May 4, 20224 yr I've been flying this Air Mail route for a few days now, and it's been killing me to keep my lips zipped. Now I don't have to. 😁 https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/wip-arrows-across-america-flying-the-air-mail/515303 Quote Bare bones navigation from the dawn of commercial aviation… Flying really low and slow in all weathers, day and night, no autopilot required… Following in the slipstream of Leon D. Cuddeback & Elrey B. Jeppesen… If this sounds like your kind of flying, then we might have something for you. Inspired by a discussion on the MSFS 1950 - Historical Airports thread we have been recreating an original US Air Mail airway for the sim. In 1926 the US Postal Service & Department of Commerce began contracting air mail routes that would eventually criss-cross the USA. Each route was marked by a path of yellow concrete arrows with flashing beacons mounted on 51’ towers, interspersed with landing fields. Some surviving arrows are visible on Bing Maps, meaning that they are also visible in the sim, if you know where to look. CAM5 Beacon 27 Arrow in Bing Maps CAM5 Beacon 27 Arrow in sim However, we have decided to recreate the whole 600 mile Contract Air Mail 5 (CAM5) route from Salt Lake City UT to Pasco WA, using original maps and research by aviation historians. The route is mapped, 59 individually numbered beacon sites have been built to scale, positioned precisely using the original sectionals & surviving remains and are now being tested… CAM5 route in LNM Arrow, mast and generator shed in Blender CAM5 Beacon 27 in sim We are now on the glidepath towards a freeware release, so if you would like to fly the mail with us stay tuned for updates and let us know what you think. If you want to find out more about the airway system, then these sites are a great place to get started:Arrows Across America Zhanna’s Survey Station And for an account of how low you need to go to fly the mail check this interview with Elrey Jeppesen See you on the Airway! @RobCap1966 - modelling and sdk@PipsPriller - research and route mapping
May 4, 20224 yr Oh sure, airplanes can be used to transport the mail but do we really think they will ever be used to transport people? Hehehe... Definitely going to give this a try when it's released. Haven't flown my 152 in a while. 😉
May 4, 20224 yr This is actually magnificent!! What a great idea 👍. I’ll put my hands up and admit I’ll be doing this in the Kodiak 😎. Thank you for posting this Waldo!
May 5, 20224 yr This will be really fun to try out!! I think I'll give it a shot without using any kind of GPS. Probably really really challenging in crummy weather. Sign me up! (well, I'll sign up...when it's ready, but - yeah).
May 5, 20224 yr This is where Lindberg got his career started. 5800X3D, RTX4070, 600 Watt, one or two 1440p 32" screens, 64 GB RAM, 4 TB PCle 3 NVMe, Warthog throttle, VKB NXT EVO stick, Honeycomb Alpha yoke, CH quad, 3 Logitech panels, 2 StreamDecks, Desktop Aviator Trim Panel. Crystal Light VR.
May 5, 20224 yr This is a great idea, I'm looking forward to its release. Surely not everybody was kung fu fighting. https://rationalwiki.org
May 5, 20224 yr Looks fun and challenging. 😎 Asus Maximus Hero X11, Intel i9 10850k, 32gb Corsair Dominator ram, 2tb Corsair mp510 ssd m2, Gigybyte turbo RTX 3090
May 5, 20224 yr Author 16 hours ago, Fielder said: This is where Lindberg got his career started. In the film, "the Spirit of St. Louis", Jimmy Stewart portrays a young Lindbergh buying his first aircraft, a war surplus Curtis Jenny. He trades his Harley Davidson and 440 dollars for the Jenny, and then performs his first solo as he departs in it. In the film, Lindy tries to force his way through bad weather while flying his airmail route. He ends up flying into bad visibility and bails out. I can't find that clip online. Love the scene where Lindy lands at Brooks Field in San Antonio, Texas to report for flight cadet training (US Army Air Service). Edited May 5, 20224 yr by Waldo Pepper
May 5, 20224 yr Quote OK guys, PipsPriller accumulated a significant amount of information in a spreadsheet for CAM#5. Co-ordinates, (for placement in MSFS and for Little Nav Map (which has a different way of reading the co-ordinates), links to info and old maps, direct links to google maps locations, etc, etc. It’s cool to dive into all the resources available, to figure out what was going on back then. image745×742 97.9 KB We started reading books and websites on the subject, and it was quite an achievement in those days, often gained at a very high price, in the form of loss of lives. I used the spreadsheet to keep track of progress, and to see what still needs to be done. And I add my info here and there as well. image1805×813 118 KB I’m filling in the final gaps of things to do, all models have been compiled. (Which is a steep learning curve, getting to know Blender and the SDK.) We had to place 209 scenery objects, and still counting. Arrows, towers, numbers, flashing beacons (stock effects, for now), exclusion poligons, etc. You get to see plenty of great MSFS scenery during your flight, hugging the terrain. image1013×778 61.1 KB We will keep you informed when it’s up for download. Cheers, Rob http://dc2-fs.com Dutch National Aviation Theme Park and Museum. No DC3 without the DC2
May 5, 20224 yr Brilliant Idea , I remember reading about this system and the fact that some of the arrows survive to this day. Cant wait to try some mail runs, thanks and best of luck Edited May 5, 20224 yr by Sceadu
May 5, 20224 yr Author Hello, Rob! I have to say that I'm very impressed with what you guys have accomplished in such a short period of time. You guys went from deciding that you wanted to this to exist, to learning how to model in Blender, to learning the sdk, to putting in the sim. Incredible.
