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Leg #56 SAWH - YSRN

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EHM-2097 Andrei:
After a short sighting of the ocean, beginning with this leg it's back into the mainland and, especially, it's back into the Rockies again.

As it was Eurobusiness season when I flew it, and because there are long paved runways at both ends of the leg, I was tempted to fly it with the new A318 "Baby Bus". Now, the problem is that an A318 crawling along the bends of a canyon would be ridiculously unrealistic!

Thus I planned this leg as a "high VFR", more precisely flown at 12500ft (not FL125, remember it's America here!). There are advantages and disadvantages to such a high altitude. On the "plus" side, the visual range increases dramatically (but this advantage is reduced over very rugged terrain). On the "minus" side, small details are more difficult to spot (for instance, it's easy to mistake a railroad for a road and vice versa).

After departure, head south along the coast. Note on your right two large islands, Annette and Duke. Further south, there are no more islands close to the coastline, until the Dundas Islands.

As you pass near Dundas Islands, look closely at the coast, for Digby Island, where the Prince Rupert airport (CYPR) is located. The town is visible too, nearby on the mainland.

After Prince Rupert, follow the firs fjord to the east; in fact it is the lower course of the Skeena River. Follow the main valley and be sure to ignore the large tributary coming from the south.

Further upstream, the river has some bends in a narrow portion, then the valley becomes wider and the Terrace airport (CYXT) appears a little south of the river. The airport itself is easily recognizable, having three runways in a triangle shape.

This was the easy part of the leg. After Terrace, follow Skeena River upstream as it bends to the northeast. After a new bends, the valley heads east and the Woodcock airport (CBQ8) is visible on its northern bank.

After a straight portion oriented to the east, the valley bends again to the north, around a mountain ridge located right ahead and having a north to south orientation. It's time to leave the river and fly straight across this ridge.

As you clear that ridge, a long and thin lake appears right ahead in the distance. Fly towards it; it is Babine Lake, the longest natural lake in British Columbia. Follow the lake to the southeast.

Near its southern end, Babine Lake is bent to the east. Further east, lake Stuart is visible, almost parallel with Babine Lake but shorter and larger. Fly towards Stuart Lake, and then aim for its southeastern corner.

The river that drains the lake is clearly visible in the beginning. Another landmark nearby is Fort Saint James (CYJM). Follow the river, which is easy in the beginning, but becomes tricky further south, when the river is no longer displayed as a "water body" in FS9. Use the terrain to guess where the "main" valley is as the river flows to the east.

After a while, a large river flowing north to south appears in sight. When it does, fly towards it.

Prince George is located along this river. Depending on the exact spot where you reached the river, you may need to fly a little distance along it in order to locate the destination airport. Hint: the river has a large bend to the east just north of Prince George, so should you have this bend in sight, the airport is certainly further south.

The approach itself is easy, not much high ground nearby (for most runways).

EHM-2097 Andrei:
After the "high VFR" strategy used for the previous leg, I felt like I needed some "low VFR" again. No more jets, just the old trustful PC12 flying at 5500ft. I suspect that 4500ft could be enough too – free for you to try. Frankly, when planning a turboprop I was a little worried too by the approach at CYCG…

Also, this leg is very simple to navigate, but be aware that while most of it looks very much like the map, one portion looks like just anything else! I will detail this point at the right moment.

Remember the Fraser River valley bend to the east I mentioned in the preceding leg? Now it's "cut or follow" this bend, depending on how hurried you are. Then, follow the Fraser River southeast. Note that within the "bend", the river receives a tributary from the northeast; do not mistake it for the main stream.

Following the river is easy, there are no obvious landmarks but the valley is mostly straight and clearly visible ahead. There is a road going along the western bank and a railroad along the eastern bank. In this portion of the leg, the river bend themselves match very closely the shapes of their map counterparts.

There are also a few landmarks worth spotting. First, between the towns of Bend and Dome Creek, the railway crosses the river on a clearly visible bridge.

Further south is the town and airport of McBride (CAV4). Not only is any airport good for orientation, but also, if you have it displayed like I had, you will appreciate its position: on the bottom of a shallow hole situated under the bank of the river (it really looks like the river is just about to pour in and fill everything with water).

South of McBride, the river bends are smaller thus difficult to match on the map, but fortunately one does not need to. Eventually, the river visibly continues through what appears to be a secondary valley east of the "main" one we are following.

As you approach this final bend, Valemount airport (CAH4) appears in sight, and this is our next waypoint. HOWEVER, as you pass near the river bend, be sure to look east: from this angle, and even with default scenery, Mt Robson looks really huge (highest peak in the Canadian Rockies, by the way).

After Valemount, the valley seems to split (in fact, here is the mountain saddle). The road and railroad follow the right valley, while the end of a lake is visible along the left one. This is the reservoir Kinbasket Lake, a long and thin body of water; follow it south. We are now flying over the huge network of reservoir lakes along Columbia River and its tributaries.

