The A2A Simulations Community

Hi all,

Since Flightsimstore.com has a 44% sale through April on ORBX FTX products, I took the plunge and bought Pacific Northwest, Northern Rocky Mountains, and--last night--Central Rocky Mountains.

From the product description I didn't think Great Falls, Montana (my real-world city of residence) would be included in either of the Rocky Mountains packages. However, I ended up buying CRM because it covers Helena, about 90 miles away. I sometimes drive through the mountains and canyons to Helena as recreation on the weekend, so I was very interested in how FTX would portray it. I was happy that specific landmarks like the Sleeping Giant and Holter Dam were easily recognizable on my initial flight out of Helena towards Great Falls.

To my surprise, the ORBX coverage didn't end on the Great Falls side of the mountain range. As I approached Great Falls, I recognized a row of wind turbines that are about 5-10 miles outside of the city, and very visible from the international airport where my Air National Guard unit is located:




Sorry, I don't have an F-15 in my FSX hangar.

I haven't switched back to compare to my GEX/UTX configuration, but to my eyes the terrain is more like real-life:




Another significant improvement added by FTX CRM is the series of dams on the Missouri River in and near Great Falls. I just think that is pretty cool and I wanted to share.

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I like Thunderbolts! (Link to MySpace tribute page)


120th Fighter Wing, Montana Air National Guard

I'll probably go for an airport or two, and perhaps New Zealand. Probably save my money for Jackson Hole though...

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© 2011 Peter J. Carlson, All Rights Reserved
"O! for a horse with wings!" -William Shakespeare

The only real criticism I have of CRM comes from ORBX's attempt to improve Great Falls' two military bases. They populated the Air National Guard base with static F/A-18s, which isn't an objectionable substitute for F-15s except most of them are in Blue Angels liveries -- I wonder if ORBX was influenced by the Blue Angels coming the ANG base last summer for our airshow/open house? Also, FTX makes the active-duty base (which is in reality closed to fixed-wing aircraft) look like an abandoned munincipal airport. From the air the footprint of the autogen on and around the base looks more correct than either the stock or UTX renditions however.

_________________
I like Thunderbolts! (Link to MySpace tribute page)


120th Fighter Wing, Montana Air National Guard