Forty? 40? We’ve done forty of these… wow! Ok, now onto the details of #40!
It’s February and it’s terrible flying weather in Alaska… so let’s go! This month we return to Valdez, Alaska and venture off in a different direction. Make sure you air up your fat tires and don’t forget to pack your sectional. Also, moving forward, the scenery design has included the use of the Global Forests v2 payware package addon. If you haven’t purchased that, your mileage may vary.
Bush League Basics:
- Everyone is welcomed! Whether you’re an expert or beginner with flight simulators, radio communications, or navigation, etc., you’re invited! We’re a friendly bunch and enjoy learning from each other.
- The best aircraft for these events are those that can handle short, narrow airstrips. STOL mods are not mandatory, but helpful. Fat tires help make the bouncy strips that much more enjoyable. Several CSL files are available to correctly render other aircraft.
- We encourage you to join the VATSIM network and use the CTAF frequency of 122.8 to announce positions. We will not be in communication with ATC unless you plan to extend your flight into a controlled airspace.
- We’ll also use the Downwindsim Discord voice channel during the flight for non-ATC related chit-chat.
- As always, the main goal of these flights is to have fun and practice good airmanship. The weather in Alaska can be good or bad, so configure as you see fit.
Flight Information:
The event takes place on Monday, February 6th. We will gather at PAVD – Valdez Pioneer Field for a short flight briefing at 8:00pm EST (0100z on 2/6) with departures shortly after. The basic route, if weather allows, is Valdez – Thompson Pass – Cordova Muni – Yakataga – Icy Bay (of course, there are a few more, but you’ll have to figure it out).
X-Plane Scenery Installation Instructions:
The scenery has been developed for XP12. Here’s the link to the files for your “Custom Scenery” folder:
2023-02 BL Valdez Alaska.zip.
We are big supporters of the X-World scenery addon (free) and Global Forests v2 ($15) addon. They are excellent additions for the XP12 world. Again, the custom scenery references the Global Forests v2 addon.
Ortho Scenery Creation:
This is the hardest part. In this area of the world, the tiles are small due to their close proximity to the north pole… so there are several tiles to build. All the airstrips are developed, tested and designed to work with the Ortho4XP scenery tiles.
After you “cook” these tiles, and these are the settings I used to cook my development tile, you’ll need to add the modified .bz2 files to the appropriate folders AND A PATCH file to the appropriate folder and re-cook. These files help shape the terrain and make the water areas more accurate around the airports. I used “Arc” for the imagery source as this provided a bit more consistency throughout the tiles. I’d recommend the using the same imagery source.
Here’s the link to the modified OSM Data .bz2 files. These should go into your (drive):Ortho4XP/OSM Data/ then the appropriate folder. This link now includes the UPDATE/FIX mentioned below.
***UPDATE/FIX*** Melvin Leroy helped identify a potential problem with Cordova Muni area. Please use this updated airports.osm.bz2 file and recook tile +60-146 to have the Cordova Muni runway as it should be. The file in this .zip should overwrite the file in your drive:/Ortho4XP/OSM_data/+60-150/+60-146 folder. (This is the tile that also includes the patch mentioned below. You still need that in it’s correct folder.) Sorry about the confusion.
Here’s the link to the patch for Cordova Muni. The path to this file has to be (drive):Ortho4XP/Patches/+60-150/+60-146/cordova.patch.osm. Important!!! Once this patch and the above linked .bz2 files are in their correct locations you’ll need to rebuild the tiles.
Here’s one of the tutorials I’ve made for working with OSM Data and Patches.
If you get stuck or have a question, drop a message on the DownwindSim Discord bush-flying text channel. There’s a bunch of friendly folks that’d be happy to help. I look forward to have you tag along on the Bush League Backcountry Fly-In Series!
-DWS