June 7, 20215 yr Today, I picked up, a couple of nice (small, but most importantly...🙂...free...!) Orbx airports, after I got directed by a recent (member) post that had featured another "free" Orbx airport. Orbx is known for creating many "little-known" tiny airfields (in addition, of course, to their set of well-known "big" airports). These small airports are often tucked away e.g. in the countrysides and mountains, or in the shorelines, islands, bays and sounds of the world. But for Orbx, I would never know or explore many of these places, in the virtual world. Surely, these "jewels" must be known to the long-term locals of the locales, so to speak, but not to the casual tourists of the area (who are inclined to tour only the "touristy" parts,...this stranger to Seattle, e.g. had focused on Pike Place and Boeing Plant...🙂...)... I like small airport sceneries, and, I've posted about a few such airports...(just as example, one such (virtual) airfield visit that comes to mind, now, is that of the Russian Airfield Severka (by RDS)....btw, folks, this one is now on SALE, for MSFS/P3D/FSX, and, I recommend it, if you're so inclined for such a (localized) scenery, from the rural countryside of Russia, just ~60 miles southeast of Moscow....(a flight from Severka to Moscow, with (some) accompanying scenery, en-route (and at the end-points), should be worth it, I presume)... Anyway, back to Washington State (WA)...one aspect of this state, that stands out as particularly beautiful (after all, PNW region was Orbx's introduction to NAR scenery), is its "islands", infused with old forests, rolling hills, sandy beaches, and magnificent views of the surrounding mountains. Some islands are linked to the mainland with bridges, but some are not (below is an example). The immediate vicinity of Seattle/Tacoma, contain many picturesque islands...one of which is Vashon Island (or sometimes called "Vashon-Maury" Island, due to the small piece of adjoining landmass/island "Maury", at southeast of Vashon). Maury was naturally and historically separated from Vashon by a narrow passage, until local landowners decided to build an earth bridge, linking them together in 1916. The tiny Vashon island is only < 37 square miles in area, and, I read, the island has resisted the construction of any fixed bridge to preserve its relative isolation and rural character (good for it, and, I hope it stays that way...). The main airport, on the island, is 2S1 (Vashon Municipal), with a north-south Rwy of 2,000 ft (see images below). SkyVector tells me the surface is "Turf in Good condition". My Beech (F33A) Bonanza, after a rumbling and vibrating roll, barely made it off just over the tress, at the end of the Rwy (please also see screenshot (4th one below) of the (Rwy side) caution sign for lift-off...)... Orbx has modelled (2S1) Vashon Muni as well as the grass-strip airfield (WA69) Wax Orchards, also, on this island. The two are separated by only about 5 miles, which takes about 10 mins, via road. I am not the road, here, but, I do have access to a couple of (virtual) Bonanzas (a F33A "Straight Tail" and a V35B Tip Tank with the infamous "V-Tail"). I've included screenshots of both types (the unmistakable V-tail appears first on image #11, below). The pictures, below, show: The F33A lifting off 2S1, towards north, i.e. towards Seattle side... The V35B landing on the grass-strip of WA69, approaching, from south (i.e. from Tacoma side)... I've also included a few additional shots from 2S1 airport, along with a pair (last two images) of distant views, at twilight, as seen from 1000 feet (MSL) directly above Vashon Airport...(on the very last image, Mount Rainier is seen on the horizon)... Thanks for viewing...!! [Orbx (Freeware 2S1/Vashon), Carenado (F33A/V35B Bonanza), REX]
June 8, 20215 yr Nice set ! cheers 😉 08.2024 new PC is online :  ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-F GAMING WIFI Mainboard, AMD Ryzen™ 9 7950X3D Prozessor, G.Skill DIMM 64 GB DDR5-6000 (2x 32 GB) Dual-Kit, MSI GeForce RTX 4090 VENTUS 3X E 24G OC Grafikkarte, 2x WD Black SN850X NVMe SSD 4 TB - Drive C+D, WD Gold Enterprise Class 12 TB for storage  HDD, Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 1000W PC - Power supply, Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 EVO CPU Aircooler with 7 Heatpipes, Design Meshify 2 White TG Clear Tint Tower-Case, 3x 4K monitors 2x32 Samsung 1x27 LG 3840x2160, Windows11 Prof. 23H2 - now Windows11 Prof. 25H2 Flightsimulator Hardware: Honeycomb Throttle Bravo, Logitech Extreme 3D Pro, Logitech Flight Joke System, XBox Controller, some Thrustmaster stuff, Winwing CDU Panels.
June 8, 20215 yr Lovely shots! You might also consider exploring one of Orbx´s free water aerodromes in the area. There are quite a few in the Orbx freeware range and there´s a whole lot to discover there (apart from a few botched landings on my side 😀) Intel core i5-12600KF,  ASRock B760-H2/M2, Kingston DDR5-4800 32 GB, Asus Geforce RTX 4060 TI 16GB, Samsung SSD 980 1 TB M.2 SSD, Lexar NM790 SSD 2TB
June 13, 20215 yr Author Alaska738, pmplayer, duesenwerni: Appreciated the comments and kind words...!!  On 6/8/2021 at 1:16 AM, duesenwerni said: Lovely shots! You might also consider exploring one of Orbx´s free water aerodromes in the area. There are quite a few in the Orbx freeware range and there´s a whole lot to discover there (apart from a few botched landings on my side 😀) [Yes, I've spotted those water aerodromes in Orbx freeware...will get them....should be fun with floats and amphibs...thanks...!]
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