Alaska - America’s state of extremes. It is a wild and rugged state, and a perfect location for a cross-country tour. In Alaska, you have the opportunity to fly among giant glaciers, magnificent mountains and fantastic fiords up in the pristine remote wilderness, far away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

Air travel is the most popular and efficient form of transportation into and around this state, with only a single highway providing a disliked alternative. This leaves the 8,500+ pilots of Alaska providing a vital service everyday, flying their small bush aircraft between the isolated village communities that are scattered around the edges of the beautiful yet extreme landscape.

Description:

Today, you are going to experience a typical day in the life of an Alaskan bush pilot, flying a cargo run around the Southern tip of the state. You will be departing from the tiny town of Skagway, a popular cruise ship port, head down the Lynn Canal, to the state capital Juneau, which is only reachable via sea and air. Then you will then cross Douglas Island, and venture out across the Icy Straight over to the isolated town of Hoonah, located on Chichagof Island, before finally making your way to the distant Wood Lake Research Station to deliver supplies to the resident scientists.

During the journey, you will get to experience breathtaking views of the natural habitat from an unspoiled aerial angle, and visit some unique airstrips that provide challenging flying conditions, leaving you with an insight on how the operation of real world pilots in the region provide such an essential service to the Alaskan communities.

For this flight, you will need the fantastic FS2004 freeware ‘Glacier Bay v2’ addon which includes 90,000 square kilometres of Southeast Alaska including enhancements such as high-resolution terrain mesh, detailed shorelines, rivers, lakes, glaciers, and amazing seasonal ground textures.

The aircraft of choice for this flight is the versatile Maule M-7-260, which has amazing STOL capabilities, and enough room for up to four passengers plus cargo. For this flight, we will be using the ‘Aluminium Gear’ N260W craft, which is suitable for the four airports which you will be visiting.

Setting up the flight:

Before you even load up flight simulator, open the Glacier Bay Configurator and uncheck the ‘Frozen Lakes and Rivers’ option. If your system can handle it, tick the AI cruise ships and seaplane traffic boxes for some added local company during the flight.

Your route today is PAGY – PAGN – PAOH –RAWL, flying VFR. Load the flight plan via the ‘create a flight’ screen, then set the time to 6.15am, and the date to Summer 2007. This will let you see Alaska at its finest, with bright green shades of vegetation wrapping the rough country terrain, and the early morning sunlight bathing each valley in its bask.

Under the weather tab, create a new user defined scheme, with no cloud layers and a 30/48 nautical mile visibility range (tops at 20,000 feet). This will help keep frame rates smooth and provide some brilliant screenshot opportunities of the add-on scenery. To accompany this summer theme, add a light 8 knot breeze blowing up from a 147 degree direction, and add some light turbulence. This will allow the famous curved approach to runway 08 at Juneau International to become active, and give you a few gentle bumps above the mountain tops, which are a familiar feeling to a real bush pilot.

Lastly, pour some fuel into the Maule’s tanks, 45% into the left, and 45% into the right, leaving the external ones dry. (We will top up later on our journey). In the payload options, set the pilot weight as 200 pounds, and add another 200 pounds to the co-pilots seat, as a counterbalance.

Leg One: Skagway to Juneau

It’s a chilly morning at Skagway, and today your job is to take N260W, one of the older Maules based here, on the daily mail run down the Lynn Canal to the state capital, Juneau 70 miles to the south. However, today’s flight is a little different from usual, as you will be picking up two scientists from Juneau who need a ride to Wood Lake Research station, stopping off at Hoonah to collect some supplies.

Get the engine running as soon as possible, and call the tower on 122.9 to inform them of your plans for a runway 2 departure. Once you have been cleared for take off, drop the flaps by a notch and push the throttle all the way in to witness how powerful this light little aircraft is. As you climb away from the ground, check out the view from the left-hand cockpit windows of the custom Alaskan autogen and large photoreal cruise port that are adjacent to the airport, and begin climbing up to 6000 feet.

Continue to follow the Taiya Inlet which lies directly ahead, gorging a passage way though the mountains at approximately a heading of 157 degrees, leading out into the mighty Lynn Canal. Once at the desired altitude, level off, adjust the trim for straight and level flight and pull the throttle back to around 75% to cruise at approximately 120 kias. Now you can stop focusing on the aircraft’s operation and have a good gaze at the vista below, with the early morning sun gently revealing the steep mountainscapes from their shadowed disguises.

Continue to maintain a heading of 157 degrees, and within no time, you should be crossing over the Chilkat Peninsula, with the township and airport of Haines visible out to your right. Aim for the stunning Davidson Glacier, which flows down the western shoreline of the canal, and should be clearly visible at your 12 o’clock. Once you are overhead, make a gentle left hand bank to 134 degrees, which will point you directly to Juneau, following the waves of the Lynn Canal to its far coast.

At this altitude, you can really appreciate how vast the fiord is, being the longest and deepest in Northern America, measuring 90 miles and sinking 2,000 feet deep! Take the time to notice the incredible detail of the misty islands scattered below you, each with custom mesh and land class textures, and some with lighthouses and helipads. Even the water textures are impressive, with pale blue patches flowing from the ice cool glacier rivers here and there.

Eventually you will end up back on the eastern coast of the canal, above the beautiful Berners Bay area, by which time Juneau Tower will be within contact range of your radio. Request a full stop landing to 118.7, and then begin your descent following the coastline south.

When Mount Juneau becomes visible up ahead, make a slight right turn to 142 degrees, out over the water, and head for the scattering of islands that form Auke Bay. At this time you should be down to around 1500 feet asl, and should lower your speed and flaps in preparation of final approach.

