The Trans-Canada Highway – Part 2  (TCH-02)
For Wed. March 11, 2026

 

Background

The Trans-Canada Highway is a 7,821 km (4,860-mile) federal-provincial highway system—the fourth longest highway in the world stretching from Victoria, B.C., to St. John's, NL. Officially dedicated in 1962, it spans all ten provinces, crossing the Rocky Mountains and the Canadian Shield to connect major cities. 
•    Route Structure: It is not a single road, but a network of routes (mostly Highway 1 or 17) connected by ferries, including a "Yellowhead" (Highway 16) route through Western Canada.
•    Key Features: It passes through major cities like Vancouver, Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Ottawa, and Fredericton.
•    Signage: The route is famously marked by a white maple leaf on a green shield.
•    History: Authorized in 1949 and completed in 1962 (with further upgrades until 1971), it cost over $1 billion to build, equivalent to over $10 billion today.
•    Usage: It is essential for commerce, with sections (such as through Rogers Pass) requiring active, year-round avalanche control.
•    Cultural Significance: The highway is associated with Terry Fox, who attempted to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research in 1980.  
•    The network continues to receive upgrades from Transport Canada to support increasing traffic volumes.

The Trans-Canada Highway traverses diverse terrain across 7,800+ km, spanning from Atlantic coastal areas through the rocky Canadian Shield in Ontario, vast prairie grasslands in the west, and high-altitude mountain passes in the Rockies: Key features include rugged boreal forests, lakeshores, rolling hills, and intense mountainous terrain in British Columbia. 

Regional Terrain Breakdown:
•    Western (BC/Alberta): Features high-altitude mountain passes (notably Kicking Horse Pass at 1,627m), steep slopes, coniferous forests, and rocky, winding roads.
•    Prairies (Alberta/Saskatchewan/Manitoba): Expansive, flat-to-rolling grasslands and open landscapes.
•    Central (Ontario): Rugged terrain of the Canadian Shield, characterized by dense forests, dense rock formations, and thousands of lakes, particularly along the north shore of Lake Superior.
•    Eastern (Quebec/Atlantic Provinces): Mix of coastal landscapes, lush green areas, and rolling terrain. 

The highway also encounters significant elevation changes, ranging from sea level on the coasts to high alpine passes.

Our Trip

We have previously travelled a portion of the Trans-Canada highway from Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, on Vancouver Island which is designated as Mile 0.00 of the highway. We travelled northward from Victoria along the route of the highway and arrived at Nanaimo. From Nanaimo we boarded a the Trans-Canada ferry route across the Strait of Georgia to the British Columbia mainland and again followed the highway to Vancouver, one of Canada’s largest and most scenic cities.

This trip will take us through the city of Vancouver in either helicopters or very low and slow fixed wing GA aircraft. WARNING WARNING – autopilot and GPS does work on this Vancouver portion of this excursion! We will cover almost all of the cities many point of interest locations: and there are many! Being on the Pacific side of the country, Vancouver hosts all of the exports and imports from the Orient and beyond. We will view the various city poi and attractions, export/Import terminals and ports as well as key railway transport to/from the ports locations. We will also visit the waterfront and the famous Stanley Park as well as other points of interest. Have built/added many named userpoints and added to the fp to use to be able identify the various locations. Bert can point out these and other significant locations as we approach.

Once we complete the Vancouver tour (some 150 nm waving through the city), if we have time, we’ll catch up with the Trans-Canada out of Abbotsford and head north east to Lytton BC and end our trip.  The total trip today is only 251 nm and in two parts. Firstly, 150 nm Vancouver city tour weaving through the city and the second part a 101 nm following the Trans-Canada out of Abbotsford and heading northeast to end the trip in Lytton BC.  Slower is best in this excursion.

Aircraft
Recommend utilizing a helicopter to be able to travel low and slow and to be able to navigate the twists and turns of the Vancouver city tour and visiting the many poi in the Vancouver area. We may want to make non-scheduled stops along the way. For non-helicopter pilots please use a slow STOL capable aircraft like a cub, C152, Draco or other that can travel slow and slow. Best @ 100 kts or a tad slower. 

FP, itinerary, etc can be found HERE.

Add-on Scenery  
(All airports are in the default sim but there are a few scenery adds that provide some eye candy if you wish!!) (Payware is NOT required but if you have it, please feel free to use it!)

 

Vancouver City

CYVR Airport: https://flightsim.to/file/29246/project-yvr-vancouver-international-airport (by Project _SCNE)

Vancouver Bridges: https://flightsim.to/file/5314/vancouver-bridges-vancouver-bc-canada (by FreakyD)

Port of Vancouver https://flightsim.to/file/33073/port-of-vancouver-vancouver-bc-canada (by FreakyD)

Vancouver Foliage & Water fixes: https://flightsim.to/file/23909/vancouver-foliage-water-clean-up-bc-canada (by FreakyD)

OR

CYVR: Vancouver Intl airport available as Payware (by various creators IE: FSDreamTeam, FSimStudios)

CYVR: Vancouver City Times Scenery Payware (by SamScene3D)

CYVR: Vancouver Bridges scenery is available as Payware (by RKBridger)

Other

CBC7: Helipad (by NightIntruder):   https://flightsim.to/addon/101071/cbc7-vancouver-harbor-public-heliport

CAK3: Airport (by PropellerBC):       https://flightsim.to/addon/2390/cak3-delta-airpark-bc

CYNJ: Airport (by PropellerBC):       https://flightsim.to/addon/2481/cynj-langley-regional-airport-bc

CZBB: Airport (by DaneSimAir):        https://flightsim.to/addon/97101/czbb-boundary-bay-airport

CYPK: Airport (by DaneSimAir):       https://flightsim.to/addon/96577/pitt-meadows-regional-airport-cypk

CYXX: Airport (by Ryanosaurus13)   https://flightsim.to/addon/30091/cyxx-abbotsford-international-airport

CYCW:Airport (by PropellerBC):      https://flightsim.to/addon/1873/cycw-chilliwack-bc

CYHE: Airport: (by DaneSimAir):      https://flightsim.to/addon/64067/hope-airport-cyhe

Time and Weather
Prefer to fly real weather if possible but if not, the few clouds, high clouds OR Jeff-Partly Cloudy-Jeff-1.wpr preset (included) would make a nice choice.  For takeoff: set the simulator time to @1700 (ish) local.  (This time simulates early dusk and hopefully the lights will come on in the city of Vancouver yet we will still have enough daylight to make it to our destination under VFR conditions).  

Vancouver Skyline

Multiplayer Particulars
Date and time: Wednesday, March 11, 2026 - (1400 EDST, 1300 CDST, 1200 MDST, 1100 PDST), (1 hr earlier for EU until they move to DT
on Sunday, March 29, 2026). AVSIM Discord Server: https://discord.gg/K5Vy6UxWNm  - AVSIM GROUP EVENTS-WED. COM1
Microsoft Flight Simulator Multiplayer: SOUTH-EAST-ASIA 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
March 5th, 2026

Edited March 5Mar 5 by nbrich1

If you would like to see a Royal Caribbean cruise ship parked at Canada Place (I know, it is a bit too early for the Alaska season..), suggest dropping this (unzip first) folder into your Community folder

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ygkbe07z5gjig885azkmn/zzz-vanpier-radiance.zip?rlkey=c30aaq5lpwv78dwan54tapc4n&st=7incw1tw&dl=0