This month we find ourselves back in the Frank Church – River of No Return Wilderness Area in Idaho. Make sure you have your ELT ready to go as we’ll visit some of the more difficult airstrips in this area. A very special thanks to StevePHL and Milosanx for creating/sharing Dewey Moore and Big Creek sceneries!
For a real challenge, consider flying the Propstrike Studios C172 mod. In the development process, I’ve found this plane has JUST ENOUGH power to make the difficult strips… barely… with some trial and error 🙂
So, leave your GPS behind, grab your sectional, your favorite low and slow bush plane and by all means… WEAR YOUR SEAT BELT!
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 event is intended to be VFR, so you are free to configure your weather and time of day as you see fit.
Flight Plan and Scenery Links:
The event takes place on Monday, May 3rd. Let’s plan to meet at Mc Call Muni (KMYL) at 8:00pm EDT (0100z, May 4). This month’s flight builds on the last time we were in this area. There’s no time limit so stay and explore as long as you’d like.
Mc Call Muni (KMYL) ->
Krassel USFS (24K) ->
(Krassel, Reed and Johnson Creek are included in this link, from Fly-In #17. Visit that page for scenery details if you don’t have those scenery elements installed.)
Reed Ranch (I92) ->
Johnson Creek (3U2) ->
Dovel Landing Strip v2 -> (updated with a missing texture)
Simonds Landing Strip (difficult, one plane at a time) ->
Dewey Moore (difficult, two planes at the most) ->
Big Creek (U60) ->
Warren (3U1) ->
return to Mc Call Muni
UPDATE: Just spoke with Uncle Melvin and he was happy to share a quick map! “At least I didn’t have a coffee stain on this one.”
X-Plane Scenery Installation Instructions:
All the airstrips are developed, tested and designed to work with Ortho4XP scenery tiles. You’ll need to cook at least tiles +44-116 (from BL#17) and +45-116 . These are the settings I used to cook my Ortho4XP tile… I’d recommend the same! Also, I used “ARC” for the imagery source as this provided a bit more consistency throughout the tile. Again, I’d recommend the same. I’ve also provided this link to modified OSM data files for the +45-116 tile. These help shape the terrain immediately around airstrips and also add A LOT of missing water features. If you’re not sure how to use the modified OSM data, here’s a short video. While you’re at it, you might want to cook some of the surrounding tiles too.
A word about forests and trees…
There are several addons providing updated forest coverage data for X-Plane, some free, some payware. I’ve used (for various reasons) “antwob’s” free U.S. Forests addon which uses the default tree texture set, but more accurate location data than the default x-plane data. I’ve also modified the tree forest type for this tile (+45-116) in Idaho. That modified forest overlay file is linked here. This file should go in your X-Plane/Custom Scenery/us-forests/Earth nav data/+40-120 folder. The us-forests scenery folder (SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/us-forests/) should be just above your “SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Global Airports/” line in your scenery_packs.ini file. What’s Idaho without lots of coniferous trees? Right???
Questions:
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 tagging along on the Bush League Backcountry Fly-In Series! -DWS