Four Corners and the Need for Speed

[MM 424]

Four Corners and the Need for Speed
For December 5, 2020

Today we tour the Western United States centering on the Four Corners region. This is the West where, the Coen brothers' Buster Scruggs informs us, "the distances are great and the scenery monotonous." In reality, this is a vast and stunningly beautiful country that cries out for speedy aircraft. Luckily, we can employ military trainers, warbirds, and corporate jets to do the job. [I have designed an event that should suit the capabilities of our several simulators. Hope it works out.]

We begin at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport [KBJC], commonly known as Jeffco. This is a very busy general aviation and corporate airport with a new tower and refurbished runways. The field hosts two FBOs, several flight schools, and a decent restaurant. In 2018, Pilatus opened their US operations in a new hangar on the southwest corner of the airport. Our Colorado friends can probably tell us much more.

We climb up over the Front Range to enjoy, spread before us, a vista of the fourteeners – the club of 14,000 foot mountains whose number includes 53 peaks in Colorado. We shall land at rich, elegant, and toney Aspen [KASE] where we might normally expect the tarmac to be packed with corporate jets. With nearby terrain and sometimes noticeable weather, this can be an interesting approach.

We next head toward the San Juan mountains and the edgy-chic Telluride [KTEX]. Here in 1889 Butch Cassidy robbed his first bank, exiting with $24,580. And in 1891, Telluride became the first city supplied with hydro-electric power. Contemporary Telluride did not arise until the 1970s and 1980s when mining collapsed and was replaced by skiing. Celebrities moved in, tourists started to visit, and the culture changed. Telluride's high altitude plateau-perched runway can be fascinating when the mountain winter weather gets ornery.

Departing, we climb southward and then east to cross the Ophir Pass [OPHIR] and descend over Silverton [SILVER]. Then we follow the Animas River to the open country near the city of Durango. Pilots may enjoy the scenery from altitude or they may descend for a "River Run." A matter of taste.

Turning westward over Durango [DRNGO}, we pass over Mesa Verde to catch a glimpse of Cliff Palace [CLIFF], perhaps the most famous of hundreds of ancient historic sites occupied by the Anasazi, the Ancestral Puebloans. We land at Cortez [KCEZ].

Flying west, we pass only 12 miles north of the actual Four Corners Monument which marks the joint intersection of the states Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. After 70 miles, we arrive at Monument Valley [MONVA] with its dramatic sandstone buttes. Pilots with a well-modeled scenery rendition of the area may wish to circle a couple of times through the impressive structures. John Ford used the location for a number of his classic films to impress on generations these eidetic images of the American West. We turn south 16 miles to land at Kayenta [0V7].

We cross over the desert and pass near Navajo Mountain, the dome-shaped rock that features prominently as the first settlement area of the Navajo "origin" stories. This culturally significant symbol is the highest area of the Navajo Nation.

We land at Page [KPGA]. The town was formed as a 1950s housing project for the workers on the Glen Canyon Dam which dams the Colorado to control floods, to store water against drought, and to generate power – the dam is one of the largest electrical generation plants in the US. The water filled Glen Canyon, a series of deep sandstone gorges the loss of which continues to mobilize environmentalists. The resultant Lake Powell, one of the largest reservoirs in the US, has earned a reputation of scenic beauty and now attracts 3 million visitors a year. Lake Powell and the recently social-media-popularized Antelope Canyon provide a tourist economic base for the city and for the Navajo Nation.

Before or after landing at Page, we can circle to admire the majestic Glen Canyon Dam [GCDAM].

We proceed south along the upper portion of the Grand Canyon. Since the 1990s, flights within 1500 feet of the rim are prohibited. If we are lucky, our flights will be pardoned. Some pilots may choose to fly at altitude over the canyon to admire the grand views. Other pilots may choose to fly below the rim to appreciate the natural beauty at close range. (If you fly below the rim, please stay at the upper levels. We have not budgeted the time for the back-and-forth river-top white-water-flying.)

We land near the south rim at Grand Canyon National Park [KGCN]. While the airfield is used mostly for scenic and charter flights, it is the fourth busiest airport in Arizona. If you have any trouble with the runway length, remember that Air Force One landed here in 2009.

We end our day by flying calmly to serene Sedona [KSEZ].

Documentation
The flightplan and Pilots Guide can be found here.

Aircraft
This Saturday is designed for fast aircraft. The route is 560nm and asks for aircraft with a "fast cruise" of more than 300-310 kts. Military trainers and subsonic jets are a good choice for flying fast and playing in the valleys and canyons (a bit). [Aero L-39, BAe Hawk, Boeing T-45, Aeromacchi MB-339, Pilatus PC-21, or any early subsonic fighter jet.]  Similarly appropriate would be fast warbirds. [Late war versions of the Corsair, P-38, P-51, and Spitfire.] More mature pilots might prefer a small corporate jet. [Cessna Citations of various types, LearJets 24 or 35, or an Embraer Phenom.] This week I shall pick Dino Cattaneo's new Aermacchi MB-339 in Jan Kees Blom's rendition of the Prototype I-NOVE livery. As ever, fly what you like.

