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Leg #56 SAWH - YSRN

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EHM-2097 Andrei:
Time to use the Fokker again. Not because it's actually wise to take off with a jet on the short gravel runway at CYSK, but it should not be left to rust.

Although this leg follows again the shores of Hudson Bay and – especially - James Bay, these shores provide little features for orientation so the most important is to spot and properly identify the large rivers that flow into James Bay. Most rivers are not easy to spot in FS, but this time it's different because the ones we need form long estuaries that are really easy to spot.

You may have noticed the specific (to say the least) shape of the archipelago where CYSK is located. After take-off, the best course is southwards along the long "ribs" of these islands. Hint: the faster you climb, the sooner you can get the big picture of the archipelago to set the right direction.

As soon as you reach the southern tip of the archipelago, the mainland should be visible ahead. The target to aim at is the cape between Hudson Bay and James Bay. To help, just in front of this cape is the Long Island (which appears to be even longer as you fly perpendicular to it).

Once the mainland well in sight, follow the eastern shore of James Bay paying attention to river estuaries, which are the landmarks to follow in this part of the flight.

The first river to look for is La Grande River (yes, I am aware this sounds outrageous in both English and French). For a positive identification, Chisasibi airport (CSU2) is located on the southern bank of the river and parallel to it.

Next is Wemindji airport (CYNC), difficult to look for because it is not associated to any terrain feature, but if you fly close enough to the shoreline you should spot it all right.

The second estuary belongs to Eastmain River, with the airport (CZEM) equally on its southern bank but perpendicular to it.

Further south, James Bay is continued with an inlet formed by James River and its tributaries. No need do fly around this inlet, just cross it as its remote bank should be clearly visible.

After reaching the western shore of this inlet, it is time to start descending (especially if you fly above the clouds as I did). The idea is to emerge below any clouds early enough to get a good sight of the airport.

There is a noticeable change in the terrain here: for the first time since Greenland, FS displays some patches of human settlements (except for airports of course).

River estuaries are important again, but caution: the first one you cross, at the south end of James Bay, is NOT the one we are looking for (I spent some time around myself looking for the airport twat is not there).

The airport is located along the northern bank of Moose River (that is the first large river, with an estuary, you cross on the western shore of James Bay). This rough direction allows from a straight in approach from the bay, but if you need some extra margin (for errors, that is) it is better to use the reciprocal runway from the south. Some trees at the northern end of the runway (though not very close to it) make the difference…

And, most important, the runway has PAPI lights; easy one (unless you try it with the 747, of course).

EHM-2097 Andrei:
I am back after a scheduled break due to the Lisbon-Dakar event. After the sand of Sahara, back to the snow of Canada!

This leg is an easy one to fly as far as orientation is concerned; it is mostly about flying along the southern shore of the Hudson Bay. The shore itself is clearly in sight as you take off, so finding it is easy.

Expect an uneventful flight out of James Bay. There are a few airports en-route, like Ft. Albany (CYFA), Kashechewan (CZKE) and Attawapiskat (CYAT), which would come handy for solving orientation problems – if there was any.

The only orientation trap is that the destination airport of Peawanuck is not quite close to the shore, so overflying the shore is the sure recipe for missing the airport.
Instead, once out of James Bay into Hudson Bay (the shoreline bend is clearly visible), you should look for the Winisk River. This is easy because it's simply the first wide river you cross flowing into Hudson Bay.

Once you spot the river, follow it upstream. At first it does not look likely to reach any settlement, but after a while the airport will appear in sight. Note the runway position, perpendicular to the river (thus to your approach direction) and expect a base turn as approach route.

The runway itself is gravel, 3500ft. Not very easy but not too difficult too, a lot of clear terrain on both runway ends due to the river proximity.

EHM-2097 Andrei:
Since the tour reached mainland Canada, most of the navigation was kind of "follow the shoreline". From now on, be prepared for something VERY different. For the next four legs, the route is to be found over a maze of flatland and lakes, which can be very treacherous as waypoint features.

This has some consequences on both the (suggested) route itself and the way to follow it.

First, in order to take what advantage we can from terrain features, the route is WAY longer than the straight line between the departure and destination airports. So be sure to take plenty of fuel (though refueling en-route is technically possible). It is also useful to have a fuel reserve for the unpleasant situation of getting lost and having to backtrack to the last known correct waypoint.

Then, I flew myself while checking continually the terrain on Google Earth. Although in the route description I try to be as specific as possible, items like "a forked lake" or "a river perpendicular to your heading" are far easier to understand if you check them before on a map (it could be Google Earth too, or, if you are VERY patient, even the FS in-game map).

One last thing to say, my route description is based on the default FS9 terrain and scenery.

And now, let's fly the tour!

Encouraged by PAPI lights at the destination, I flew this leg with the Fokker. Landing was indeed not a problem but take-off was difficult on the 3500ft runway at Peawanuk, so think twice before selecting the 747!

Peawanuk is located near the Winisk River; the first part of the leg just follows the river upstream (southwards). While doing so, be sure to climb high (I suggest over FL100 at least), because the higher you cruise the further you can spot water bodies.

