Will the real Coupeville please stand up?

[Christopher Low 5,339]

Jon,Coupeville NOLF is NOT a "fictional strip". NOLF is short for "Naval Outer Landing Facility", and I have definitely seen a photograph of the 5000 feet by 150 feet runway. I am pretty sure that it is now closed though.By the way, the sound file associated with my version of Coupeville NOLF is "Oak Harbour", so you are getting the best of both worlds.Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[Guest ChrisD]

I just sent You an arial photo of the whole strip :-)Should be in Your mailbox shortly..Happy Modelling.Chris

[Guest jonpoint]

Thanks, Chris!I didn't get very far with it. The fact that you say it is now closed explains why there is little info on it. I even got right into the island history and there WAS mention of several naval establishments, going back to early settler days (Oak Harbour/Coupville was once the 'gateway' to the local timber industry and at one stage was one of the busiest shipping ports on the West coast!) but no mention of an airport.Oh well, like the huge hangar in Sanfran, this'll be a restoration/preservation job - no problem!:-waveJon Point*************************(effyouthree@hotmail.com)*************************

[Guest Motormouse]

Hi guys, you may find this web-page interestinghttp://members.tripod.com/airfields_freeman/index.htmand here is direct link to Washington State (west) page, same sitehttp://members.tripod.com/airfields_freema...fields_WA_W.htmhappy surfing:-wavePete

[Hans_Petter 1]

I did some checking and got quite confused.Coupeville NOLF is for real and it seems to be more or less open. It's been used as a test bed for aircraft carrier landings. For this purpose a small segment of the runway was marked off to simulate the landing deck of a carrier, with arrestor cables and all the works.Port Angeles is for real too but it's supposed to be on a narrow peninsula. I took off from "our" Port Angeles and found a narrow peninsula right northeast of it. I flew over this spit of land at 500 feet and found that Chris has put a lighthouse and some trees on it. Anybody knows where I'm at? :-) It's a curved beachfront with a lagoon inside and some sand banks that add a peninsula to the far end of it. From the airport description and pics this may look like the real location of Port Angeles. What puzzles me is, with a perfect satellite scenery of the area, why would one elect to NOT put the various airports at the exact right location? The Oak Harbor airport may seem to be on the peninsula right outside of our high res terrain, northwest of Coupeville Nolf. FS2002 has an airfield here. Small airports are being turned into parks and industrial plants all the time. Most people don't want to live next to an airport. As suburbia extends in all directions there's a mounting political pressure to get rid of those "nuisance" airports. However, most people want to live CLOSE to an airport when they go traveling, yet not NEXT to one. There's a subtle difference here...:-)Hans Petter

[Guest jonpoint]

Folks,Thanks for the input, Pete :-beerchug As you can see from the webpage, not even scant mention of NOLF however I have gleaned some useful info, especially the picture. I may try to do it as a shared facility with some naval hangars and stuff as well as a GA area. When viewed from the latest tourist maps, most conveniently don't show it although in one shot I have what you can see is flat and EMPTY!"Most people don't want to live next to an airport." Very true Chris, but usually only if it is big and/or busy! I would have no problems living near a small, regional airport. As it is, I live about 30km from Sydney (Kingsford Smith) airport. Although the average height of traffic from there is 7-10kft it is still obvious (10+ heavies/hour). On a still, winter's morning with a slight south breeze you can hear the rumble from the airport! Far from that though, there is another airport (Bankstown) that is even further away but hosts a myriad of smaller and GA aircraft. These buzz around the area (mostly training and sight-seeing) all day long, especially in good weather and weekends. Add to that the local seaplane airline (Beavers every 30 minutes...) and I can say that I already feel like I live close to an airport ;)Jon Point*************************(effyouthree@hotmail.com)*************************

[Christopher Low 5,339]

Hans,That "peninsula" with the lighthouse on it is called DUNGENESS. There really is a lighthouse around here, but I'm not certain precisely where it is located.....and the trees might be an exaggeration. ;) I am pretty sure that Port Angeles (William R Fairchild International) airport is NOT located on the Dungeness peninsula, but slightly further to the west. I wish that LGS could have included satellite terrain for this area, since this is an important airport. I can't use it, since I don't have the outer terrain scenery installed (and have no intention of doing so). The stark contrast between high resolution terrain and generic scenery does not aesthetically appeal to me. :-)Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[Guest ChrisD]

