Hi @Megadyptes7635 Thanks for the feedback and for creating the two files. We are really pleased you are enjoying the mod and that it has given your new joystick a workout. That’s a great selection of screenshots as well.
Your next challenge is to fly it at night!
We are aware of a glitch with Aux 9E and Beacon 10 which @RobCap1966 has been looking into. Ditto the fact that some of the lights are off centre, which seems to be an SDK issue.
Rob is deep in getting the Strevell ILF lighting working at the moment so that might provide some pointers for a fix.
What a fantastic mod!
Thanks so much for creating, its great to fly by hand and dead reckoning, with only the steam gauges. Just so many planes with screens now.
Is there a discord channel for this whole USA mail route project ?
Thanks again, wonderful.
I bought the Bücker Jungmann by Lionheart Creations earlier. It has some basic cockpit lighting so I thought why not? Only had time for a short stint so I went from Burley to Glenns Ferry. Took off at around 4:30 am… tell a lie, I took off in broad daylight as I didn’t fancy my first take off in a brand new plane, a tail dragger at that, in the pitch black! Anyway I took off and flew the Jungmann around to test its flying characteristics etc and then I turned the clock to real time which was around 4:30AM local Idaho time and then flew the beacons.
I rarely ever fly at night in flight sim, especially not in a basic steam cockpit without any navigation aids so it was a bit nerve wracking lol. But I had no major issues. There was a couple of times where I didn’t spot the next beacon immediately and because you can’t see the arrows on the ground at night I was afraid I’d lose my way but to my relief I spotted the distant flashing on both occasions and went on my way.
I didn’t fly nearly as low as I did in the Stearman during the day as I was afraid of hitting the ground.The spinning beacon light effect is cool but it doesn’t show up until I get quite close and then it’s static until I get really close and it starts spinning. Bit of a bummer but I’m guessing that’s SDK limitations or maybe I just need to bump up my objects distance rendering slider? But the main flashing light could be seen clear from miles off. At one point I could see the next three beacons blinking away in the distance and it felt a bit comforting having them there guiding me on my way. All beacons flashed properly on this leg as well.
Didn’t really take any screenshots as it was bloody dark so you can’t see much but as I progressed the eastern sky got a bit brighter
That certainly was an experience! My respect for the pilots who did this back in the day has gone up quite a lot! Also the Jungmann does have some cockpit lighting but annoyingly the compass stays in the dark so had to turn the old headlamp on a few times to make sure I was on the right track a few times! Took me just over an hour to do this stretch. Had a 13-14 kt headwind to fight and the Jungmann isn’t the fastest plane. Was doing about 80-90 kts for most the trip.
Might take the Carenado WACO up for the next trip. the WACO has a lot more modern fancy doodads which could’ve come in handy for the night flight but that would’ve been cheating although it probably does have better cockpit lighting which could’ve come in handy! Those old timers probably had to put up with a lot worse back in the day. Luckily I had mostly clear skies, can’t imagine what it’d be like in bad weather. I’ll give it a go sometime in the future but for me the next leg will be during the day.
Wow, thanks for the wonderfull feedback and screenshots!
I see you found our warning sign on the side of the tower. Nice shot!
I hear your issues.
Aux 9E and Beacon 10 not flashing when near them, is something weird in the sim.
I’m working on ILF Strevell, and will rework beacon 10, and 9E when I’m at it.
The rotating beacon movement showing up late is a SDK or exporter from Blender limitation.
All lights are slightly problematic, exporting from Blender.
The flashing beacon effects are all placed the same, but some show up of-center in the sim. Which is weird, but some kind of bug.
Sorry for the small anoyances, but the sim has some weird behavior, which I haven’t been able to solve (yet)
The effects are placed under the rotating beacon deliberately, because when placed on the correct height, the effect is blocked by the 3D model of the rotating beacon.
(btw, did you check the mirror in the beacon… )
I might consider to place all effects just above the beacon. Then there are no model obstructions.
The night flying is a real challenge, even at late dusk or early dawn.
Indeed, it raises your respect for those ail air mail route flyers immensely.
There is nog Discord for this Airmail route project (yet, maybe)
For the time being it is CAM#5. We are expanding to add 1, and maybe more ILF’s. Strevell is first in the near future. And maybe expand to the extension to Elko.
If we are going to do all of them, it is a massive amount of work, for which we will need help from the community, to help place all beacons, and work on ILF’s. We will make the models available at that point so peaople can chip in. That could be our plan. And together, we could recreate the entire network. But that’s for another time.