Follow the river up to the point it disappears (that is, FS no longer recognizes it as a "large river"). Note a round lake, larger than the surrounding ones, on your right as you head south along the river; this lake is the point to return to if you miss the next waypoint.

Further south, you enter in a region with lots of smaller lakes. Note however that while most of these lakes are narrow and north-south oriented, these are aligned in a row with east-west orientation. As soon as you recognize this pattern, follow it westwards. While doing so, you may notice below the airport of Kasabonika (CYAQ - an useful bonus, not an essential waypoint though).

Further west, a larger lake appears ahead. (As you certainly knew or noticed by now, FS renders remote small water bodies as a single large one, so be sure you get close enough to a lake before recognizing it as "large").

The large lake ahead is Big Trout Lake. For failsafe identification, fly along its northern bank while looking for two airports: Angling Lake (CKB6 - slightly northeast of Big Trout Lake), then – and especially – Big Trout Lake airport (CYTL), situated on an island within the lake itself.

From Big Trout Lake, continue westwards, again over numerous smaller lakes. Through these lakes, at some point the thin but continuous line of a river (flowing roughly from southwest to the northeast) will appear in sight. Continue towards this river; with a little luck, you will reach it close to Bearskin Lake airport (CNE3 - on the western bank), but don't waste fuel looking for it, as it's not an essential waypoint.
 
Instead, follow the river upstream (southwest). While doing so, note a large lake on the right; when abeam this lake, the airport of Muskrat Dam (CZMD) should be in sight near the western bank of the river.

Further upstream, the river widens and becomes the Sandy Lake. Follow the northern shore of the lake up to the airport of the same name (CZSJ).

Northwest of the airport, a series of smaller lakes form a river; in some places, it really looks more like a river than a lake. Follow that river northwest.

At some point, the river bends to the east. Do not follow the river but continue northwest. At first, there are no landmarks to note, only sparse small lakes, but after a while a (really) large lake appears in sight ahead, it is the Island Lake – this leg's destination.

To find the airport, as you approach the lake, note a spot where a series of narrow parallel islands almost "bridge" the lake. The farthest island of this "bridge" is the one with the airport.

A nasty surprise while approaching the island (and descending, by this time), is that unlike its neighbors this island is not gently flat near the water, but the airport is suspended over high cliffs. This is not a major problem, however this made me a little nervous on finals so I preferred to be a little high over the runway than punch the Fokker's nose into that cliff.

Here we are at Island Lake airport. Not the time to cheer though, because the next leg is just as challenging for orientation!

EHM-2097 Andrei:
Do you read "#13 for luck"? Nice try, in fact it is the trickiest leg for orientation (so far). Err… what I mean is that I "managed" to get lost by the end of this leg, and escaped the shame of FS map peeking only with lots of patience - and fuel.

Aircraft is easy to pick, as the destination runway is short and narrow (yes, that kind of dirty brown line drawn on the snow). Besides, it is necessary to look down a lot to spot and keep landmarks in sight, so the Concorde is kind of out of the question. (To put it more bluntly, I strongly suggest the B1900 or similar).

One may notice that the map (that is, GoogleEarth again) shows a road passing close to our departure airport. Well, don't look for it from above; you will not see any of it. Instead, most of this leg orientation is based – again – on recognizing and following significant bodies of water.

One problem is that the terrain is a maze of (mostly) long and thin lakes, which are easy to follow "along" but provide little help to navigate "across". To take benefit from the "along" direction, as much as possible, this leg route is far from a straight line so DO NOT estimate fuel by measuring the grand circle distance to cover. Lots more will be required.

So… after takeoff head north. As soon as the northern shores of the Island Lake are left behind, a series of communicating lakes should appear, forming a line running in a southwest – northeast direction. Head towards these lakes and follow the "line" to the northwest.

Between two of these lakes, where water is reduced to a narrow river, is the Gods Lake Narrows airport (CYGO). Follow the western shores of the next lake in the "line", up to a bay running to the northwest. From that bay, follow this northwestern course.

This flight path leads over a first long and narrow lake (check you fly perpendicular to it), and then a longer one with an airport near it. This one is Knee Lake (CJT3).

Fly along Knee Lake to the southwest, then west (as it bends). After reaching the lake western extremity, fly northwest and soon Oxford House airport (CYOH) should appear in sight between another big lake and a smaller one. Positive identification of this spot is easy (no other airports for many tenths of miles around) but very important, because the next part of the leg lacks "safe" landmarks so any error here will surely be amplified afterwards.

As you fly over Oxford House, two parallel (long and narrow - again) lakes should be visible to the northwest. Aim for their western extremities and keep this heading after passing the two lakes too.

Further ahead, a large river should appear in sight and, along it and most important, a power line (on its eastern bank). From the distance the power line may look much like a road, but from close distance (and reasonable altitude) the electricity poles are quite visible.

