Flightsim 2004 is an absolutely amazing simulation but understandably it does not do justice to the many hundreds of smaller airports around the world. I live in Regina, Saskatchwan, so it was immediately apparent that CYQR of the flightsim world has no resemblance to the real world Regina International airport. That was a disappointment that I unfortunately had to live with unless somebody out there decided to do an add-on rendering of the airport. I was inspired by Adam Bentley and his series of CanUK airport sceneries for Maniboba. But, it became apparent that nobody out there was working on CYQR so unless I did the airport myself, I might never see a more realistic CYQR. So, I decided to take on the job and that meant learning GMAX.
CYQR Regina was constructed using GMAX. When I began this project in 2005, I knew nothing about GMAX or scenery design but thought why not see if I can create at least some of the main buildings just for myself. Thus began a 16 month oddesey of many starts and stops, frustrations but ultimately a great sense of accomplishment. The result was version 1 of Virtual YQR, which was released in April 2006. I want to thank Adam Bentley of CanUK scenery for encouraging me and getting me over some of the GMAX hurdles. His help enabled me to release the initial version of this scenery. If this scenery even comes close to his work, I will be satisfied!
This version adds many of the non-aviation related structures, such as car rental facilities, and the many business establishments in the commercial area that were not represented in version one. Since version one was released in April 2006, a number of new buidings, conversion of existing buildings to new uses, and a major addition to the Government of Saskatchewan Exec Air hangar have gone up. The Exec air hangar was completely rebuilt and the new passenger terminal replicated. As well, the main YQR terminal was rebuilt including jetways (in version one, these were borrowed from rwy12 libraries). Version two also includes most of the infield structures such as radar equipment shacks, and power shacks for the various radio and navigation services; as well as improved fencing. With version two, the airport is basically complete and as near to real as I am capable given my virtual modelling abilities!
Beyond the airport itself I began adding major landmark buildings in and around the airport in the city of Regina proper, especially those on the runway approaches. To me, these buildings enhanced the realism of VFR flying in the Regina area, particularly since the airport is essentially part of the city (10 minutes from downtown by cab). This version of YQR includes most of the major buildings in the city of Regina proper. I have modelled the main downtown buildings and a good number of the buildings 12 floors or higher, Taylor Field football stadium, as well as some of the industrial sites that are very apparent from the air such as the heavy oil refinery and the IPSCO steel mill.
CYQR also includes a landclass file to remove the urban area found in the default scenery immediately south of the city. The Landclass file also makes the surrounding countryside closer to the actual terrain; at least as far as the limits of the default landscape will allow.
I have no idea if this scenery works in FSX. I'd be interested to hear what works and what doesn't just in case someday I ever convert to FSX from FS9.
CYQR can trace its history back to 1919, when Regina airport became the first registered air harbour in Canada. The airport was operated by Aerial Services Company Ltd, which was
lead by Roland Groome, who was Canada's first registered pilot. Regina airport was moved to the present location beginning in 1927, mainly because the Regina Flying Club required
a larger field for its operations and the City of Regina wanted to secure a stop on the national air mail route. The airfield was officially opened in 1930. In 1932 two runways
were paved and lighting added, making Regina airport one of the most modern airfields in Canada. In 1938 an additional runway was constructed, and the following year a tower and
administration building.
During the second world war the airport was taken over from the City of Regina by the Government of Canada. The airfield was operated by the Department of Transport as a civilian
airport but apart from Trans Canada Air Lines service, the airfield was mainly a military flying station. Two RCAF flying schools were situated at the airport: 15 Elementary
Flying Training School (Tiger Moths and Cornells), which was managed by the Regina Flying Club; and 3 Air Observer School (Ansons). After the war the RCAF hangars were transferred
to the Department of Transportation, which operated the field until 1955. Between 1955 and 1972 the City of Regina owned and managed the airport but had difficulty keeping the
airport in the black. The federal department of transport took control of the airport and in 1986 greatly enlarged the terminal. On May 1, 1999, the airport was transferred to
teh Regina Airport Authority, which is a community based entity. Soon after the Regina Airport authority took over operation of the airport, the apron was improved and expanded
and plans were drawn up to expand the terminal building.
The 1986 terminal forms the basis of the present terminal building. Two of the wartime hangars survive and are used by the Regina Flying club and Prairie Flying Services. In
January 2004 construction began on a major expansion to the terminal building, which was completed in the Spring of 2005. Passenger traffic through CYQR in 2005 was 826,500
passengers. In 2005, CYQR was given the official name of Regina International Airport while the airfield itself was named Roland Groome Field. This virtual model of CYQR represents the airport as it was in spring of 2007.
Please note that this scenery was designed to fit the Ultimate Terrain Canada/Alaska commercial software. However, it should work just fine if you don't have UT Canada/Alaska
installed.
Separate Scenery and Texture directories are included for CYQR Regina airport, for Regina City and for Regina Landclass. I have kept the airport and city folders separate in case you only wish to use the airport and not the city scenery.
Installation of CYQR if you do not have the original Virtual YQR
1. Unzip the CYQR Regina folder (scenery and texture sub-folders), Regina City folder (scenery and texture sub-folders), and Regina Landclass folder (which contains a scenery folder only) into the Flight Simulator9/Addon Scenery folder.
2. Find the Agen_XTrees_lib9_2 file in the CYQR Regina folder and copy it into to the Flight Simulator9/Scenery/Generic/Scenery folder.