I’ve read a few things over the past year or so about scenery devs having difficulties with lights and the SDK so don’t beat yourself up over it. You guys have done a great job! One of the downsides with flying at night is that you can’t see the towers as you go by. They’re quite nice to look at as you speed by at 200 feet. Is it intentional that the arrows are not lit up at night? Seems like a bit of an odd choice for them not to do so IRL, but then again the flashing lights are a lot more observable at night so I guess it’s not as important.
I’d love to offer to help with this project but I’m pretty hopeless with the SDK. I’ve tried mucking about with it on a few occasions since MSFS was released but always fail to figure out most things. Best I’ve managed is a single runway sitting on a weird plateau plus a basic generic hangar sitting on the side. It was just about functional in the sim but only just.
Some sources speak of lights on arrows, and on the roofs of the sheds, to be able to see the route numbers. It is something we can consider in an update.
If you really want to help, send me a PM.
Placing the arrows, towers etc. is pretty straight forward.
I figured it out, so it can’t be that difficult, haha, although I had some challenges, and still have, with ILF Strevell.
I can make some sort of instruction.
We can work something out, I’m sure.
Another short hour and a bit leg, this time in the glorious Ryan ST-A. The front passenger seat is covered up on this model so I just assumed I threw some mail bags in there. Took off from Glenns Ferry U89 and ended up in Weiser S87. Weather was quite fine, just a few clouds overhead. I had a small 4-5 kt tailwind helping me along for most of the flight. It was quite warm outside and the air a bit bumpy which kept things a bit interesting.
I did a little touch and go at Mountain Home U76 and threw a bag or two of mail overboard. Flew on to Boise. There was a beacon that I couldn’t see for a few minutes. I think I was just flying too low and I think it was 26 or 27 that was obscured until I got higher. I Ignored the airport at Boise as I don’t like these bigger strips with miles of taxiways. Flew towards 29Z which is surrounded by buildings I imagine didn’t exist back in the day! Dropped some mail bags into the river and flew on my way.
Beacon 31 was a bit interesting as I was tracking it nicely for most of that leg but then lost sight of it briefly when I was close by and took a while to find it again and involved a bit of circling around. Flashing lights on a light backdrop can be a bit of a pain to make out! But it was nothing compared to 34.
Took me a few minutes to spot 33 but I was flying in mostly the right direction and found it and then I couldn’t see 34. Flew off in roughly the right direction and couldn’t see anything. Got a bit distracted and lost track of where I was on the maps and ended up flying down the wrong ridgeline. I could spot 35 by Weiser off in the distance but I was determined to find 34! Ended up flying by an airport I figured was Payette S75 and after consulting the map I looked off in the rough direction of where 34 should be and there it was blinking away! Here’s the post flight Little Navmap track of me trying to find that blasted beacon!
The Ryan had plenty of fuel left and I probably could’ve flown the rest of the route if I so desired but my back ain’t what it used to be and sitting still too long can be a bit of a pain at times so decided to call it a day at Weiser.
I’m happy to report that all beacon lights were operating without fault and it was quite an enjoyable flight in a fantastic plane. Looking at the map it seems the next section is quite mountainous which should be fun. Not sure what I’ll fly for the next leg. Wish there were more bi-planes available for MSFS. I’d pay good money for a decent Pitcairn Mailwing!
Anyway here’s an album of the beacons plus a couple of airfields for anyone who wants a few more pics:
Great update. Quick tip for the next leg - if you have Puffin’s VFR Addon you might want to turn it off as some of the beacons are in the same place as modern mobile phone masts (shows how good the original airway surveyors were) and get a bit masked by them as the masts are a lot taller.
I would also be a day one purchaser for a good Pitcairn Mailwing. Perhaps Golden Age Simulation’s P3D version wil come across some time?
Yeah I disable the VFR mod for my mail runs. Anything that looks uncomfortably close to the beacons is just default MSFS. The twin beacons at Mountain Home amused me a bit. Had a look on Google Maps to see what the real airfield beacon looks like and it’s nothing like the giant default Asobo beacon:
I guess they probably have that beacon in the site of the original 20’s beacon.
I had a fair few of Golden Age Sim’s planes for FSX and P3D which is why I’m fond of the Mailwing. They did release a Kinner Sportwing for MSFS but the modelling and texturing were pretty poor by MSFS standards. I didn’t mind too much but a lot of people did and GAS ended up withdrawing it from sale and refunding everyone who’d bought it then released it as freeware on their site. They’ve released a few other planes for P3D since but not for MSFS
The brilliant Tiger Moth by Ant’s Airplanes is coming to MSFS though which I’m really looking forward to. I’d love to see a Curtiss Jenny as well.
