[jhb] Woody Farm Strips

  • From: Gerry Winskill <gwinsk@xxxxxxx>
  • To: JHB Restricted <jhb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2011 16:40:11 +0000

Right, the job is finally finished!
What I've done, with the Treescapes AG enabled on my system, is to visit each of the 100 plus of my farmstrips, to check the effect of the ES sourced AG Trees. I haven't checked any other designers' farms, since that would make and already slightly dodgy situation even worse. More of that shortly.

When the Treescapes was designed it was with the object, I guess, of providing most of the real world Horizon Photoscenery areas with fairly realistic AG coverage. This it has achieved quite magnificently. Ask any of the list members who have Treescapes and I'll risk a small bet that none will contemplate UK VFR flight without the AG switched on. It really has made an enormous difference.

What ES were clearly unable to do was exactly match tree types and, more important, tree sizes with real world equivalents. The size can become critical when there are trees close to an airfield or farm strip. If the real world strip has trees of, say 25 ft height, across the thresholds, then those trees are replaced by 75 feet AG versions, then the strip can become unuseable. I've checked out all 100 strips and replaced over large trees with more acceptable versions, to keep the strips in play.

Nor have ES set out to reproduce ALL single trees in the vast area they have tackled. That would be totally impossible. For general VFR flying the fact that every single tree isn't present is, again, quite acceptable. In the case of farm strips the absence of some trees can change the nature of a strip to an unacceptable degree. Lower Upham is a good example. I tackled the strip at the request of a RW resident pilot. Having put in most of the tree coverage that Google Earth reveals, I felt there had to be a mistake. The route from taxiway to landing strip passed beneath the overhanging branches of a couple of very large trees. That didn't look the sort of hazzard I thought realistic. The RW pilot, however, confirmed that Lower Upham is exactly like that.

So, lots of additional trees have had to be entered, to get the best out of Treescapes, when used with my farms. The finished tree coverage can be downloaded from the link below. I almost overlooked the fact that the download is 50Mb ....


http://www.homepages.mcb.net/gwinsk/GWFARMSTRIPSAG.zip


My Horizon photoscenery is in All In One format, so that's the only way I've been able to produce the edited files. If you are also using AIO, then simply copy the contents of the unzipped download to your 2.4M PHOTO folder's TEXTURE folder, allowing them to overwrite existing files. Before I did it with my own I did a backup copy of that TEXTURE folder; just in case.

If you don't run the AIO route, then Paul gave a link to the George Davidson programme that will copy the contents of the download to the relevant Volume and Area texture folders. Again, I'd be tempted to make a backup, first.

As I said in the note about my starting the project, the download is really aimed at JHB members who have already purchased Treescapes. I should have added that I guess you also need to be running FSX and not FS9.

I'm not offering the AG beyond our own list; why? Because each tile includes trees I've put in but also trees that are there because I use Treescapes and they aren't my property. That leaves any designer somewhat shackled. In theory I'd need to strip out all trees that weren't placed by me. I could do that, though it would be a big job. BUT, and it's a big but, if a legitimate Treescape purchaser added my stripped down version, then he would lose a lot of his original Treescape coverage. I can live without the flak that would bring my way. So, any non JHB Treescape owners who find farmstrips blocked will have to take it up with ES!

Where does that leave JHB members who haven't bought Treescapes? I can't stop you from installing it. In fact I think that it might be to ES's advantage if you do use my download. Its unzipped size is 224Mb. The full Treescapes is 2.2Gb, so what you receive is just a small proportion of what you would get by purchasing Treescapes. Once you see it I'll be surprised if the full prog doesn't go onto your Must Have list.

In this game it's all to easy to install scenery and then not get the benefit from it. The trees make an immense difference to the strips. If you've already visited the full 100, then do som again; they are greatly changed by the trees. In the attached file Ive listed 36 strips where the AG trees are to be seen at their best. I'm going to work my way around them in VFR flights, rather than positioning and Slewing, as I've done for the past week. If you look at the list and find there are strips mentioned that you don't currently have, give me a shout. I've quite a few that I've done as Requests and forgotten to put up for download.

I'll be putting together a schedule, to take me around the full 36. If anyone wants it, again just shout.