Scenery
FSX-P3D. You want Orbx NA Landclass plus the freeware FTX Global Airports. In addition, you might like the payware Orbx Sedona and Orbx Telluride. And perhaps Aerosoft Aspen. And you will surely want the OZx Grand Canyon v2.0 (2013) by Antonio C. and Maurizio G. (Take care of the minor duplications if you use both the FTX Global and the OZx versions of KCGN. You can probably ignore the problem.)
MFS. You might want Grand Canyon NP Airport (KGCN) by JustOkayPilot. And Monument Valley v3.0 by Jeppeson2001 [caution: large download].
For neither simulator are the addons truly necessary.

Time and Weather
For takeoff on Saturday, set the simulator at 7:30am local for December 5, 2020. We shall prefer to fly real weather. (This is essentially a VFR event. If the weather is awful, you might pick one of the pre-sets to provide appropriate conditions.

Multiplayer Particulars
Date and time: Saturday, December 5, 2020. 1900 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 and MSFS2020)

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!

[Ron Attwood 3,464]

My pony:

 

It was a toss up between this and a very nice Canadian 339. I'm going to start bombarding JanKees with requests!

Edited December 3, 2020 by Ron Attwood

[MM 424]

Aspen, P3Dv5, and Orbx Freeware Global Airports

This pertains to Aspen (KASE). P3Dv5 users will notice that Lockheed Martin has raised the airport elevation by 18 feet over FSX-P3Dv3-P3Dv4. This means that the useful Orbx Freeware Global Airports for KASE does not work in P3Dv5. [I do not know the status of the Aerosoft Aspen airport in P3Dv5.]

I don't have the scenery skills to fix the altitude. One workaround is to disable the freeware addition. Go to the Global Airport Pack. For example [your address may be different]:

 F:\Orbx_Library\p3dv5\Global Airport Pack\ORBX\FTX_GLOBAL\FTX_FTXG_AIRPORTS\Scenery.

Search for *KASE*.bgl". You should find four (4) files. Disable them by appending their names with ".OFF". For example: "FTX_FTXG_KASE_ADEP2.bgl.OFF".

You will have the functional default airport which has a few generic buildings but no charm. Not a great solution, but it will make KASE usable for our flight.

Again, this glitch affects only P3Dv5 users. FSX-P3Dv3-P3Dv4 users will be fine with the Orbx freeware upgrade. And MFS users have their own Aspen scenery (and a different altitude).

[buzzbee 52]

You are all invited to my house for a BBQ tonight before tomorrows flight as I live just a mile off the end of RWY 03 at KBJC.   It is a nice airport and my location affords me an opportunity to plan spot as left or right traffic for larger aircraft comes right over my yard.  Yesterday there were 3 C-130's flying the pattern for an hour or so.  The end of this summer saw a number of jet air tankers (BAE 146 and DC-9's) as well as Skycrane's related to the fires in Colorado. 

[Ron Attwood 3,464]

2 hours ago, buzzbee said:

You are all invited to my house for a BBQ tonight before tomorrows flight as I live just a mile off the end of RWY 03 at KBJC.   It is a nice airport and my location affords me an opportunity to plan spot as left or right traffic for larger aircraft comes right over my yard.  Yesterday there were 3 C-130's flying the pattern for an hour or so.  The end of this summer saw a number of jet air tankers (BAE 146 and DC-9's) as well as Skycrane's related to the fires in Colorado. 

Does that constitute a 'Cool' or a 'PITA'? I guess 'Cool' would be time limited eh?

[Ron Attwood 3,464]

There is, what appears to be a very good Grand Canyon KGCN on Flightsim.to for the MSFS crowd

[Ted Striker 338]

There's an historic hydro-electric power plant perched at the top of the highest waterfall in Colorado at the end of the Telluride valley. You MSFSers may have it included as a scenery item in the sim. I can't attach pictures here but I'll provide some links about it.

http://edisontechcenter.org/Telluride.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smuggler-Union_Hydroelectric_Power_Plant

Ted

[spokes2112 179]

There's some screenshots of today's most excellent flight - Thanks Mike!
You can view them here --> https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yn8b3bix4sqxb7j/AAAIBNVJutHVn2Fb5_DryikZa?dl=0

A few of the shots are kaka..
I had turned the level of detail radius way up for this flight and well, changing camera views while trying to get the shot led to blurry textures..
Too anxious for the shot & not patient enough for the textures to fully load - oh well.

Have a great week, stay healthy!

[Viking01 183]

No way for us to get away with bad landings or bad (the word I wanted to use is most probably not allowed...) approaches, under close supervision from the first take off to the last landing!😊

Great shots Roman, thanks for sharing!

[Ted Striker 338]

Fantastic flight Mike and shots Roman. Thanks, I really enjoyed that despite my fuel management mishap in the Grand Canyon.

Ted

[MM 424]

Evocative shots, Roman. And excellent use of Proxies throughout. Lovely to see those aircraft in action.

[buzzbee 52]

On 12/5/2020 at 9:43 AM, Ted Striker said:

There's an historic hydro-electric power plant perched at the top of the highest waterfall in Colorado at the end of the Telluride valley. You MSFSers may have it included as a scenery item in the sim. I can't attach pictures here but I'll provide some links about it.

http://edisontechcenter.org/Telluride.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smuggler-Union_Hydroelectric_Power_Plant

Ted

Telluride is beautiful.  The waterfall and PowerStation at the top of it look over the town. Fun to camp up at the city park campground during the film festival. 

 

[Malcolm Street 74]

Re. KASE, in the current P3dv5 Global airports pack the elevation is still out.  However, the Aerosoft Aspen works find.