Add-On scenery

For Microsoft FS2004 & FSX

Version 3
Welcome to Heathrow Airport, the worlds busiest international airport, with over 65 million
passengers and 100 airlines flying to nearly 200 destination from 5 Terminals. Terminal 5 was
opened in April 2008 and is solely used by British Airways which has moved most operations
to the new glass terminal.
The scenery has nearly 2 million polygons, thousands of objects and over 100 images that
represent Heathrow in a truly amazing way. The scenery has vehicles, markings, docking
systems, airport equipment, animated traffic, containers and has been the biggest single
airport project for UK2000 scenery.
Whats new for Version3?
1) More accurate modelling of T5 stands and buildings, including new A380 triple jetway stands
2) New changes to T3 and entrance area
3) New Terminal 2 and T2a pier
4) Changes to T4, including A380 stands
5) BMI hanger changed to BA and BMI static removed
6) New methods used to create scenery
7) New Photo base image at 50cm resolution
8) Heathrow taxiway layout changes.
10) New better designed AFD files.
and hundreds of smaller changes and improvements.

Installation
The installation is fully automatic; it will search the Windows registry for the location of your
FS9/FSX Folder and use this as the default initial location. You can install Heathrow Xtreme to
any location but please remember where you placed it for future updates.
It will also install FS2004/FSX AFD data (via an AFCAD file for the airfield) to allow the AI
aircraft to taxi and park correctly. The FSX version also routes the default FSX vehicles away
from AI routes. The product does not include any large airliner AI, as this may conflict with the
users AI add-ons.
After the basic installation of the files, the Setup and Options program will auto-run. This
program is needed to add the new scenery area within FS9/FSX and for you to select certain
options.
This set-up program is also designed to update your scenery.cfg file, but you are free to
install the scenery manually if you dont want to use this part of it. Also please have a look at
the various OPTIONS on the set-up program; there are quite a few available.

Uninstall
Please run the products uninstall process.
Click START PROGRAMS - UK2000 scenery-UK2000 Heathrow Xtreme Setup and Options.
You should never remove the actual scenery manually without removing it from the FS
database. The Setup and Options should be used to remove the scenery correctly

The Airfield
Heathrow Airport is about 25 miles West of London and is served by a high speed dedicated
rail link and a not so high speed Underground.
The easiest way to find the airfield is to use the Go to Airport system within FS. Start FS (use
your default flight if needed); Make sure you are using the FS default database (not the add-on
scenery database) and enter Heathrow, or EGLL
Heathrow has two runway 27R/09L 27L/09R, The 1950 Control tower is no longer used for ATC,
and has been demolished since the last version was released.
There are 5 terminals, the old T2 has now been replaced with a new terminal (Due to open
summer 2014)

Runway

Length

27R-09L

3900M*50M

27L-09R

3742M*50M

ILS
ID
I-RR
I-AA

FREQ

OBS

PAPI

110.3

272/092

YES

I-LL
I-BB

109.5

272/092

YES

Static Aircraft
We have included some static aircraft models with this scenery, why? On-line pilots can't use
the FS AI system and to prevent a quite airport, static aircraft is a very useful way to fill it up.
Also pilots with slower PCs who cant use 100% AI, then static is a good way to enhance the
airport.

FS Holding point bug

The FS ATC system will only clear you for take off when you are a certain distance from the
runway. Not sure where Microsoft got there information from, but this distance has always
been too close. In reality the holding points are further away than the FS ATC system will work
from. So we have had to add fake FS Holds.

Map/Charts
Please see this link for charts:
http://www.uk2000scenery.com/caa.htm

Display Settings
There are two important settings that users need to ensure are set to use this product
correctly. These are shown below.

For both FSX and FS2004 set Global Max texture to Massive, this to ensure the 1024 size
images are displayed correctly, (if not set they will be blurred)

For FSX, Set Mesh resolution to 19m or lower ( 5cm is best ), this to ensure the close fitting
terrain details to prevent 'gaps' forming near the airfield edges. Set the Texture resolution of
60cm or better, this is to ensure the ground image is displayed at its sharpest.

Active Parking FS9

FS9 Users can park anywhere. Most of the Jetways are in the docked position and have a
guidance system. Some of the stands are fully active, meaning these stands will have extras
like animated Jetways, a marshaller and animated service vehicles.
Stand

Aircraft Type
*

Jetway

410 - T4

737-747

Animated

421 - T4

737-767 or Concorde

Animated

121 - T1

737-767

Animated

178 -T1

737-B767

Animated

303 - T3

A380

Animated

YES

317 - T3

737-747

Animated

YES

543 - T5

737-747

Animated

YES

502 - T5

737-B767

Animated

RSC Royal Suite

737-747

Nr Concorde

737-757

Airstairs

YES

615 - Cargo

737-747

Airstairs

YES

Marshaller

Service Fleet
(FS9)

YES
YES

YES

Please note, in the real world there are many restrictions on which aircraft use which
gates, but for purposes of this scenery, a more general rule is applied

NOTE: The FS9 AFCAD file is designed to leave these active stands free for the users aircraft.