May 6, 20224 yr Thanks Waldo, much appreciated - maddest thing about it is that Rob and I have never spoken! It's all been done over email and Google Sheets... Richard (Pips)
May 7, 20224 yr Author Looks like Rob and Richard have posted their mod! https://flightsim.to/file/32132/1926-airway-route-cam5 Quote Bare bones navigation from the dawn of commercial aviation… Flying really low and slow in all weathers, day and night, no autopilot required… Following in the slipstream of Leon D. Cuddeback & Elrey B. Jeppesen… If this sounds like your kind of flying, then we might have something for you. Inspired by a discussion on a MSFS forum thread we have been recreating an original US Air Mail airway for the sim. In 1926 the US Postal Service & Department of Commerce began contracting air mail routes that would eventually criss-cross the USA. Each route was marked approximately every 10 miles by a path of 51' long yellow concrete arrows with flashing rotating beacons mounted on 51’ towers, interspersed with landing fields. The beacons have a generator shed and a fuel tank, and the Airway and Beacon number on the roof of the shed. The arrow points in the general direction of where the next beacon is. Some surviving arrows are visible on Bing Maps, meaning that they are also visible in the sim, if you know where to look. So, we have decided to recreate the whole 485 mile Contract Air Mail 5 (CAM5) route from Salt Lake City UT to Pasco WA, using original maps and research by aviation historians. The route is mapped, 51 individually numbered beacon sites have been built to scale, with a animated rotating beacon, positioned precisely using the original sectionals & surviving remains. If you want to find out more about the airway system, then these sites are a great place to get started:Arrows Across Americathesurveystation And for an account of how low you need to go to fly the mail check this interview with Elrey JeppesenJeppesen interview See you on the Airway! A flightplan for the whole CAM#5 route is included in folder. To be able to select in MSFS, copy it here: C:\Users\Gebruiker\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState Also the native LittleNavMap file is the forde. Copy that file into your LNM installation folder. Acknowledgements notes and disclaimers: Thanks to my wife, who helped with decal textures. Thanks to the FS developer forum, especially rhumbaflappy, for his solution to place beacons. Thanks to the youtube videos from Flying Theston, Federico Pinotti, MyPhysical World, helping with understanding Blender and the MSFS SDK. Textures and effects are stock MSFS, used for these models. The beacons, inspite of carefull placement, can be off position, which is some kind of MSFS glitch. Also, just before beacon 10, the beacon flashes stop, you can hold your course and pretend the light is out. When you reach beacon 11, all is good again, and you can see beacon 12 and later also beacon 13 flash in the distance. I need to figure this out, but at the moment it is the way it is. For best results, if you have it installed, turn Puffin VFR Region 2 off (eg using Addon Linker). The new masts are often in the location of the old Airway Beacons. Those surveyors in the old days knew their trade well. Legal Stuff This scenery is released as FREEWARE. You may use it for your personal enjoyment, but you may NOT use it in any kind of money-making endeavor, you may NOT modify it and you may NOT publicly distribute any copies of it, whether modified or not, without my permission. Rob Cappers Just departed KSLC at 20:00, what a serene trip. Edited May 7, 20224 yr by Waldo Pepper
May 7, 20224 yr Keen to try this too. How did pilots navigate this? Just running a set heading (based on arrow direction) with perhaps a little drift correction from beacon to beacon? GregH Intel Core i7 14700K / Palit RTX4070Ti Super OC / Corsair 32GB DDR5 6000 MHz / MSI Z790 M/board / Corsair NVMe 9500 read, 8500 write / Corsair PSU1200W / CH Products Yoke, Pedals & Quad; Airbus Side Stick, Airbus Quadrant / TrackIR, 32” 4K 144hz 1ms Monitor
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