I don't typically fly GA in flight sims but I would like to in MSFS.  Please give me some suggestions as where the best bush flying locations are to test and enjoy.

Washington, British Columbia, Alaska, Yukon, British Columbia, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, , Nevada, Oregon, Washington Loop.

Fly yourself out to Seattle in your chosen tin tube. Hire a C150 with Tundra tyres and head north up to Anchorage stopping everywhere along the way. Turn right and right again and fly down the right hand edge of B.C. Keep to the high places in Montana and Idaho and then check out Utah and Arizona; Monument Valley, Grand Canyon. Then fly slowly back to Seattle through beautiful Oregon, jump on your tin tube, fly home - never quite the same pilot again.

Turn your GPS off, take some charts. Land on a sand bar and cook what you can. You and your flying machine can watch the stars before you fall asleep beneath her wing.

Take some beers. Watch out for bears.

ORBX PNW was recommended right up to the announcement of MS2020 but not beyond it.

Edited June 28, 20205 yr by Will Fly For Cheese

2 hours ago, Will Fly For Cheese said:

Washington, British Columbia, Alaska, Yukon, British Columbia, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, , Nevada, Oregon, Washington Loop.

Fly yourself out to Seattle in your chosen tin tube. Hire a C150 with Tundra tyres and head north up to Anchorage stopping everywhere along the way. Turn right and right again and fly down the right hand edge of B.C. Keep to the high places in Montana and Idaho and then check out Utah and Arizona; Monument Valley, Grand Canyon. Then fly slowly back to Seattle through beautiful Oregon, jump on your tin tube, fly home - never quite the same pilot again.

Great post.

I did parts of that in P3D but always ended up disappointed by the landclass or poor quality ortho scenery.

Can't wait to fly that loop in MSFS.

If you could elaborate a little more where in particular to stop along the way? Would appreciate that very much.

1 hour ago, RALF9636 said:

Great post.

I did parts of that in P3D but always ended up disappointed by the landclass or poor quality ortho scenery.

Can't wait to fly that loop in MSFS.

If you could elaborate a little more where in particular to stop along the way? Would appreciate that very much.

Give me a minute and I'll dig out my Log Book...

Yeah, I know what you mean - there's a lot of mountain sides covered in trees - and then more mountain sides...and more trees.

When you're flying up there and nowhere else for a few weeks on end it can seem like that's all there is; mountain sides and thick trees...and what you're seeing on Google Earth just disagrees.

Looking back at my Log Book I'm ashamed to say I didn't record those flights as I went around the loop - I should have done - but I do remember the highlights;

Heading out of Seattle (HDG North) and checking Mt. Rainer to the East- it's big and dominates.

Heading up past Vancouver and hitting Prince Rupert Island - I landed there - be careful as you come around the cliffs as you're in to wind - usually cross.

Then Prince Of Wales Island - unsurprisingly dull!

Then heading up to Jeneau - lovely airport - again - watch the winds whipping around the corner of those cliffs to the North East - they'll catch you out on the flare if you're not set right because they're right down at ground level - like a spoon ready to flip ya'.

From there I did the mileage at roughly 6000' up to Anchorage and turned right in to the Yukon - after spending a day in Anchorage.

The Yukon was like a baptism for what to expect in British Columbia - incredible - even default FSX turns the scenery volume up to 11.

I flew down towards Calgary but kept left - never coming out of the hills - did some landings on river beds, watched my fuel, kept light and skated on the surface where I could.

After Calgary I hit Montana - stayed right of the cowboys on the plains and the Minuteman silos - kept to the hills - everything is so green there, and got back into Idaho.

After that I just headed for the red rocks - I could see Utah and the rocks sticking out at odd angles. I flew Monument Valley and then kept heading South for the Grand Canyon. I flew those river beds through the canyon. Stopped and landed when the sun went below the horizon and the rocks turned the colour of copper.

Then I flew though Oregon - which was lovely and finally ended up back were I parked the 777 at Seattle Tecoma.

Then I flew that bundle of tricks home to the UK.

Good luck, don't stress about getting lost, fly the aircraft - you're a pilot.

Will (Fly For Cheese)

 

p.s; If you're serious about doing a trip like this - you'll need this;

http://frenchvfr.free.fr/download.php?lng=en&pg=432

 

 

Edited June 28, 20205 yr by Will Fly For Cheese

I usually do my bush flying in Alaska, but that's the heart of civilization compared to Papua New Guinea, where you'll find insane short runways, runways up steep hill slopes, and runways that have a sharp curve in the middle.  Can't fly it in stock P3D but I've seen custom P3D scenery and it's great.  I haven't tried flying there in MSFS and I'd be interested in what people think.