Terminal 1 Stand 102,104 'Mirror' stop

These 2 old stands still use a Mirror to help you stop, the jetway is also fixed and will not move

Air Gates/Jetties

Most FS9 Jetways are fixed, but the active stands in FS9 have moving animated air gates.
To make the air gate Dock with your aircraft, you first stop using the stop board. Then change
NAV1 (to any other freq) and the air gate will move. You must change NAV1 using COCKPIT
view. If you want to see the movement, then move to spot view.
The system works in conjunction with the safedock. It is only approximate and relies on the
aircraft modeller placing the cockpit view point in the cockpit; some designers place it on the
nose, which can mess up the logic a lot. If your aircraft model is not well aligned then simply
compensate the next time you dock and remember the position marked on the board
In FSX the default Jetway system is used and can be activated by using the key press ctrl+J.
This is in place of changing the Nav frequency. All 'Main door' FSX jetways work, but middle
door and A380 upper door Jetways to not work and are fixed,
Please note FSX Jetway animation has many bugs, but it's internal to FSX and can't be fixed.
So these Jetway have similar problems that you see with the default Jetways.

Safedock
Most of the Jetway stands will have the safedock system, which will help guide the aircraft in.
The signals from the unit are self explanatory. It uses the same aircraft detection system as the
jetway and the same limitation, If you find it's not very good with your aircraft model, try
changing the eye point in the aircraft cfg file.
The system uses limited scenery methods to work out your height and location, but will only
work ok with default aircraft. For a more accurate system use addons like 'AES'

Marshaller (FS9 only)

The 3D Marshaller in the scenery is only used in a simple way to show if you are right or left
and when to stop.
In real aircraft you can move your head to keep track of the Marshaller, in FS the user must
switch to FULL view and remove the panel or Virtual cockpit, as you will soon lose sight, as
you get closer

Dont use the panel

Switch to FULL view (W Key) and ZOOM out

IMPORTANT:
The Marshaller is designed to ONLY appear when landing at Heathrow (see above active stands
chart), if you start at Heathrow and slew around you will not see him. If you wish you can slew
out 3 miles and back again to see how he works on a true arrival flight

Frame Rates
This scenery is very complex. Please dont set your FSX at maximum settings and expect to
get a smooth ride. Most of the frame rate problems have nothing to do with the add-on
scenery. AI aircraft and FULL Autogen will slow your PC the most. I can get Heathrow to
display at 150fps (FS9, no autogen, no AI) or 8FPS (FSX, MAX AI ADDONS, MAX Autogen)
If you suffer from poor FPS, then DON'T use the Xtreme Option with the installer

Animation Timers
The animation is per frame driven, the faster your frame rate is, the faster the vehicles will
travel. Its designed this way to improve frame rates and make it smoother. Of course using
FSX you may not get 18fps on most PCs and the animation will slow down in sync with the
frame rates. Timer 1 is ideal from 10-30fps, which a lot of you will have if you use AI traffic.
However some users may not like this, and in particular it seems that if you use FSX Water
Setting 2X then animation speed is doubled. If you are lucky and get 100FPS (I can ) then
choose timer3 which is a CONSTANT speed timer. Note that using the constant speed timer
may produce animation jitters, but at least the vehicles never change speed.
If you get between 30-60fps then Timer2 is best it is just as smooth as timer one ,but skips
every second frame. These Timers can be set by using the Options program.

Known FS2004 Issues

None as yet.

Known FSX Issues

Default FSX airport vehicles can still be seen if you have it turned on and the Push Back
Tractors will still work. There is a problem with the FSX default vehicle clutter. I believe firmly
that this system is fundamentally flawed and MS need to look at it again. You get default
objects like the push back tractor and other objects at a SET location from the parking spot.
There is no allowance made for the actual airport design and what is actually there in real life
(Like building, roads, marshaller etc.) The system is fine for rough default airports, the type
that MS design, but is not appropriate to use for accurate airports.
We have made the decision that the aircraft will be parked at the correct position at the gate,
even though this may mean that in some cases the push back tractors are in inappropriate
positions. We have reduced conflicts to a minimum, but think that you will agree that the
parking in relation to the gates is more important.
There is no way, as a designer, these objects can be removed unless we remove the parking
spots which in turn means no aircraft will park there. We can cheat with reality a bit and move
parking locations around and the airport design, but there is only so much you can do.(please
also see latter section)
The airside animation inside Heathrow is FS9 coded, there are some minor display issues. The
external cars are FSX default animation.
This scenery uses the FSX Jetway animation system (ctrl+J). This is a system full of bugs, but
as it's hard coded in the FSX engine, no one can fix it. So our Jetways will show similar
problems to the default Jetways. There is also a difference in way they work between SP1 and
SP2. Currently in SP2 the wheels go into the ground, but do not in SP1 !