The lake is easy to follow until we get close to the dam. As the lake becomes wider, pay attention to the three arms ahead. Follow the right arm, which leads to the dam (not visible in FS9) and further downstream Columbia River.

About the spot where Columbia River flows into Revelstoke Lake, and all the way along this lake, the scenery does not look like the map at all. Fortunately, during this leg the map recognition is not "business critical". Just don't panic and follow the river-or-lake to the south.

Note that one technical reason for this terrain feature mismatch is linked to roads, railroads and bridges. Whenever a railroad or road crosses a water body, FS9 displays a bridge over the crossing. This is reasonable enough for railroads, but roads often use ferries instead of bridges. As such is the case in many spots along Columbia River, this explains a large number of bridges that appear in FS9 while there is none in reality.

Eventually, Revelstoke airport (CYRV) will appear in sight on the eastern bank. (Well, in my case the airport appeared rather "carved" into the water). South of Revelstoke, as Columbia River flows into the Arrow Lakes, the terrain becomes to look like the map again.

 The Nakusp airport (CAQ5), located along the lake eastern bank, is one of the very few usable landmarks.

South of Nakusp, after a few sharp bends, the river has a long bent to the east. As we follow it east, a tributary is visible from the northeast, and just south of it is the destination airport.

The approach at Castlegar is tricky. In all cases, runway 33 looks more manageable than 15, but there are several options.

The most straightforward option is to align with the runway in the distance and follow the PAPI lights all the way down. However, be warned that I did not test this! There are high hills just south of the airport and I am not sure that a standard 3 degrees glide slope is safe above these. A steeper approach (not using the PAPI) could do the trick, but I don't know how steep it has to be.

Another option is to use the standard (IFR-designed) procedure. There is a localizer one can follow from the north. It is not intended for runway 15, instead it looks more like a localizer to use for a circle to land on runway 33. However, on good weather the localizer is not of much help without a glide slope so I did not find this approach very attractive. I suspect that proper approach charts would shed all necessary light on how to use this localizer, but I did not have those charts.

Eventually, the option I took was to fly south over the next river bend, then descend towards the river and follow it to the north, at low altitude, until the runway appears in sight. This approach makes good use of the PAPI, but there is a catch: due to the hills south of the airport, the approach path cannot be aligned with the runway, a turn into (very) shorts finals is necessary to hit the runway properly.

One more thing… We reached Canada for the first time 15 legs ago, and here at Castlegar we only have some 20 miles of Canada left before leaving it for good. Some achievement, isn't it?

EHM-2097 Andrei:
This leg can be flown at low altitude as a nice mountain ride… and this is exactly what I suggest. I flew it with the PC12 – again. I started at 4500ft, but had to climb later to 6500ft (after Missoula).

Important logistics note: while Google Earth has a worldwide coverage which makes it suitable as map for this tour, while crossing the US I recommend using the online VFR charts available at www.skyvector.com.

The first puzzle is getting airborne at Castlegar. One option is runway 33 and gain altitude FAST, otherwise you will not be able to clear the "step" of the river (and don't ask me why there is one in the first place).

The other option, which I took myself, is to take off from runway 15, which is towards the big hill south of the airport, but turn right when airborne in order to follow the river valley downstream.

Be sure you spot Trail airport (CAD4) on the eastern bank of the river, because after it comes the most difficult point of this leg. We must leave Columbia River and follow its tributary, the Pend Oreille River, BUT this one does not look at all like a major river as it flows into Columbia River.

To identify this river among many others, note that it is the first valley to the east after Trail, and that there are roads along both banks of this river. I missed it at first and had to come back, the 180 degrees turn being not so obvious if one is flying too low.

If you picked the right valley, you will it bend to the right then a wider portion of the Pend Oreille River should appear in sight. Note that in the real world, this portion of the river is dammed at several points, and in FS the dams are rendered as bridges, this is why there are really many of these.

As we follow the river upstream, several airports can be seen:[*]Ione (S23);
[*]River Bend (9WA3), located indeed in a river bend;[*]Priest River (1S6), as the valley is getting wider and turns northeast.[/list]A few more turns ahead, the Pend Oreille Lake appears in sight. Follow its northern shore, over the airport of Sandpoint (KSZT) then aim for the large river (Clark Fork) that flows into the lake from the east. Near the end of the lake, there are several small airfields almost packed into each other: Delta Shores (ID78), Riverlake (ID75) and Tuka (ID32).

Further upstream, the river gets narrower, in FS it is rendered as a simple river with a few lakes along it. The valley is still easy to follow as it goes almost in a straight-line southeast. There are also railway, roads and power lines along it.

