Today, I was looking for a new aircraft in the MSFS2024 Marketplace, and this Dornier Seawings Seastar caught my attention. I thought to myself...this here must be a Dornier of my past SIMs...🙂...as the various Dornier Flying Boats of Claude (Claudius) Dornier came to my mind, with their vintage cockpits and (classic) steam gauge avionics. This, however, is clearly no legacy Dornier airplane...🙂...though the Dornier family tradition of cutting-edge innovation and engineering excellence in amphibious aviation that dates back three generations to the early 20th century is remarkably reflected in this interesting (modern) aircraft.

We all know Claudius Dornier, the famous German aircraft designer and founder of Dornier (surely most of us here have seen the images of (or simmed) the (massive) "12-engined" Do X Flying Boat...🙂...). It was the largest, heaviest, most powerful, and most luxurious flying boat in the world when it was produced, been a prominent part of the Golden Age of Aviation. Anyway, that was from the first-generation Dornier. Then came, Claudius Dornier Jr. (son of Dornier Sr.), who is most known for his work on the Dornier Seastar Amphibious aircraft. That was the 2nd generation Dornier. Finally, as the 3rd generation direct descendant, Claudius Dornier's son, Conrad Dornier, inherited the (Seastar) design and founded Dornier Seawings, of which airplane, you see images below.

This Dornier Seawings Seastar is NEW and specifically for MSFS 2024. I chose to pick it up today and give it a try (and it was certainly worth the try). The MSFS Marketplace, in spite of many (known) disadvantages, has certain (user-friendly and logistic) aspects to it, that I've particularly begun to like e.g., once you pick up an aircraft there, it's always a breeze before you get flying with it, following a quick sequence of effortless (and near automatic) steps: Buy it, Stream it, and Enjoy it...🙂...

To deploy this curious Dornier aircraft on a trip, I wished to pick up my recollections of the PNW coastline. You might recall, during my Klondike adventure post, I'd flown us...🙂...from Juneau (Alaska) north to the heartland of Klondike region, to Dawson City (in Yukon territory). Here, I start off farther south, flying from Seattle to Juneau, skirting, on the ocean side, the formidable mountain ranges of the Pacific coast, specifically the Olympic Mountains nearabout Seattle, through the Cascade Range of British Columbia, to finally the Coast Mountains located near Juneau. I have chosen to start from Seattle, because my two visits to this city, a decade or so apart, are still fresh on my mind. 

On both occasions, I'd visited:

1. The Boeing Everett Factory (had sighted there the first few of (launch customer) ANA's 787-8s, thereby conjuring up my Username here...🙂...)
2. Vancouver up north via Highway, noting that I've never travelled farther north than Vancouver on the west coast (so, trying to make it up here by virtual means...🙂...).
3. The original Starbucks Store in Pike Place in Seattle...🙂...A long time ago (but no longer so), for more than a decade and half, my single daily cup at the (local) Starbucks store, invariably, consisted of a (Grande) Dark Roast with an extra shot of espresso, light cream, and 2 raw sugar packets...🙂...The folks in the Chicagoland Store that I used to frequent for years, would often have my Coffee started, as I would walk in through the door, even before I place my order...🙂... I mention this bit because, I recall, on both my visits to the city of Seattle, I'd visited that original store in Pike Place (taking the Seattle Monorail from my Hotel near the Space Needle). I'd picked up a cup of my familiar (comforting) Dark Roast Coffee and then had walked outside to find a pleasant place to sit down, enjoying a direct view of the vast Pacific Ocean. Far off on the waters, I could see the Cruise Ships passing by, on their way from Seattle up north to British Columbia and to Alaska/Juneau and beyond. I sat there dreaming about taking such a coastline cruise (and what sights it might afford), a dream which has not materialized, so far...🙂... So, instead, I fly this Dornier Amphibious a/c, departing here from Seattle, north along the coast, to my final destination at the Juneau Float Plane Base (please note Juneau Float Plane Base, adjacent to Juneau/PAJN airport, is not to be confused with the Juneau Harbor Seaplane Base, that's farther southeast about 9 miles down the waterway). 

This next-generation Dornier aircraft is equipped with an advanced (and somewhat novel to us simmers) Honeywell Primus Epic 2.0 avionics suite, whose usage though I found a bit different from Garmin, still, adequately functional for my purpose in the SIM for GPS navigation. For my flight plan (see my EFB Map screenshot), I've defined only two enroute waypoints on my route: Port Hardy Airport (CYZT) and Prince Rupert Airport (CYPR). En route, I've often manually controlled the heading flying inland to get a bit closer to the mountain ranges.

After nearly 800 miles of an exciting flight, finally with an over-fly of Juneau/PAJN airport...🙂..., I've touched down on the adjacent waters of the Juneau Float Plane Base.

The Seawings Seastar was indeed a fun aircraft to fly today, as it also let me explore this spectacular stretch of the PNW coastline that featured snow-topped mountains, icy glaciers, pristine lakes and islands, and most significantly I was never out-of-sight of the scenic interplay between the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean and the rugged beauty of the interior mountain ranges...(for now, this trip will do for me until maybe one day I'll get to do IRL that cruise from Seattle to Juneau...🙂...up the PNW coastline...)

Thanks for viewing...!

Great set of photos!

Looks great...it's always exciting to travel to Alaska! 😉 

Fine shots, interesting AC by the way !

cheers 😉

Great introduction — and definitely an unusual aircraft, P_7878! I especially like your final shots capturing the landing sequence.
If you don’t mind a bit of trivia, I’d like to share another interesting amphibious plane: the Dornier Do 24, originally developed in the 1930s. In the 1980s, one of these planes was converted with redesigned wings, an updated cockpit, and modern Pratt & Whitney engines. It was owned by Iren Dornier, the grandson of Claudius Dornier.
Iren shipped the aircraft to Manila, where the final phase of its conversion was completed — he was living there at the time. Interestingly, the initial stage of the conversion, including the engine and wing upgrades, was funded by the German Ministry for Research and Development.
I had the pleasure of meeting Iren a few times while I lived in Manila, though, unfortunately, I never got the chance to fly in his plane. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, he and his crew flew the Do 24 around the world to promote UNICEF. The aircraft also appeared at numerous airshows across the U.S. and Europe.
Today, it’s on display at the Dornier Museum in Friedrichshafen, near Lake Constance.
I don’t mean to hijack your post, but I’ve attached three photos of the plane — the first one was taken near Manila, and the last shows Iren himself at the controls in Austria.

 

 

Great set P_7878, looks all very perfect. 🙂

rmeier, Will, pmplayer, bernd, Andreas:

Friends, many thanks for the kind words...🙂...! Yes, it's certainly an interesting looking (modern) aircraft...really enjoyed flying it...

 

On 4/12/2025 at 1:04 PM, bernd1151 said:

...I don’t mean to hijack your post, but I’ve attached three photos of the plane — the first one was taken near Manila, and the last shows Iren himself at the controls in Austria.

...🙂...No worry at all, bernd...! More Dornier here, the better...🙂...Fascinating bit of story...like this 3-engined Do 24 Flying Boat, including these cockpit shots. Sorry, you missed getting on board this classic but I'm glad it's now preserved for posterity...!