Compatibility
This scenery fits well with the default FS9 and FSX scenery; this product is made to fit with the
Horizon Software VFR Photo scenery for FS2004 and the new Generation X Photo scenery for
FSX and is our recommended choice of VFR scenery. It also compatible with Orbx FTX England
FSX users should REMOVE any other addon Heathrow (default is ok to stay), so if you have a
product like VFR Airfields then remove Heathrow (run the VFR Airfields options program)

AFCAD File
Whats an AFCAD?
AFCAD is actually a program written by Lee Swordy. The files it produces are referred to as
AFCAD files. The program and files enable scenery designers to alter the way the AI aircraft
taxi and park, put simply it means I can line up the AI aircraft within FS to the add-on scenery,
which will never be the same as the default MS Scenery.
In FS2004/FSX the data is stored in individual files, one for each airfield. With this product the
file is installed to the same folder as the rest of the scenery (unlike previous UK2000 products)
Why am I telling you all this? One of the problems users often get when installing add-ons is
duplicate AFCAD files for the same airport. FS9 and FSX may use the wrong file and your AI
will be in the wrong places. If you have AI in wrong places the one way to solve this is by
moving the UK2000 Scenery products and AFCAD area to the top of the scenery library. (Start
FS, click settings, select scenery library). If this doesnt solve your problem then you will have
to delete the other conflicting AFCAD file from the other add-on.
AFCAD files do change regularly, so I suggest you visit the AFCAD page on the website to
update your product.
There is an additional ZIP file installed in the product folder called AFCADS.ZIP please read
the readme.txt inside this ZIP for additional AFCAD information.
In this scenery some of the parking is straight through parking. The advantage of this is that
aircraft move correctly on the apron and queuing is reduced. The disadvantage is that the
likelihood of aircraft ghosting through each other is increased compared with a standard
AFD file.
Heathrow uses a runway rotation system to help spread the noise during the day. One runway
is used for landing and one for departure, at 3PM this switches. There is no way FS could ever
mirror this, so for this AFCAD 27L/09R is used for departure and 27R/09L for landing all the
time.
There are TWO AFCAD files. The default is a file that contain HALF of the parking, this is so
FPS is maintained and AI is limited to 95. If you don't like this, then please select the MAX
version via the options. If you choose to install the Static aircraft option, then the default
AFCAD will be also be selected.
A further two files are available for those who wish to retain use of Apron KILO

NOTES ABOUT PARKING AT HEATHROW

In FS9 aircraft are parked according to a measurement, called the Parking Radius, that is to
be found in its model file. Unfortunately different designers use different sizes for the same
aircraft, and some are quite a lot bigger than others. Many use much smaller sizes than the
default aircraft. Thus you may find that in your particular sim ai aircraft may be parked at a gate
that you consider is too small. The reason is normally that the parking radius for the aircraft is
too small, but this can easily be corrected using AFCAD v 2.1.
Open AFCAD and select the tools menu on the top row, and the second option is the Aircraft
Editor.

If you open this you will be presented with a page that lists all the aircraft in the aircraft folder
in your sim. By clicking on the aircraft that you are interested in you will find that all relevant
details of that aircraft are displayed at the bottom of the window. At the bottom, in the centre,
there is a field with the parking radius displayed and you can change this to whatever figure
you want.

Notice there are other details that you can also alter if you wish.
If you have a series of aircraft, say the ai_airbus, then if you alter the parking radius for one all
the others change as well (parking radius only). This will not happen, however, if a different
title is given to that aircraft type in other versions.
In general you will not find that many aircraft that you will want to change (if any at all), but a
general rule of thumb for amending parking radii is:
Very small airliners, such as the ATP, ATR, ERJ or Dash 8 - 15M to 20M
Other small airliners such as A320, A321, B737 from 22M to 29M

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Medium sized airliners such as B757, B767, A319, A330 from 31M to 38M
Large airliners such as the A340, B747, B747F, B777, MD11 from 41M to 49M
With some aircraft, e.g the A340-600, it is best to use a slightly larger radius than others,
because the fuselage is much longer than similar airliners and will poke into buildings. For the
A340-600 we suggest a parking radius of 44M; gates where there may be a conflict have been
sized at 43M. B777s are best at 46M, and the B747F 49M.
Unfortunately this does also apply to some user models as well. Common ones are the LDS
767, the PMDG 747, and some model A380s are just some examples. You may find that your
favourite aircraft is regularly parked by ATC at gates that are physically too small for it. We
suggest that you amend the radii for these aircraft in exactly the same way as for ai aircraft
above.
Whilst the above note is for users of Heathrow Xtreme the same principle applies to all add-on
airports.