Gerry Winskill
FARMS TO VISIT BECAUSE OF TREES
===============================

ALCESTER, WARWICKSHIRE,  4 NM S of Redditch,  52 13.84N  1 52.68W 
BENINGTON, HERTS,  9 NM E of Luton,  51 53.00N  0 07.00W
BOSHIP, SUSSEX,  1 nm W of Hailsham,  50 52.59N  0 13.77E
BOURNE PARK, HANTS,  3.5 NM NNE of Andover,  51 15 59N/01 27 31W  
CAPESTON, PEMBS,  2.7 nm WNW of Milford Haven,  51 44.70N  5 06.00W 
CHIRK, CLWYD, 1nm NE of Chirk,   52°56.82N  003°02.72W  
CLIFFE FARM, YORKS,  2nm E of Selby,  53 47.05N  0 59.63W
CLIPGATE, KENT,  2nm SW of Aylesham,  51 11.11N  1 09.30E
CLUTTON HILL, AVON,  7.5nm ESE of Bristol Airport,  51 20.57N  2 31.22W
DOWLAND, DEVON,  SE of Eaglescott,  50 53.00N  4 02.51W
EGGESFORD, DEVON,  SW of Eaglescott, 50 52.13N  3 52.13W
FARTHING CORNER, KENT,  4 NM S of Gillingham,  51 19.83N  0 36.07E
GARSTON FARM, WILTS,  1nm NNW of Colerne,  51 27.60N  2 18.10W
GORRELL FARM, DEVON,  14nm SW of Barnstaple,  50 56.70N  4 23.20W
GRAVELEY, HERTS,  7 nm NE of Luton Airport,  51 56.45N  0 12.10W
GREEN FARM WELLESBOURNE, WARWICKSHIRE,  3 nm SE of Wellesbourne,  52 09.56N  1 
33.00W
GUNTON PARK, NORFOLK, 2 nm N of Suffield,  52 50.30N  0 27.16E
HANLEY WILLIAM, WORCS,  12 nm NW of Worcester,  52 17.98N  2 28.22W
HERMITAGE, DORSET,  10 nm N of Dorchester,  50 51.88N  2 29.28W
HOOK AIRSTRIP, BLACKBUSHE,  2 nm N of RAF Odiham,  51 16.50N  0 56.53W
JENKINS FARM, ESSEX,  51 38.37N  0 12.09E  
LANE FARM, RADNOR,  4 NM NW of Hay-on-Wye,  52 07.48N  3 12.00W
LOW FARM, SOUTH WALSHAM, NORWICH,  8 nm E of Norwich,  52 41.??N  1 31.??E
LYMINGE, KENT,  7 NM S of Canterbury,  51 09.84N  1 04.53E
MAYPOLE FARM, KENT,  2.5 NM SSE of Herne Bay,  51 20.31N  1 09.34W
MELBURY, DORSET,  4 nm ESE of Yeovil,  50 52.70N  2 37.26W
NANTCLWYD HALL, DENBIGH,  3.5 nm SSW of Ruthin.  53 03.49N  3 19.46W
OLDBURY-ON-SEVERN, AVON,  2 nm W of Thornbury,  51 37.??N  2 33.??W
PHOENIX FARM, LOWER UPHAM, HANTS, 50.58.39N/01.14.41W
RHOS Y GILWEN, CARDIGAN,  3nm SSE of Cardigan,  52 02.12N  4 37.05W
RISELEY, BEDS,  8 NM N of Bedford,  52 18.55N  0 29.08W
SHEEPWASH FARM, WESTOVER, DEVON, 15nm S of Chivenor,  50 50.10N  4 09.50W
SNAKE FARM, DURHAM,  1 nm N of Fishburn  strip, 54 42.27N  1 28.25W 
STOODLEIGH BARTON, DEVON, 4 nm NW of Tiverton,  50 57.50N  3 32.00W
TALYBONT, GWYNEDD,  11 nm N of Aberystwyth,  52 36.70N  4 04.50W
TRULEIGH FARM, WEST SUSSEX, 3.5 nm SE of Henfield VRP,  50 54.95N  0 16.30W
WOODLANDS FARM, DEVON,  4nm NE of Dunkeswell,  50 25.31N  4 48.50W












http://www.homepages.mcb.net/gwinsk/GWFARMSTRIPSAG.zip
















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