SCENERY OF ZELLHAUSEN GLIDER AIRFIELD AND SOARING ENVIRONMENT FOR MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2004


CREATING THE SCENERY - SOFTWARE USED

This is my first scenery. It is a big thanks to my dad who infected me with the flying virus. He still flies at Zellhausen and introduced me to glider aerobatics in an ASK 21, something you can do with this package.

I created this scenery using Airport Design Editor 9 and SBuilder 9 as well as AFCAD 2. The AI traffic was done with TTools, the Voicefiles with Edit Voicepack 3.1.

The credits for the ASK 21 and LS-8 gliders as well as the static glider objects go to Wolfgang Piper who gave me his kind permission to include them in my package.

Apart from his contribution I used RWY12 and EZ-object libraries. All necessary files are included. There is no seperate download necessary.

Unfortunately I did not receive a permission to include the thermal scenery by Tobias Geib so it has to be downloaded and installed seperately.



EXPLORING THE SCENERY

HANGARS: My scenery is not photorealistic. However it's not a big loss as the only two buildings pretty much resemble the real thing. The main hangar (southern building with windsock) has the doors closed. Still you can taxi into it and park inside. You will crash if you try to do the same thing with the smaller western hangar.

FUEL: Just like in real life the filling station is hidden inside the small hangar. Planes will taxi to the very right cornerand stop in front of it. They are refuelled from inside the building. In my scenery stop in front of the right door and turn off the engine so your tanks will be refueled.

RUNWAYS: Zellhausen features quite an unusual runway layout. It has no less then five runways. However four of them are for glider operations only. Engined aircraft take off and land on the main runway only which is designated 17/35. Runway 27 is closed for takeoffs and landings while 09 is used for glider landings only. The tarmac taxiway runs inside the runway boundaries of 27/35! It is used for taxiing only. Landings are on grass mostly close to the taxiway where the number of mole-holes are more compatible to a fragile landing gear. In the south of the airfield you will find runway 35L and 35 R. They are only used in one direction for glider takeoffs and landings. There are no landings in the opposite direction 17. In the north of the airfield there is a second parallel runway. This one is used for glider landings direction 17 only.


ATC: ATC frequency is 122.30. I inserted the more complex way of communicating with the tower as I find it more realistic. The included voicefile requires Edit Voicepack 3.1. You will hear the pilot use the word 'Zellhausen' instead of calling the tower by the icao code. By the way, EDZ1 is a ficitional icao code. Every scenery with ATC needs a code so I had to make one up. Real life glider airfields like Zellhausen usually don't have icao codes.

STATIC GLIDERS: Thanks to Wolfgang Piper for letting me use his static glider libraries. They look much better than the RWY12 and EZ-library gliders. They are positioned like in real life. Some are lined up for takeoff, some are parked on the grass beside the apron.

AI-TRAFFIC: The AI traffic is made up from default aircraft. I used the default Piper Cherokee to replace the glider club's Morane-Saulnier MS893. The club uses an FK9 ultralight. There is no ultralight in FS2004 so I used the Cessna 172 instead. The layout of the aircraft is at least similar. There is nothing that resembles the club's Scheibe Motorfalke. I used the default Piper Cub instead. Even if its quite a different aiplane I chose it because it's a nice distraction from the default Pipers and Cessnas.

LANDCLASS SCENERY: No matter if you use the default scenery, Aerosoft Scenery Germany 4 or any other landclass scenery for the area, I found that they all don't fit too well. The little town of Zellhausen is missing completely. The forests are much too big etc. That's why I added a new landclass-scenery that puts everything in place. It is not 100% but doing it more realistic would have meant to push the town of Seligenstadt further north. I didn't want to change too much so it is a compromise.

THE WINCH AND GLIDER OPERATIONS: The winch is indeed in the right place very far north. A while ago the club bought another field to extend the distance for the winch launch. It is now about 1,200 metres. Combined with the new lighter ropes, gliders reach altitudes as high as 600 m (about 1,800 feet) AGL. Due to the nearby Frankfurt airport the maximum allowed altitude for gliders above Zellhausen is 3,500 feet ASL. From about 5 km west of the airfield, maximum altitude is reduced to 1,500 ft ASL. That's why you don't fly gliders to the west at all. All long-distance glider flights leave to the north-east, east or south. There are thermal sceneries at SurClaro including Germany. They are a nice addition to my scenery and allow long-distance flights all over Germany.

STREETS AND OBJECTS: I added some streets (mostly bicycle tracks) around the airfield. They are just like in real life. If there are no airplane operations at Zellhausen the airfield is used by pedestrians. If anyone doesn't know that it's an airfield it is hard to recognize as one. Even from the air you see hardly more than the two hangars very close to the town's houses and a large green field. Sometimes pilots find it hard to get pedestrians off the runway if they arrive in the evening at days when there have been no other flying activities. Pedestrians usually leave the runway if you pass overhead when - due to them - you have to do a go around. You have a 90% chance that they will be back on the runway after finishing your pattern!

