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AVSIM Commercial Scenery Review
Lille Lesquin (LFQQ)
Product Information
Publisher: France VFR
Description: Scenery Add-on.
Download Size:
47 MB
Format:
Download
Simulation Type:
FS9 and FSX
Reviewed by: Juan Llobera AVSIM Staff Reviewer - November 25, 2008
Introduction
Lille Lesquin International Airport is located at Lille in the north of France, just a couple of miles west of Brussels. It
was designed from the outset to be “15 min airport”, and statistics really show that. LFQQ is the 4th airport in France
in terms of punctuality.
It has a single Passenger Terminal, and an aircraft handling capacity allowing aircraft to be turned around ready to fly
again in less than 30 minutes.
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After watching pictures of the airport, you may come to the conclusion that this is a small-low volume of traffic
airport. Actually, it is the 12th most frequented French airport in number of passengers. And when it comes to cargo,
it ranks fourth with 38,000 tonnes of freight carried per year.
Lille Airport stands on over 450 hectares of land, containing 5 hectares of buildings. Although its normal activity is
carried out between 5am and 11pm, the airport is open to international traffic 24 hours a day. It is equipped for VFR,
night IFR and is classified ‘Category A’ (international), and Category 7 SSLIA
Lille Airport can accommodate all types of aircraft, from a single engined private aircraft to the large commercial
carriers. Yes, you can even park your A380 here. The airlines currently serving the airport are : Aigle Azur (Algiers) ,
Air Algérie (Algiers) Air France (Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Nice, Strasbourg, Toulouse)
Atlas Blue (Marrakech) Bulgarian Air Charter (Bourgas, Varna) seasonal Royal Air Maroc (Casablanca) Ryanair
(Marseille)
Installation and Documentation
• Installation and Documentation:
Installation is pretty simple. You get an .exe of around 45MB that will guide
you through the whole process. Also, the setup will automatically add the
scenery to your scenery.cfg.
Documentation is pretty simple, BUT at the same time complete. You are not
going to find yourself in front of a fancy .pdf manual, instead the
documentation will give you a basic idea of what the product consist of, and
will tell you where the charts are located on your hard-drive.,Iit also gives you
some tips in order to maximize your performance.
Test System
Intel Q6600 2.4
4GB RAM
HD4850 512 DDR3
Seagate Barracuda 500GB
Win XP Service Pack 3
Flying Time:
18 hours
The good news is that the guys from FranceVFR have included a Microsoft Word
document with the whole manual in English. That's really good news because,
apart from letting those customers who are not familiar with the language of Victor Hugo access the information, it
shows that people at FranceVFR care about improving the quality of their products. ( If you look in the review archive
you will find that in other past products, the manual was only written in French )
So what do you get?
Lille Lesquin Airport: extremely detailed airport with its surrounding.
• Photo-real high definition ground and buildings textures including night textures.
• Specific autogen included for the entire zone of 50km²
• Stand-alone product:can be used on its own, or embedded in the Nord Pas de Calais VFR scenery without any
modification
• Independent conception of Mesh (all Mesh are compatible)
• Charts SIA – VAC – IAC – ARRDEP are provided
Installation Menu. Just a couple of clicks and you’re done!!
Welcome to Lille!
Since this is the first time I have had the chance to review a product from FranceVFR, I thought about trying
something different. Instead of jumping right into the airport and exploring every aspect of it ( which is something
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that obviously I must do at some point ) I decided to fly with Ryanair from Marseille to Lesquin, just to see I was able
to recreate with regards to the feeling you get when you arrive at a new airport.
I filed my flight plan, choosing the MATIX 1A as our STAR. After crossing Matix at around 6500 feet ( not sure what is
the transition altitude here at LFQQ ), I came out of a cloud layer and I couldn't believe my eyes. I'm using a third
party product for ground textures, but I was sure that what I had in my monitor was something different. The thing is
that you not only get a real representation of LFQQ, you also get photorealistic ground textures! Yes, the whole
terrain inside a 50KM radius has been included, and as a bonus, the autogen seems to match the photoreal textures
beautifully!
