This month’s Fly-In finds itself on a unique date in American history, December 7. As you history buffs already know, this is the date of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, ushering in the United States’ involvement in World War II. We’ll remember that day, and those who lost their lives, by exploring the island of Kauai, and then making the jump across the water to end the flight at Ford Island. Plan on joining us on Monday, December 7, 2020 at 8:00PM EST (0000z, December 8) for part 14 of the Bush League Backcountry Fly-In Series! Thank you to Slant Alpha Adventures (Rob Shearman) for the idea for this month’s virtual flight. Here’s the details… they’re a bit sparse, but that’s part of the fun…
- Everyone is welcomed! Whether you’re an expert or beginner with flying 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 11.5.
- The starting airport will be Princeville (HI01). It’s a small private strip, so when you spawn in, consider taxiing to another position to make room for the rest of the hooligans.
- You can fly whatever aircraft you’d like, but be prepared to land on some grass strips. Most airfields/airstrips can’t accommodate anything much bigger than a Cessna 172. If you’re a helicopter pilot, this Fly-In might present some unique opportunities.
- We encourage you to join the VATSIM network and use the CTAF frequency of 122.8 to announce positions. Several CSL files are available to correctly render other aircraft.
- We’ll also use the Downwindsim Discord voice channel during the flight for non-ATC related chit-chat.
Besides the published airports on the island, there are a few “off-airport” locations to check out… a lighthouse just off the coast of Princeville, the Kokee Park Observatory, there’s a ridge you can land on in the Waimea Canyon State Park, there’s a small strip at the Alexander Reservoir, and you can touch down at the only drag strip on the island. Lastly, make your way across the water to Oahu and land at Ford Island, in the middle of Pearl Harbor. Try not to get lost and good luck!
Scenery Notes:
Here’s a link to a Google Drive folder with the scenery goodies. Most of the linked scenery files have the usual library requirements, MisterX, JBObjects, OpensceneryX, etc. The scenery is designed to work best (and only tested) with Ortho4XP scenery. I’ve used NED 1/3 for elevation data and Bing zoom level 16 for the islands. You’ll need the island of Kauai and Oahu. I’d recommend these settings for these tiles. IMPORTANT: The overlay data is found in the X-Plane 11/Global Scenery/X-Plane Demo Areas folder. You’ll need to change the “custom_overlay_src” option to reflect that folder. Included are few “modified” OSM data files for two tiles… OSM_data+22-160.zip and OSM_data+21-160.zip. AND… IMPORTANT: I’ve include a patch for the area around Princeville, it makes the lighthouse area more correct. This file gets unzipped into your Ortho4XP/Patches folder, so you should end up with ../Ortho4XP/Patches/+20-160/+22-160/KilaueaLH.patch.osm. After the OSM and patch files are in place, rebuild the tiles. Contact me on Discord if you get stuck.
