom modelled airport and objects;
    Advanced rendering and AO techniques;
    Animated ski-lifts during the winter;
    All new custom vegetation exclusive to KTVL; and
    Includes SnowFlow, freezing rivers and lakes.

Availability and Installation

FTX: NA KTVL Lake Tahoe Airport is available from the FlightSim Store via download. Weighing in at just under 1GB, a download manager such as 'Free Download Manager' is a good choice for a faster and more reliable download. Download times vary depending on the demand for the product and are subject to your internet connection speed. An internet connection is also required for activation where you need to enter your order number, date of purchase and serial key to unlock the product.

This airport requires that the NCA.001 Patch be installed to ensure the airport elevation is correctly set. It will also ensure the coastlines and shores are corrected from the default NCA levels.

Once the installation is underway only a few mouse clicks are required to confirm the location and choice of simulator. The scenery layer is automatically activated and the scenery is ready to go, all in under 5 minutes.

Scenery Coverage Area

FTX: NA KTVL Lake Tahoe covers ~500sq km (~192 sq mi), reaching from the Heavenly Mountain Resort in the east to the Sierra Nevada mountain range to the west, Lake Tahoe is to the north and the Carson Range mountains to the south. The following map is courtesy of Orbx and gives an excellent overview of the area.

Level of Detail

  The scenery is designed to work with the scenery complexity slider set to extremely dense.

   

If you need to cut back the demands on your PC then the autogen density should be the slider you adjust first. The user manual will help with obtaining the optimal set up.

The level of detail is controllable from a control panel available via FTX Central.

The Control Panel will allow you to enable or disable scenery features of the airport to allow it to perform better with your PC setup. By default, all scenery options are enabled by the installer.

The scenery itself comes in three area resolutions, 30cm, 60cm and 1m and more detail is given below.

Airfield (30cm resolution)

Landside - Terminal - Approaching the terminal from the feeder road you can see a lot of work has been put into correcting the elevation of the textures onto the base photoscenery. Ok, it’s not spot on where the road meets the photoscenery, but it’s only fractionally out and just a minor detail, it may even be impossible to get the two levels to line up exactly .

Situated off the road which runs past the terminal, is a small car park which sits higher than the road and a couple of highly detailed staircases bring you down to the concourse level. The car park itself contains many boxy, low-poly library vehicles parked randomly, these are well below the quality of the custom vehicles airside. A well modelled feature which really shows how good the textures could be is the generator-like structure surrounded by  concrete bollards.


Sub Station

Concourse

As with most public buildings nowadays, there are blue badged disabled parking bays along the front of the terminal near the entrance. There are many visiting cars but, unfortunately, two of the vehicles are parked the wrong way around, the road passing the terminal is one-way and they are pointing against the flow of traffic.

We have a few animated characters in front of the terminal, one or two of which may be new. The terminal itself is a distinctive building with a main inverted V section with a north and south wing. The windows are opaque with painted on reflections so there is no internal detailing. Atop the building are several air conditioner units, a distinctive air vent, and a couple of CCTV cameras on opposing gables. Around the periphery of the terminal there are plenty of good looking clutter such as tyres, drums, crates, and bins.


Terminal Left
 

Terminal Right
 
To the south of the main terminal is the GA area entrance, according to the road sign this is home to Trajen Aviation (who were the predecessors to Mountain West Aviation) and the Civil Air Patrol. There is another car park for the GA pilots and entrance to a flying club and a couple of secure areas.


General Aviation FBO

Tower –The tower is set well away from the terminal and apron and is passed on the exit road from the terminal. It is set back on a plateau and strangely the view of the apron is obscured in places, like in front of the terminal. Like the terminal, the tower windows are opaque so we don’t get to see what’s inside. The building is replete with switch boxes and antennae which make for a very good representation of the real thing.


Control Tower

Airside - Buildings – There are many diverse buildings on the airfield and they are generally grouped together by type. To the south of the apron are the ubiquitous (lines of) aircraft hangars, there are a couple of static aircraft parked and one of the hangars is open which really lifts the visual monotony, a simple but effective tweak. Each hangar is individually numbered so you can see each building is not just a quick clone of another.

Closer to the terminal is the Calstar 6 building which provides EMS air medical services to both Northern California and Northern Nevada. They operate a MBB Bo 105 helicopter, this is not shown in the scenery but there is parked a couple of R44’s and a Agusta Westland AW-139 which is getting a good wash from an animated character. The Calstar 6 building is very well modelled with stairs at the front and a ramp out back.


Aircraft Hangars
 

Calstar 6 Building
 
Next up is the fire and rescue building which houses 5 vehicles, two of which are on display along with a FEDEX van and a CAT digger alongside the building. These vehicles are bright and clear and very believable.