A380 Parking
At Heathrow there are now many gates that can accommodate an A380 (T3,T4 and T5), The
A380s landing on 09L/27R are only permitted to exit the runway by exits A5, A10E and A10W, or
at the end of the runway. To taxi to and from the runway the A380 has to follow certain
designated routes, and the AFD file with this product has been produced so that this is
followed by the models. However, in order for this to work it is important that the parking
radius for any A380 on your system, whether an ai aircraft or a user model, is bigger than any
other aircraft normally seen at Heathrow. To this end please use the method illustrated above
to make the A380 parking radius greater than 50M, ideally 53M.
There is one unavoidable draw back to having separate routes for the A380 and this is that if
you have high traffic volumes you may sometimes see an A380 ghost through another airliner.

FSX Parking
The same principle applies to parking in FSX. However, the parking radius is not used here;
Aircraft are parked according to their wing span as stated in the aircraft.cfg file. If you find that
aircraft are parking in spaces that are too small then check that the wing span in the cfg file is
correct. Unfortunately many ai systems use the same cfg file for all aircraft, so you may find
that quite a few need changing. However, We have spaced the sizes so as to avoid most
conflicts. The one exception may be the A380 where most ai models seen have used the B744
cfg file and so the wing span is too short.
Very small airliners, such as the ATP, ATR, ERJ or Dash 8 - 15M
Other small airliners such as A320, A321, B737 18M
Medium sized airliners such as B757, B767, A319, A330 from 22M to 24M
Large airliners such as the A340, B747, B747F, B777, MD11 from 33M to 35M
For the A 380 the wing span is 261ft, which means a Parking radius of 41M.

High or Low Resolution

This scenery uses high resolution and high colour depth graphics (especially at night). This
requires at least a 512MB graphics card (1GB if FSX) and will also affect FPS. If you want to
speed up your simulator and reduce the graphics load, then please use the separate low
resolution image ZIP file available from the UK2000 Scenery website for this product.

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General Tips
1) You MUST set the Global Max Texture size to Massive. This product uses many large
images. If you set this any lower then these images will be blurred. This setting can be
found by clicking OPTIONS-SETTINGS-DISPLAY-HARDWARE
FSX users also need to set Mesh resolution to 19M or better and Texture resolution to
60cm or better
2) Lock your FRAMERATES if using our animation system. It is frame rate based on a on
fps, (designed that way to prevent stutters).
ADDITIONAL: The new version uses 3 optional timers, please see animation timers
section

3) Do you hate the new fixed MIP setting in FSX?

This means everything gets blurred in mid-far range. Im sure some users and Microsoft
like it that way, but theres plenty who dont (like me!) You need to edit your FSX.CFG file
to solve this problem.
Add MipBias=8 to the display section of the fsx.cfg file for maximum sharpness, or use
MipBias=6 for something halfway

Active Service Fleet FS9 ONLY

(FSX has its own internal service vehicles, but it does work in FSX if you want
it)
At some active stands (see list) you will also get the fleet of animated vehicles driving in to
service your aircraft. There is about a 30 second to 120 second delay before they arrive. (FS9
only) You will see a baggage conveyor, fuel truck, catering truck, various vans and the
baggage truck. The baggage truck will make 2 trips, the first to collect the baggage from your
aircraft, it arrives empty and departs full. The second trip it arrives full and departs empty,
loading your aircraft for the next flight.
The entire sequence is under 10 minutes, this is fast for a real airport, but this is FS we dont
like to hang around that long!
The system should work with most aircraft models, on some models you may have to adjust
the cockpit view point, or just stop sooner or later. FS9 and FSX Default B737, CRJ and A321
models are used to calibrate the system. The animation speed is linked to your frame rate, so
if you have a fast FS9 frame rate then LOCK it to under 27FPS. I cant imagine anyone having a
fast frame rate in FSX, as its a lot slower than FS9

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Credits
Norman Dean for the AFD files and all the Beta testers
Ground image used is based upon the Getmapping aerial images used with permission from
Horizon Simulation Software.

Legal
Unauthorized distribution prohibited. This product and all related files and documentation are
copyright (c) 2001-2014 UK2000 Scenery/G. Summons. All rights reserved.
You may not disassemble or reverse engineer any part of this software. You may not rent or
lease or sell the software.
The author of this software owns all rights in the Software.
The author of this software does not guarantee that this software is free from bugs or free
from viruses.
THE FILES ARE PROVIDED AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
OR IMPLIED. IN NO EVENT SHALL I 'G. SUMMONS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGE WHAT SO
EVER INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL. IT IS USED
ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.

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