Several airfields are located within the valley: Frampton (MT97), Craik (29MT) and Pinehurst (OMT7). Further upstream, a paved runway airport appears in site, it's Thompson Falls (KTHM). After Thompson Falls, the valley gets narrow, then wide again as we fly over the Plains airport (S34, easy to identify as it has two runways).

Note the mountain peak southeast of Plains. The Clark Fork River, the one we are flying over, does not follow what appear to be the main valley but flows in a tight "S" around this peak.  There is a road and railroad junction too, however the railroad is safer to follow along the "S" as the road is connected with some secondary roads too in this area.

For the "S" itself, turn right along the valley (having the railroad), and then be prepared to turn left as soon as the railway does. After completing the "S", we reach what looks like another valley (parallel to the one we left). Technically speaking, though, we are still in the Clark Fork valley, which continues to the east. From this point on, the road turns into a highway.

Follow the valley southeast. There is an airfield at Mineral County (9S4), and little else to see (other than the very nice landscape) until reaching Missoula. Look for the airport (KMSO), because it helps continuing this leg.

Terrain around Missoula is rather flat compared to the valley we have flown along, so finding the "exit" may be a little tricky. One hint is to fly over the airport, roughly along runway 11, then maintain this heading until reaching higher ground again. This should lead you close enough to identify the right valley (it's Clark Fork again, by the way), which has railroad and a highway along.

The entrance to the valley is very narrow, but a few turns later it gets wider. There are airfields to spot at Rock Creek (0MT0) and Drummond (KDRU). At Drummond there is a secondary valley coming from the south, with road, railroad and power line, be sure you do not follow this one. In fact, if you get too close to the airport, you are probably already in the wrong valley.

The next junction is equally important to spot. At some point, the valley becomes flatter and bends to the south, towards Deer Lodge (38S) ALONG with the highway and railroad. From this point, find and follow a secondary valley to the east, having a road and a railroad.

Start climbing now because at this valley ends with 6000+ feet passes. The valley is not always clearly visible, so be sure you follow the railway (no junctions, no doubts).

After reaching the Wood airfield (1MT3), there are two options to get out of this valley: along the road (which just turned into a highway) over Macdonald Pass, or along the railroad over Mullan Pass. I suggest the latter, as this pass is 400ft lower.

As soon as you reach the pass, start descending because the destination airport is really close (you should have it in sight soon) and some 2500ft below. If you manage to loose altitude fast enough, you may do a direct approach; otherwise plan your sightseeing (and height loosing) circuit accordingly.

EHM-2097 Andrei:
This is another leg that provides nice views of the Rocky Mountains. I was tempted to plan it by seeking the most spectacular valleys (or even canyons) to fly through. This is a nice flying challenge, however I found out that while following a narrow valley and trying to manage properly its bends and turns, it is just TOO easy to miss terrain clues and landmarks and finally get lost.

Thus the proposed route is a compromise between flying really close to mountains and using clear landmarks.

I flew this leg with the PC12 and I find it a good choice. Start with an initial climb to 7500ft and head east. As soon as you are high enough, the Canyon Ferry Lake (along Missouri River) should appear in sight. Follow the lake to its southern end, where the Townsend airport (5M7) is located.

After Townsend, follow Missouri river (along with a road and a railroad too) further south. Near Three Forks (9S5) we reach a highway running east to west.

Follow this highway to the west, away from the Missouri River along one of its tributaries (Jefferson River). The river crosses a narrow pass (at this point the highway meets the railroad again). After this pass, as you get to the Jefco Skypark airfield (MT41) turn south to follow the valley (plus a road and a railroad).

The landscape looks like the valley leads out of the mountains, but in reality it's quite the opposite, at this point we are following the valley upstream. Shortly after we reach Twin Bridges airport (7S1).

At Twin Bridges the road and railroad turn east to follow a secondary valley. Follow the main valley to Dillon airport (KDLN). A little south of Dillon, we reach a railroad running from the northwest to the southwest. Follow this railroad to the southwest, and soon it becomes visible it heads towards a lake (Clark Canyon Reservoir).

As we reach the lake, the road we have been following (along the railroad) turns into a highway. After the lake, keep following the highway and railroad south along Red Rock River. After Dell airport (4U9), the highway and railroad leave the valley to follow first a southern secondary valley, then head straight south to Monida Pass.

Be careful as you cross Monida Pass, the (theoretical) maximum altitude in the pass is only a few hundreds of feet below our cruise altitude, so be sure to avoid high ground in this area. Note also that the above-mentioned "highway" turns into a simple road in some areas, then again into a highway.

After Monida Pass the landscape changes completely, instead of mountains and green valleys everything is now flat and desert.

Follow the highway and railroad south, as these run first near Dubois airport (U41), then some lakes (the larger one being named Mud Lake, don't ask why). Eventually the city and airport of Idaho Falls (KIDA) appear in sight. There are several airports in the area: the main one has two runways and is located roughly within the city.

