About This File
FS2004 Scenery--Bethel: St Mary's Airfields In Southwest Alaska AK (USA). This presumes you have already installed Bethel PABE and Bethel Local Airfields. In the Yukon River area of Alaska to the north of Bethel there are small villages, served by flights from both Bethel and the nearer St Mary's PASM. St Mary's has a gravel runway like the other villages, but has a larger population and airport services including maintenance and fuel. This, plus the saving of an average one hundred miles of flying by a Cessna 205 when compared with flights from Bethel, means it acts as a distribution centre fed from Bethel by larger aircraft. Go to "http://vfrmap.com/" for free vfr maps of the area (see the attached). The ten village airfields included here are all to the north and west of St Mary's: Hooper Bay PAHP, Chevak VAK, Cape Romanzof PACZ (closed air force field servicing a radar station), Scammon Bay SCM, Sheldon Point SXP, Alakanuk AUK, Emmonak PAEM, Kotlik 2A9, Mountain Village MOU, and of course St Mary's PASM. With these airfields not everything is as it appears to be. For instance, Hooper Bay is not a new and modernised airfield, despite the asphalt runway and apron; the current version has dispensed with the aging asphalt and gone back to gravel. I have tended to go for the 2005 or so versions, which sometimes means a small runway amid or close to the housing; Kotlik was an early renewal for reasons of safety as much as anything else and has had (since 2003?) a new and longer runway located outside of the town. The second batch of airfields will be to the east of St Mary's, and total 7 or 8. The video gives a good view of the wet terrain and conditions. By Roger Wensley.