I love bush flying, currently with the BN-2 Islander, but I am willing to go for something else ... I'm looking for a scenery that I can really get into, rugged airstrips, difficult approaches, airstrips difficult to spot... the kind of thing I see on Wild Alaska, where the airline operator spots likely unprepared landing areas and tries them out, so he can offer them as ad hoc strips to hunters and hikers in future!

 

I have Raw Grit PNG as well as the great African Adventures, I also have Orbx PNW, and I fly the Islander into Orbx Scotland's rugged strips. I want a new scenery, a big one! My options I think are:

 

Orbx Southern Alaska

Orbx Norway

Orbx Nea Zealand

 

Which of these gives me that rugged, unprepared airstrip adventure I'm after? Something I can get a plane with tundra tires to check out?

 

Thanks!

Check ORBX CRM!

I for one love Alaska for bush flying. Trouble is the weather is quite often minimal. As in real life up there. Which is probably why so many accidents occur up there.

 

Also the A2A C182 is probably one of the very best plane simulations available, and the 182 is regularly used in and out of short strips up there AFAIK. 

 

I'd also recommend the A2a piper cub for some low and slow short flights into lakes on floats and sand banks along the shore. In this video they demonstrate the tundra wheel "brake using the water surface and then come to rest on the shoreline" technique: 

 

 

Also the floats version has the very best water dynamics ever made for FS. Too bad the Cub isn't really a heavy lifter or a fast cruiser. For that you'd need the Aerosoft Twin Otter, a completely different beast but it's also available on floats.

 

Also, have a look here for tons of fun additional bush stuff, but read carefully on the frontpage that some payware scenery is required for their stuff to work properly. That said, this is probably the very best bush flying resource for FS ever made: http://return.mistymoorings.com/

I have Raw Grit PNG as well as the great African Adventures, I also have Orbx PNW, and I fly the Islander into Orbx Scotland's rugged strips. I want a new scenery, a big one! My options I think are:

 

Orbx Southern Alaska

Orbx Norway

Orbx Nea Zealand

 

Which of these gives me that rugged, unprepared airstrip adventure I'm after? Something I can get a plane with tundra tires to check out?

 

Thanks!

NZSI has a lot of 'farm strips' - very short, grass, sometimes hard to sight, sometimes with significant elevation change end to end. Perfect for the above-mentioned Cub.

If you like PNG (and presume you already have Holger's mesh for PNG), you could get FTX (ORBX) Jacksons, Port Moresby (which comes with 4 or 5 additional bush stips) and their free Emo Mission airfield.

 

And + 1 the Misty Moorings suggestion!

Good luck.

Two other worthy bush planes are the RealAir Scout  and the Lionheart Kodiak..

 

Both come with floats.. and are not quite as pricey..

Get Orbx Australia, and the free addon package from Ozx adding many small airports and bush strips. Ozx also has a package for the Orbx North America packages. Once you're spoiled using addon airports freeware or payware its hard to just buy a regional package that only has default airport scenery.

A lot of bush strips in CRM, particularly along the Salmon rivers.  Tiny little strips.  Lots of fun.

 

There are quite a few strips in Oz as well, particularly with the OzX freeware stuff.  These include Torres islands, although I haven't flown them, so don't know if they are bush strips.  

 

Alaska strips are pretty developed, actually.  I think CRM has more of what you're looking for.  

Thanks for the advice! I want to do this in my Islander:

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pt2qbUNo1ao

 

I installed CRM and NRM last night, I am impressed with PNW because it does have those tiny out of the way strips that are hard to spot, plus places to put down, its just that it seems just a bit too civillised with the big cities so close. Looking forward to exploring the Rockies....

 

I might be interested in buying a single engined bush plane, as long as it works well with all my Saitek gear (I have a home cockpit build). But for now the Islander with fsPassemgers to provide failures and 'Chip' the bush copilot, will do me I think. I was wondering about the A2A 182, is that really a bush plane any more than the 172??

These guys have the right idea, off-airport fliers in the northwest

 

http://www.planeandpilotmag.com/aircraft/best-buys/the-lure-of-the-backcountry.html#.VY6XBKmCOrU

 

"Why do I do it?" answers John Graham, off-airport addict and one of the founders of the Ohio Bush Planes (www.ohiobushplanes.com). "It may have started because I'm a pipeline patrol pilot and spend a lot of time cruising low, and I wanted to be able to put the airplane anywhere should I have a problem. However, after our first Alaska trip, I was hooked. Landing off-airport is addictive."

 

The Ohio Bush Planes is typical of similar loose organizations popping up around the country, in which a bunch of pilots who dearly love seeking out challenging territory on which to land have banded together. Most of these landing spots are semi-recognizable as runways (more or less), maybe on farms, maybe out in the desert, up in the mountains or on river banks. Other spots are truly off-airport and may be an open spot in the sagebrush or a gravel bar in the middle of an Alaskan river. Most are shorter than normal but aren't overly challenging to a qualified pilot in even a light Cessna 182. Others present challenges that should be tackled only by the experienced crowd.

 

 

I was wondering about the A2A 182, is that really a bush plane any more than the 172??

It would be fine in FS, I would think.

 

RW bush planes tend to be taildraggers. Things like big rocks can be far more troublesome to a nose wheel than they are to a tail wheel.

 

Also, most taildraggers more easily accept the large tundra tires that are common for off-airport activities and the front yokes on most nose wheel gear simply won't allow for larger than stock tires.

 

regards,

Joe

Ha, I see. May e a2As Piper Cub then... Or the Decathlon.

Ha, I see. May e a2As Piper Cub then... Or the Decathlon.

 

Decathlon... no, its brother, the Scout  ^_^

 

They are part of the same RealAir Taildragger package, but the Decathlon

is the aerobatic plane, the Scout, the bush plane..

 

 

installed CRM and NRM last night, I am impressed with PNW because it does have those tiny out of the way strips that are hard to spot, plus places to put down, its just that it seems just a bit too civillised with the big cities so close. Looking forward to exploring the Rockies....

 

The link below has a route through the River of No Return Wilderness in CRM that will test your bush piloting skills. 

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/445920-orbix-rocky-mountains-leg-3-salmon-snake-rivers-mountains/#entry3024904

 

 

For bush flying I like the Carenado Cessna C-185

My favourite bush strips are T004 (Quintin Lodge) and NZMJ (Martins Bay) from ORBX New Zealand (Milford Sound addon).

 

These are VERY tricky and T004 have one of the most challenging go-arounds I have ever seen.

 

Check out this video of take of and landing at T004:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiqI-nWyX9k