Before reaching the airport, turn east trying to spot a thin and long lake within a canyon. When you spot it, fly towards it but do not enter the canyon, instead the valley to follow is the next one (to the north). Follow this valley (Snake River), along with a road.

Fly over the small airfield of Huskey (ID72) then the Palisades Reservoir. As you cross the lake, look for the Alpine airport (46U) near its southern end. Note a small lake arm just south of the airport. After the airport, the valley that ends in this lake arm is the one to follow. Caution: as you fly over the lake, the NEXT valley seems a better choice while the GOOD one is barely visible so be sure you climb along the FIRST valley that has a road along it and ends near the airport.

The valley is narrow and following it relatively close to its bottom is a rather intense experience, but orientation is easy. Just follow the valley while looking north for an opening.

As soon as you spot this opening and lower (and flatter) ground beneath, go for it (you may forget about the road). From this point, finding the destination airport (a little further north) is easy.

Two options exist for the approach. You may fly a downwind leg to the north, then use the ILS or make it straight in from the south. In the latter case, note there is a terrain bulge along the runway centerline, so be prepared to fly around it instead of a long and straight finals leg.

EHM-2097 Andrei:
When planning this leg I did a terrible mistake. I checked the destination airport, saw it had a grass runway (which I am not a great fan of) and decided to "play safe" and fly the leg with the Cessna 172. Little did I know that there is a paved runway too (though, for obscure reasons, FS "prefers" the grass one). This mistake would not have been so bad on any other leg, but this one implies flying high, really high for this aircraft.

So... don't do as I did; feel free to choose your favorite turboprop (or jet?) and, especially, be sure to look for the paved runway at the destination.

After takeoff, climb to 8500ft, turn south and follow the road nearby the airport. There are two hills and the road climbs on the left one; if you are not high enough at this point, just fly between the hills while keeping the road in sight.

Continue southwards past Melody Ranch airfield (WY31), then the valley gets narrow and the road splits. The road to the right leads back to Palisades Reservoir ("visited" within the previous leg), so be sure to follow the left road.

At first the valley looks like a narrow canyon, then it becomes wider and flatter. There are several streams crisscrossing the valley, so be sure to follow the road as you fly towards the valley end.

The exit from the valley is a saddle at roughly 8000ft, so be sure to avoid high ground in this area. After the saddle, continue south along the road.

There is an important road junction, not to be missed. From the road we follow, there is another one that splits and runs east, close to the mountains on the left side of the valley (there are some lakes in the area too). It is possible to follow that road too, but this is NOT the route I describe hereby. Instead, follow the route to the south, over the Big Piney – Marbleton airport (KBPI), visible soon after the road junction.

Further south, the road closes to the mountains on the right side of the valley (note an a red and white antenna on top of a hill next to the road), and then continues towards Fontenelle Reservoir. As we get close to the lake, the landscape has completely changed – into pure desert.

From the southern end of the lake, follow the river that drains it (Green River). There are roads too, but several of them, so the river is just easier to follow. At some point we cross a secondary railway, close to its terminus. Shortly after, we reach a highway and a railroad running west to east.

Follow the highway to the east, over the towns of Green River, then Rock Springs. Note a segment of narrow valley between the two. Rock Springs airport (KRKS) is located east of the town, on a hill.

After Rock Springs, follow the same highway on a long desert crossing with little or no landmarks at all.

Eventually the highway reaches Rawlins town and airport (KRWL). Along the highway and immediately after Rawlins, note a lake on the left, another one on the right followed by a red and white antenna. Near the antenna, a power line crosses north to south and there is a road to the south too.

Follow the road and power line to the south. Soon these are joined by a railroad as we go upstream the North Platte River. The valley itself is flat and its direction is not obvious so be sure to follow the road. While doing so we reach soon Shively airport (KSAA).

South of Shively, the landscape and vegetation change from desert to mountains; the valley is still wide and flat so it is safest to follow the road and railroad. Soon after, though there is a "Y" shaped crossroad. The power line ends. The railroad too leaves the valley and climbs to the southwest. Thus from this point, it is better to follow the river itself, be sure you follow one LEFT of the railroad.

If you picked the right stream, A-A Ranch airport should soon appear in sight. South of the airport, the valley is easier to follow. The road goes in the right direction too, but it crosses high ground which can be a problem if you are still cruising at 8500ft. In fact, you may do so as there are no unavoidable obstructions at this altitude, but it leaves too little maneuvering height for the approach (the destination airport being located over 8100ft) so it may be a good idea to climb a little higher here.

After a narrow segment where the road breaks left from the stream, the valley becomes wider again and the road crosses the stream again. From this point, either follow the road until you have the airport in sight or proceed along the stream left of the road to make it a long base leg, and then turn on finals when you get the runway in sight.

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