Introduction

Oslo Gardermoen Airport (ENGM) is an international airport serving the Greater Oslo Region in Norway. Its yearly average of 30 million passengers makes it the second busiest airport in Scandinavia. 

Gardermoen's history dates back to 1740, when the Norwegian army used the area to build a camp, first used by their cavalry and later by the dragoons and the riding marines. In the 1800s, it was also used by their infantry and artillery. For the longest time, most of the structures were temporary (tents), with barracks and stalls only appearing in 1860. 

It wasn't until 1900 that the Gardermoen military camp could finally be utilized year-round, thanks to the construction of insulated buildings. Flights would then take place in 1912, marking the beginning of its new life as a station for military flights.

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It was not until World War 2 that Gardermoen finally got proper airport facilities built by the Luftwaffe during their occupation of Norway (1940-1945): hangars and two crossing runways, with 2,000 meters each. The Norwegian Air Force promptly took over the airport after the war, becoming its main air station.

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The post-war period also marked its debut in the commercial aviation universe: it was a reserve airport for Fornebu, Oslo's main airport. If Fornebu were closed due to heavy fog, traffic would divert to Gardermoen. It also handled all intercontinental traffic while work went on to make a longer runway in Fornebu. 

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Aside from the occasional reserve airport activities, it was mostly utilized as a training field for airlines and a local general aviation airport. Commercial traffic only resumed in 1960 because SAS' then brand-new Caravelle needed more runway than Fornebu could ever offer before an extension in 1962.

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A decade later, Fornebu suffered from overcrowding, which led authorities to move all charter traffic to Gardermoen, except for SAS and Braathens SAFE. One of the former hangars was converted to a terminal building, and the passenger figures were at 269,000 per year by 1974, two years after the decision. Further restrictions were put in place in the early 1980s, and even SAS and Braathens SAFE had to comply, moving their charter operations and bringing the passenger figures to 750,000 that year.

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With the overcrowding issues at Fornebu getting progressively worse, the idea of transforming Gardermoen into Oslo's main airport - first proposed in 1946 -was brought back up and met with certain resistance at first. The parliament voted in the 1980s to divide the traffic, with Gardermoen getting the international traffic and Fornebu keeping the rest, along with a terminal expansion to keep things at bay. 

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Two years later, Fornebu was so busy that an eventual transfer of all international traffic to Gardermoen was becoming inevitable. In the meantime, they were also looking for an area to build a new airport, either in Gardermoen itself or Hurum, which was the government's preferred choice. Weather surveys begged to differ, showing unfavorable conditions for the operation of an airport, which led to Gardermoen becoming the first choice, although not without a fair share of kerfuffle made by pilots and meteorologists, who doubted the legitimacy of the surveys. 

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The legislation to build the airport in Gardermoen was passed in August 1992. The weather report kerfuffle was brought to light once again after the death of engineer Jan Fredrik Wiborg, who made the claims about the falsified weather reports and allegedly fell off a hotel window to his death in Copenhagen. 

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Construction work kicked off in late 1994, encompassing the airport and a high-speed railway. After a combined 13,000 man-years of work, the airport was officially opened in October 1998, with the same name as the area it is built on (Gardermoen).

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The passenger terminal covers 265,000 square meters and has 72 gates, with 44 jetways, and 28 remote stands. 

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Sporting over 200 destinations (domestic and international), OSL is a hub for Norse Atlantic Airways, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Scandinavian Airlines, and Wideroe. The visitors' list includes most major european airlines, such as Air France, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Finnair, Iberia, KLM, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Ryanair, Swiss, TAP Air Portugal, Turkish, and WizzAir. Trondheim (2,092,000), Bergen (1,987,000), and Stavanger (1,603,000) are among the top three busiest destinations from Gardermoen, further reinforcing the strength of domestic operations in the airport.

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Developed by Jo Erlend Sund, the scenery features a replica of Oslo Gardermoen Airport as of April 2024, with high-detail models, accurate terrain and runway profiles, custom jetway models, custom ground service equipment, custom aerial imagery, realistic night lighting, and more. 

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Installation

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The scenery is distributed via Aerosoft One and features a one-click install.

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First Impressions

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While Flight Simulator X and Prepar3d went through most of their lifespan with a single payware Gardermoen, the same can not be said about Microsoft Flight Simulator, which boasts around five different renditions at the time of writing (although only 3 of them are payware). With so many options, standing out can get tricky. It was time to determine whether Jo Erlend's new work would stand out or be just another alternative. In usual fashion, I had to pick a route first due to my refusal to load in. 

The flight of choice was a relatively short hop from Amsterdam Schiphol on a KLM 737-800 (PH-BCL), the last 738NG to leave the production line in 2019. Fitting, isn't it? The last 738NG meets the latest Oslo—an interesting coincidence, to say the least. 

