[Updated] Arrows Across America: fly the US Air Mail routes 1926 - 1934

Excellent! Thank you! I went to find one of these IRL once, and it was an enjoyable day out. I’ve flown over a few in the sim since but they were hard to find and just a blur. Now I can go treasure hunting!

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Thanks for your support - yes it would be quite some spreadsheet!

The map extract is from the January 1936 sectional map for Boise. By that stage the original airway beacons had already begun to be replaced with radio navigation signals, which were marked up on the maps as well. However, they also provide the most accurate source material for locating those arrows and beacons that have now disappeared.

Initial navigation seems to have been a combination of dead reckoning and very simple linear charts showing the beacons for each section of the route.

However, Elrey Jeppesen, founder of the aeronautical charts company, started out by compiling detailed notes for the routes he flew, including for the en route terrain and approaches to the Intermediate Landing Fields. They were useful enough to be sold to fellow pilots, who then started giving him their notes for the routes they flew, leading to an increasingly comprehensive record.

Jeppesen then set up his company to produce and sell the notes and charts commercially. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Having tried flying part of our route at night with @DEAN01973 s Stearman I can confirm that it seems a very quick way to break a perfectly good aircraft. Even being able to see two beacons ahead is of limited help when you have no sense of the terrain below and in front of you! The same would be true of flying in bad weather.

Bear in mind as well that Jeppesen talked in interviews about flying the routes at between 50’ and 300’ AGL and so even in clear weather there were hazards to contend with.

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This is a really cool addon and I appreciate the amount of research and work it requires. The historical recreation potential of this sim despite the modern imagery is very interesting. There are many vintage aircraft addons available and this fits right in with all of that.

Thank you very much. These are the kinds of things that are a real treasure and can easily be forgotten to time or in this case, exposed to a whole new generation of flight sim pilot.

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If you own the Wing42 Boeing 247D, then you already have the old fashion morse radio beacons available on the route. See below (Tacan symbols):

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Thanks, we have really enjoyed putting it together. And I am sure there are lots more pieces of aviation history to recreate.

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On this route, CAM5, only a few arrows are in spots where modern days took over the landscape, in urban areas, next to roads, and on now irrigated crop fields. It was remarkable how many spots are still as they were, although most arrows are demolished, the sites are intact, acces routes available, and sometimes used as a spot for modern communication masts. On the modern airports, the new airport beacon is near the spot where the old beacon used to be.

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Soo, thanks for downloading.
What are your experiences with our little scenery project?
We are looking into recreating a few Intermediate Landing Fields, to add to the experience.

Lookking forward to your reactions.

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Thank you, This has always fascinated me. While camping out West I searched and found 4 old arrows almost intact. Some you can still find in MSFS2020.
I started CAM50 at Salt Lake City flying a 152 and have only flown to to SP 11. These Towers/arrow beacons are really hard to see. Sometimes losing site of the beacon I realized I was too low.
Add a little wind and dusk and this is terrifying. I salute those daring flyers.
And a salute to you for this historic scenery.
Tom SWFL

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Thanks, really pleased you are enjoying it. And we agree that trying to fly the airway in sub-optimal conditions at the original altitude underlines quite how brave those early pilots were.

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I am enjoying this add-on! I am finding it very challenging so far using calm skies and good visibility. I cannot imagine flying this route decades ago using only bare visual references, hot summers, and chilly winters. Pilots had to know how to navigate without using a VFR Map… or a chart with magnetic headings and distances. The goal of having the beacons 10 miles apart assumes 10+ miles visibility and excellent eyesight. As I am flying the route, I spend most of my time looking for the next beacon/arrow. If I can’t see it, I spend time looking around the area where it should be. Often it is right under my airplane where I can’t see it! And then when the arrow is located, I have to fly in the right direction. I tried flying this one time at night and it seemed easier finding the rotating beacons. Flying this makes me appreciate having a GPS!

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Thanks for your interest. We are nearing 200 downloads, and that is nice.
Indeed, flying the old airmail routes is very chalenging, even in the best of circumstances.
We are looking to add some Intermediate Landing Fields in the near future, on spots where the old runway outlines are still visible in the sim/Bing maps, but which haven’t evolved in modern fields.
So you have a safe haven to land, when the weather gets too bad.

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As we close in on 200 downloads (thanks everyone!), work on our first Intermediate Landing Field is underway.

I have been working on Strevell ILF using three sources:

  1. the visible remains of the north-south runway
  2. the description from the 1929 Airway Bulletin which has the orientation and measurements for the two runways
  3. the description of the lighting system for ILFs from the same bulletin

There is some fine tuning of the positions to do but the overall layout looks like this:

Green lights were used to mark the runway centrelines, two at each end of the principal runway (assumed to be N-S given that it was the longer of the two and still visible) and one for the secondary runway. White boundary lights then marked the remainder of the perimeter.