Flashing lights on the mainland indicate the famous curved approach, nicknamed by pilots as ‘The Kai Tak of the North’ which you should line yourself up with as you receive landing clearance. Overt your eyes away from the giant Mendenhall Glacier which dominates the view in front of you, and perform a sharp right handed turn to line up with the 2578 metre long runway 08. Pitch up and decrease your speed as you cross the threshold, and try sinking the tail wheel to the tarmac at the same instance as your main gear to make a 3-point-landing.

Leg Two: Juneau to Hoonah

Take the first left turn off the runway, and tune into Juneau ground to get permission to taxi to general aviation parking where Phil Barnett and Joe Eielson, two scientists from the capital’s university are waiting on the tarmac. Follow ATC’s instructions, and taxi up to an empty ramp where you can cut the engine, and open up your rear doors (shift +2) to greet your new passengers. At the same time, go into the ALT menu- Aircraft- Fuel and Payload, and add two weights of 150 pounds to each rear seat, to account for Phil and Joe.

These guys need a lift to the Wood Lake Research Station near the Brady Glacier, about 80 miles west of here, but first need to pick up some supplies. They have a friend in Hoonah, a tiny fishing village with a population of around 300 native Tlingit people, who is waiting with their survival gear at the airport there.

Request a straight out departure from runway 08, taxi into position, lower your flaps and apply full power to begin your take off roll. Start ascending rapidly towards 4000 feet and continue heading at 90 degrees, flying in a South East direction along the Gastineau Channel. By the time you reach the clearly visible bridge, connecting the Juneau port to Douglas Island, bank right to a heading of 223 degrees and swing around towards Chichagof Island where the tiny town of Hoonah is situated.

Continue climbing up to 6000 feet above the rugged landscape of Douglas Island, and have a look out for dry ski fields below you. Take a last look out over Juneau to your right, before you venturing out over the distinctively flat Couverden Island, then out over the Icy Straigt.

You may wish to engage the heading bug by hitting Ctrl+H for the next 10 or so minutes as you cruise above open water, with only the conversation between the two scientists in the rear seats to keep you entertained. See if you can spot any AI ships sailing below you, and try and find the rather interesting airstrip on Sisters Island as you pass by.

The pointed headland on the horizon is where you are heading for, and as you get closer you will be able to pick up the Hoonah Unicom frequency of 122.7, where you can announce your intentions for a full stop landing on runway 23.

When you estimate you are 15 miles from the coastline, begin your descent down for landing, and point the Maule’s nose at the lower eastern edge of the headland. By the time you reach landfall, you should be at an altitude of 1100 feet and have the runway in sight, which you will report on the Unicom. Follow the road that leads towards the township and use the PAPI lights to enter the glide slope for landing. Lower your flaps and airspeed, and apply a little left rudder as there is a light crosswind blowing across the runway. As you prepare to touch down, watch out for the hidden dip in the land right in front of the threshold which can make you misjudge your altitude and cause you to land short!

Once you are down, allow your aircraft to run the length of the strip before making a 180 degree turn and back tracking along the runway for the taxiway. There is a red Kombi camper van parked up by the small apron with the scientists’ supplies on board, which they need a bit of help loading up. Increase the weight on the rear seats from 150 to 180 and add 25% more fuel into each of the central tanks via the payload editor for the last leg of the journey.

Leg Three: Hoonah to Wood Lake

Once everything is sorted, and you have stretched your legs, it is time to start the third and final leg of today’s journey over to the remote Wood Lake Research Station, nestled in a woodland valley 40 miles north east of Hoonah.

You know the routine by now - get the engine started, use the radio to inform other air traffic of your actions, taxi back to the active and push the throttle in. As you start your climb out, make an immediate right hand turn and level the nose at about 700 feet asl. Give yourself and your passengers a nice view out the right hand windows as you perform a fly by over the quaint little township and marina of Hoonah, then pull up away from the large headland. Raise your flaps, bank left to a heading of 280 degrees, and start ascending up to 4000 feet. You don’t need to fly too high for this hop as there are no mountain ranges to cross before you reach the final destination, only flat tundra which you follow before crossing some more open water.

Take this opportunity to have another look around at how varied the landclass textures are in this area. Also, have a look in the Northern direction and see if you can spot the ‘Island Princess’ cruise liner, or make out the runways of Gustavus airport in the distance, on the other side of the straigt.

Keep your heading at 280 degrees to follow the coast for a while before crossing the Icy Straigt once again. With 15 minutes, you should be overhead the peninsular that adjoins Glacier Bay itself, where the 5,130 square mile surrounding national park gains its namesake. Tune into RAWL traffic on 122.9 and inform anyone who is listening that you plan to land on runway 32, although it is not really a runway…

If you are in the correct place, you should see hilly ranges closing in on either side of you, forming a valley with a small lake sitting in the middle dead ahead. Descend down to 1500 feet, and fly through the gap above the lake, and head for the farther of the two rivers running across your path. Once you reach the second river, turn left to 270 degrees, to follow it North, then descending down to 600 feet.

This is where it gets tricky. To your 2 o' clock, you will see a large valley stretching out covered with pine trees. Break off from the river, and fly at a heading of approximately 320 degrees along the tree tops in search of a clearing, using your GPS (shift+3) as an aide, to find the research station.

What you are looking for is a discreet grass oval that forms a rough runway and taxiway, mowed into the treeline. Drop your flaps by two notches, and pull the throttle a good way out for a nice slow 70 kias approach speed, dodging branches on your way down. You will know you have arrived at the right place when you see the big ‘Glacier Bay Wood Lake’ sign next to the strip, along with an assortment of cabins.

Conclusions:

This location makes an ideal base for exploring the rest of the national park, with many huge glaciers, mountain ranges, bays and islands within reach. Be sure to check out the included flight files that come with the Glacier Bay v2 addon to witness the best features that this addon has to offer.