Skyhawks over the San Juan Islands
For Saturday, May 25, 2024
Michael MacKuen

Today we enjoy an afternoon of low-and-slow flights over the San Juan Islands. We begin on the Olympic Peninsula, visit the countryside north of Seattle and then spend the rest of our day island hopping. We finish at our favorite PNW destination Orcas Island.


Sightseeing over Lopez Island

We initiate our flight from the private community airport at Diamond Point [2WA1]. We quickly jump over to Olympic Field [WA45] to enjoy an interesting approach into a beautiful setting. Then we turn eastward, skirting north of Puget Sound, to land at Whidbey Island’s Whidbey Airpark [W10] – a lovely public use field maintained by local aviation enthusiasts who style the operation as “the Community in the Woods.” We cross Possession Sound, passing quiet Hat Island and the very busy Everett Naval Station. We land at one of our old favorites Harvey Field [S43]. For eighty years, this family-owned business has served GA pilots from all over the Seattle area.

After a few minutes, we depart north to the big busy GA airport at Arlington Municipal [KAWO]. The field hosts many different types of aircraft including modern jets and classic historic restorations. We continue to Skagit Regional [KBVS], another favorite (which unfortunately has received little MSFS attention). We turn over the tulip fields and nurseries to reach La Conner on the banks of the Swinomish Channel. We’ll inspect the Rainbow Bridge. A few minutes later, we get to the Deception Pass Bridge and Canoe Pass Bridge which offer a similar possibility for flying close to the edge of the air. We land at Anacortes [74S]. The town serves as the primary “gateway” to the San Juan Islands – with facilities for both aerial and seaborne transit.

We begin our island excursion with a touch-and-go on the elevated Cypress Island Airstrip [SJI3]. And then a landing at the Sinclair Island Airstrip [SJI4]. Turning to the southwest, along Rosario Strait, we can keep an eye out for shipping in the busy channel. We land at Decatur Shores Airport [WN07], a private grass strip that serves the residents on the island. Next is the much larger Lopez Island [S31], with an airport that hosts daily commercial flights (in small Cessnas and the like). Residents also depend on the Washington State Ferries whose terminal is at the island’s extreme north end. Lopez Island is flatter and more rural than the other large islands. (By longstanding custom, people wave at every motorist, cyclist, or pedestrian encountered on the island’s roads.)

We head south for the southern tip  of San Juan Island and its Castle Point Lighthouse. The island is historically the most important and the most heavily-populated of the archipelago. Once a successful producer of tree fruit, it has since lost out to the big farms of eastern Washington. But new industries arrived in the form of tourism and retirements and the island has continued to prosper. Friday Harbor is the islands’ only incorporated place (population 2,000) and it works as a commercial and transport center. In addition, it houses the Nobel-prize-winning Friday Harbor Laboratories of the University of Washington.

Flying up along the west coast, along the Haro Strait, we reach Lime Kiln Point and the associated state park. From the vantage points here, visitors can get a good look at traveling pods of Orcas who traverse the Haro Strait as they chase migrating salmon. It is unusual to see Orcas this close to land. We return to the fairly busy Friday Harbor Airport [KFHR] with its usual assortment of GA services. One special treat is Ernie’s Café which is located near the fuel pumps at the northwest part of the field. This popular café was closed during the pandemic and thought to be lost. But it has since reopened with new owners. The café also hosts a small air museum and a special section dedicated to Ernest K. Gann who spent his last 25 years on San Juan Island. The owners have offered to prepare a small set of sandwiches for us. If we’re lucky, we’ll get an order of their “to die for” PopOvers!

Seven miles to the northwest lies Roche Harbor [WA09]. For about a century, until the 1950s, this was a company town that was a major producer of lime for the US west coast agricultural and construction industries. For the past seventy years, it has been developed as a year-round boating resort community with plenty of historic buildings serving as keystones for the town’s operations. The airport and harbor provide terminals for San Juan Airlines and Kenmore Air who fly landplanes and seaplanes to the resort.

We proceed to Stuart Island whose rugged northwest cliffsides site the Turn Point Lighthouse – a key point for navigation along the channels separating the US and Canada. We circle the lighthouse and land on the comfortable grass field at Stuart Island Airpark [7WA5]. Continuing eastward we pass (on our left) the busy Deer Harbor marina that serves as one tourist hotspot for Orcas Island. We land at Crane Island [KCKR] whose development was centered on the gravel airstrip. The approach here can be tricky because the prevailing winds cross the runway – and those currents suddenly shift as the pilot descends out of free air into the canyon created by the tall trees that surround the airfield. (San Juan Airlines once flew C207s into the field until they had a serious incident due to “pilot error.”) We continue eastward along the Washington State Ferries route and keep a lookout at the Orcas Island Ferry Terminal and the Lopez Island Ferry Terminal to see if we can catch the ships in action. We land at Blakely Island Airport [38WA]. Located next to the Blakely Island Marina, the airstrip is the focal point for summer residents who visit their seasonal homes.

