As you know, Plan-G and FSX flight plans MUST start from an airport runway. So when you use Flight Planner and put in such a plan, you find yourself on the runway. This is OK most of the time, but for the little Sea Plane Bases (SPB's) you will find yourself far out on the water, often too far to even see the dock for the facility.
NOTAM: These would only be put into the FS (Flight Seeing) plans ... these are designed for LOW and SLOW (and DANGEROUS) trips "among" the mountains instead of over them! All of them are auto-pilot friendly that can take you to your destination in the worst weather. (Landing is up to you though!)The small SPB's that Holger put into Tongass Fjords X are little gems, but you hardly ever see them because of the above problem. To make your flight more enjoyable and more realistic, I'm going to begin putting a "FS_Start_Point.txt" file in to each of these that starts from a little SPB. The instructions for "how" to do this are in that text file. We will especially use this as we add more locations to the Tongass Fjords X area.
This starts you at the dock at the little SPB. Following the procedure in the txt file, your flight plan is "in" the GPS and you can taxi out from the dock to the "water" runway and take off. I'll also put the Starting Point for any of these SPB's onto the Starting Points section of the Map Room. (Misty's Place/Starting Points button).
The first one is Petrof Bay Camp. Attached is the FS_ you can download for that flight and you can see the new text file there. If you are starting any flight from Port Walter, you can go to the Map Room and you'll find the starting point there too.
- Click on the paperclip above the pictures below with this name:
- FS_Petrof Bay Camp from Port Walker PWK.zip
- Open zip and look at the FS_Start_Point.txt file
The screenshots below show you where you normally start with FSX, and then where you can start using the new Start Point setting.
It is an "extra step" ... but one that seems to make the experience more fun. Let me know what you think. Hopefully, using this we will all get to see more of the "work' Holger put into the little SPB's that we almost never see. It is optional, use it if you like it, disregard if you do not.
Doug