AW 139 Helicopter
 

Fire Station
 
The terminal building itself looks much bigger airside due to the slope it is built on. The quality of the textures are not the best I have seen but are generally good, it is evident a lot of care has gone into its virtual construction. The terminal has opaque windows with good detail and reflections, and they look good at night. So, airside, we have balconies, stairs, tables, and chairs populated by animated and non-animated characters. The quality of the animations are very high too.


Terminal - Airside
 

Mountain West Aviation
 
Bordering the GA ramp is the FBO run by Mountain West Aviation. Another very highly detailed building with loads of external features like benches, planters, pallets, bikes, and bins making it so realistic. Again, we have animated characters bringing life into the sim, either reading the newspaper or cleaning equipment and taking swigs of water.

The GA apron is full of well drawn static aircraft, 15 to be precise, with all the usual stuff, PA28, C152, King Air, Caravan and even some more obscure aircraft like a Lake LA-4-200 Buccaneer and Raytheon Hawker 400XP.


More Hangars
 

Civil Air Patrol
 
At the northernmost end of the apron, well away from the other buildings, is a collection of hangars, trailer, trucks, and diggers, all fairly anonymous but the Civil Air Patrol building is well marked and as detailed as the buildings I mentioned earlier. From here, a track heads north and we find two more hangars which are fairly plain compared to the rest. The track then heads into the woods.

Apron & Clutter -There are many signs of an active, lived in airport. The ramps are busy with GA and more animated people. The main apron has a Gulfstream G350 jet boarding with a line of six passengers and one ground crew, all subtly animated.


Queue
 

Fuel Trucks & GA Apron
 
Elsewhere are custom fuel trucks, tow bars, air stairs, electrical cabinets, and many boulders. Most of these objects look to be custom designed and stand up well to close scrutiny.

Runway & Taxiways - The markings and signage are near perfect, the runways look worn in the way they should do with skids at either end. One major issue for me is there are no reflections or water on the runways and taxiways when it is raining. Furthermore, you get no spray from the wheels or jet engines and the same is true of snow, this may well be a limitation we have to live with. Living in a mostly wet country it seems odd to me not to have ground water.


Signage


Wet Runway With No Spray or Reflections

Environs - All of the detail and action is on the west side of the runway. To the east of the runway, not too far away is a fence which runs south-north for its entire length. Beyond which is unbuilt on land with lots of greenery and a river meandering its way through.


Circuit Indicator and Windsock
 

Stream
 

Boulders
 

More Clutter
 
Within the fence boundary, the airfield has trees, grass, wild flowers, bushes, and rocks all in good keeping with the countryside.

Additional Scenery Areas (60cm resolution)

Town - There are many notable features which are true to the real world and Barton Memorial Hospital is one of them. It is a custom designed model, albeit not to the quality of the airport buildings, it does, however, provide a raised landing ramp for helicopters. No doubt this is a very important landing place for the mountain rescue fleet.


Barton Memorial Hospital
 

School
 
One of the benefits of having photoscenery as the base texture is you can navigate using the roads and cross referencing with Google Earth. This way I identified many larger buildings like the Elementary School and the larger Middle School, mostly by the baseball diamonds and football fields

Waterfront - Tahoe Keys is a controversial development of 1,500 homes amongst a series of canals which run out to the lake. It sits alone divided from the main town by the Upper Truckee Marsh. Most properties have pontoons and in this scenery the pontoons and boats are 2D on the base photoscenery.


Tahoe Keys
 

Upper Truckee Marsh
 
The buildings and trees are modelled in 3D and look superb. This whole development has a very distinctive pattern from the air and there is no mistaking where you are.

Stateline - As the name suggests, this community area is on the state line with Nevada. Located on the east shore of Lake Tahoe it has several casinos which feature quite clearly in this scenery having well-crafted custom designed models.


Stateline Casinos
 

Casinos at Dusk
 
Heavenly Mountain Resort - Is a ski resort located on the California-Nevada border. Misha has included the base at California lodge and a ski lift based on the Gunbarrel Express. This operates from its base at 6565 feet and takes skiers up to Lakeview lodge at 8250 feet. From here you can take 3 of the double black routes, Gunbarrel, The Face and East Bowl. There are many chairs on the cable and every now and then there will be a couple of skiers in the chairs ascending.

Also included is the The Ridge Resorts which nestle in the mountain's eastern side overlooking the Carson Valley. Some of the buildings are very distinctive from the air and another great detail captured by this scenery.


Gunbarrel Ski Lift
 

The Ridge Resorts
 
Wider Scenery Area (1M resolution)

What is amazing is the inclusion of a 1 metre surrounding area, which includes beautifully detailed mountain ranges, including part of the Sierra Nevada and Carson Ranges, and the remainder of the Heavenly Mountain Resort. This is quite aptly named as many people have met their maker there including singer and U.S. Representative Salvatore (Sonny) Bono.


Wider Area Shot 1
 

Wider Area Shot 2
 
Photoscenery - To start with, I was not too keen on the colouring of the underlying photoscenery used in this product, especially in P3D. To me it looked somewhat washed out and low resolution, especially near the airport. Even in the summer there appeared to be a lot of off-white areas with a green tinge. I compared the textures with the FSX version; these were far more colourful and not so over baked looking. With JV’s ENB filter, FSX was looking better than its P3D equivalent. 