Flew the rest of the way from Weiser to the Tri-Cities. Took the Stearman up again but the cowled version this time. That engine cowling gives you a bit of extra speed. This final leg was quite stunning with quite a lot of variation in terrain, mountains, valleys, forests and plains. It was really quite a nice flight. Flight time was about 1 hour and 40 odd minutes. There was a few occasions where I had to really look hard to find the beacon but I was always flying in roughly the right direction and didn’t have a repeat of almost getting lost like I did last leg with 34.
All beacons were working fine but I did come across a couple of bugs. Beacon 41 at Baker City Municipal airport was flashing but there was no 3d model, just a disembodied floating flashing light. Also at 49 the number wasn’t quite attached to the roof properly, it hovers a few feet off the roof. Not really noticeable from the air but I was messing about with the drone cam to get a nice shot and saw it. Oh and I guess a very minor issue with the arrow on 36 being a tiny bit difficult to make out as grass was poking through it.
So after 4 legs over a week the mail has finally arrived from Salt Lake City. It was a really cool experience. Now I guess I better pick up a new load and fly back. This time with the Boeing 247D and longer stretches but I might give it a rest for a few days first.
@Megadyptes7635 Thank you again for providing such a great overview of the route and the add-on, and for the shout out on “What did you do in MSFS today?” thread. It’s helped nudge us towards 250 downloads!
I will leave it to @RobCap1966 to feedback on the missing beacon etc but this is a great way to check how things are working.
For my part I have been looking again at the sectional for Beacon 34 and will check my thinking on the location. It is one of the sites with no surviving remnants so has to be worked out from the 1936 map overlaid onto modern maps and satellite photography.
As a counterpart to your chronicle, folks interested in the airways might like to have a look at this 40min silent film of an original air mail run: Air Mail Service (Ca 1924) - YouTube Look out for the winter kit provided to one of the pilots!
And like you I am also waiting for Ant to bring his Tiger Moth to MSFS - I fear it might compete with my Stearman for air mail flight time!
Hi all, as part of my research into the layout for our Strevell Intermediate Landing Field I keep coming across this webpage - History: The Ghost Town of Strevell
The puzzle with Strevell is that what look like the runways on the ground today do not match the descriptions in the Air Mail bulletins. I would like to know if the site has any clues to the answer.
However, unfortunately it does not meet European website standards and so I cannot access it.
As well as sorting out the ILF we might also try and recreate Strevell itself (it became ghost town in about 1976…) so info about the town would also be invaluable.
If anyone following the thread is living in the US and can access the page, could you copy the contents and send it to me? If you DM me I can let you have a contact email.
Another great reply/report/set of pictures. Thanks a lot!
I moved beacon 34 to the airport nearby, which I thought was the aporopriate location. Probably the light stayed behind, somehow. Will need to check. Will also check the lettering on the roof of 49. I missed that, appearently.
But thanks for noticing.
Also, I see some beacons need a little flattning polygon, although I didn’t notice that during developement.
The grass popping through I couldn’t avoid. Vegetation (except grass) can and has been excluded where needed.
I did see the odd weird bit of terrain but I’ve read about how finicky terraforming can be in the SDK and how it can cause a bunch of weird issues so didn’t think to mention it.
In other light beacon news: I was looking into that 1935 project RedWing are working on and on their discord they said they’re including a bunch of European navigation beacons in their 1935 country packages
One of the devs posted a few days back that they should be on the Marketplace within a month. A good time for fans of 30s aviation and flashing lights!
You like old Airway maps? Well here’s a couple for CAM Route 5:
Six years difference between the two maps though so things might not line up properly. You’ll also get the Radio Range Navigation stations and airways with the '36 map which actually makes it a bit more difficult to spot the old beacons.
A little preview of map 136 showing beacons 46 through to 50
I also found a ton of old sectional maps and here’s a the sectionals covering CAM Route 5. They’re from 1936 though so there are some differences, the big one being the final route from beacons 48 to 51 then Pasco. It seems like by 36 the beacons following that section were decommissioned and re-routed via Umatilla via a diversionary ‘X1’ beacon.
You can find them here. I found two different ones for Salt Lake City that were pretty close in date so I uploaded both.
Here’s an incredibly rough overview of what sectional covers what part of the trip
Yep, we are using the same set of 1935/36 sectionals. X1 marks the extension west to Portland, added onto CAM5 by consolidating with CAM32 in July 1930.
The Elko to Boise section was the original CAM5 route, superceded when the route was changed to start from Salt Lake City, so would be good to add on…
although it probably does have better cockpit lighting which could’ve come in handy! Those old timers probably had to put up with a lot worse back in the day. Luckily I had mostly clear skies, can’t imagine what it’d be like in bad weather. I’ll give it a go sometime in the future but for me the next leg will be during the day.