The triangular section was designed to assist with cross wind landings.

Red warning lights were used to mark hazards and I have assumed a line along the highway to the west of the field.

The intersection of the runways was marked with a chrome yellow circle with projecting bars indicating the two runway headings.

At Strevell, the airway arrow and beacon was in the SW corner of the field. Although fuel was stored there, as this was an emergency field there were no hangers.

Now it’s over to @RobCap1966 to work his magic, modelling the lights and runway marker and dropping them into the sim.

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I believe the discrepancy lies in “Heading vs Magnetic Heading”. Magnetic compass deviation can be up to 30 degrees plus or minus in some areas.

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I finally had the time to start flying this route in the Stearman. This is an exceptional addon. It may seem simple, but very few of use would have been able to put together all of the details that are here. The result is not only a glimpse back into aviation history, but an opportunity to role-play what would have been an amazingly challenging job.

MSFS 2020 didn’t include any missions like the previous versions. One of my favorite sims was FS2002 A Century of Flight. It let you experience all the steps that led to modern aviation. The pre-war aviation development must have been as big as the Internet is for us. The railroad was the way you moved around in this part of the country until planes came along.

While the modern, fully electronic airplanes are fun, there is something special about going back to simple stick and rudder aviation and navigation via landmarks. It’s the same reason I wanted to make the Wedell-Williams as it would have been in the 30s.

Thanks!

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Hi @Sal1800, that’s high praise indeed, thanks so much.

We are really pleased that something which started as a bit of a niche experiment is generating so much positive response here and elsewhere, and that we have been able to recreate a flavour of what it was like to fly those routes.

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You make us blush!
It is a niche project, but your reactions and appreciation make us want to explore further, and expand the package!

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It’s projects like this one that keeps the sim interesting.
One day I’m the captain in a 737, the next day I’m flying mail in a 1930’s plane following arrows and beacons.
Back to basics, and I’m loving it.
Thanks for your great work guys, really appreciate it.

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Where can I get that livery?
Thanks.

Strevell ILF update:
We now have a test version of our first CAM5 Intermediate Landing Field installed in the sim. @RobCap1966 has modelled the lamps (they are only 30" high) and placed them on the field as per the layout above.

Improvements to the lighting effects are next…

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After a long wait I finally got my new joystick yesterday so am back in the air! Today I loaded up the Stearman with a few bags of mail in Salt Lake City destined for Burley. I was a bit worried when I started off that I would miss the beacons but you can see them from miles away. Fly towards the distant flashing light and then turn your plane in the direction of the arrow and peer off into the distance looking for that next light. When you have to make a bit of a hard turn and you’re not entirely sure where that beacon is it’s quite a relief when you make out that light.

I did have Little Navmap loaded up with all the beacons marked out as userpoints but I turned off the show plane position and track features for the authentic experience. (ok I turned it on a couple of times just to make sure I was going the right way, don’t tell anyone) and for the most part I had no issues flying the route.

There was a couple of beacons that weren’t flashing for some reason, not sure if that’s a mod bug or a problem on my end. Think they were Aux 9E and SL-P-10. Everything else flashed just fine. The lights weren’t centred properly on the model though, had them float off a bit to the side or just below the actual 3d model rotating beacon on almost all the beacons I passed which is a minor nuisance but it didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment.

It took me a total of 2 hours to fly this small section of the route although I did pause quite a few times to take screenshots and also to consult the map which probably added a fair bit of time. Plus the Stearman isn’t the fastest bird but then again some of the early mail planes were even slower. And just like back then all this was flown without the aid of any autopilots or anything, just me and my stick and throttle. Luckily the Stearman trims out nicely so it wasn’t too tasking and it was quite a pleasant flight. I’ll carry on flying the rest of the route over the next week or so in 1-2 hour stages. Not the fastest of mail services but I’ll guarantee your mail will get to Pasco eventually :wink:

This is a really fantastic mod! Thanks to the devs for all the research and work done bringing this bit of history to the sim! I really recommend this to anyone interested in recreating aviation history.

I took a bunch of screenies of all the beacons I passed but instead of overloading this thread with 18 screenshots I’ll just post one or two and then post an album.

(This pic is actually the link to the album)

I’ve also created a CSV file you can import into Little Navmap to show all the beacons as LNM userpoints. You can download it here if you want https://1drv.ms/u/s!ArjKbjIiGNP_9lERTRlPbrKjZ9t3?e=BFaWbm
I also made a quick and dirty little google map showing all the beacons as well which you can find here: Contract Air Mail Routes - Google My Maps

Thanks again for the wonderful mod.

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