I’ve made a flight plan for a quick trip round Star Wars Canyon. Available for free download from https://flightsim.to/file/6197/china-lake-naws-to-star-wars-canyon. I’ve also made a highlight reel to show you what’s in store:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnIFovmXlcw
We’ll head out of China Lake Naval Air Warfare Station, California to fly SIDEWINDER and the JEDI transition (AKA “Star Wars Canyon”), the legendary low-level flight training route in California, USA. Used by the USAF, US Navy and allied nations for training in F22’s, F18’s and many other aircraft as they zip through narrow canyons and over mountain ridges at 200ft AGL and 500 knots.
We’ll be flying two passes through the canyon before returning to base. The ideal plane for this is the Aermacchi MB-339A, a venerable jet trainer first developed in 1974 and still used by the Italian Air Force and a number of other nations. The 339 can be purchased from the Marketplace or from a number of add on vendors and I’m finding it fun to fly (I’m not affiliated with the vendor in any way).
If you don’t have the payware MB-339A, try the trip in the Daher TBM 930 turboprop instead. The TBM’s maximum manoeuvring speed is only 158 knots, but that’s still plenty fast enough!
The route is based on published military procedures, with the official Sidewinder/Jedi Transition low-level route description is available here:
The low-level overview map is available here:
