ATTENTION Aussie Flight Group Participants …
Group Flight: 2021-01-22T09:00:00Z
PLEASE DO NOT SPAWN ON THE RUNWAY. ENSURE YOU SELECT THE STARTING POSITION ON THE RAMP.
IMPORTANT: This event can take up to three hours, so please be ready to depart at the starting time to avoid delays. Also, there are a number of bridges to fly under in this event. If you don’t follow the below instructions on disabling Damage/Crashes, you will be returned to the Main Menu/Starting Position in the sim. In addition, please ensure you have the World Update 2 (USA) installed. If you haven’t installed it, look for it in the Market Place under free content.
Route: KPGA (Page Muni) – Colorado River – Glan Canyon Dam – Colorado River Canyon Run – UP3 (custom waypoint 3) – UP4 (custom waypoint 4) – UP5 (custom waypont 5) – 1G4 (Grand Canyon West) – U30 (Temple Bar) – UP6 (Hoover Dam) - KBVU (Boulder City Mun) - KHND (Henderson Exec) - KLAS (McCarran Int) - The Strip (South Las Vegas Boulevard) - KVGT (Nth Las Vegas).
- Take off from Page Muni (KPGA)
- Track 330 deg to Colorado River
- Turn left and follow river to the Dam
- Descend over Glan Canyon Dam and fly under bridge to begin Canyon Run
- Follow the meandering Colorado River at below 500’ until UP3 (custom waypoint 3)
Note: In the interest of keeping the event to a reasonable time, we will only do the Canyon run up to WP3. From there, we will follow the flight plan, which remains in the Canyon and follows the river, but from a higher elevation, so you can fly a straight line. Pick an altitude that you are comfortable with and allows you to enjoy the scenery of the Canyon.
If you elect not to do the Canyon Run, you can simply fly the route to the first airport Marble Canyon (L41) and do a Touch and Go, then follow the waypoints to UP3 and continue as for the remainder of the event.
- Track 230 deg to UP4 (custom waypoint 4) 40nm
- Track 176 deg to UP5 (custom waypoint 5) 21nm
- Track 294 deg to Grand Canyon West (1G4) 26nm
- Touch and Go at Grand Canyon West (1G4)
- Track 262 deg to Temple Bar (U30) 25nm
- Touch and Go at Temple Bar (U30)
- Track 257 deg to UP6 (Hoover Dam) 20nm
- Descend over Hover Dam and fly under bridge
- Track 223 deg to Boulder City Mun (KBVU) 7nm
- Full Stop landing at Boulder City Mun (KBVU)
Note: If you wish to fly through Las Vegas at night (which is spectacular), you might want to set your time to a suitable point before we take off.
- Track 264 deg to Henderson Exec (KHND) 13nm
- Touch and Go at Henderson Exec (KHND)
- Track 339 deg to McCarran Intl (KLAS) 7nm
- Touch and Go at McCarran Intl (KLAS)
- Track to south end of Vegas strip (South Las Vegas Boulevard)
- Descend and fly up the strip, then climb out to a suitable altitude for approach to North Las Vegas airport
- Track 333 deg to North Las Vegas (KVGT) 8nm
- Full Stop landing at North Las Vegas (KVGT)
Altitude: The route can be flown at 8,500’ but you can vary the altitude to suite the terrain. Note comments about Canyon runs and overflying dams and the Vegas strip.
Airport details:
Page Muni (KPGA)
Elev: 4,265’
RW 15/33
RW 07/25
Marble Canyon (L41)
Elev: 3,603’
RW 03/21
Grand Canyon West (1G4)
Elev: 4,789’
RW 17/35
Temple Bar (U30)
Elev: 1,549’
RW 18/36
Boulder City Mun (KBVU)
Elev: 2,137’
RW 15/33
RW 09/27
Henderson Exec (KHND)
Elev: 2,463’
RW 17L/35R
RW 17R/35L
McCarran Intl (KLAS)
Elev: 2,115’
RW 01L/19R
RW 01R/19L
RW 08L/26R
RW 08R/26L
North Las Vegas (KVGT)
Elev: 2.180’
RW 12L/30R
RW 12R/30L
RW 07/25
Aircraft: Select any fast single or twin GA aircraft for the event. The Got Gravel Cub was my selection for the Canyon runs. This is a freeware aircraft for MSFS and is highly recommended for bush trips.
IMPORTANT: In the interest of keeping it REAL, please refrain from selecting inappropriate aircraft, like airliners. This only detracts from the immersion of the flight.
Seeing Aircraft Correctly: You need to do two things to ensure you can see the other pilots in the event and see them in the aircraft they selected.
Select the same server: To do this, proceed as follows:
- From the Welcome Screen, click on your Username (top right)
- From the list of servers, under Servers, select WEST USA
Turn off Generic Planes: To do this, proceed as follows:
- From the Welcome Screen, click on OPTIONS
- Click on GENERAL
- With GRAPHICS selected, scroll down to the last option and set USE GENERIC PLANE MODELS to OFF
Turning off Crash/Damage:
Select Options/General/Flight Model
Select Legacy Model, so you can adjust the settings below
Move Crash Realism to 0
Select Modern Model, to reselect the appropriate flight model
Accept the settings
Next:
Select Options/Assistance
Expand Failure & Damage
Disable Crash Damage
Accept the changes
Voice Room: Discord for Official MSFS Community: Event #1 or Event #2 are the voice rooms available to us. I need to see which is available on the day and reserve it. I will be in the room and get it authorised for our use. Just look for my Userid: VHFIB to determine which room to enter. Until the room is open only one person can be in the room. In the past we have needed to use a PTT (push to talk) button. This is no longer required, so you can use voice activated comms. Some people prefer to use their phone or ipad etc for Discord comms.
Note: if you are new to the Discord Server for MS FS, you will need to “react” to get access to the voice rooms.
To “react”, once in the Discord for Official MS FS, click on the Important - Info option and at the very bottom, click on the button (last item at the bottom of the screen) to react and provide access. Note: clicking on the button accepts the conditions etc., which you can read via the available links.
Weather/Time: We will set the time 12hrs prior, i.e., 8am. This will allow us to fly in daylight and choose CLEAR Weather, so can enjoy the scenery:
- From the World Map view, click on Flight Conditions (upper right of screen)
- Click on All Players, Live Traffic, Custom
- Under Weather and Time, select Clear Weather and move the time slide bar to show 8:00am or say 7:45am if you arrive at 7:45pm (12hrs prior to current time).
- Click Close and Fly from the World Map view.
We can start departing from 8pm. There will be no need for official radio calls. Lets just have some fun taking in the scenery and the social aspects of the event.
Multiplayer Map: Currently, the VFR map won’t show Live players, so if you get lost, it’s difficult to find where the other flyers are. The free multiplayer map, will show the other players (that are using the map) and allow you to see their heading, speed, altitude and callsign. But it will only show those using the map. The below map tool is excellent but only as good as the volume of people using it.
Not mandatory but if you would like to use this map, see the below for details:
Link to moving map: https://events.flighttracker.tech/ 12 13 23 17 22 32
Once viewing the map, click on Join to download the client that connects MSFS for tracking your flights. Note the .NET Core Windows Runtime requirement that needs installing also.
Let me know if there’s anything else that I’ve missed that you need to know.
Regards, Paul
