I am pleased to announce the availability of the "Hollis Harbor - Gateway to Prince of Wales Island" scenery enhancement. Look under "H" in the RTMM scenery section for Hollis Harbor. To quote one of the beta testers, "... this is one of the most immersive sceneries out there".
The Hollis Harbor scenery enhancement package is about 8 MB in size with the scenery enhancements spread out over 200 square miles, centering on Hollis, Alaska, in 4 different seasons. It features a 16 page User Guide, a number of maps and charts and provides optional Floatplane and Boat AI files without having to load any additional scenery packages.
The Eagle Air brothers have moved their headquarters from Ketchikan Harbor to Hollis, Alaska. Eagle Air is now transporting customers (and some cargo), who arrive in Hollis by ferry from the mainland, as well as locals to different places on Prince of Wales Island. The most common destinations are the seaplane bases at Craig, Hydaburg, Port Alexander and Coffman Cove. Of course, Eagle Air does make trips to Ketchikan also. Business is so good that Eagle Air now has its own "Eagle Air Network Map" (included in the scenery package) and is contracting with locals to do extra floatplane trips each day. All of the nearby towns shown on the Eagle Air Network Map are "photoreal" areas created by the Tongass Fjords FSX scenery. A floatplane trip from Hollis to these little towns makes for a great scenic flight. (Note: These trips can also be flown for vNAC credit at Chris Losh's Virtual Northern Air Charters (vNAC) website at this link:
http://vnac.org/vnacmain/index.php/. Eagle Air Charters (EAC) is now available on the vNAC website and Hollis SPB is now a hub that makes a great central location for floatplane fliers.
This enhancement requires FSX with Acceleration, ORBX PFJ, Tongass Fjords FSX and the RTMM Object Libraries. It will work with or without ORBX PAKT installed. Hollis Harbor is the first RTMM scenery to offer Full Seasonal Immersion (FSI) using the updated RTMM Season Switcher v3.3 which is now available just by clicking on Scenery at the main RTMM site.
So, what does FSI provide? When the season changes, via the RTMM Season Switcher (v3.3), so does a lot more than just foliage, including just about anything that would normally change in real life. The numbers, types and locations of boats, floatplanes, cars, people, boxes, dead tree branches, crates, pallets etc. all change with each season. This is the first scenery enhancement that builds a temporary dirt airfield in the summer and then washes it away again in the very rainy fall. Seagull sounds are heard in the Ferry Dock area most of the year but are noticeably absent in the winter.
The seasonal changes are consistent with the Hollis weather: cool winter (moderate snow, low activity), damp spring (snow melt off and some rain, a lot more activity), fairly dry cool summer (not much rain, most activity), very, very wet and cool fall (40+ inches of rain, more activity than winter but less than spring).
Note: Ice will also appear in the water in the colder months, even changing to slushy ice as the weather gets warmer.
Hollis Harbor features a detailed storyline that inspires little seasonal adventures where the user can visit various locations in the Hollis, Alaska area. Hollis Harbor is a floatplane fliers paradise featuring one of the neatest little floatplane harbors in the RTMM flying area as well as boating on the Karta "River Run", a road trip up to an abandoned mine and some interesting places to try and land a floatplane. AI is very active in this scenery with seasonally scheduled (a time schedule is available in the User Guide) AI ferry, fishing boat and floatplane departures.
The repeatability and fun factor for this scenery is very high and yet the scenery maintains a very good realism factor. The best way to find out just how immersive FSI can be is to download the Hollis Harbor package and try it out.
I would like to thank the Hollis Harbor Team, including Rob Abernathy, Dieter Linde, Doug Linn, Guy "Spud" Maricich & Dexter Thomas for all of their help in getting this scenery package out the door.
I have posted a number of pictures below to give you a sense of this unique scenery experience. (The pictures may blur a bit when you zoom since I used low resolution to allow for faster loading on this site)
Rod Jackson
Lead Developer - Hollis Harbor
One of the detailed maps included with Hollis Harbor
Hollis Harbor in the winter
The Eagle Air hub location in the Spring
An Eagle Air AI Floatplane before it departs in the winter
Hollis Island in the Summer as a couple of AI floatplanes taxi out to depart
The Hollis Ferry Dock is pretty busy in the Summer
The Hollis Ferry Dock and fishing dock look pretty quiet in the Fall
The Harris River & Falls at lower water level in the Summer
The Harris River & Falls at higher water level in the rainy Fall
A temporary dirt airfield is leveled a bit and cleared for the summer
The temporary dirt airfield washing away in the rainy Fall
Brads Bait & BBQ in summer near where the Karta River empties into Twelvemile Arm
On the way out to the Lucky Nell Mine but drifting snow in the winter can be a problem
Looks like the timber rafting station is in its full Spring swing
Ferry in the dock at PAKT SP1
Ferry leaving dock in Ketchikan PFJ (no PAKT SP1 installed)
Wolf Creek Falls in the summer
Wolf Creek Boathouse in the dry summer at low tide
The emergency medivac Helipad is right behind the Volunteer Fire Department
Hollis, Alaska in the Spring from the fire tower
One of the cabins on the Karta River in the Summer
The Hollis Fed Ex drop off/pick up
An Eagle Air AI floatplane returns late on a Fall afternoon