Maine. The Hundred Dollar Lobster Roll

For Saturday, July 8, 2017. For Saturday, July 15, 2017.

Today we enjoy a change-of-pace: a Saturday afternoon in light General Aviation aircraft for a journey up the Maine coast from Portland to Bar Harbor. The distance is short (176nm) but we make a number of quick stops to enjoy the practice of putting small planes into small airstrips.

We start from Portland International (KPWM) and fly "Down East" past the former NAS at Brunswick and Bath's tall shipbuilding cranes to land at Wiscasset (KIWI). There we take on board lobster rolls from Red's Eats, Maine's iconic lobster shack. We fly over Boothbay Harbor to Outer Heron Island and The Heron's Nest (00ME) for a beautiful secluded picnic lunch. Then to Rockland and the larger Knox County (KRKD) to begin our tour of the islands of Penobscot Bay. First out to tiny Matinicus Island (35ME) and then back to Vinalhaven Mary Talbot (ME55) – these two commercially-serviced airstrips present a serious and potentially dangerous challenge. (See the Pilot's Guide.) After this pair, we fly into the land of luxurious summer homes on Islesboro (57B) and to the working town of Belfast (KBST). Back over Penobscot Bay to Stonington (93B) on Deer Isle. We make a very quick stop on Swan's Island (ME5) to pick up fresh homemade blueberry pie. And finally, we tour the larger Mount Desert Island, flying over Southwest Harbor, Acadia National Park, Cadillac Mountain, Jackson Laboratory, and the town of Bar Harbor before landing at Hancock County-Bar Harbor (KBHB).

Flightplan and Pilot's Guide:

Available here.

Aircraft:

A time to enjoy light aircraft on these fairly short hops. You should be capable of about 100kts cruise but otherwise, anything goes.
I shall be flying the A2A Piper Cherokee.

Recommended scenery:

Standard Stuff:
Orbx FTX Global Base.
Orbx FTX Global North America Landclass.
Orbx FTX Global NA Airport Pack.
Orbx FTX Global Vector. (For aesthetics-only: to get the islands and shorelines correct).

Special for this flight:
Bill Womack's The Heron's Nest v2.0. (Available here. Freeware but he asks that you register.) We shall stop at this fictional island retreat. There is no such airport in real life or FSX/P3D.
Ed Wells's Matinicus Island and Vinalhaven Mary Talbot Memorial airstrips. These small freeware creations are available from the Sim-Outhouse library here and here. (The bare strips exist in FSX/P3D but are misplaced and uninteresting. Ed has done an excellent job depicting the challenging character of the airfields.) Small and easy install.
Orbx Bar Harbor Airport. Payware. Excellent portrayal of Mount Desert Island and Bar Harbor, as well as the airport.

For this Saturday, you might consider ticking your AI "Leisure Boats" setting up a notch or two. On summer weekends, the Maine coast will be busy with boating.

Particulars:

Date and time: Saturday July 8, 2017, 18:00 UTC
Where: AVSIM RTWR Teamspeak - Casual Flights Channel
Teamspeak Server Address: ts.teamavsim.com
Cross-Platform Multiplayer: JoinFS. Latest version is here. (FSX, FSX-SE, and P3D)
If you want to help others enjoy the multiplayer experience, don't forget to enter your aircraft details on the multiplayer spreadsheet (linked here). Your courtesy will save others a lot of time and effort. Thanks!

Recommend that you set your initial clock to 16:00 hours in local time to account for flight time and the usual "faffing about" time.

 

Mike,  Sounds good!

A chance to take my RV7 for a scenic ride..

Great!

I hope I get Heron's Nest working. For now it is okay in FSX and P3D V4. It does, however, not install in P3D V3. I opened a post at Bill's forum, hope it helps.

Nice flight plan, Mike - thanks.

I'd better get working on my FSX setup, I moved it off my SSD to make room for P3D4 (yes, it's coming!) and I'm only part way through reinstalling on another drive.  Looks like a nice opportunity to get the C172 out again. Or how about an An-2, hmmm....

Maine - the way life should be...

Regards,

Scott

Great narrative Mike! I especially love the little clips about Penobscot Air!

Just notified that the Bar Harbor Inn has confirmed our reservations at the “Reading Room” for our post flight celebration.   Good suggestion Mike.

Beautiful! It reminds me of a hotel we staying in, in Finland. The restaurant overlooked a small harbour and we were one of two couples eating there. During the meal the head water came over to us and said deferentially, "Excuse me, but are you from the yacht in the harbour?" "No" I said, "We're from the Nissan Micra in the car park". I honestly don't know how my wife and I kept a straight face.

 

On our route we pass over Cadillac Mountain (Waypoint CADMT). View from there to Bar Harbour:

 

Bar Harbour Waterfront:

 

BTW, comparing some areas in V3 and V4, we can see what Vector does:

V3:

V4:

 

V3:

 

V4:

So it's back to Vector...and the pauses. Tough call.

Well, I had these pauses in V4 again, probably my ancient graphics card...

A bear walks into a bar and says, "I'll have a beer ......................and some peanuts."

You're fired!

I wAlked into a bar and it hurt...