As with most scenery developers at the moment, we're investigating how much work is needed to convert existing airports into the new Microsoft Flight Simulator. With the limited SDK and documentation that's currently available, we're finding that some design jobs are easier than the old ESP-based simulators and some are harder.

That said, our home airport Plymouth is now undergoing a simple remake to see how much work is required. So far, only the ground and lighting has been made using the in-built editor. Existing airport models such as the terminal etc are expected to be a straight conversion. Newer lighting techniques using SODE as used in our Newquay Airport scenery are pretty much impossible right now, so default lighting is being used at Plymouth, which coincidentally does have 3D models attached.

Here's a preview of how Plymouth is getting on:

Newquay Cornwall X has now been updated to work within Prepar3D v4 and has been renamed to Newquay Airport.

This update includes a complete remake of the lighting system, new and updated building models including updated logos, hangars, and an expanded ground layout incorporating the Golf and Hotel aprons. Whilst the Classic Air Force company has since been shut down since the original release, we've kept the Nimrod 404 hangar with their identity for now as a thanks to them for arranging our initial visit.

The updated lighting system makes heavy use of SODE, which allows models to be injected into the simulator at runtime, instead of being part of the scenery. Using this, we've been able to make automatic runway lighting that appears in certain weather conditions, timed to switch off when the airport is closed, and PAPI lights that shine well beyond the old 4nm visibility of the old system. We've even been able to model the pink transition between red and white.

We hope you enjoy this new version as much as we have in making it.

We have now released version 1.00 of Newquay Cornwall X to Flightsim.com and AVSIM. We recommend using the installer version found on Flightsim.com as that allows updates etc and ensures all the correct files are un-modified and present. The version on AVSIM is a zip archive which will need to be manually installed. The manual for the scenery can be found in the extras folder.

Download links are available from our downloads page here.

Following the release of Majestic Software's Dash-8 Q400, South West Scenery now has it's own fleet and livery. G-SWSA and G-SWSB were delivered to Exeter Airport several weeks ago until completion of runway and taxiway improvements at Plymouth.

The improvements, based on Sutton Harbour Holdings' airport master plan, allow bigger aircraft to use the aerodrome including the Q400 and ERJ195. As the real airport is currently closed, South West Scenery can take on the design work of Sutton Harbour Holdings and create a reasonable approximation of what the field would have looked like with a bit of applied Artistic license. New hangarage, fire station, fuel farm, engine test bay, bigger terminal, bigger car park, double-sized apron and a 68m runway extension are being implemented at this "test" airport. South West Scenery even has it's own aircraft maintenance hangar!

The page for Plymouth City X has been updated with new screenshots of the imminent update.  They show both the "2011" and "2012" airport versions.  The update should be released very soon through the options program and shortly after on AVsim.  Stay tuned!