US Air Mail CAM 5
(Boise KBOI to Pasco KPSC)
For May 17, 2023
Michael MacKuen

Today we revisit the early days of flying the US Mail. We re-enact part of Contract Air Mail Route 5 (that is, CAM 5). This route connected Salt Lake City (and the mainline transcontinental US Air Mail route) with Pasco (and the main railroad connections to the Pacific Northwest). The US Commerce Department awarded these early mail routes to private airlines in order to fund the rise of commercial aviation. The Pacific Northwest routes were awarded to Varney Airlines beginning in 1926. (The small airline later joined others to form United Air Lines.) For practical reasons we limit our attention to the mountainous part between Boise, Idaho and Pasco, Washington. (Our time is limited and this portion of the routing is pleasing to the eye and fits our constraints.) With any luck, this leg will provide a sense of flying open cockpit airmail planes through the rugged terrain of the American West.

We shall use the newly updated “Arrows Across America” scenery and route maps developed by a group of enthusiasts coordinated by Rob Capers.


The American West

We start at Boise [KBOI] – because the early Boise riverside airstrip (now part of the Boise State campus) was shut down and replaced in the 1930s. We continue by landing at Department of Commerce “intermediate landing fields” Weiser [S87], Baker City [KBKF],  La Grande [KLGD], Meacham [27ME], Pendleton/Eastern Oregon [KPDT], and then our final destination at Pasco/Tri-Cities [KPSC]. We shall fly over sections of the Boise, Payette and Snake Rivers. Pilots would normally fly this in one leg, stopping only when required by weather or mechanical failure. Once reaching Pasco, the mail might be transferred for Spokane, Portland, or Seattle.

We shall fly during daylight and in reasonable weather – this is Springtime but one never knows. However, the real mail pilots flew in whatever weather presented itself and, importantly, through the night. Thus, the routes were prepared with beacon lights (about every 10 miles), at each of which was a large painted arrow pointing to the next waypoint. Thus, in poor weather and after nightfall, pilots could get their directions and head to the next beacon to work their way over the terrain ten miles at a time. The Arrows Across America team have modeled these beacon towers in some detail. Thus, we can try to follow the “poor weather/nighttime” navigation practices – for educational and entertainment purposes. Of course, we have available more modern navigation backups to get us out of trouble if necessary.

Documentation
The flightplan can be found here. In addition, Little Navmap users can import [Userpoints|Import CSV] a waypoints file “AOA_Little_Navmap_Userpoints.csv” that is supplied in the scenery package. These user points show details on our route (including the beacons) as well as the other CAM routes in the package.

Aircraft
Our goal is to fly low-and-slow over the Air Mail route to capture some of the flavor of early aviation. Probably ideal would be the Boeing Stearman PT-17 and the DH.82 Tiger Moth. We want to fly at something like 85-90 kts. (The Curtiss JN-4 flew airmail a few years earlier – but is not especially good for our event. It is too slow.) If you prefer something other than the Stearman or Tiger Moth, there are very many options that will do the job very nicely. Please fly what you like.

If you choose the Stearman, you might like the package of six Varney Air Mail liveries by Megadyptes. Of course Varney did not fly the Stearman trainer. But it did fly open-cockpit biplanes, including the Stearman C2B and C4. (I’ll choose a Stearman in the yellow-tipped livery normally allocated to aircraft flying CAM 5.)

Additional Scenery
Required for this flight is the newly updated “Arrows Across America” scenery and route maps. Rob Capers and the team have done all the work for our excursion. Loads of thanks (and kudos) to the team for their wonderful creation.

The authors suggest that we temporarily disable Puffin’s We Love VFR in order to reduce conflicts. I suggest that we also temporarily disable Mamu’s powerlines if that is easy enough.

In addition, you might consider modest scenery enhancements for:
Baker City [KBKE]. Banshee56
Tri-Cities, Pasco [KPSC]. FreakyD
Neither is necessary or especially important for our flight.

Time and Weather
For takeoff on Wednesday, set the simulator at 4:00 pm local for May 17, 2023.
We typically prefer real weather. It is unlikely, but surely possible, that the weather will prevent our completing the mission. If necessary, we shall adjust accordingly.

Multiplayer Particulars
Date and time: Wednesday, May 17, 2023. 1800 UTC
AVSIM Discord Server: https://discord.gg/K5Vy6UxWNm  - AVSIM GROUP EVENTS-WED. COM2
Microsoft Flight Simulator Multiplayer: United States East server.

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!

Great, I'm looking forward to this flight but I will be late!

4 hours ago, Viking01 said:

Great, I'm looking forward to this flight but I will be late!

I will be late as well.. 😉

We have just released version 3 of the Arrows Across America addon on flightsim.to - https://flightsim.to/file/32132/1926-airway-route-cam5

The version includes over 3,800 miles of air mail routes covering:

From v1

• CAM5 Salt Lake City - Pasco (543 miles)

From v2

• CAM32 Portland to Spokane (333 miles)

New for v3

• CAM4 Los Angeles - Salt Lake City (630 miles)
• CAM8 San Diego - Seattle (1,166 miles)
• The western leg of CAM18 San Francisco - Chicago, taking you as far as Salt Lake City (618 miles)
• CAM26 Great Falls - Salt Lake City (516 miles)

In addition, v3 has:

• new hubs at Salt Lake City & Reno
• new animated hangar designs with the CAM contractor
• new arrow types
• a total of 47 Intermediate Landing Fields
• period vehicles
• an updated manual with route maps and contemporary weather overviews for the new states you will be flying through (no METAR or weather radar allowed!)

Thanks so much for the team's great masterpiece.

Thanks, that's very kind of you!