Rhodes Airport Charts

[Lutgarda Briseno]

Ineed charts but more specifically a central repositories of charts (especially airport specific ones; i.e. terrain warning, ILS, taxi maps, etc.) for any place around the world. Every one knows Navigraph, Navair, Chart Fox, Skyvector but I stay away from sub based plans whenever possible and I find the others lacking in foreign (not US) countries (particularly Asia). So please list whatever sites you use for charts and what parts of the world they cover. Maybe this can help any one else who sees this and is flying in Asia, South Pacific, etc. Thanks.

So I did an ICAO google job for a rando airport in Vietnam (VVTS) I got Pilot Nav which points me to payware, SimPlates X Ultra. This happens every time I fly in Asia and by the time I find an approach plate I am looking for for free the controller on VATSIM has logged off already. Is Simplates really payware? Also if I am going to pay for something it might as well be Navigraph right?

Have you tried the airmate app. It has up to date nav cycle for free and can get it on Android or iOS it has plates from all over the world. The site is airmate.aero. you can also download a program that puts your aircraft on the moving map.

Another shout for Navigraph with moving map displays on chart, but it comes with a price. To me is worth every penny to have Jeppeson SIDS, STARS, taxi, airport diagram, high and low enroute charts for the world.

This Jamaican scenery is a collaboration between LatinVFR who are a Flight Simulator scenery development house and Skyline Simulations for X-Plane11 (Ex-Icarius). The original scenery was released by LatinVFR for FSX and FS2004 in 2010 and it includes 200sq Kilometers of photo scenery that includes the entire area of North West Jamaica.

There has always been a business in converting Flight Simulator Scenery to X-Plane, but like with Aerosoft, the quality can range from the excellent to the dire in the other extreme. In that mostly if the original host scenery is very good or even not that old, then the conversion can still be a very good one, but in most cases here it is the X-Plane conversion specialist that can make or break the end result. X-Plane scenery in design is quite different from the style of Flight Simulator, but it is always the 3d modeling quality, notable as if it is as good, it can still look the same in both simulator environments and give you a quality scenery.

Jamaica is situated almost centrally situated in the Caribbean Sea. The Island spans 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 sq mi) in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the fourth-largest island country in the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about 145 kilometres (90 mi) south of Cuba, and 191 kilometres (119 mi) west of Hispaniola (the island containing the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic).

Kingston is the Southern Island's capital. But in it is on the north coast that has had the Island's biggest impact, think Bob Marley, Ganja (Cannabis) and James Bond. Personally I always liked Jimmy Cliff far more the Bob Marley and you know it wasn't going to end well, and it didn't for Bob.

Ganja created a way of life in Jamaica that you could say created a very laid-back lifestyle and great music, but it also brought huge crime and poor living conditions as well. Ian Fleming was a very complicated person, but his move to Saint Mary's Parish (Port Maria) and to an old donkey racetrack created a modern icon, as it was here he created "Goldeneye", and where he would write one James Bond novel a year for the rest of his life that made him and the island famous. He loathed being poor? Felt very put upon in life and died a sad person in 1964. He desperately wanted the rich and have the finer things in life and in reality delivered far more though his alter ego James Bond, and that even included an airport named after him that has been built close by (MKBS). There are many clues around this area of Oracabessa bay that are littered thoughout the novels, Crab Key Beach is one... but in which book and movie?

Sangster International Airport (IATA: MBJ, ICAO: MKJS) is an international airport located 3 mi (4.8 km) east of Montego Bay, Jamaica. The airport is capable of handling nine million passengers per year. It serves as the most popular airport for tourists visiting the north coast of Jamaica. The airport is named after former Jamaican Prime Minister Sir Donald Sangster. Originally named the Montego Bay Airport, a decision was made to build the runway in 1940, and the actual construction of the facility was completed on 18 February 1947. At the time of its completion, the town of Montego Bay was more like a playground for the rich and famous, and was considered then, one of the premier vacation spots within the Caribbean, just as it is today. The original terminal was built and opened on 7 July 1959, with a capacity to accommodate 500 passengers per hour, and parking for seven aircraft at a time. The new eastern concourse of the Sangster International Airport (SIA) was officially opened in December 2005. The current airport has a flow of 4,284,558 passengers a year and 41,263 aircraft movements (2017).

