History Lesson
Doncaster Airport, or Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield, is
located at the old RAF Finningley Airbase which was decommissioned
in 1995. The airport opened in April 2005 with the first flight
being to Palma de Mallorca. By the end of 2006 the airport was the
23rd largest in the UK by passenger volume. The airport has one of
the largest and widest runways in the UK due to it’s ex-military
operation.
Doncaster Airport was born due to the rising demand for low cost
carriers and the need for another commercial airport in the North
of England. Being from Yorkshire myself we only really had the
option of Leeds Bradford airport or a trip over to Manchester
Airport for our flights (not many Yorkshiremen relish the prospect
of travelling into Lancashire!). Doncaster Airport has helped to
solve this problem, although it was not without opposition. Over
11,000 people signed a petition to prevent the airport opening,
thankfully common sense prevailed.
The airfield has a long history as a military base. During the
First World War it was used to intercept German Zeppelins
targeting the North. In World War Two it was used mainly as a
training base and a finishing school for the new crews of Bomber
Command. The airfield’s importance rose during the Cold War where
it was used for the nuclear-armed Vulcan bombers. One of those
aircraft, XH558, is currently based at the airport today and you
can go and visit her if you so wish.
EGCN’s most famous resident |
Download and Installation
The installer comes as a 100mb file, which only took a matter of minutes to download. There is also a small update available. My version came directly from the UK2000 site and the installation was flawless – enter the relevant information provided to you at the time of purchase and you are good to go. It is worth mentioning that if you own any of UK2000’s other Doncaster sceneries you will need to deactivate these via the UK2000 configuration tool. There is a free version available to download from the UK2000 website and also a version included with their VFR Airfields Volume 3 package. The UK2000 product page has a table which shows what is included in each version.
Exploring the Airport
For those of you who have not been to the airport in the real world it is basically the old RAF hangars and a small terminal building. When I’ve been through the airport it is totally different to the likes of Heathrow and Manchester – much simpler. The add-on is fully deserving of the Xtreme title, but is a totally different Xtreme to the major international airports which UK 2000 also offers.
That said, there is a lot to see around the airport and all the buildings are accurately modelled based on their real world counterparts. There aren’t hundreds of buildings but there are more than enough to keep you busy for a long time. As with all UK2000 products the modelling and textures on the buildings is first class and doesn’t cause too much of a performance hit.
Airport overview |
Airport overview 2 |
Airport overview 3 |
Old Hangars |
The difference between the default, VFR Airfields Vol.3 and Xtreme airports is massive, and you are left with no doubt that the Xtreme title is fully deserved. The car park outside the airport is modelled with 4,000 cars (these can be turned off if performance is an issue) and makes the airport look lived in.
Control Tower |
Hangars and Maintenance |
Busy car park - 4,000 cars |
Cars, lots of cars |
Admin Offices |
Lots to see |
The airport blends into the default scenery reasonably well with the detail stretching to the airport boundary. There is still the obvious difference in textures but it is not as bad as some airports. Users of VFR photo sceneries and Orbx FTX EU England probably won’t have this problem.
Blends into default scenery reasonably well |
The night textures of add-on airports can, on occasions, let them down. Doncaster Xtreme probably has the best night lighting of any of their products. Although I did think that on approach the runway lights were not as bright as I thought that they should be. It could be quite hard to pick out the airport in poor weather. Down on the ground the lighting is fantastic and exactly how airports look in the dead of night; subtle but very effective.
Night Approach |
Night lighting is lovely |
Night time Birds Eye View |
Ground night lighting is perfect |
The Not So Good
Whilst only a small drawback, the people which are scattered around the airport are not the best I have ever seen. Granted you will only notice this when very close to the people, but it’s still noticeable.
These people aren't the nicest I've seen |
The manual was reasonable but perhaps could have included a more detailed section on system set-up. I am using a fairly powerful machine and had no problems whatsoever running the scenery at maximum settings but users on a lower spec machine may need to tweak the settings for a while to find that sweet spot. The manual makes it clear that those users who already have other UK2000 Doncaster products installed need to remove/deactivate them before installing the Xtreme version.
Conclusion
Doncaster Xtreme is a massive improvement over both the default and VFR Airfields depictions of the airport. It’s not a sprawling airport, but everything at the airport is modelled to a high quality with very little impact on system performance. There are one or two small drawbacks but these will not stop anyone enjoying flying in and out of this airport. Whilst the manual isn’t the best the included configuration tool is easy to use to add/remove elements of the scenery which may impact performance. At only £16.99 for the download version it represents excellent value for money. If you would prefer a CD version the price rises to £23.99 which I think is a little high. If you want to take the scenery for a test drive before you purchase it there is a free demo version which you can try.
Verdict
• Level of detail: • Performance: • Scenery Coverage: • Quality of Buildings: • Documentation: • Value for money: |
9.0/10 10./10 8.0/10 9.0/10 7.0/10 9.0/10 |
UK2000 Doncaster Xtreme is a worthwhile addition to your flight simulator and I am pleased to award it a Mutley’s Hangar score of 8.5/10
Rob Scott
Review machine Spec: Intel i7 2600k @3.40GHz | 8GB DDR3 RAM 1600MHz |NVidia GTX570 1280MB GFX Card |Windows 7 64bit Home Premium