3. Start Flight Simulator 2004 and go to Settings and then click on Scenery Library. Click on tha Add Area button, which will open FS 9 Directory. Click on the Addon Scenery
folder and then browse until you find the CYQR Regina folder. Click on the CYQR Regina folder and then click OK. Make sure the "enabled" box next to the airport name is checked
off. Finally, make sure the CYQR Regina folder is situated above Ultimate Terrain Canada/Alaska in the list of add-on sceneries. If it is not click on the CYQR Regina line and
use the move button to move the airport up or down, as required.
4. Repeat step three for the Regina City folder, and then again for the Regina Landclass folder.
5. Close and then Restart FS. Go to airport CYQR. Enjoy!
Installation of CYQR if you do have the original Virtual YQR
1. Unzip the CYQR Regina folder (scenery and texture sub-folders), Regina City folder (scenery and texture sub-folders), and Regina Landclass folder (which contains a scenery folder only) into the Flight Simulator9/Addon Scenery folder.
2. Replace the scenery and texture folders of your existing CYQR airport with the version 2 scenery and texture folders. Just do not add the files contained in the version 2 scenery and texture folders to the existing version 1 folders. Most of these files have changed despite having the same names.
3. Add the Regina City and Regina Landclass folders as per step 3 through 5 above.
Turn collisions off (ignore collisions) in the Realism settings. Otherwise some objects in this scenery will cause collisions. My apology to those of you who like to crash into things!
The scenery will perform well on a faster computer but with both the Regina airport and city installed slower machines are likely to have problems. It is probably a good idea to turn off ground object shadows in the settings display. This will help improve performance. If you need to improve frame rates even further, I have included the trees and various Rwy12 and EZ-scenery library objects as separate bgl files in the Scenery folder. These are easily identified. You can try eliminating some or all of these files if you need to improve frame rates and have the airport run more efficiently on your particular machine.
Remember that heavy AI traffic and weather (cloud density, etc.) also have a negative effect on frame rates.
Trees in particular might slow the scenery down on some machines. I have included a good many trees in the Regina city Wascana lake area, especially around the Legislative Building. In the scenery folder of Regina City the bgl files associated with trees are titled as such to make it easy for you to eliminate some or all the forested areas.
As well, the airport itself has a number of add ons I have borrowed from scenery libraries; mostly vehicles. These are also easily identified as well and can be eliminated as required.
FS9 Bug in Regina Area that might negatively affect flights into the Regina Area
During development of CYQR, a bug in FS9 came to my attention. What happens is when flying about 15 or 20 miles immediately west of Regina, FS9 stops to synchronize its time clock, which causes AI traffic and scnerey to reload. If you have a lot of AI traffic, and a lot of scenery to load (such as CYQR and Regina City), this can put a very heavy strain on your system all at once. Particularly if you are flying from the west into the Regina area. This bug has been noted elsewhere in the FS9 world. Apparently it presents itself at critical longitudes, particularly near prime meridians and time zone changes. If you have this problem, I found the solution is loading Dennis Thompson's World Time Zone 3.0. It clears up the problem nicely, at least as far as the problems experienced flying into Regina. World Time Zone can be downloaded from AVSIM (and probably other places) on its own, or packaged with Josha Robertson's FS RealTime.
Alex Antonini's FS2004 "Autogen X-TREES" - OBJECT LIBRARY
Please note that I have included Alex Antonini's FS2004 "Autogen X-TREES" - OBJECT LIBRARY (file called Agen_XTrees_lib9_2), Release 1.2 (December 16, 2004) as part of this package. I used this library to place trees around the airport, using TreePlanter software. Follow the instructions note above or no trees will show up in your CYQR scenery. Many of the trees in Regina City are default trees and are sourced from the default tree libraries but others are also Alex Antonini trees.
In order to save some time and to cover for my lack of ability in some areas, I have enhanced the basic CYQR structures with many of the excellent Rwy12 Objects. In order to see CYQR in its full glory, you will need a number of the Rwy12 object libraries. Rwy12 Object Placer Program was developed by Israel Roth and Seev Kahn (http://www.rwy12.com/). The libraries are widely available as freeware on most flightsim download sites. Of course, if you do not have the Rwy12 libraries installed these objects will not show up in your CYQR scenery.
I have also added a few ojects (particularly vehicles) from the libraries designed for use by the Abacus EZ-Scenery library. If you have any of these libraries you will see a few more objects, such a vehicles. These are simply enhancements and not necessary to run the CYQR.
Special Thanks to Adam Bentley of CanUK Sceneries for his periodic assistance during development of version 1 of CYQR. CanUK scenery series (Adam Bentley and David Madge) is absolutely fantastic and anyone who does virtual flying in canada needs to get this series! Thanks to Ted Deller and Ken Brown for helping out by testing various development versions of the airport.
The following make this freeware possible:
Microsoft for FS9 (of course!)
Discreet for GMAX V1.2
Lee Swordy for AFCAD2
Adobe for Photoshop Elements 2
Jasc Software for Paintshop Pro X
Christian Fumey for Ground2K4
Russell Dirks for EZ-Landclass
Israel Roth and Seev Kahn for Rwy12 Object Placer Program V1.2
Various RWy12 Library authors,in particular Stephen Legg, Robert Finnegan, Chris O'Donnell, Bill Leaming, Jon Patch, Lars Hoyer and others who have contributed to RWy12.
Please note that if you decide to use this scenery, it is free so don't expect it to be up to commercial standards! Use at your own risk! And, this is my hobby and not profession so I don't have all the answers to technical questions. I will try to help if I can. And, again, I have no idea if this will work in FSX. For the time being, I am happy to stick to FS9 and plan on doing a few more Saskatchewan airports for FS9.
If you are interested in some Saskatchewan AI traffic, search my name on AVSIM and you will find a few repaints and flightplans.
