Scenery Reviews
Santorini,
“Big scenery 2012”
ICAO:
LGSR , IATA: JTR
Scenery by
Albysim Scenery Design
Category: Donationware
Version: 1.0
Flight Simulator: FS2004
Rating: 
Santorini
Santoriniis an island in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km (120 mi) southeast from Greece's mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago which bears the same name and is the remnant of a volcanic caldera. Santorini is essentially what remains after an enormous volcanic explosion that destroyed the earliest settlements on a formerly single island, and created the current geological caldera.
The traditional architecture of Santorini is similar to that of the other Cyclades, with low-lying cubical houses, made of local stone and whitewashed or limewashed with various volcanic ashes used as colours.
The island of Santorini is famous for it's blue roofed churches, as you can see almost on each picture postcard from the island, and has certainly some of the most romantic spots in the world, especially in the village of Oia.
About the Airport
Santorini (Thira) National Airport is located north of the village of Kamari. The airport serves both as a military and as a civil airport. With its relatively small apron, the airport is only able to serve up to 6 civilian planes at the same time. The tower also serves as approach / departure, up to FL170.
Kamari town and the airport as seen from the top of Ancient Thira: Source: Wikipedia
Scheduled airlines include Olympic Air and Aegean Airlines, with chartered flights from other airlines during the summer. Transportation to and from the air terminal is through buses, taxis, hotel car-pickups and rental cars.
Soure: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santorini_%28Thira%29_National_Airport
The Santorini Scenery
The scenerry covers the complete island with much attention to details.
- Hundred of detailed objects, static and animated vehicles
- Animated scenery parts (rotating beacon, bagage moving on the bagage tape, rotating windmills, blinking lights…)
- Extreme autogen density on the towns + custom designed photoreal textures for the autogen buildings (with real greek -looking house fronts)
- Night lighting on the full scenery
- Custom made landclass file with completely redesign terrain, coastlines, main towns and streets on the whole island (in according to the satellite image)
- Different kind of landmarks (churches, factories,windmills and more) designed from real pictures and placed all around on the island
Although I had some frame rate problems, I suppose that with most systems the frame rates will be in an acceptable range. This was verified on another test system.
The freeware (demo) version of Santorino does not include all features and scenery details. If you want to have access to all features and without time limitation, you can upgrade to the donate version. Simply donate EUR 6,- for the Albysim Scenery Design team.
Promotion video on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=88p5w8IHjZU
Boarding completed. Ready to taxi...
Installation
The scenery comes without an installer program. Some copy paste action are necessary to copy the scenery files into to correct folders. All necessary steps are very well explained in the setup instruction. However, read the instruction carefully and perform the installation step by step as described. Finally add the scenery to the scenery library.
Promotion image provided by the designer team
Runway Layout and Approach Procedures
The main asphalt runway (16L-34R) is 6972 feet/2125m in length. The parallel taxiway was built to runway specification (16R-34L). It can accommodate Boeing 757, Boeing 737, Airbus 320 series, Avro RJ, Fokker 70, and ATR 72.
Approach procedures are VOR 326 circling and NDB 125 circling. Entry procedures (STARS) are available from MILOS, ASTIS, and ATLAN.
Approach chart VOR 326 Circling (with kind permission of Navigraph)
Note:
The Final Approach Track does not intercept the RYW extended centreline.
Here you can find a nice video of an approach: Visual approach rwy 34R
Another nice promotion image provided by the designer team
Conclusion
Albysim Scenery Design has accomplished again a very comprehensive piece of work. The scenery of the complete island is very detailed and includes a wide range of well known landmarks. Villages are placed were they are supposed to be, and people who know the island will find their way around.
The price tag for the upgrade is fair, you will not get more scenery of Santorini anywhere else for less money. However, I see some spots for improvement:
- The runway and apron textures should be enhanced, the used standard textures are below expectations. Especially the sharp edges between concrete and gras lower the good overall impression
- I could not find even one of the famous blue roofed churches. That's the picture what I always have before my eyes when thinking about Santorini. This probably has to do with the color scheme the design team used for the blue roofs.
Download
The scenery is available for download at avsim.com:
http://library.avsim.net/download.php?DLID=162526
Product page Albysim Scenery Design:
http://www.albysimsd.hostoi.com/EN_santorini.htm
Special thanks to my friend Klaus for his helpfull review comments.