Orbx PNW Tour, Oregon Leg 4, Central Oregon Cascades

 

This week's leg is a comprehensive tour around the central Cascade Mountains in Oregon, a spectacular mixture of pine forests, volcanic mountain peaks and high desert.  We start where we finshed last week at Bend/Redmond airport and finish at the resort community of Sunriver, which conveniently boasts its own airport.  This leg will be low on airfields to land at ('cos there aren't many!) but high on scenic value.

 

Leaving Bend/Redmond (KRDM) we will have a quick check of our landing skills at the high desert airstrip at Gopher Gulch (OR29) just outside the town of Bend (NOTAM: don't overshoot the runway or you're down the gulch...).  Having successfully negotiated OR29 we head west towards the eroded volcanic peak of Mt Washington, followed by a full stop landing at McKenzie Bridge (00S).  From here we will climb back east to the high peaks of the Three Sisters, then turn south past Broken Top towards the ski resort at Mt Bachelor.  Our course will then turn southwesterly, initially following the Cascade Lakes Highway towards Diamond Peak.  Having circumnavigated Diamond Peak we go back north towards Odell Lake from where we can make our approach into Crescent Lake State Airport (5S2).  Leaving Crescent Lake we visit Paulina Lakes, located in the Newberry caldera.  This collapsed volcano was used as a training site for the Apollo program astronauts due to its moon-like landscape.  We conclude the tour at Suniver (S21).

 

At 167nm this isn't a long leg so most GA singles should be fine (or for Rob, your choice of four-engined WWII bomber ).  I will be in the A2A Cherokee, but a C172 or An-2 would be other good candidates.

 

Recommended Scenery:

- Orbx FTX Pacific Northwest (PNW) Regional Scenery

 

Flightplans:

- Skyvector

- FSX

- PlanG

 

Date and time: Saturday 4th October, 19:00 UTC

 

Where: AVSIM RTWR Teamspeak - Casual Flights Channel

 

Teamspeak Server Address: ts.teamavsim.com

Multiplayer: FSX Multiplayer (IP will be provided on Teamspeak)

 

Don't forget to enter your aircraft details on the multiplayer speadsheet!

What to fly? Something with comfy seats I think. -_-

 

Don't forget to enter your aircraft details on the multiplayer speadsheet!

 

Is that a pop at me? I forgot once!

I just talked with Bert.  I may be able to make this flight time. 

 

Interestingly, I was just there on the ground, spent 8 days at Bend and area, hiked in the volcano area (Dechutes), and of course played golf locally.

 

Stayed just north of Bend at a place called Crooked River Ranch RV Resort.

 

Bryan

(or for Rob, your choice of four-engined WWII bomber [ ] )

 

Definitely not... definitely not a B-17.  Have to use an A2A Cherokee... or a 172... yeah an A2A Cherokee or 172...

 

Is that a pop at me? I forgot once!

 

You did? Well...

 

yeah... yeah then... it is a pop at you!

 

I just talked with Bert. I may be able to make this flight time.

 

Come join us Bryan. Guys are pretty laid back & it's a fun time.

 

Oh... one thing.  They are a bit strict when it comes to ATC phraseology.  So you might want to download and review JO 7110.65V - Air Traffic Control by Saturday.  Less than a 1000 pages... so... should not be much of a problem to have it down by then.

Bryan, you are added to the Multiplayer Spreadsheet.  Just add the aircraft "title" of what you will be flying so we can at least see the same model/paint or alias it to something similar.. GO HERE   

 

 

Guys are pretty laid back & it's a fun time.

 

I'm not laid back, I'm mean spirited! B)

I'm not laid back, I'm mean spirited! B)

 

 

According to your sig you are still a wannabe curmudgeon :rolleyes:

 

"working on my mean spiritedness"

Wannabe? I'll have you know I'm a fully qualified curmudgeon. <_<

Thanks :Applause:  for the "after flight" discussion about drives... Decided to take a look at the settings in bios and sure enough the damn southbridge had somehow changed to the default of SATA II 3.0 GB/s, pumped it up a notch to the SATA III 6.0 GB/s setting (matching the drives) and now from FSX start to select flight/aircraft screen takes a mere ~40 seconds compared to the  ~ 3-5 minutes before.. :Big Grin:  How/when it got set at SATA II I have no clue..  :angry:

 

Saturday flights have their privileges,,,, Knowledge!

Gents that was lots of laughs. 