Photoscenery

Now I have got used to the tint of the photoscenery its benefits far outweigh any imperfections perceived by me.

Seasons

This scenery comes with additional SnowFlow technology, so when in the winter and hard winter seasons the main scenery buildings have white roofs and the trees are covered with snow. The lakes, however, are frozen from the 1st of November through to the 31st of March so are not strictly aligned to any season.

When comparing the seasonal changes, spring and autumn use the same textures whereas summer and winter have their own set, and hard winter is a brightened set of the winter textures. Unless you flip back and forth between the two winter sets you would probably think they are the same such is the subtlety of the changes.


Apron and Terminal - Summer
 

Apron and Terminal - Winter
 

Lake - Summer
 

Lake Winter
 
The difference is remarkable, obviously the trees have to be re-planted and the lakeside building above has become obscured by the winter trees. The base photoscenery is also adjusted to suit seasons through lightening, darkening, and recolouring.

Night Lighting

The area benefits from 3D vector road lights from the NCA region pack so cannot fail to look stunning on a late dusk approach.

A few of the more prominent buildings such as the casinos and hospital for example, have night textures so are easily identifiable in the dark. The airport buildings (terminal, fire station, FBO and Civil Air Patrol) all have lit windows and some local floodlighting but otherwise the apron is quite dark.


Terminal at Night
 

Approach Lighting
 
The taxiway and runway lights look good raised on short poles. REIL lights are nice and bright as are the lead in lights on Runway 18. The VASI lights, however, are way out of alignment with the lamp units and almost interfere with the edge lights of the runway but they do appear to be accurate as far as the glideslope is concerned.


Misplaced VASI Lights


On Final After a Great Day Flying Around FTX: NA KTVL Lake Tahoe

Documentation

A detailed 20 page PDF document is provided and follows a familiar format for existing users.

There is an interesting overview of the region including scenery coverage maps and airport charts. Also included is a on additional scenery features so you know what you can expect to see. The manual then goes on discuss performance and set up issues and will instruct how to set up your machine for optimum performance.

Performance

FTX: NA KTVL Lake Tahoe Airport performed excellently within the existing settings I have in FSX and P3D. I have my frame rate locked at 30 frames per second with most of my settings set high to very high and with full shadowing (HDR Off) and there was no need to make any adjustments to compensate for performance issues.

Value for Money

Presently, the FlightSim Store is retailing the product at AUD$32.95 which is a standard price point for their standalone airports. For me, FTX: NA KTVL Lake Tahoe Airport represents excellent value for money given the huge scenery area.

Technical Requirements

With the exception of requiring a good broadband connection to download the 965MB of installation files, nothing else is specified.

The following is included only as guide and not quoted by Orbx.
    Windows Vista or Windows 7 (32 or 64 bit), Windows 8 & 8.1;
    Microsoft Flight Simulator FSX with SP1 and SP2 (or Acceleration Pack) or Lockheed Martin Prepar3d Flight Simulator installed; and
    2.0 GHz single core processor (3.0GHz and/or multiple core processor or better recommended), minimum 2GB RAM (4GB recommended),
       2GB graphics card, and 1.1 GB available HDD space.

Review Computer Specifications

The specifications of the computer on which the review was conducted are as follows:
    Intel i7 4770K o/c to 4.2GHz);
    GTX 690 4096MB GDDR5 graphics;
    16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1866MHz;
    Windows 7 Pro, (64bit);
    Lockheed Martin Prepar3D v2.3; and
    Additional major add-ons seen in screenshots include REX4 Texture Direct.

Conclusion

This is Misha Cajic’s best scenery by far. A great choice of airfield and an abundance of extra scenery areas to explore. The quality of the buildings and other scenery features, such as the ski lifts are excellent.

This airport is now definitely in my favourites list when it comes to choosing a destination to fly to.

Verdict & Rating

Another excellent product from Orbx, FTX: NA KTVL Lake Tahoe Airport displays an amazing level of detail to complement the other products in the Orbx offering. The scenery is only let down by a couple of niggles which shouldn’t affect your overall experience.

Pros:

Interesting location.
Top quality custom buildings.
A very lively airport.
Huge area to explore.

Cons:

Minor elevation problem behind terminal and incorrectly placed vehicles.
A few reversed texture issues on helicopter and some shops.
Mis-placed VASI lights.

Scores:
   ● Scenery Coverage: 10/10
   ● Level of Detail: 10/10
   ● Quality of Buildings: 9.0/10
   ● Performance: 10/10
   ● Value for Money: 10/10

Orbx FTX: NA KTVL Lake Tahoe Airport is awarded an overall Mutley’s Hangar score of 9.8/10, with an "Outstanding" and a Mutley's Hangar Gold Award.


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