GIMMICKS: Do you find the two flocks of birds west of the airfield right above the little natural reserve? You will find true romance if you try out the flights provided with this package.

GLIDERS: As already mentioned I added two of Wolfgang Pipers excellent gliders, an ASK 21 and an LS 8-18. Thanks to him for his permission to upload them with my scenery. You will find more of his excellent gliders and his original files at www.fsglider.de.

FLIGHTS: I added 11 flights to bring life to Zellhausen airfield. They guide you through a glider training, cross-country flights and aerobatics. Enjoy! Open your flight menu in FS2004 and look for the folder Zellhausen.

ADDITIONAL SCENERY: There are some sceneries that add a lot more detail to the area around Frankfurt and Zellhausen. I recommend 'Scenery Germany 4' by Aerosoft (www.aerosoft.de). If you don't want to spend money, check www.flightport.org for a large collection of other airfields in the Rhein-Main area, some of them very close to Zellhausen. I recommend Landscape Germany Mesh, Rivers and Landclass. They are freeware you can download at http://www.flightport.de/index.php?id=114. My scenery is fully compatible to the mentioned files.

SOARING SCENERY: Unfortunately I wasn't given the permission to include Thomas Geib's Germany thermal scenery into my package. Download and install it as described at the end of this readme. If you try out the included Zellhausen-flights, activate or de-activate the thermal scenery as requested in the descriptions as the thermals may sometimes get in the way if you just want to fly a short pattern and make a landing on runway 09. The thermals' strenght varies with the time of the day and the time of the year. Thomas Geib's scenery is for FS2002 but it works well in FS2004. It has the advantage of visible FS2002-clouds leading the way to the thermals. There are other thermal sceneries for FS2004 that don't use clouds for indicating thermals. I found them quite useless as they make staying aloft a matter of pure luck.


INSTALLATION

1. Unzip the contents of the file Zellhausen.zip and drag the folders Addon Scenery, Aircraft, Flights and Gauges into your main FS2004 directory. Overwrite if prompted. The files inside the three seperate ZIP-files go into different directories and are optional.

2. In case you are a user of Aerosoft 'Scenery Germany 4', copy the bgl-file 'Zellhausen_VTPP SG4' from the zip-file 'Zellhausen Scenery Germany 4' into your Zellhausen/scenery-subfolder. Delete 'Zellhausen_VTPP Standard' from the same folder. Open your Scenery Germany 4-scenery subfolder and delete AF2_Zellhausen.bgl. These steps will adjust the landclass and start location for a proper use with SG4. If you are a user of the default scenery or the freeware Landscape Germany, quit this paragraph.

3. Optional: If you like to hear the word 'Zellhausen' instead of the icao-code in FS2004-ATC as well as the aircraft manufacturers and types, import the vcpmod-files from the zip 'ATC-files' to a temporary folder and import them using Edit Voicepack. Don't forget to update the voicepack. Edit Voicepack 3.1 is required. Consult the Edit Voicepack manual for questions on how to import callsigns and update the voicepack. The program can be downloaded from the SurClaro file-library, filename EDITVP31.zip.

4. Open the ZIP-folder GPS-NAV and exclude the file GPS-NAV (DAT-file) into your main FS2004-folder. It is required to make the GPS on the LS-8 panel work.

5. Download and install the soaring scenery of Germany by Thomas Geib from the SurClaro file-library, filename soarin~1.zip . Although it was created for FS2002 it is the best choice to use with Zellhausen. I recommend creating a folder called 'thermals' and a sub-folder 'scenery' and drop his bgl. files into it. All this needs to be placed in the ADDON SCENERY-folder. Activate it in your scenery library.

4. Activate the scenery 'Zellhausen' in your scenery library.


DISCLAIMER:

This scenery package is released as Freeware. Copyright Bastian Blinten. As freeware you are permitted to distribute this archive subject to the following conditions:

- The archive must be distributed without modification to the
contents of the archive. Redistributing this archive with any files
added, removed or modified is prohibited.

- The inclusion of any individual file from this archive in another
archive without the prior permission of the author is prohibited.
This means, for example, that you may not upload an archive that uses
this file with your own aircraft or include it in a package without first obtaining the authors' permission.

- No charge may be made for this archive other than that to cover the
cost of its distribution. If a fee is charged it must be made clear
to the purchaser that the archive is freeware and that the fee is to
cover the distributor's costs of providing the archive.

- The authors' rights and wishes concerning this archive must be
respected.

Copyright 2012 by Bastian Blinten. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright of static glider objects and Schleicher ASK 21 as well as Rolladen-Schneider LS-8 gliders by Wolfgang Piper.

I am not liable for any harm this file does to your computer. I am not liable for the content of the external links given in the flight's text files.

Scenery package created by Bastian Blinten
December 2, 2012
b.blinten@gmx.de