 

Here is a real world photo of two from where we were flying.

 

Paulina Lake, Cinder Cone and Volcanic flow.

 

Me on top of Paulina Mtn

 

The fifth Wheel camped at Crooked River north of Redmond

Here's the gang gathered.

 

 

 

Bryan, great to have you along this week.

 

And you were right. The Orbx PNW rendition of Paulina Lakes and the local scene were spot on.

Seconded!  Great to have you along in the Saturday groupie sessions. Hope you can make more..
 
Here are some screenies I took with the disposable film camera. 

___________________________________________________________________

Quite the bunch of groupies this past weekend. All flavors of aircraft.



All of us at Gopher Gulch (OR29) except Jeff. He decide to show off the "truck's" (AN-2) STOL capability by taking off the opposite way in the grass.



A look at the basaltic andesite spatter cones on the northeast flank of Mount Washington.



Did a couple laps around Mount Washington. Looking back at the northwest flank, heavily eroded by glaciers in the last ice age. The main peak is a volcanic plug. Big lake is off the port side.



I hope this is right, a wide view of the remnants of Collier glacier with Collier cone or Four in One cone in the foreground, Three Sisters on the horizon.



Climbing up to split the north & middle "Sisters".



After a lap around the northern sisters at a lower level proceded south towards South Sister and needed another climb. The Moon giving perfect visual clues.



"Ahem.... A little tighter please. I need to fit in here." - Ron



A couple of looks over Paulina & East Lake.



Wiki - Paulina Lake sits within the Newberry Crater, formed from over 500,000 years of volcanic activity. Once devoid of fish, the lake is now regularly stocked by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and is known for its large number of kokanee salmon and brown trout. Other fish found in the lake include rainbow trout, tui chub, and blue chub.

Banking over, pouring on the coals, heading to the final destination of Sunriver (S21) to take some pics of the incoming pilots.



Landings by this weekends participants.

 

Sorry Bert, tried to get there as fast as possible to get you in the viewfinder. By the time I looked back you were already on the ground.

 

Going to try making a new cameras.cfg entry for taking photos so my own mug is not showing in every one.. Any ideas? Jeff, how did you take that shot of Rob doing the outside loop in the B-17?

Jeff in the Antonov AN-2 visually contributing to global warming.. LOL - Nice landing!



Mike in the Cherokee 180 about ready to "grease" it. Nick following with the landing lights on and Rob in the distance.



Nick, also in a Cherokee 180, putting it down with nary a puff 'o smoke. Rob following, just a bit close.



Rob in the 172, just a bit fast and getting a "floater", it ended well. Of course!



Bryan, in I believe was in a Scout, bringing it in nicely.. Ron following with lights on.



Ron crabbing it in due to unforseen winds, all good.



Curing all the worlds maladies during the afterflight "meeting of the minds".

A terrific evening/afternoon/morning depending where you were.

Disregard my request for camera info. A little google with a reference to the SDK and I got this...
 
View - Outside - "My Kodak"  is situated 15 meters higher, 50 meters ahead of my aircraft. It is looking backwards and down at the origin aircraft  with an initial zoom of  0.6... 
 
From this point all camera commands work, Fore/Aft, Up/Down, Left/Right and Pitch/Roll/Bearing.
Thought I'd share - I do not use EZDok  or any other camera config system, don't plan to either. Hard enough to fly these darn things - HA!
 
In the %APPDATA%\Microsoft\FSX folder camera.cfg I added this -
 
[CameraDefinition.XXX]     Next available number 
Title = My Kodak 
Guid = {D225B9D0-95CB-4278-9A9D-ED4545743269}
Description = Enables camera displacement outside the aircraft for taking screenshots
Origin = Center
MomentumEffect = No
SnapPbhAdjust = Swivel
SnapPbhReturn = False
PanPbhAdjust = Swivel
PanPbhReturn = False
InitialPbh=22, 0, 180
XyzAdjust = TRUE
InitialXyz=0, 15, 50
XYZRate=15.0
Track = None
ShowAxis = No
AllowZoom = TRUE
InitialZoom = 0.6
SmoothZoomTime = 1.0
ZoomPanScalar = 1.0
ShowWeather = Yes
ShowLensFlare=True
Category = Outside
PitchPanRate=30
HeadingPanRate=75
PanAcceleratorTime=0
ClipMode = Spot
UseSimVelocity = TRUE
CycleHidden=No
//HotKeySelect=4  SEE SDK FOR USE