Mojave

A late afternoon flight over the Mojave Desert.


At Sea Level

We start from Palm Springs [KPSP] from the General Aviation side of the airport. (At Palm Springs, GA includes some impressive corporate jets.) We shall likely use Runway  31R/13L. On departure, we climb over the Little San Bernardino Mountains and Joshua Tree National Park [JTNP] to Twentynine Palms [KTNP]. Then northeast in order to skirt the restricted airspace over the Twentynine Palms Marine Air Base and turn north at [TP1] to fly between Amboy Crater to the left and the Bristol Lake salt evaporation pans just to the right. We land at Amboy [AMBOY], the home to historic Roy's Motel and Café on Route 66. (There is no airport here, but the legendary dirt strip is represented in Orbx and we shall use that. If you do not have the scenery, you can land directly on Route 66 if you like.) We then head northwest past the Granite Mountains and over the Devil's Playground towards the small roadside town of Baker [0O2]. This is home to the "world's tallest thermometer" (lamentably not in the sim).

Next, we take a long flight into Death Valley [DVNP]. Normally, the National Park Service asks aircraft to maintain at least 2,500 but they have granted this group a temporary exemption to fly at any altitude at or above 0 ft over Badwater Basin [BADW], the lowest spot in North America at 282 ft below sea level. We land at Furnace Creek (L06], the oasis in the desert. It hosts the NPS headquarters, a golf course, and two newly-renamed resort facilities: the Oasis at Death Valley and the Ranch at Death Valley.

After executing a touch-and-go at Stovepipe Wells [L09], we turn south over the Towne Pass into the Panamint Valley. The turning waypoint [SWC] stands directly across the valley from the "Star Wars Canyon" through which many military fighters fly "low-and-fast" to the delight of avid photographers. We land at Trona [L72], the home to a long-standing chemical processing plant [BORAX]. Flying south, we pass near the dramatic Trona Pinnacles [TRONP] (only suggestively represented in our mesh).

We navigate the "Trona Corridor" to squeeze between the highly restricted military airspaces associated with China Lake NAWS and Edwards Air Force Base. We pass salt evaporation and gypsum operations before tuning over the rebuilt Honda Proving Grounds [HONDA]. We land at the Mojave Air & Space Port [KMHV], the home to many of the smaller entrepreneurial space exploration companies that have pushed private space flight into the realm of reality. Some of these have failed while others seem to be on the road to success. A remarkable story of our time.

A Nightcap. We end the full day's flight at Mojave. But if we have the extra time and inclination, we can extend for a 20-minute twilight flight into the Los Angeles area and make a point of landing on iconic Runway One Six Right at Van Nuys [KVNY].

Documentation
The flightplan can be found here. I'll add a Pilot's Guide by mid-week

Aircraft
The route is 324nm. We shall need GA aircraft with a fast cruise of at least 155-160kts. Maybe the Comanche or Bonanza. Or the kit/sport planes such as the Tailwind, Vans RV7, SF.260, or Legacy. Or a light twin such as the DA62 or C310.  Of course, you should fly whatever you like. I shall take the A2A Bonanza V35B.

Scenery
The plan works best with the detail and photoreal parts of Orbx Southern California. Alternatively, it should work fine with 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.  (If you use the Orbx SoCal regional package, you might want to disable Vector and maybe other overlapping sceneries.)

In addition, we shall fly out of Palm Springs and Twentynine Palms. If you have payware renditions, they will enhance your experience but they are not at all necessary.

Time and Weather
We should fly real weather – warm sunny skies are predicted for this week over the Mojave. For takeoff on Saturday, set the simulator at 3:00pm local.

Particulars
Date and time: October 5, 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!

Must dig out Twentynine Palms

The Mojave Pilot's Guide has now been inserted into the same Mojave.zip file on DropBox here.

A symbol one doesn't see very often.
Does this mean aliens will be here to greet us? 😝

Mike,

Thank You for the flight!
A great route through some beautiful scenery, easter eggs unseen before included! 🐰 
Some photos from this excellent adventure can be found here..

Excellent photos, Roman. A treat to see a dozen of us over the more-intersting-than-expected Mojave. Quite a crowd on the runways.