The next waypoint is a spot along this river where the power line is very close. Because of the long time flown without a safe waypoint, you may reach the river north OR south of this point; take the time to look for it, the next airport waypoint is still far ahead!

From this point, looking to the northwest, a long (east to west) and narrow lake is clearly visible.  Follow this lake westwards, keeping an eye to its northern shore. Near the far (western) end of the lake, the Thicket Portage airport (CZLQ) will appear in sight. This is the first (and thus most welcome) safely recognizable waypoint since Oxford House. And this leg is still far from over!

Before reaching the airport, a railroad running southwest to northeast becomes visible. Follow this road to the northeast (even it looks like a going back eastwards) and be sure not to miss a junction, from which another railroad heads northwest. Follow this railroad – and take a breath, this is the easiest part of this leg.

After a while, more signs of human activity appear, that is several power lines. Eventually the railroad leads into Thompson, most important waypoint. Not only the airport (CYTH) is easier recognizable (by having two runways), but also the city itself is visible in the scenery. This is in fact the first settlement on this route since we left Hudson Bay. (It is useful to note that depending on the season, the city is more or less visible because in the distance the texture looks very much like snowy tundra, but it' s there and worth looking for it).

There is one more step to this leg, but another difficult one. From Thompson airport, follow a railroad (plus a power line) to the west. It may look like just another piece of cake but after a while, both the railroad and the power line head southwest. DO NOT follow these; instead keep a westerly course.

In theory, what follows could like simple: to the west, there is a series of lakes along a river running south to north. Our destination is situated on the eastern shore of one of these lakes. In fact, these lakes have a very faintly delimitation from the dry land, it is a landscape similar to the one we flew over since two legs, but somehow reverted: more water than land. This makes it very risky to head towards a water body seen in the distance.

After leaving the railroad, the key is to recognize (or is it guess?) when you have reached these lakes, then follow these to the north while keeping a good eye to the eastern side (it is a "side" more than a shore) of this water maze.
While trying to do so I got lost and had to make huge detours, looking for the destination airport in the wrong places. In fact, I almost ran out of fuel and was preparing to return to Thompson for refueling when I finally got it right.

Should you have the same problem, the key is to keep some landmarks in sight in order to be able to return (to Thompson) instead of running out of fuel in the middle of nowhere.

However, you will have a huge advantage on me, which I am about to give away now… there is one terrain feature that is hard to miss and leads all right to destination. The map shows a road or railroad running straight into the South Indian Lake airport. Well, in the FS9 scenery it' s not quite like that but the road EXISTS! It runs on the western side of the lakes we try to follow, but at some point it splits in two and its eastern branch crosses the river by a CLEARLY VISIBLE BRIDGE.

Make sure you spot this bridge, there is no other one over great distances from here. It is true that the road leads nowhere after crossing the river, but it gives the approximate direction of the destination airport. In fact, this should appear in sight, north of the bridge, shortly after you fly over this one.

(When I eventually found the airport, I realized that I have seen the bridge very early in my attempts and at some point I should have had the airport in sight, but did not look in the right direction because I failed to match the bridge to the map properly).

Well, at this point you are almost done. Only one more "formality" left, to put the aircraft down onto the short and narrow runway. It' s feasible all right, but personally after a flight so eventful due to orientation difficulties, I felt like I deserved an ILS! Some other leg probably…

EHM-2097 Andrei:
Not a lot of variety in this leg, the landscape is quite the same as the last two legs: flatlands and lakes. Destination airport at Wollaston Lake has a gravel runway so the B1900 remains a good choice to fly this leg.

For orientation, note (by looking on the map) that the South Indian Lake has, on its southern side, two “arms”. The eastern one is the one we followed to arrive here. The western one is the one to follow for this leg.

After taking off, fly towards the southwestern corner of the lake. It is not easy to tell where this lake ends and the next one start, but in this case between the two lakes is the Leaf Rapids airport (CYLR). Near the airport, note and follow a road to the north.

another, smaller, “arm” of the South Indian Lake then turns to the west. Just follow it and eventually it leads to Lynn Lake (CYYL). This is a two-runway airport and there is a visible settlement too, with a crossroad and also a railroad running from the south.

After Lynn Lake, follow the road that heads northwest. While doing so make sure you cut corners while the road itself has to turn around several lakes. Eventually the road leads to a large lake, where it ends abruptly. In reality, there is a settlement here, Kinoosao, which is not rendered in the FS9 scenery.

From Kinoosao you should follow the administrative border between Manitoba and Saskatchewan, but unfortunately they forgot to carve it into the landscape. So fly over the large lake instead, to the north.

As you get close to the lake northern shores, Brochet airport (CYBT) appears in sight close to the lake northeastern end. Make sure you identify this airport, because the next part of the leg is based again on less precise route directions.

Fly west, look for the “next big lake” but wait until this lake becomes clearly visible, otherwise it is easy to mistake it. This is Wollaston Lake, and the destination airport is situated on its southeastern shore.

Caution, there are many more airstrips nearby so do not just rush into the first runway you see! That s about all but expect more of the same landscape for the next leg!

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