The San Juan Islands are the perfect place for the June 1st Bush League Backcountry Fly-In. Situated with Vancouver to the north and Seattle to the south, they offer a unique mix of small airstrips you can discover. From shorelines to mountain peaks 2500 feet in elevation, This month’s back country fly-in will offer it all!
With so much variety to be found in the area, this month’s event is all about exploration. Our friend Wookie042 has done a masterful job creating both the scenery and itinerary. This fly-in is more than just visiting airstrips. A number of lighthouses guard the rocky shorelines. If you are lucky, you may catch a glimpse of Orcas that frequent the area. There is even a report that the Flying Goose Circus that is setting up in an undisclosed location for their annual show. Make sure you pack a camera and get plenty of photos. There will be many stories to share around the campfire at the end of the day.
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.
- All of the scenery and recommended aircraft is based on X-Plane 11.41.
- 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. The event is intended to be VFR, so you are free to configure your weather and time of day as you see fit.
Flight Information:
The event takes place on Monday, June 1st. All pilots should plan to meet at Friday Harbor (KFHR) for the flight briefing at 8:05pm EDT (0005z) with departures around 8:15pm EDT. The adventure is to explore over 20 airstrips in the local area. Have your camera ready if you spot any lighthouses or orcas. More detailed information about the fly-in can be found in the San Juan Islands Adventure Documentation PDF by Wookie.
Installation Instructions:
Start by downloading and extracting the San Juan Island Adventure Airports Pack. The 20 folders in the archive should be copied to your X-Plane Custom Scenery folder. Required libraries include RA Library, The Handy Objects Library, JB Library, OpenSceneryX and the Sea Life Library. Links to these can be found at X-Plane.org.
Step two involves Ortho4XP scenery tiles. As always, these are recommended, but not required. This adventure will be in tiles +48-123 and +48-124. If you have created your own orthotiles, Wookie has provided a download containing only the .osm.bz2 and .cfg data: San Juan Island Adventure Ortho4XP Users.
If you’re not an Ortho4XP user, Wookie has provided the completed tiles at this link: San Juan Island Ortho Tiles (11GB).
Questions:
If you get stuck or have a question, drop a message on the DownwindSim Discord bush-flying text channel. We’ll be happy to help and we look forward to have you join us on the Bush League Backcounty Fly-In Series!