Patagonia - Part 2

[jt_williams 291]

Patagonia - Part 2

The route is in the Chilean province of Aysén and the Argentinian province of Santa Cruz.  Both provinces share the distinction of being the least populated regions in their respective countries.   Our route will traverse rugged mountain valleys with many lakes – large and small and culminate with a flyby of the impressive Fitz Roy in the southern Patagonian Ice Field.

We start at the tourist airport of Balmaceda (SCBA) located near the Argentinian Frontier and proceed southward for a series of landings (4) at small airstrips around General Carrera Lake (Lake Buenos Aires).  The lake is of glacial origin and is surrounded by the Andes mountain range.  The lake occupies a continental-scale graben formed by SWS-ENE normal faults that have resulted in down-dropping the bottom of the lake to 350 meters (1,150 ft) below mean sea level.

Leaving the lake, we head east to Perito Moreno a small town which is the center of cattle ranches and smallholdings producing fruit and vegetables.  We land at Lago Buenos Aires Airport (SAPR) before proceeding south 32nm to Cueva De Las Manos (SAQH).  Cueva de las Manos (Spanish for Cave of the Hands or Cave of Hands) is a cave and complex of rock art sites named for the hundreds of paintings of hands stenciled, in multiple collages, on the rock walls. The art was created in several waves between 7,300 BC and 700 AD. The site is considered by some scholars to be the best material evidence of early South American hunter-gatherer groups.

The route turns west for a longish leg into the mountains for our next landing at Lago Brown Airstrip (SCBR).  We follow the pass through the mountains to Cochrane (SCHR) before heading south to Lago Vargas Airport (SCVS) located near Baker River (Chile’s largest by volume of water).  It’s 19nm directly over the mountains or a bit longer through the valley to Río Bravo Airfield (SCRB) and our next landing.  Continuing south we reach Río Pascua Airfield (SCTP) near the Baker Channel.   Turn back to the east and crossing the mountains we reach Entrada Mayer Airfield (SCEY).

It is only 18nm south to Villa O'Higgins Airport (SCOH) then an additional 29nm to Laguna Redonda Airfield (SCIO) which is the jump off point for our flyby of Fitz Roy.  The current MSFS scenery is a poor rendition of this impressive group of peaks.

Patagonia - Fitz Roy 4 K (youtube.com)

The village in the Heart of the Majestic Andes Mountains🌄| El Chaltén, Argentina 4k 🇦🇷 (youtube.com)

The route is 498 nm and an aircraft capable of 250knts cruise is needed.  I plan to fly the Flying Iron P-38.   Our itinerary includes 15 airports/landing strips and we will have to move along at a good clip to finish in the allotted time.  We will probably elect to perform touch and go’s at several locations to stay on track.   I have included the scattered clouds weather theme which we may use if needed in the flightplan zip.

Flight Plan HERE

Highly Recommended Freeware Scenery

•         FSonFS (Flight Simulator on Far South) for Microsoft Flight Simulator | MSFS

Ranging from medium airports to small dirty strips.  This package contains 98 sceneries, 68 small to medium hand made airfields, and 27 excluded airfields. Plus the former ranch of Butch Cassidy & Sundance Kid, and 2 vegetation fix.

•         SCBA Rework for Microsoft Flight Simulator | MSFS
•         Lake O'Higgins Project (SCOH, SCIO, SCTP, SCRB & SCEY) - Aysén, Chile for Microsoft Flight Simulator | MSFS

 Optional Payware  (I have these because I regularly fly in this region and I got them on sale in the marketplace.  They are not necessary for this trip but an option if you like)

•         simMarket: SCBA BALMACEDA AIRPORT PATAGONIA V3 MSFS
•         simMarket: SAWC EL CALAFATE AIRPORT MSFS

Recommend Departure time of 1:00PM local

Particulars:

•           Date and time: Saturday January 20, 19:00 UTC
•           RTWR Multiplayer Discord Channel
•           MFS Multiplayer: US Eastcoast Server

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