FSX/P3D Locher/Sarentino Airfield Scenery

A complete package covering the Locher/Sarentino Airfield for Microsoft Flight Simulator X (all versions including the Steam Edition) and Prepar3D (including v4 - P3Dv4).

This scenery package is a representation of "Locher" airfield, a private grass field in the Trentino (or South Tyrol) area, close to the town of Sarentino (or Sarnthein, or Sarntal) in northern Italy.

The town is very close to the border with Austria (hence the many versions of the town name).

The field belongs to Locher Gebhard and shares the premises with Mr. Gebhard's factory, apparently producing metallic fire-rated doors.

Features of the Locher airfield scenery include:

• A photoreal area with seasonal variations and watermark
• Custom mesh for a large area around the field
• Custom buildings and rock formations around the hangar, as well as sloped taxiway
• Custom landmarks on approach from the south, including power cables over the valley

Installation instructions

1. Install the "Locher" folder inside your addon scenery folder, whichever that is
2. Go to your ...\Scenery\World\Texture\ folder and copy the detail1.bmp file inside the ...\Locher\Texture\ folder.
3. Activate the scenery in the scenery library

The detail1.bmp is needed to make the rocks and taxiway blend nicely with the ground around it. The file may either be the default FSX/P3D detail texture or a replacement one (e.g. by REX). Whichever it is it will have to be copied as above, otherwise, the ground around the hangar will stand out as very "flat". I could not find a way to work around this copying, apologies.

In order to avoid chunks of ground sticking through the rocks or the sloped taxiway, the mesh slider has to be set to 2m or less, when using this scenery. Autogen is suggested to be set to at least dense level or more if your rig can handle it to enjoy the vegetation. If you suffer in FPS, reduce that slider.

Starting at Locher

The airfield is given the imaginary LILX ICAO code. The name of the field is "Locher". There is no runway or taxiways defined, just three starting points:

Runway 17

The plane will be placed on the top of the grass field looking south ready for take-off. You must be ready to step on the brakes immediately upon starting as the slope is steep:

Parking 1

The plane will be parked between the open doors of the hangar looking south ready to start taxiing:

Parking 2

The plane is parked on the apron's east side looking towards the hangar. You will need to make a hard 270 degree turn to the left and then another 180 to the right to reach the start of the taxiway ramp:

AI planes can not use this airfield due to lack of a taxiway/runway system, not possible due to the sloped grass field and taxiway.

Taxiing from apron to takeoff

The surface of the apron is set as asphalt and the taxiway as cement. All of the rest is FSX/P3D ground so friction will be as dirt. As the slopes of the taxiway and runway are steep you need to have a powerful, or light airplane to be able to climb. The default or A2A 172 can not do it. Turboprops are preferred, like the planes the owner uses (PC12, Kodiak, Pocket Rocket, SM1019). Also, ultralights and high power to weight ratio small planes like the SuperCub can also make it.

The objects are all set to ignore crashes in order not to ruin your experience. Use enough power to climb on the ramp and still be able to turn. Some points will be a bit wobbly due to the change of slope. I can not avoid that.

Once up the ramp taxi as far up the grass runway as you can, past the little bridge on the left. Try to stay on the flat part as far on the right as you can. There are two slope changes along the length of the runway.

You may need to increase power on the first slope increase and reduce after you finish that climb next to the bridge. You will have to make a hard 180 on the end of the field to position your plane for take-off. Takeoff will be quick due to the high slope. Use maximum climbing settings of your plane to avoid the three sets of cables on the valley to the south.

Approach and landing

The closest airport is LIPB Bolzano. From there you can fly directly north and enter the valley.

All landmarks mentioned in the video can be found after the installation of the scenery. Check out also all the videos from Christian Oberkofler showing flight operations from Locher. You will be inspired, as I was.

In short, the first landmark to look for is "Church hill". After that stay on the right side of the valley and look for the twin pylons and then the three sets of cables. After crossing Cables 3 you are set for landing. Going around is impossible. If you fail in your approach, apply full power and climb to the north until you find enough space to turn around. Landing from the south and taking off to the south are the only options.

Notes on Development

The scenery was developed mainly in P3D v3.4 and v4.0. However, it is compiled with the FSX SDK so it is also FSX compatible. Color matching of the photoreal grounds and selection of autogen was made to match ORBX Global, Vector, and OpenLC Europe, as well as FreemeshX mesh. All screenshots here are from that combination in P3D v4.0. It has been tested also in an FSX default installation and it fits with no major problems, however, it is not optimum. Finally, the scenery is made to reflect the condition of the field as it was prior to the summer of 2017. Some major changes on the apron and the factory building have been recently introduced by the owner, but since they are not yet complete, I chose not to include them. Maybe in a future version.

Credits

As always, the fist big Thank You goes to my wife for her patience.

Special thanks to Cees Donker for his help in developing the models and textures of the industrial building and testing the scenery.

Many thanks to Darren Fern and Christian Oberkopfler for their great videos of the place, and of course to the owner Locher Gebhard for creating the place.

Finally, many thanks to Massimo Taccoli for providing his permission to use his excellent SM1019 model which is parked inside the hangar.

Very special thanks should also go to the developers of the freeware tools that were used for the creation of this scenery:

Software used:

• Airport Design Editor 1.65 by Jon Masterson, ScruffyDuck Software
• SBuilderX v3.13 by Luis Sa of ptsim.com
• Google Sketchup 2017
• ModelConverterX by Arno Gerretsen
• SAMM (Static Aircraft .mdl Maker) version 2 by Don Grovestine
• FSX ACCEL and P3D v3.4 and v4.0 SDK

Credits for objects used:

• Industrial buildings: Cees Donker
• SM1019: Massimo Taccoli
• 3d grass: Ed Wells (falcon409) and Michael Carr (MCDesigns)

Legal

This scenery is freeware. It may be installed and distributed without restrictions. I have included all objects that I created myself as separate bgl files and textures so any of them may be used individually as they are or altered/repainted in any other projects.

A reference to my name as the original author would be appreciated. For objects not created by myself and mentioned in the credits above the conditions of their respective authors should be examined before redistribution or use in other projects.

Developer: Vassilios Dimoulas.

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