Come and Visit North America

Inspired by my friend Ron Blehm I want to introduce you now to a series, describing my favorite flights in FS. "Come and visit Spain" has been a spontaneous beginning describing my journey in a Spitfire.

I am planning to write articles about my favorite places on every continent and my home country Germany. Today I start with North America. You will notice that North America is more than just Canada and Greenland but since the United States are flight simulator-country I'm not sure that I can add anything interesting to this part of the world.

Yes, there are a lot of special places and I enjoy flying there but I'm afraid that the reader will know most of them. Next time when I turn to Central America and the Caribbean I will start with a short hop through the U.S. and Mexico to complete the North.

My flightsimmer friend William Begley from Canada inspired me to do this trip. As a reaction to my FS2002 Deluxe Edition article he wrote me about his favorite sceneries and the place he lives. Unfortunately my antique PC couldn't handle the beautiful photorealistic scenery that covers a large part of Ontario but I'm sure I'll give it another try when I get new hardware.

I recognized that my Canadian scenery was still very sparse with Vancouver and a Rocky Mountain mesh but hardly anything else. A search in the file library helped me to cover most of the big cities and this is where my journey begins.

Many of them are in the range of a small aircraft so I get the Mooney ready and take off from Quebec International.

The journey takes me west to Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto where I have my first stop.

       

Beautful city sceneries of Montreal and Ottawa, while Toronto is the default. Still pretty nice!

An Avro 85 takes us to Winnipeg. From here we will start our journey to the Northwest Territories. Many of you might have been there, probably high above on a flight from the States to Europe. I once had that luck on a memorable flight from Frankfurt, Germany to LAX. The weather was perfect and I could see Iceland and Greenland with the icebergs shimmering green below the water. I remember crossing Canada where you could see a vastness with hundreds of little lakes.

We fly from Winnipeg to Yellowknife the only bigger settlement in the north. The distance is no challange for the Beech King Air but with today's strong headwinds we make it on the last drop of fuel.

   

It is November so probably not the right time for bush flying. We have just a few hours of daylight and the sun will be low above the horizon.

First step is a tour around Yellowknife in the Beaver and some bush-flying to Fort Providence on the western tip of Great Slave Lake. I am flying with real weather so the ceiling is only 300 feet above the ground. Low enough for a challenging flight. I choose to travel above the water for safety. Still I need full concentration not to be soaked up by the clouds. The descent would be dangerous.

It is snowing and as I move on the clouds come even lower.

I need to continue below tree top level.

I am very happy to arrive in one piece and after touchdown I take a little break.

Providence has a seaport so for the way back I grab the amphibian Beaver for more safety.

I guess it is not the right time of the year for further bush flying and exploring the little airfields. After my arrival back to Yellowknife I decide to go for a different adventure, my return to Europe flying the Aero Commander 560 by Milton Shupe.

The aircraft itself is worth a review. It comes very detailed with a beautiful interior, a nice panel and some magazines lying around. :-) It is driven by two 295 hp engines and offers a range of 950 nm. It comes in three liveries, all having a beautiful worn-out 70's look. A great alternative to the default Baron 58.

   

I will cross Nunavut, the northeast of Canada and I am waiting to see the newly downloaded mesh. After takeoff in rain and low clouds the weather soon clears up and I get a view of the endless white area dotted with little lakes and the one or the other larger one.

       

I must admit that I am a little disappointed. Everything is more or less flat. Not much chance for a mesh scenery to show its beauty. Well, what did I expect? Time to check Wikipedia. Nunavut has about 31000 inhabitants. I guess there are more people passing overhead everyday than living on the ground. Nunavut means "our country" and was founded in 1999. It was split from the Northern Territories to offer the Inuit the possibility for an own administration. There are 0.01 inhabitants per square kilometre. This means we are flying over one of the most remote places on earth.

The Inuit live in ten settlements, Iqluit being the capital with 5959 inhabitants. If anything goes wrong on the flight there might be a lot of space for an emergency landing but little help from anywhere.

The GPS shows that there are very few airports so I decide to land at Baker lake a little less than half-way from Yellowknife to Iqaluit, formerly known as Frobisher.

Maybe November wasn't the smartest time for the flight. There are only a few hours of daylight and although the snow reflects a lot of light you always have the feeling that it is early morning or late evening.

In the background you see Baker Lake as I start my approach.

A runway and a single building. That's all this place has to offer.

Parking and refuelling. There is time to relax since we will continue only the next morning in order not to fly in the dark.

   

I'm starting up at daybreak and taxi to the gravel runway.

The VOR is the only landmark beside the airport itself.

   

The next airport we pass by is Coral Harbor. Wonder where the corals are...

Visibility is perfect as we cross Foxe Channel north of Hudson Bay. Although it is quite a distance across the water we never lose sight of dry land.

We encounter the first clouds near Cape Dorset.

We pass overhead and continue east.

   

Just a little change in the landscape as we fly along the coast.

Finally Iqaluit in the evening light. The approach is above Frobisher Bay.

Taxi to parking.

Hey, I'm still missing the great look of a mountain mesh scenery. Let's have a look at the map... In order to find some I'll have to fly further north and cross Baffin Island.

Takeoff the next morning.

       

As I arrive at the first mountains I turn east again and cross the island. Finally I get my view of a remote mountainous region.

I decide to extend my flight further east and as I reach the Atlantic I continue to Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland.

After quite a while above the icy ocean we make a landfall a little north of the fjord. I follow the coast to the south and as I reach the fjord I turn inland.

   

I start one of the most dangerous approaches you can find in the real world. No problem on flight simulator since this is mainly due to the bad weather you usually find there.

   

The landing is nice and smooth. The Baron is the first airplane I meet after thousands of miles alone.

I find that Toni Agramont's Greenland scenery for FS2004 (only) works well in FS2002. Some coastlines won't be exact and a few houses of some of the tiny settlements will be placed in the water but apart from that it is perfectly fine.

To finish my journey I will return to Europe. The last leg will be non-stop across the inland ice and further east to Iceland.

   

Takeoff in the first morning light.

Crossing Greenland is like flying over and endless ocean of ice.

Happy to see the coast but only to continue over little less frozen waters.

No more snow but dry land as I reach Iceland.

   

After days of vastness Reykjavik offers some colorful houses. Approach, landing and engines off. I would love to tell you more of my journey across Iceland and back to Germany in a Tiger Moth but since we are now in Europe this is the end for this time.

Bastian Blinten
b.blinten@gmx.de

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