The Green Mountains in Color

(For Saturday, September 21, 2019)

Today we make our annual return trip to see the Fall Colors in New England. We shall focus on the Green Mountains, and especially Vermont, with a side trip across Lake Champlain.


We start with the Vermont state capital Montpelier and its Knapp State Airport [KMPV]. We depart northward, turning at the Ben & Jerry's ice cream plant [BJ], to land at Morristown-Stowe [KMVL], the home to the famous Stowe Mountain ski resort. Then over to the state's largest and most cosmopolitan city Burlington [KBTV] where we can stop for a boxed-lunch sandwich and maybe a canister of ice cream. Then a brief excursion across Lake Champlain to visit the winter Olympics town of Lake Placid [KLKP] in the fringes of the Adirondacks. We depart back to the east, down the mountain ridges, to execute a touch-and-go at Ticonderoga [4B6] so that we can see [in our imagination] the classic Fort Ticonderoga. Continuing, we re-enter Vermont and stop at the college-town Middlebury [6B0].

South along the Green Mountains brings us to Rutland [KRUT], the old marble-quarrying town. After a quick stop at the very quiet ski strip Mount Snow (or Deerfield Regional) [4V8], we carry on to the Berkshires and the second famous college town Williamstown [KAQW]. Finally, we again proceed southwest around the Greylock Range to execute another touch-and-go at Pittsfield [KPSF] and turn to our final destination Simsbury [4B9]. This Sunday, September 22, 2019, the Simsbury Flying Club will host their 32nd Annual Fly-In, the largest in New England. And Simsbury is even more interesting than that. Please see the final pages of the Pilots' Guide.

To make the trip a helpful venture, we have agreed to pick up and transport two essential ingredients needed by the Simsbury Flying Club. At Burlington, we shall onload several vacuum-sealed canisters of freshly-churned Ben & Jerrys ice cream. And we shall also carry more-than-a-few cases of freshly-brewed beer donated by Vermont's finest craft breweries. At Morris-Stowe we get the best from The Alchemist (Waterbury & Stowe) and Lost Nation (Morrisville). And at Burlington we take on the tastes of Burlington Beer Co., The House of Fermentology, Frost Beer Works, and Four Quarters. Please take what you can carry in your aircraft.

Documentation
The flightplan along with a Pilots' Guide and more, can be found here.

Aircraft
The route is 271nm. The scheme includes mostly short hops to allow us to stay low and enjoy the autumn "leaf-peeping" season. Any aircraft capable of about 130-140kts cruise will do nicely. For this week's special destination, let me suggest that you consider the A2A General Aviation fleet including their Cessna 172R and 182T, Piper Cherokee and Piper Comanche, and Beech Bonanza V35. Please see the final section of the Pilots' Guide for more about the emphasis on A2A. Of course, you should fly whatever you like. I shall take the Cessna 182T.

Scenery
Of course, you want the payware Orbx Global textures and Orbx Landclass North America. If you have it, you might use Orbx Global Vector to get the rivers and roads mostly right. And as they are highlighted throughout the flightplan, you surely want the Orbx Global Freeware Airports.

One recommendation for aesthetics. To enjoy the visual impression of peak foliage, you might turn up your autogen vegetation settings a notch or so – as your system allows.

Time and Weather
We should fly real weather if there is enough sunshine to light up the Fall Colors. Otherwise, you might consider the partly cloudy skies of September 16 at 1400 UTC. For takeoff on Saturday, set the simulator at 2:00pm local.

Particulars
Date and time: September 21, 2019, 1800 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!

More news. In Vermont, the word has gotten out about donating to the Simsbury Fly-In and the booming Maple Syrup industry has decided to join the effort. The large and highly-rated Butternut Mountain Farm of Morrisville is sending along two dozen lightweight gallon jugs of their Amber Rich and Dark Robust grades Vermont Syrup. Watch out for their representative at the Morrisville-Stowe airport. In addition, the niche-filling Cochrane family firm near Richmond is contributing their award-winning Slopeside Syrup for pickup in Burlington. (On the cutting edge of the industry's expansion, they have begun marketing maple syrup products as a safe organic dietary supplement for endurance sports athletes.) If you have the time, you might appreciate a comparison between the traditional sugaring processes of a half-century ago (first 12 minutes) with those employed in the current era by the Jean's Family Sugar House and by a high-tech environmentally-conscious Middlebury graduate at Scrag Mountain.

For flight-planning and weight-balancing purposes:
Maple Syrup: 1 gallon = 11 pounds
Ice Cream: 1 gallon = 5 pounds
Craft Beer: 12oz bottle = 1 pound; 1 case = 25 pounds

The informal word from the Simsbury organizers is that they could really use plenty of the pure Vermont Maple syrup...but that everyone is especially keen on the Ben and Jerry's ice cream.

hi mike,

looking foreward to saturdays flight, heres a true story concerning maple syrup.

after spending a comfortable night in a hotel in Salt Lake City we were at breakfast haveing cerial , toast & coffee, when in walked a heavily pregnant young woman  & a toddler who proceeded to occupy the adjacent booth.

when the waiter came she ordered 2 fried eggs & 6 pancakes, when it was served she placed an egg on a pancake then  the other egg on top then another pancake on top with the other pancakes at side then proceeded to smother the pile with  maple syrup

at which point haveing observed this proceedure i felt quite queasy & made for a quick exit.           I hav'nt been able to look maple syrup in the same light since, however I have ordered 6 waffles & a quart of award winning Slopeside Syrup together with half a gallon of tom & jerry's

chocolate fudge ice cream for the flight.

regards,

roger.

Some more impressions from this flight and how it looks in real live:

Ben & Jerry's Factory:

 

Later, Burlington Downtown:

At Lake Champlain Waterfront:

 

Not far from Burlington we visited the Shelburne Museum. We planned for a couple of hours but spent the whole day there:

 

The flight plan in the link isn't for this flight. Unless it was just named wrong.

KUAO-KBDN

Very strange Brian, I just now downloaded the package again, it contains the correct flight plan and pilot's guide. 

Brian, might you try again please? (You should get two versions of the flight plan: "Green Mountains in Color.pln" and "KMPV-4B9.gfp" - if not then maybe we need to work on the downloading process. KAUO-KBDN might be Bert's flight plan from last week. Hmm?) If a simple double-check doesn't work, let us know and we shall get this straightened out.

Gunter, terrific photographs. Must have been a delightful visit.

AHHH. now it's the correct one.

The powerful roar of engines and propellers as the pilots move into position. Brings to mind the mighty aircraft carrier strike forces of WWII ... if the Imperial Japanese Navy or the US Navy used Cessna Skylanes based in northern Vermont.

More pictures here. My apologies. They are definitely not up to Roman's high standards.
 

Thanks Mike, great pictures of a wonderful flight!

6 hours ago, MM said:

 They are definitely not up to Roman's high standards.

Mike,
Oh nooooo - very nice. I really missed out on this one. 😭