The hour-and-a-half journey went by in the blink of an eye, and soon enough, I found myself on a short final to runway 01R, which I had seen so many times through different interpretations based on the many renditions made available over the years. An old, yet surprisingly new friend. Would this one be the definitive Oslo experience we didn't even know we needed? Many were the questions at the time as I gently flared the light blue bird onto the runway. 

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At first glance, it didn't seem much different compared to the rest, aside from the noticeably better ground markings and signage. But that quickly changed once I turned right into the orange taxiway toward stand 39, where the real flight had parked only a few hours before my simulated replication: the first airside experience was gobsmackingly impressive, with incredible texturing on basically everything, custom ground clutter and not even a trace of default stuff, animated passengers, realistic glass windows, airport patrol vehicles moving around, the list goes on. A living airport!

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Modeling / Texturing

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The overall quality of the models and textures throughout the airport is outstanding, bringing a level of detail rarely seen around airports of this size. The consistency is solid, with the detail bar varying from good to very good and seldom dipping below that, even around the landside areas. 

As a direct consequence of the extra attention to detail, the airside experience is second to none. The custom hand-made ground clutter is carefully spread across the stands, with baggage carts, tugs, utility vans, traffic cones, and cargo crates, all correctly replicated and very similar to their real-life counterparts. Compared to most traditional non-default ground service equipment clutter, the many vehicles scattered around aren't cardboard-ish (a compromise generally made for performance). Not only do they not appear to be made of cardboard, but the PBR effects on the surface make them even more realistic. 

The lack of generic ground service equipment is very refreshing. It appears a lot of attention was paid to the accuracy of brands, equipment models, and so on, making sure it replicates stuff that can, in fact, be seen around the real airport.

The jetways are fully customized and feature correct per-stand variations, with top-notch texturing inside and out, including warning labels, a fully-modeled control deck with all its bells and whistles, and a very nicely done glass surface to boot, yielding fantastic boarding/deboarding screenshots.

The interiors are all present, with varying amounts of detail depending on which part of the airport it is. It's mostly filled to the brim with 3D passengers, though, with compelling ambient sounds that bring a mix of multilingual chatter, boarding announcements, and even an animated piano man! Role-playing as a passenger has never been so entertaining. While the overall quality of the interiors isn't exactly industry-leading, it sure looks good, especially when seen through the flight deck when you are parked at the stand. Given that most of it is see-through, looking good from the airside is a must, and it does not disappoint.

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Night Lighting

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The product description doesn't lie when it says it features a very realistic dynamic lighting system, which is of great importance considering the transparency of its modern terminal: almost everything is see-through, and lousy lighting could ruin an otherwise great rendition. Fortunately, it is sure lit well throughout.

The jetways light up like a Christmas tree (although not in red and green), and the numbers glow in a very bright yellow, reflecting on the livery (even during daytime), producing a very photorealistic result. It's a beautiful thing to witness.

The taxiways and runways are also adequately lit, allowing consistent nocturnal lighting—bright where it's supposed to be bright and dark where it's supposed to be dark, just as one would hope. 

The PBR on the ground service equipment shines again when it's dark out, adding even more to the claim of realism. The result is very pleasing to the eye.

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Performance

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My Setup: 32 GB RAM, Ryzen 7 3700X, Nvidia RTX 3080 10 GB, 2 TB SSD (non-NVMe).

As the saying goes, with great detail comes great performance impact, or so one would imagine at first. However, this turns out not to be precisely the case: while the framerate does dip a bit (nothing too aggressive, though) on short final and landing, things calm down when you taxi to the stand and remain mostly fluid, thanks to extensive LOD (level of detail) work by the developer.

Unlike most other sceneries, where switching to the drone camera generally brings GPU usage and clocks to the very top or a halt (when they hammer the CPU instead), it sits around the same usage figures. It maintains fluidity, which generally isn't the case, at least with my setup. There's no noticeable stuttering when moving around the airport with the camera.

While the overall framerate isn't exactly high (it's a big and detailed airport, after all), it's also within the expected standard for payware sceneries, meaning if you can run the average medium/big airport, you can run Oslo. 

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Conclusion

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Retailing for roughly $22.97, Jo Erlend's Gardermoen pushes the boundaries of what we thought was possible within Microsoft Flight Simulator in terms of airside immersion, with industry-leading texturing, very sharp models, great ground clutter, and a living and breathing environment from inside out, while maintaining acceptable performance.

Finding the right balance between quality and performance is often challenging, and many developers fail to find a good compromise. As it turns out, not everyone happens to rock an i9 14900K and an RTX 4090. Compromises have to be made at the right places to ensure everyone can enjoy the product, and Jo has certainly done a great job at that.

More than just being an excellent rendition, Jo Erlend's latest release continues to set the bar for big airports in Microsoft Flight Simulator. 

A huge thank you to Aerosoft for providing us with a review copy!

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