LatinVFR Caracas 2012. Our impression!

FS9/FSX. Okay, I know I have been wayyy behind on my impressions lately. No worries, I am catching up. This time we are heading to Caracas! Come with me won't you? Let's go!!

Oh wait! Lots of pictures! A warning for those with limited bandwith!!

Quick editors note: Before I start this review, I just wanted to take a moment to thank our readers that take time every day to visit our blog. We may not have reached 1000 posts this year as others have claimed but it's the quality of our posts we find most important. We don't just post what is out there and add stock pictures. We aim to add a bit of opinion and character to our posts. Simply put, we are more than just a  simple flight simulation blog. Clearly, our readers recognize this and that's why you all come back every day. Thanks to all of you that keep us strong every day!

Now, When I first started flight simming several years ago, my only aim in regards to payware airports was to simply restrict myself to places I had been. My very first payware scenery were Cloud9 LAX and Amsterdam, UK2000 Heathrow and Gatwick Pro, the first SimWings CDG, and FlyLogic Zurich. I restricted myself to only these destinations usually flying from or to default airports. It's very hard to imagine that long ago to be completely honest. I'd throw up all over myself at the mere thought of flying into a default airport today. Let's not even mention AES...

What Recardo among several other developers has done for me is introduce a slew of airports I have never planned to visit in real life. I have been to several airports in Europe and the US but I never strayed down to Latin America. The only thing that pushed me into these destinations is the high quality of the scenery coming out of this region. The airports just look too damn good to not get them. So my flight simulatior has become so much more. It has become a whole virtual world to explore. Places I may never see, I can visit anytime I want! That is just so awesome! And I can say I am a very proud owner of LatinVFR sceneries!

Now getting on to Caracas 2012. This is one destination beyond any shadow of a doubt I will never visit. Simply put, period! But what I can't understand, is why I was so damn excited about this scenery. I have never been there, no plans to go there and yet, the ability to visit there in my virtual world was so appealing to me!! Ulitimately, it was the thought that Recardo would be rolling out this work that got me all excited like a 15-year-old girl at a Justin Biber concert! And as all my heavy flying takes place in FS9, this was just a must have for me. Thank you Recardo! I am a big fan!!

Now, some of you may be wondering why-oh-why I keep calling my reviews "impressions" well simply put, they are not exactly reviews per say. I won't go into system specs and airport histories and all that mumbo jumbo. Avism is a great resource for those sort of reviews.

I like to be all girly like and talk about my feelings and how the scenery makes me feel. I like to point out things like plants and shrubs, trees and all that. It's truly about the impression the work left on me and sharing those girlfriend feelings with you lot. 

The first thing I love about this scenery is the approach, I surely felt like I was approaching Caracas even though I never approached it before. LatinVFR has honestly captured the South American look and feel that I would expect from an environment airport like this... From an airport like this....

Recardo has done an excellent job with the photo scenery and included custom made autogen as well. The terminal model is well detailed and textured and brings the quality I would normally expect from a LatinVFR product. 

But it's not just the airport that captures the look and feel of this region. You HAVE to have the photo scenery, the custom autogen and trees. This place needs to look and feel like Caracas. And even though I have no clue what that feeling is, somehow, Recardo managed to make it all fit together so perfectly. The only thing better than this I would have to assume would be the actual airport itself.

If you want to hear something funny, the very first time I used the scenery, there were 2 IranAir 747SP's parked at the gates. Even in the simulator, two guys who despise the US were virtually getting together for lunch. I was all like, "whatever dudes!"

I wonder if I could hit an airplane on short final while whacking a homer on this little diamond... Damn that's close!! And loud I can imagine...

It's the details like that found in the above shot that I respect. You would never see this unless you slewed around to find it.

The environment very well captured.

Another thing I really like about this airport is that long sloping runway. It creates a bit of challenge but its fun to approach and depart off of nonetheless. I am sure this had to be the most difficult part of the scenery to render as you can see, even the ramp cargo area is situated on this slanted hill. Well done here!

The next part of the scenery is one item I usually try my best to keep out!! And that's static aircraft!! But here, it all was done so correctly, so stylish, and not in the way or obtrusive. You will find an option to remove these statics within the installer, but leave them in! For without them, the scenery would actually be incorrect. You can Google Earth the area to see just what i'm talking about.

This is static aircraft done right. The way it should be. These babies won't raise your frames or interfere with your AI operations. Actually, in fact, on the real airport, the ramp area is cluttered with far more aircraft than seen here. Either way the statics give the appropriate impression of all the aircraft sitting on the lot.

I give this work 2 big thumbs up! But where there is so much good, there is bound to be a little bad... My impressions are always fair and with that said, I now have to mention where this scenery failed.

A great deal to attention was placed in so many areas both within and around the airport. But where this attention stoped dead was on the passenger entrance and parking areas. No cars in the lot and very little detail there. I do understand that most simmers would never venture into that area anyway, but I was a little dissipointed to see the areas so empty and void of detail. Besides that, I would have loved to see moving cars and a little action on the ramp. But those are very minor compared to what was done right. I do wonder just how expensive Oliver's AES lite really is?? Hmm...

LatinVFR has done an outstanding job here and I am very pleased with the end result here. If you have been on the fence about getting this product, hopefully this impression will push you in the right direction. And it's planed for the upcoming AES 2.22

I am looking forward to the next project from LatinVFR!!

Cheers! and thanks for reading!

D'Andre

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