>That "peninsula" with the lighthouse on it is called>DUNGENESS. There really is a lighthouse around here, but I'm>not certain precisely where it is located.....and the trees>might be an exaggeration. ;) There is actually an airstrip located here. Sorry the picture quality does not alow me to read the runway numbers. I am sure this is just a small airstrip.>I am pretty sure that Port Angeles (William R Fairchild>International) airport is NOT located on the Dungeness>peninsula, but slightly further to the west. I wish that LGS>could have included satellite terrain for this area, sinceI find th airport aprox 4 kms west of the City of Port Angeles.Regrettably the arial is in B/W but I will send it to You I You are interested.Here is the best I can do of the airstrip located on the peninsula.Chris

[Christopher Low 5,339]

Chris,Well now, that's an interesting piece of information. I wouldn't mind creating a package for this airfield, and the flat terrain should allow me to place a tarmac runway on it. Do you have any other information about this airstrip ? Name ? Runway length and width ?Please tell me more !Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[Hans_Petter 1]

I think we found it!Here's the picture of Dungeness attached above:http://forums.avsim.com/user_files/8634.jpgThen I found Port Angeles Coast Guard Air Station (NOW), Port Angeles, WA 48.14 North / 123.41 West (Northwest of Seattle, WA)http://forums.avsim.com/user_files/8672.jpgThe photo is from the airport site being referred to earlier in this thread. It may seem that all we have to do is to move Port Angeles to the Dungeness! Chris, you'll get another airport within the hi res terrain and this is really an interesting location. It might be an idea to save these images and rotate the black and white photo to get a perfect match. In any event, they're splendid background material for some "FLED work". We need a long runway (I see rwy 25, which makes the opposite one rwy 7), a closed runway set at an angle and lots of buildings. What Looking Glass can't provide will come from Driscoll Construction Ltd in Australia. So, this one's for real, it's within our hi-res scenery and it's called Port Angeles Coast Guard Air Station. The only question left, is there another Port Angeles airport?Hans Petter

[Hans_Petter 1]

I just did a test flight and landed on the "Dungeness peninsula". Judging from topography or shape and compass bearing it seems that the outer branch of the peninsula is the correct location. (Actually, it seems that we're dealing with one or two islands connected to the mainland by the action of ocean currents piling up sand. Then I'm sure they've secured and reinforced that narrow link to the mainland and built a road on it).I was glad to find out that the location is defined as solid land rather than water. The red arrow points to my aircraft after I made a successful landing.http://forums.avsim.com/user_files/8683.jpghttp://forums.avsim.com/user_files/8684.jpgHans Petter

[Guest ChrisD]

Hans Petter.Sure, there is another airport just 4 kms west of Port Angeles City.This picture was 4 meter/pixel (does that ring a bell? :))Its on my HDD, but I had to reduce the size to get it uploaded.I like Your colourphoto a lot better, but here You can see both airports on one picture.How large area of land do we need? And has anybody some way of colorizing it?Chrishttp://forums.avsim.com/user_files/8708.jpg

[Guest ChrisD]

Just as a test :)http://forums.avsim.com/user_files/8710.jpgChris

[Christopher Low 5,339]

Guys,I am pretty sure that this Port Angeles Coast Guard Station is on a different spit of land to the Dungeness peninsula.........one that is not within the high resolution scenery area.Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[Hans_Petter 1]

I'll consult an atlas. What set me off was the image that ChrisE posted. Chris Low says "Dungeness" and ChrisE says "There is actually an airstrip located here. Sorry the picture quality does not allow me to read the runway numbers. I am sure this is just a small airstrip". This happens the be same one as I found as Port Angeles Coast Guard Station, through the link that Motormouse posted. And, the color photo provides the runway numbers, thus the runway orientation. We may discuss whether it's located on the peninsula shown in my FU3 screenshots above but both photos do show the same airport. Further, the airport's name is given as Port Angeles CGS. Tom Wunder, isn't this in your old backyard? We need advice from a real Washingtonian :-)Usually, the hard part is to get good photos of a (military) airport. We've got two. Now we should easily find its exact location by checking any high resolution map of the area :-)ChrisE, does your photo include enough of the surrounding area to compare it for a match with Dungeness?Hans Petter