Route 66 – Part One – Illinois to Missouri
For Wed. October 1, 2025

In my next series trips it is intended to return to our old DC-3 now in msfs2024 and fly along the historic path of Route 66. This is a very scenic but not too complex route across the USA that will give us a nice route to hone our DC-3 skills. This will be a part one of … a few Route 66 excursions.. that is until we reach the west coast in Santa Monica, California. USA where the route ends.
 
Background

U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The highway, which became one of the most famous roadways in the United States, ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona before terminating in Santa Monica, California, covering a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km)

It was recognized in popular culture by both the 1946 hit song "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66" and the Route 66 television series, which aired on CBS from 1960 to 1964. It was also featured in the Disney Pixar animated feature film franchise Cars, beginning in 2006. In John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939), the highway symbolizes escape, loss, and the hope of a new beginning; Steinbeck dubbed it the Mother Road. Other designations and nicknames include the Will Rogers Highway and the Main Street of America, the latter nickname shared with U.S. Route 40

US 66 was a primary route for those who migrated west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and it supported the economies of the communities through which it passed. People doing business along the route became prosperous, and they later fought to keep it alive in the face of the growing threat of being bypassed by the more advanced freeways of the Interstate Highway System in the 1960s and 1970s.

US 66 underwent many improvements and realignments over its lifetime, but it was officially removed from the United States Highway System in 1985 after it was entirely replaced by segments of the Interstate Highway System. Portions of the road that passed through Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, and California have been communally designated a National Scenic Byway by the name "Historic Route 66", returning the name to some maps. Several states have adopted significant bypassed sections of the former US 66 into their state road networks as State Route 66 and much of the former route within San Bernardino County California, is designated as County Route 66. The corridor is also being redeveloped into U.S. Bicycle Route 66, a part of the United States Bicycle Route System that was developed in the 2010s.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_66)

 

Our Trip
We will begin the travel of now “Historic Route 66” from the East to the West but firstly, we’ll actually commence this trip some 50 miles north in Milwaukee, WI and travel to Gary, Indiana which is located on the southern tip of Lake Michigan so we can travel down the west shore of Great Lake Michigan and enjoy some of the coastal sites in the city of Chicago, Illinois.  

From Gary, we’ll head westward along the historic path of route 66 and in this part one excursion; we will travel 320 nm along the historic highway route through the states of Illinois and Missouri ending this trip in St. Louis. This trip has eight intermediate stopovers: at KPWK, KCGX, KGYY, 5LL8, KBMI, KSPI, KEAD, KALN then landing at our final destination in St. Louis KCPS.
In later excursions we’ll continue to travel southwest to travel the rest of “Historic Route 66”!  

FP, itinerary, etc can be found here. 

Aircraft: 
This trip along Route 66 was intended to be flown in the Douglas DC-3 in MSFS2024 but as always, please fly whatever aircraft you wish.

Add-on Mod/Scenery: 

Flightsim.to: Freeware DC-3 MOD: duckworks-dc-3-improvement-mod by Imenes: https://flightsim.to/file/43893/duckworks-dc-3-improvement-mod

All of the airports in this trip are in the default sim and there is no freeware per say but if you want some eye candy:

Payware (eye candy).  (If you got them, please feel free to use them, but don’t go out and buy them!! (They are not mandatory by any means!) 
Drzewiecki Design – Chicago Landmarks v1.3.0 MSFS 2020/2024
Flight FX – KPWK Chicago Executive Airport v2.1.0 MSFS 2020/2024
UK2000Scenery – KGYY Gary/Chicago International Airport v1.4.0-2020-2024
Fly 2 High – KSPI Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport v1.2.0-2020-2024

Time and Weather
Prefer to fly real weather if possible but if not, the few clouds or high clouds might make a nice choice.  For takeoff: set the simulator time to @1400 local.  

Multiplayer Particulars
Date and time: Wednesday, October 1st, 2025 - 1900 UTC, 1400 Eastern
AVSIM Discord Server: https://discord.gg/K5Vy6UxWNm  - AVSIM GROUP EVENTS-WED. COM1
Microsoft Flight Simulator Multiplayer: EAST-USA 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! 

Norm Richards
September 2025 

 

(PS: We have been recently talking about the DC-3 and duckworks in MSFS2024 and since there was no flight yet posted for Wed. Oct 1st, I thought I would take liberty to get one out!)

 

IniBuilds released a freeware rendition of Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport (KMKE) that is compatible with MSFS2024.   It will require a $0 purchase and download via the IniManager App.

iniBuilds Milwaukee (KMKE) for MSFS-2020 – iniBuilds Store

 

Here are some North American liveries for the DC-3 in FS2024.

The first set are FS2024 liveries that are likely to work for most pilots. I have tested at least one version from each author. The second set are those of jamespejam. The are really excellent liveries for a lot of DC-3 aircraft: their quality is better than most in the first list. However, at least for me, selecting them in FS2024 causes the simulator to lock up. (Norm has been able to select these and fly them. And I have had success by emptying the community folder. But have not yet been able to identify the conflicts that are causing the problem. More later…)

Set 1
Author alxcpt.
Buffalo Airways. CP Air. Continental Airlines. Delta Air Lines. Piedmont Airlines.
Author GabrielCorazza.
American Airlines.
Author Crispy136.
Lake Central Airways. Northwest Airlines. Reeve Aleutian.

Set 2
Author jamespejam.
Canadian Pacific. Trans Canada Air Lines.
American Airlines. Braniff. Eastern Air Lines. Hawaiian Airlines. Nevada Airlines. Pan American. TWA. United Air Lines. Western Airlines.
Lufthansa.
Plus many USAAF/RAF versions. All excellent.

New information about the problem with the jamespejam paints - that suggests a possible workaround:
Not sure to have this solved. But you might try this as a possible workaround. (When we figure what is going on, this may not be a good solution!)

Disable all Crispy136 paints for DC-3 flights. This includes his several paints for the DC-3 as well as the DHC-4 Caribou. (And to be safe, those for the A36 Bonanza and G36 Bonanza, and maybe more.) I do not know why there is a conflict between the paints of Crispy136 and jamespejam. (Crispy136 is an excellent veteran paint artist and surely knows what he is doing. But by testing, there is a conflict. And for DC-3 flights only, we prefer the broader selection by jamespejam.) And I am not sure that this will work dependably. But you might give it a try.
(And you might also disable the GabrielCorazza livery for the DC-3 American Airlines. This repaint may or not be a problem. But for now, you might play it safe.)
Again, we do not know what is creating this conflict and are simply using a test-retest procedure to look for a way to make things function for now.

Please let us know what works and does not work for you.

Thanks so much for your work on this Mike.

When I am flying the DC-3 I only have paints that are designated "2024". These are created by "jamespejam". 

I previously have removed ALL 2020 versions of liveries for all aircraft types to avoid any conflict. ((I am not going back to 2020 so rather choose to use native 2024 liveries rather than native 2020 adapted to 2024).

On 9/28/2025 at 4:42 PM, jt_williams said:

IniBuilds released a freeware rendition of Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport (KMKE) that is compatible with MSFS2024.   It will require a $0 purchase and download via the IniManager App.

iniBuilds Milwaukee (KMKE) for MSFS-2020 – iniBuilds Store

 

Nice find Jeff. Thank-you.

Thanks Mike, that works for me!