In 2018 there has suddenly been a profusion of tropical scenery with lovely coral and sandbank colour. Think FlyCorfu XP from FlyTampa! and TNCM - Sint Maarten by AWD, and it feels that X-Plane is trying very hard to make up time in this scenery area, again it the same here at Montego Bay as these lovely photo scenery mesh textures do as noted cover 200sq Kilometers of a significant part of the island.

Runway and taxiway signage is basic, but so is the airport's layout... RWY 07's approach has over water approach lighting which is very good, the only note is that in parts of the water you can see boat (white) shadows that should have been removed.

The approach to RWY07 is interesting... you are warned of high ground on all charts and approach notes and hence the approach chart above. So flying in blind (the first time) you can still be caught out off guard, as the areas height is actually not that high, high, but it is where it is on the approach that makes it dangerous, the ground is lower at first but then there is a higher range just before you head over Montego Bay, so your aim is to go lower, when really you need to hold your altitude at 4600ft (say 5000ft) until you clear this final range and if you are lower at 3000ft it is a still possible but you will have to try to block out the constant "terrain, terrain" warnings, so a minimum of 4000ft is the goal. Once over the coastal line you have to of course drop quickly to land on the runway, a few goes and it is easy, and a low approach speed helps in giving you more space to lose the altitude.

There are two terminals that are connected with the older longer terminal is noted as domestic (original terminal) and the larger (left) terminal as the International. This scenery is eight years old and that aspect has to be always taken into consideration.

Overall the detailing is not too bad, I like the original central green roofing and there is a lot of items like air-conditioners also on the roof, windows (although small) are reflective. Tower view is not set? It is set somewhere on the west ramp?

There are active gates on all terminals, but they are not that effective to use? You park very close to terminal wall? and to see the guidance marshall I had to stand up in my pilots seat (view higher) to see down him to park? When parked the gate arms actually move inwards to fit to your aircraft door? and many a marshall are buried into the actual terminal building (left)? So the airbridges are not placed correctly.

There are no service vehicles or aircraft service equipment on the ramps either, so it quite empty out there... There is animated vehicle traffic that does work around the terminals, but they have a habit of queuing up for long periods of time and they don't run within their lane (left side) either.

Landside is quite simply poor to really average... flat blurry textures with a few 3d vehicles on top? no real detailing at all, and even a few trees thrown in here would break up the blandness.... you really wanted far better than this for a payware, even freeware.

And this brings us to the overall problem with this scenery. Is this a conversion or just put in the FSX components and see what do we actually have? Obviously the textures are not adjusted colour wise to the X-Plane colouring aspect, as they are too light in contrast, this is also highlighted a lot by the same high contrast trees, and obviously again the trees have come straight from the FSX scenery...

There is a tool called.... "Photoshop" and it is very good for doing changes to textures and to at least match up the trees to the X-Plane native colouring trees that here stand out like a game you can count with, in many areas the trees are missing altogether and then they are not edited either as they cover roads and traffic passes through the not only the trees but mid-road power poles as well?

WT3 There are built in ATC routes with this MKJS scenery, and for the native A.I. Aircraft and X-Life it works fine, but the generated WT3 routes don't work, they do on taking off and landing, but the action stays on the runway and there is no aircraft terminal placement either?

The ground routes by ysfsim for MKJS do work fine in all areas as they are in this review, but aircraft sit through buildings and taxi on the grass because the ground routes are not aligned for this scenery, but they are better than nothing at all...

We accept the fact that the original scenery which is the base of this X-Plane version was created for Flight Simulator and that also it is also eight years old, and that such scenery for X-Plane has always been converted to our simulator and will again be in the future.

And so the basis of the scenery is actually quite good, with excellent water textures (and a lot of them) and all of the airport's runway, taxiway and ramp surface textures are very good as well. The terminals are not as detailed like we mostly get today in X-Plane but they are serviceable and in fact they are fine as a basis of the airport.

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