Spring Warmup in the Blue Ridge
For June 4, 2025
Michael MacKuen

It is Spring in North America and time to begin some bush flying. Today we shall do a “warmup” flight in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Virginia. We begin in Gatlinburg and fly over the Great Smoky Mountains. And then further northeast over the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Virginia border. These are brief flights in the mountainous region aimed to renew our skills. Instead of starting the season on bush strips, we shall do our “warmup” operations into fully certified airports. Of course, some are more interesting than others.


Dancing over the Blue Ridge Mountains

After a delightfully quiet weekend at Blackberry Farm, we depart from Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge [KGKT]. (While waiting for your friends, you might visit the air museum.) On departure we climb up and over the higher ridges of the Great Smoky Mountains, and pass over the elegant Kuwohi Lookout Tower. (Last year the Smokies’ tallest mountain was renamed from Clingmans Dome to Kuwohi – the original Cherokee name.) We land at Sossamon Field [57NC]. Just 7nm to the east lies Cherokee NC, center for the Eastern Cherokee tribe and their successful casino. We then turn south in the Smokies to land at the lovely rustic strip at Tusquittee Landing [NC08]. And then southeast, just over the Georgia border, to Heaven’s Landing [GE99] – a wealthy mountain airpark with facilities for private jets. We turn northeast 27nm to Jackson County [24A], a distinctive ridge-top airport with sheer drop-offs that increase the false sense of drama. We depart to the east, flying over the Blue Ridge Parkway at the Pisgah Inn [PGINN]. We finish the Smoky Mountains segment when we stop at Six Oaks [NC67], a small grass strip in Fletcher, a suburb near Asheville.

After a moment we head north for Skyline Peak [33NR]. Built in 2009 for the Wolf Ridge ski resort nearby, this mountaintop airport was closed indefinitely as of 2016. But Microsoft has somehow opened it up for a “Landing Challenge” … so we shall take advantage of their efforts. (FS2024 does not capture the way the runway was carved out of a ridge with dangerous overhanging cliffs. See here.) After our successful landings, we jog over to the famous Mountain Air [2NC0], the beautiful mountaintop fly-in residential community that we have visited several times before. Lots of fun here. We turn around and climb up to the top of Mt Mitchell [MITCH], the tallest mountain in the eastern United States. Then a descent from the peak to turn and carefully land on the steep uphill grass strip Strawberry Ridge [STR].

Next we take a scenic excursion. First we look at Linville Gorge [GORG1 and GORG2], the deep and rugged “Grand Canyon of the East”: Gorge description and cinematic video and fighter jet video. Then we go north to Grandfather Mountain and in particular the Mile-High Swinging Bridge [SWING] (the parking lot and visitor center are depicted, the bridge is not). Then we go back to work and execute the complicated approach and landing at Elk River [NC06], preferably on RWY 12 rather than the terrain-inhibited RWY 30. Departure is on RWY 30. This is a private airport serving the Elk River club and happily we have permission to visit.

All four of these airports will pose a little challenge and require some care. For a real world orientation, look here: Mountain Air description here and instructions here. Strawberry Ridge instructions here. Elk River description here and instructions here. (For an entertaining “spicey” demonstration of ad hoc technique, see AvAngel’s The Courchevel of North Carolina, a 2022 flight from Mountain Air to Elk River.)  

The final optional challenge will be Skyland [NC50]. This small private airfield is a little hard to find and tricky to land. Alternatively, it you prefer, choose Ashe County [KGEV], the larger and better maintained public airport that is just 3nm away. Our final destination is Mountain Empire [KMKJ], down in the Virginia foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Just a quiet moment of sympathy for the people of Western North Carolina whose lives were devastated by the floods of Hurricane Helene.

Documentation
The flightplan can be found here.

Aircraft
This flight is designed as a prelude to the bush-flying season. The target aircraft is the Microsoft/Carenado Cessna 185F, the legendary bush operator that worked so well for us in FSX and P3D. We shall want an opportunity to acquaint ourselves with the aircraft’s capabilities and limitations in FS2024. Of course any aircraft with a speed of 140kts will do the job nicely. Most of these airports are designed for faster aircraft and not for bush flying. I’ll take the C185F. As ever, please fly what you like.

Scenery
Here are some airport improvements that you might appreciate. All are FS2020 sceneries that work well in FS2024. Thanks for the authors for their excellent work.

Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge [KGKT]. scottmc606
  To see the museum, a dependency is totof-aircraft library v4 by Totof33120
Tusquittee Landing [NC08]. NoticalMyles
Heaven’s Landing [GE99]. WhishingWell (Opachki)
Jackson County [24A]. Windhover
Mountain Air [2NC0]. Windhover
Strawberry Ridge [STR]. SkyborneVisions
Elk River [NC06]. Windhover
Ashe County [KGEV]. BaptistDeacon
Mountain Empire [KMKJ]. TheAirportGuys

You can get a package of the airport scenery here. (440MB)

Note that there are payware versions of 2NC0 and NC06. The freeware versions are excellent.

Time and Weather
For takeoff on Saturday, set the simulator at 3:00pm local for June 4, 2025.
We typically prefer real weather.

Multiplayer Particulars
Date and time: Wednesday, June 4, 2025. 1900 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!

Hmm.. matches my shirt 😉

 

 

 

Edited June 4, 20251 yr by Bert Pieke