We turn north and climb over Orcas Island to see Mount Constitution, the highest point (2,399 ft) in the San Juan Islands and the second highest mountain on a ocean island in the lower 48 states. It is worth a minute to circle over the observation tower designed by the legendary Pacific Northwest architect Ellsworth Story. It was built of stone by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1936 to resemble a medieval watch tower.

We descend to our final destination at Eastsound on Orcas Island (KORS). This is the largest island and perhaps the most desirable vacation spot. Orcas has been described as “an island that so gracefully captures all that is glorious about summer.” It will be great to hear personal stories about what makes this place special.

Documentation
The flightplan can be found here.

Aircraft
This is a flight of about 175nm with lots of landings. The intent is that we fly the Asobo C172 (newly updated for SU15) to reacquaint ourselves with Asobo’s best default aircraft. (This is a tribute to Sebastian Wloch’s efforts to do a “first principles” version of a flight model.) For convenience, I’m including in the scenery download two collections of “twist” factory liveries for the C172 Skyhawk by Eaglepilot6, one ten-pack for the G1000 model and one ten-pack for the Classic model. (We might guess that If we pick from these or from the default liveries, we increase the mysterious chances of seeing each other.) I shall take the Eaglepilot6 “Blue and Silver” livery for the C172 Skyhawk G1000 model. Please do feel free to pick a completely different personal favorite livery if you prefer. Or stick with the default. (If you choose another livery, or version of the C172, please do indicate your choice in the spreadsheet.) And in any case, you should fly whatever aircraft you like.

Additional Scenery
Most of the airports and some of the POIs are in the default simulator. That said, you definitely need to download and install the San Juan Airstrips package by Wookie042. Several addon airports and POIs will enhance the scenery appreciably. Thanks to the talented addon creators.

San Juan Islands Airstrips. Wookie042. Required.
Diamond Point [2WA1] and Olympic Field [WA45]. quelcertoleo
Diamond Point Corrections [2WA1]. walterbeech.
  (Be sure to place with higher priority than Diamond Point. Maybe a zzz prefix.)
Whidbey Air Park [W10]. starflexthe2nd
Harvey Field [S43]. FreakyD
Arlington Municipal [KAWO]. ezwingman
Rainbow Bridge. michelvp
Anacortes [74S]. SaigonJinn
Lopez Island Airport [S31]. Wolfmanslack
Roche Harbor 9WA09]. themoononline
Stuart Island Airpark [7WA5]. Deepfield
Orcas Island Eastsound [KORS]. Aircake1
Temporarily, you can obtain the package here (637MB).

You might also consider the special models for the Deception and Canoe Pass Bridges by DemoKen. These are photogrammetry and are better than the default renditions of two classic bridges. However, this is a 200MB download and generates a noticeable load on my feeble system. If you have a strong system, this improvement might be worthwhile.
In addition, there are fine payware renditions for S43, 74S and KORS. (Not necessary.)

Finally, we shall fly over a lot of coastal water. You might consider raising the percent of pleasure boats displayed. And if you have Hendrick’s AI Ships package, you might use it to see ships, sailing boats, and Washington State Ferries.

Time and Weather
For takeoff on Saturday, set the simulator at 3:00pm local for May 25, 2024.
We typically prefer real weather and will follow form if the weather is good. If not, I recommend the default “Few Clouds” or “High Clouds” presets.

Multiplayer Particulars
Date and time: Saturday, May 25, 2024. 1800 UTC
RTWR Multiplayer Discord Channel
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). Please be kind enough to enter the title exactly as it stands in the title=”xxx” line of the aircraft.cfg file. Your courtesy will save others a lot of time and effort. Thanks!

I think  you posted the wrong flight plan.

Thanks Josh. I did mess up and appreciate your help. The post is now corrected.

Documentation
The flightplan can be found here.

And here is something else that I learned about one of the freeware sceneries. A minor matter.

Harvey Field S43 Notam
The freeware Harvey Field by FreakyD seems to be missing the southernmost three rows of hangars – there are three rows of flat “photographic images” instead of 3D objects. When asked, FreakyD responded “You need my KSNA scenery as the model assets reside in that package.” He refers to Santa Ana John Wayne Airport [KSNA] which is available from Flightsim.to. The extra scenery is 95MB. If you have it already, activate it to get the extra hangars. If not, then this is an additional download. (Surely not necessary to enjoy the airport. But nice to get some closure if you like.)

Thanks for the ride gents. Squirrely or what? 😁 You could tell the ones on real weather!