Four wheels scare the cockatoos
From Kintore, east to Yuendumu
The Western Desert lives and breathes
In fourty-five degrees…
So goes a rather famous song by an Australian rock band. The Western Desert, surprisingly perhaps, isn’t a geographical region, but rather a cultural one, describing the extent of a common language and identity. However, it’s geographic extent is huge, covering almost a third of the Australian landmass; from the Nullarbor in the south to the Kimberley in the north; from the beaches south of Broome on the Indian Ocean to the Simpson Desert at the NT/Queensland border. “Desert” clearly implies a sparsely populated, remote and perilous environment. You have to have your wits about you, living here, and the Australian Aboriginal people who do have lived and survived here for nigh on 40,000 years.
Getting around can be a bit of a challenge though. The “roads” linking the communities, with exotic names such as “Gunbarrel Highway” and “Canning Stock Route”, are often little more than dust-blown, corrugated dirt tracks (and mud holes when it rains). Not surprisingly then, many essential services are provided by air, including emergency medical care by the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS).
Most communities had rough-and-tumble bush strips for decades, but many of the airfields at larger “towns” have over recent years been upgraded, with sealed runways, lights and IFR approaches.
So, to coincide with NADOC Week 2022, I present you a handful of iconic Western Desert locations (or at least the enhanced airports of them):
- YKNT Kintore (Walungurru) in the Northern Territory
- YDVR Docker River (Kaltukatjara) in the Northern Territory
- YWBR Warburton in Western Australia
- YWLU Wiluna in Western Australia
- YYND Yuendumu in the Northern Territory
Note:
YWLU and YWBR have published RNAV and NDB approaches, which are absent in default MSFS. I have included these with the sceneries, however, for some reason the NDB approaches aren’t properly depicted on the World Map. They do draw (and fly) properly though in the nav systems (tested with G1000, G3X and PMS GTN750).
Update 0.2.0
The following additional airfields have been included:
- YARN Areyonga NT
- YBSR Blackstone Range (Papulankutja) WA
- YGLS Giles (Warakurna) WA
- YHAA Haasts Bluff (Ikuntji) NT
- YHMB Hermannsburg (Ntaria) NT
- YJAM Jameson (Mantamaru) WA
- YJIG Jiggalong Mission (Jigalong) WA
- YJUK Tjukurla WA
- YLBG Mount Liebig (Amunturangu) NT
- YNRR Nyrripi NT
- YPAY Papunya NT
- YPTJ Patjarr WA
- YTJI Tjirrkarli WA
- YWAX Wanarn WA
- YWNL Wingellina (Irrunytju) WA
Installation
The download contains 22 separate folders, one for each aiport, plus the following:
sltcreations-traffic-Western-Desert GA AI Traffic for the region
sltcreations-AU-Flags Library of Australian Flags*
Copy the one you want to your Community folder as desired. If you are installing an updated version please ensure you delete/overwrite the old versions.
* Created using the Windy Things library with thanks to trfsto. I have included this library with other sceneries. Please ensure that you have only one copy in your Community folder.
Dependencies
As always, many sincere thanks to the creators of scenery object libraries, without which my creations would be a bit of a bore. You’ll have to add these to your Community folder to see them in my sceneries: (Make sure you have the latest versions, particularly colinj’s object library!)
MSFS 2020 object library with 200+ models ranging from towers hangars to cones by colinj
https://flightsim.to/file/16007/msfs-object-library-with-150-models-ranging-from-towers-hangers-terminals-to-cones
totof- aircraft library by Totof33120
https://flightsim.to/file/17182/totof-aircraft-library-v1-1
totof-library-object
https://flightsim.to/file/17179/totof-library-object-v1-1
Emerald Object Library
https://flightsim.to/file/8824/emerald-object-library
Mikea.at – Airport Markings
https://flightsim.to/file/4208/mikea-at-airport-markings
Collection d'avions pour FS2020
https://www.jpfil.com/quebec-fs2020/scenes/Collection-avions.zip
Credit: Jean-Pierre Fillion, Quebec
quebec-fs2020.org
jpfil.com
And last but not least, don't forget my Australian Salt Lakes Fix. All the airports in this pack are amidst dry/salt lakes. You'll get water-filled lakes without this mod.
1 months ago
CaptainMoonlight
Great work gunther. Just one problem. In my MSFS the airports are not marked with a star. Also as navigraph is making pretty much all airports marked as custom, it is very difficult to find them on the map unless typing icao code into search box. If you can, could you mark them with a star?
1 years ago
zhdun
Thank you for this. As requested earlier, if not too much trouble, would it be possible to mark your airfields with a star or any other symbol so they can be easily spotted on the MSFS World Map and travelled to and between?
1 years ago
ZILL
Living in the goldfields this is close to home thanks mate great work
2 years ago
piperpilot
Fantastic! Thanks for these, I was planning to tackle some myself 'sometime' (TM).
Spent a few too many days and nights in Warburton, Blackstone Range, Wingellina, Giles, Patjarr, Tjukarli and Tjukurla, and many other of the strips in this region, even Tjuntjunjarra down to the south. They certainly look a lot cleaner, newer and nicer here than in real life!
Hopefully you've got a few more planned for around the area!
2 years ago
Thank you. An expanded version of the pack is in progress. I've already completed a couple of airfields on the NT side (Papunya, Haasts Bluff) and have just drawn the runways at Tjukurla. But pretty much all of the places you mentioned are on my to-do list (plus a few more dirt strips).
2 years ago
gunther
Parorng
You know what, Gunther? I come to each one of your projects to read your stories. Did anyone ever tell you how good you are at writing and storytelling?
Keep 'em coming! I look forward to seeing the world through your words.
UFO-speed, my friend.
ZILL
2 years ago
ZILL
Fantastic work, and 6 stars as I now have the Oil's playing...
2 years ago
Dexdoggy
Love your work mate, I have been to these places many times and I look forward to flying the Western Desert Pack. and the Salt lake enhancement you did, well its a game changer. Hats off to you brother.
2 years ago
bushdog
Thanks for this "pack", a burning one 😊
2 years ago
fStopper
Took me a few seconds of running that song through my mind before it came to me 😊 Beds are Burning -- Midnight Oil ... for those who are curious.
2 years ago
macbrowne
Awesome work!!
2 years ago
sarahymac