Hook

The website Return to Misty Moorings should fulfill all your needs

xxd09 

17 minutes ago, xxd09 said:

The website Return to Misty Moorings should fulfill all your needs

xxd09 

Disagree. Waste of money - I know it's free but it demands you have paid for add-ons.

Return to misty moorings demands you have ORBX add-ons loaded.

That's not a good idea right now as  - MSFS2020 is going to put pay to that scenic requirement.

Our OP is new to GA flying. Let's be encouraging.

That starts with not demanding he gets his wallet out to exercise the privileges of what he can already do for nothing. Eh?

 

 

Edited June 28, 20205 yr by Will Fly For Cheese

1 hour ago, Will Fly For Cheese said:

Return to misty moorings demands you have ORBX add-ons loaded.

The web site will give you some good locations.  You wouldn't need ORBX scenery in MSFS, which is where we'd be flying.

Hook

Agree-you need Orbx Scenery 

I have found nothing to compare with the RTMM for Bush Flying 

All RTMM items are free

Infinite number of scenarios, Flight Plans,Bush airstrips ,Float planes and Helicopter pads etc etc

An unbelievable resource for Bush flyers

Edited June 28, 20205 yr by xxd09
Spelling

What is bush flying ? For me, It is not flying gazing at a nice rugged landscape but to handle a light aircraft (up to Caravan size), possibly heavily loaded, from a regional airport to small, mostly unpaved, airfields or lakes out in the wilderness. Add a mountainous terrain or dense forests to the mix is a plus but not a must. I do very nice flying in a desert environment around Alice Springs in Australia for instance. You do  30 to 45 mn flights which require piloting skills, the mix of a heavily loaded aircraft and of a short, sloped, hemmed in trees or hills (or both)  strip can be deadly.

The default FSX/P3D does not allow much of that. So the best regions for bush flying are only those covered by Orbx landclass regions because the designers included a myriad of dirt strips. That would be mostly in North America, South Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Idaho  and Montana, Australia outback with the OzX freeware and Papua New Guinea. The later is, for me, one of the top addons ever  (two sceneries Jacksons and Tapini). I don't know whether their West Coast TE products cover bush strips as well.  

The beauty of FS20 will hopefully be to open the whole world to bush flying and that adds places like the Amazon basin, Laos and Thailand, Indonesian Papua, Borneo, Sulawesi, the Philippines among others. Africa too of course.

EDIT. I’ve Just posted two videos that I did to show what bush flying means for me

 

 

Edited June 29, 20205 yr by Dominique_K

Okavango Delta.  Take-off from Maun Airport, head for the delta

I fly around Africa with my beloved A2A Spitfire.

Using latest Africa LC and trips suggested by https://www.gadventures.com/search/?f=aade85d51d84+307058c6eaba+c16691311182+8aad2b665cde+df42e2a2c0c7+c5a922c4f842+f565c82ddb6f+d20a5ea1305d+e21b32137af1+fcad450b1793+26097b5c27a4+5e18bbca84f1+d692fb00d1e5+793ffeb2ff54+8c1276d4ea06+7513c1c44cc9

Africa is beautiful !

Dominique: Thanks for posting those videos.  After watching your PNG video I watched a few real world videos from PNG that were suggested by YouTube.  You can get a pretty good idea of what the area looks like and what it's like to fly there.

Since we're talking about MSFS, not P3D, Orbx is not necessary. 

I haven't looked there in the sim, but I did check the map and PNG has lots and lots of very short runways, so I'm guessing you'll be able to fly from anywhere.  Skyvector doesn't show all these tiny airfields, and even Google Earth has the airport icon in the wrong place for a lot of them.

I don't know if MSFS can handle a runway with a bend, but I don't think it will matter as the depiction of the ground will still show the bend in the right place.  Bumpy runways with severe slopes should be handled properly.  Given what we read elsewhere on this forum, the trees will probably be too tall 😄 but it shouldn't matter that much.

Hook

Thank you guys for the suggestions.  Looks like i'm gonna have a lot of flying to do.

One place I have flown in MSFS is up the Orinico river in South America.  Scenic, attractive, easy to navigate, and the level of detail is mind-boggling.  The Amazon simply does not compare.

Hook