I exit runway 26 via T4 and TWR instructed me to taxi to B11 via P3 and V2. I want to make a pause here; in case
you didn't notice, the airport comes with a full set of vectorized charts ( some of them in full color ), and I'm not
talking about amateur-simmer made charts. This is the whole LFQQ package of real charts published by the SIA
( Service de L’information Aeronautique ).
Even if these are not real flight charts, since they are outdated, I have to admit that this is probably one of the most
complete chart packages I’ve ever seen in an add-on. Again, this may sound normal to you if you are a regular
customer of France VFR products.
Taxiing my C182 to RWY 26. And the view short after landing with Ryanair
while taxiing to the gate via P3
Praying to God, this FBO has some baguette’s to sell me! And a view of the
Main terminal fingers, with some push tug GPUs as static vehicle.
So like I was saying, situated on the wing view of my 737-800, I really felt like a first-time visitor to this wonderful
airport ( I’ve never been to France before ). I was panning my “virtual head” ( OK, actually it was my right hand )
trying to see as much as possible as the pilot was taxiing to the gate, and to be honest with you, I loved what I saw.
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A Regional Jet waiting for its morning departure. Some ground static
vehicles, like this Air France Bus, are easy to find! ( Notice the lovely cabin
crew painted on the bus )
The freight terminal with some cargo trucks parked nearby. A closer look at
the Main Terminal Building.
The guys at FranceVFR really achieved their creation of an airport that somehow ( even if it does not include dynamic
airport ground traffic ) feels alive. Every airport structure has been reproduced. The general aviation terminal ( which
is actually the “old commercial Terminal” ), the regional maintenance hangar ( which is right near the GA parking
area ), the cargo or freight terminal, and of course, the Main Terminal, which I have to admit is a real masterpiece.
I'm not a big fan of modern airport buildings, but I really like how the whole building blends perfectly with the rest of
the airport.
The GA terminal, which was the old passenger building, looks like a nice
place to arrive. A closer look at the Regional’s Hangar ( notice the Landmark
truck )
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The cargo terminal with a couple of trucks parked. No wonder this is the 4th
busiest airport in terms of cargo. LFQQ Tower ( Notice the different light
textures )
Taxiways signs, as well as light poles, have been placed. But what I found really attractive about the scenery, is the
amount of static vehicles you’ll find. There are a lot; like airport personnel cars parked near the administration facility
( right next to the Tower ), Air France buses waiting for passengers on different parts of the ramp, and a lot of cargo
trucks.
Pushback tugs, as well as some cargo containers, are also well placed around the airport. The only thing I’ve found
about the static vehicles is that some of them seem to be the ones that came with the default FS9. I mean some of
the trucks are painted in landmark colors, which even if they still look really good and help a lot with the overall
feeling, somehow seems a pity on such a nice scenery.
Night textures on the other hand look really good, you’ll find that different light textures have been created, which
makes the buildings look wonderful when the moon comes out.
Summary and Performance
I didn't notice any performance loss with this scenery. Even when using complex airplanes and FS9 at ultra high
settings, I was still able to get constant FPS. Which is something that you would expect since it's a “busy” airport with
two runways. Yet, LFQQ is not a really big scenery.
So do I like it? Yes, a lot! The textures look really good, the airport feels attractive and the package with the 50KM
photoreal ground textures with the whole package of charts are some bonuses I wasn't expecting. In fact, after
realizing that LFQQ has a GA terminal, I'm planning to keep the scenery to start some of my adventures from.
In conclusion; if you are the type of simmer that loves flying around Europe, or are a member of a regional VA flying
to LFQQ or just want to expand your scenery library with a nice add-on, this may be a great deal.
What I Like About Lille Lesquin
●
●
●
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Scenery looks good during day and even better at night
Not a big impact on frame rates
Amazing set of charts
50 Km of photographic textures
What I Don't Like About Lille Lesquin
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●
Website is in French
Printing
If you wish to print this review or read it offline at your leisure, right click
on the link below, and select "save as"
Lille Lesquin
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Comments?
Standard Disclaimer
The review above is a subjective assessment of the product by the author. There is
no connection between the product producer and the reviewer, and we feel this
review is unbiased and truly reflects the performance of the product in the simming
environment as experienced by the reviewer. This disclaimer is posted here in order
to provide you with background information on the reviewer and any presumed
connections that may exist between him/her and the contributing party.
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