Bienvenue en France: Le Massif Central

[Viking01 183]

Le Massif Central:

Today we will visit the Massif Central in the southwest of France. It covers an area of about 85.000 square kilometers (33.000 square miles), which corresponds to about 15% of France!

The Massif central has an average elevation of about 700 meters (2300 feet), and its highest mountains are within the Monts Drore (Puy des Sancy with about 1885 meters (6200 feet)). 

  

We depart from Thalamy (LFCU) and head straight to the highest Peak of the Massif Central, the Puy des Sancy. From here we turn south and fly over the "Auvergne Volcanoes Regional Natural Park", to land at Aurillac (LFLW).

Next, we fly around the southern part of the Parc Natural Régional de l’Aubrac, a volcanic high plateau, to reach our next landing at Brenoux (LFNB). 

From here we fly in zigzag over the mountains of the Ardèche Park and land at Ardèche Meridionale (LFHO) in the east of the park. From here we head north again and land at Lesperon (LFHL) in the northwest. 

We will cross our flight path and head south, later on southwest, to see some parts of the Cévennes National Park. 

In between, we make a small detour and land at La Grand Combe (LFTN). After heading back north, the next attraction is the Gorges du Tarn - the Canyon of the River Tarn. We will follow the river Tarn from waypoint 22 into its canyon. We land at Larzac (LFCM), situated on a limestone plateau.

After a well deserved but short break, we depart again and head back to the river Tarn. Turning west we see the famous Viaduc de Millau. This bridge was - and maybe still is - the tallest bridge in the world with 336,4 meters (1102 feet). It crosses the Tarn River Gorge and needs an inspection from below.  It is ranked as one of the greatest  engineering achievements of all time!

We follow the river for some more miles before we head south and land at Belmont (LFIF).

After a couple of miles, we land at La Tour-sur-Orb (LFNX) for the last short rest. On this last leg, we pass the well know Les Gorges d'Héric (around Waypoint 45). 

Finally, we follow the river Orb for a while before we turn north-west to reach today's destination Castres-Mazamet (LFCK).

 

Documentation: The flight plan can be found here.

Scenery: This part of France is well covered by ORBX European Landclas. 

All airports for today's flight can be found here:

http://occitania.gratisim.fr/fs/P3DV4.htm

That website is very busy. Select your simulator and on the next page, for P3D download the topmost file named 02/02/2019 version de base. It contains many folders and additions for SODE etc.. Click through them and find the Occitania_VFR_P3DV4 folder and from that folder the scenery and texture folders. That’s all we need. The folder needs to be activated in the sim as usual. The contents of the P3DV4 folder (Effects and texture) can be copied into the relevant folders of your P3D installation. That’s it. 

We  had some Sunday flights in that area and the airports seem to work well. If you installed the scenery for these flights you are set, no need to do it again.

SODE users may get some large red X in some of these airports. Removing the relevant OCC_airport code_WSock.xml solves that problem.

The download for FSX is named Occitania VFR beta finale! Do not use that for P3D!

If you have problems with the scenery send me an E-Mail, I will try to help help you.

These airports enhance the scenery very well, but they are not required. You can do the flight without them!

 

Aircraft: The trip has 400 nm, so we should cruise with about 180 KIAS. There are many aircraft to choose from, like the Legacy, the Vans-RV7, or a light Twin like the C-421 or the Duke. I will be in my Vans RV-7A with the C-FAOA livery. As always, please fly what you like.

Time and Weather: Please set your clock for a  17:00 hrs local departure. We prefer real weather. In case we need to, we can select the weather from July 13, 12:00 hrs local.

 

Particulars

Date and time: July 18, 2020. 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!

 

[spokes2112 179]

La Tour-sur-Orb (LFNX) in FSX just isn't there. 
I even downloaded the P3D version of Occitania from the site & there are no references to LFNX or La Tour-sur-Orb in any bgl.
Could someone fire up LNM and check where this bgl comes from?
I did find a file that will put "something" there. Would rather have the same thing but if not, oh well..
Thanks

[Viking01 183]

Sorry about that. It says ...scenery/0602/scenery/APX48160.bgl in V5

[spokes2112 179]

OK.. cool, not in FSX.. yet.... currently "rebuilding scenery indexes" 👍😎
Thanks!

FWIW -- for a grass strip with 2 sheds it is very well done! 

 

[MM 426]

On another topic. The 50-minute film that tells the story of building the Millau Viaduct is especially good. Worth the time. Thanks, Gunter.

[spokes2112 179]

Alice's Restaurant Massacree - Arlo Guthrie
He stopped me right there and said, 
"kid, have you ever been to a Saturday multiplayer session?" 
And I proceeded to tell him the story of the sixty-seven 8 x 10 colored glossy
pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one.
😂
The evidence is in public domain and you may view it here.

Gunter... Excellent flight! 👍 Thank you.

[Viking01 183]

Great shots Roman and proof of the bridge inspection! 👍