About the addon:
- Bare bones navigation from the dawn of commercial aviation…
- Flying really low and slow in all weathers, day and night, no autopilot required…
- Following in the slipstream of Leon D. Cuddeback & Elrey B. Jeppesen…
If this sounds like your kind of flying, then we might have something for you.
“Arrows Across America” recreates the visual navigation system developed to support the growth of the US Air Mail system between 1926 and 1934.
This involved building 51’ long concrete arrows, painted yellow with flashing beacons on masts, every ten miles along 34 Contract Air Mail (CAM) routes.
About Version 3.0:
The latest version of Arrows Across America includes:
- Five Contract Air Mail routes totalling 3,800 miles
- CAM4 from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City
- CAM5 from Salt Lake City to Pasco
- CAM8 from San Diego to Seattle
- The western section of CAM18 from San Francisco to Salt Lake City
- CAM26 from Great Falls to Salt Lake City
- CAM32 from Portland to Spokane (including a 25 mile stretch through the Colombia River Gorge)
- The ILF at Blanche Field, Reno has a big new bespoke hangar designed by JB Strauss, who also designed the Golden Gate Bridge (do take a look inside, it's a brilliant steel construction, with a cantilever door)
- With the growth of the addon four routes now converge on Salt Lake City at Woodward Field. We have modelled it as a hub airfield where you will find five bespoke hangars, the Airmail House and a radio station. It is located near the original location of the field, next to SLC International Airport.
- Forty-seven landing fields, located, laid out and lit according to their descriptions in the official Airway Bulletins
- Custom models and lighting, including animated hangars
- Extensive terraforming and tree felling to ensure that arrows and beacons are visible in the modern landscape
- A 57 page manual with information about the air mail system, pilots & aircraft and links to the 1936 sectionals for each route.
- .KMZ files for each of the routes
- .csv files for use with Little Nav map and other flight planning software
Installation:
V3.0 completely replaces versions V1, 2 & 2.1. These should be deleted before adding V3.0 to your Community Folder.
Don't forget that Arrows Across America Varney Airlines veries for the DC Designs Stearman PT17 are also available at the following link at Flightsim.to
Background:
Inspired by a discussion on a MSFS forum thread we have been recreating an original US Air Mail airway for the sim.
In 1926 the US Postal Service & Department of Commerce began contracting air mail routes that would eventually criss-cross the USA.
Each route was marked approximately every 10 miles by a path of 51' long yellow concrete arrows with flashing rotating beacons mounted on 51’ towers, interspersed with landing fields.
The beacons have a generator shed and a fuel tank, and the Airway and Beacon number on the roof of the shed. The arrow points in the general direction of where the next beacon is.
Some surviving arrows are visible on Bing Maps, meaning that they are also visible in the sim, if you know where to look.
So, we have decided to recreate the whole 485 mile Contract Air Mail 5 (CAM5) route from Salt Lake City UT to Pasco WA, using original maps and research by aviation historians.
The route is mapped, 51 individually numbered beacon sites have been built to scale, with a animated rotating beacon, positioned precisely using the original sectionals & surviving remains.
If you want to find out more about the airway system, then these sites are a great place to get started:
Arrows Acros America
thesurveystation
And for an account of how low you need to go to fly the mail check this interview with Elrey Jeppesen
Jeppesen interview
See you on the Airway! We would love to hear your feedback and see screenshots of your air mail runs.
Acknowledgements:
- Megadyptes7635: research, route mapping and creation of CAM4, CAM8, CAM18, CAM26 & CAM32
- RobCap1966: 3D modelling & lighting; CAM5 & CAM8 lead
- MrsC.: decal creation and logo design
- PipsPriller: original concept & research, CAM5 & CAM 32 route mapping & ILFs, documentation
- Mamu, Rhumba Flappy and the community at FSDeveloper.com: support in building and animating our custom models
- YouTube videos by Flying Theston, Federico Pinotti, MyPhysical World: help in with understanding Blender and the MSFS SDK
- Stearmandriver2: beta testing
- WaldoP3pper: beta testing
- The many enthusiasts, researchers and historians who have documented the air mail service and the CAM system, allowing us to reconstruct it for MSFS.
Disclaimers
- Textures and effects for the beacons are stock MSFS but for the ILFs to display all buildings fully you should have the C53 Lower Loon Creek airfield from World Update 10 installed..
- MSFS bugs may mean that
the beacons 8, 9A and 10 on CAM5 do not show properly once Beacon 9A has been passed
Similarly, Beacon 3A (Beacon Rock) on CAM32 may not always show.
On CAM 18 the lights all vanish when you cross a point between the 31D Aux beacon and the 32 ILF, reappearing after flying 20 or 30 miles - Beacon 3A (Beacon Rock) on CAM32 may not always show. These seem to be an intermittent problem and we will continue to
look for a fix as the SDK is updated. - Some of the generator shed and hangar decals may flicker from certain angles and in certain lights. Again, we will keep working on this and issue a fix as when we can.
Legal Stuff
This scenery is released as FREEWARE. You may use it for your personal enjoyment, but you may NOT use it in any kind of money-making endeavor, you may NOT modify it and you may NOT publicly distribute any copies of it, whether modified or not, without my permission.
Rob Cappers
4 days ago
2 days ago
Robcap
normanrb
1 months ago
1 months ago
Robcap
FlyingCossack
2 months ago
2 months ago
Robcap
rogerabram
Congrats to the team dilligently working on this for just about two years now! Kudos and thank y ou!
(now where's that Donate button gone?)
2 months ago
Steiny
3 months ago
3 months ago
Robcap
Cocker
I have been informed that this is not a full Trip Package download as in a Bush or Discovery Trip on MSFS (as I thought). That the the files (CSV) can help with Little Nav Map - as you stated. So I will check that all out. That I can also start at one of the airports on the mail route and start to follow the arrows (and beacons).
Apologies for my lack of understanding at first.
Now I have an idea.
The google map with the routes provided is phenomenal.
Cheers.
3 months ago
3 months ago
Robcap
CranBDover
3 months ago
3 months ago
Robcap
cordwebs
I also purchased the Stearman PT 17 as you recommended and downloaded to my MSFS 2020.
Put both into my Community folder as per the standard way.
Unzipped etc.
The Stearman appeared in my Hangar no problem.
I HAVE YET TO FIND THE ARROWS ACROSS AMERICA. I have searched my MSFS 2020 in every area.
Zip.
3 months ago
3 months ago
Robcap
CranBDover
3 months ago
3 months ago
Robcap
FransFSW
3 months ago
3 months ago
Robcap
Rose123
3 months ago
3 months ago
Robcap
msduffman560
I do not have any KSLC mod installed and it still gets displayed along Woodward Field.
3 months ago
3 months ago
Robcap
Boulder
4 months ago
4 months ago
Robcap
johnwillimas
Contributor 4 months ago
PipsPriller
5 months ago
4 months ago
Robcap
Boulder