Glacier Bay National Park

(Trip One: The East Arm)

Good Morning and welcome to Alaska. Just across the Icy Strait from where we are currently, is one of North America's best-known national parks, Glacier Bay. Now unlike Yellowstone or Yosemite, you can't visit Glacier Bay National Park on a road trip. There are no roads leading into the park, and the only way to reach it is by small plane, boat or ship. There's also very little infrastructure within the park. It does have a visitor center and lodge but those are located at its very edge. Its biggest attractions are massive tidewater glaciers that are viewable only from the deck of a vessel or looking down on them from above in a small aircraft.

At its essence, Glacier Bay is a giant, fjordlike body of water lined with snowcapped mountains, forests and glaciers. For the majority of visitors, they can only see it from the water aboard the large cruise ships that are able to navigate inside the bay and get up close to the glaciers. It is for this reason that a large percentage of Glacier Bay's nearly 700,000 visitors a year arrive on a cruise ship. Indeed, you could almost call Glacier Bay a cruise ship park. But we're going to fly over it and see things from an entirely unique perspective.

The adventure takes around an hour and a half to complete. We will start by taking off from Hoonah and then head across the Icy Strait towards Gustavus, where we enter the park boundary. This trip will take us first up the Beartrack river valley to the Adams Inlet. then head into the mountains and take us over the East Arm of Glacier Bay. From there we travel up the Casement Glacier, across the icefield to the McBride and Riggs glaciers and finally down over the Muir Inlet and Muir Glacier before finally arriving at the Carroll Glacier. We will fly up, across and over several glaciers. Each time making our way back down towards Glacier Bay.  After that we head for Gustavus and land there after the trip is over.

So let's get going.  We will fly at 5,500 feet for the first part of this trip. That should be high enough for clearing the peaks and Glaciers we'll be flying over.

Let's go see some of the sights in Glacier Bay National Park.

==============
Design Note

This adventure set is inspired by a similar one I did for Return to Misty Moorings previously. There are three separate adventures in the series and this is the first of those trips. Please take some time to stop by Return to Misty Moorings and see all that is there to experience. Whether that's with FSX/P3D or Microsoft Flight Simulator, there is a wealth of content for you to discover.

Stop in and say hello to the team there at: https://return.mistymoorings.com/

==============
Flight Plan

PAOH-PAGS

==============
Aircraft Used

Default Beechcraft "Bonanza" with G1000 Avionics

==============
Mission Leg completion

After you land at one of the leg destination airports, be sure to park your aircraft at a nearby parking spot that should be next to the airstrip and then set the parking brake. You'll need to shut down the lights, engine, battery and avionics and then the "mission completed" window should then activate. You'll be able to end the mission at that point, or you can choose to continue on for the next leg of the journey. (See Mission Time Reset paragraph below for more details on that process)

IMPORTANT MISSION LEG NOTE!!!

I've discovered that sometimes when shutting down the engine, cockpit instruments, batteries and then the parking brake, the leg completed trigger may not activate. If you come across this in the sim while flying this mission. First make sure all systems are off and brake is set. If the end leg trigger is still not activated. Re-start the engine and then taxi to another point on the tarmac parking area if there is one. Or somewhere else located near the airstrip or actually in the middle of the runway. Then set the parking brake and shut down the systems onboard as required to see if the leg completion trigger is now activated. Give it at least 10-20 seconds. If you still can't engage a leg completion trigger. Remember if all else fails, just return to the actual airstrip or runway surface and then repeat the shut-down procedures and set parking brake. This should achieve the leg completion trigger.

This trip is compatible with Sim Update 12 and World Update XIV

===============
Installation Instructions

Unpack this archive to a location of your choice on your computer. Place the main folder and all sublevel contents inside that folder into your Microsoft Flight Simulator Community folder.

See the included text file inside this archive that has more mission specifics and other information you will want to familiarize yourself with before jumping into this adventure.

Have fun.

The Let's Fly To: series of flight adventures is created by Brad Allen for use in Microsoft Flight Simulator. It's freeware and should remain that way. No part of this adventure can be re-purposed or included with any payware scenery collection. Any editing of the contents of this package will need my permission please. This is a fictional flight for private enjoyment. Look for follow on adventure flights all around the world in the future. 

If you'd like to send me compliments, critique, give me feedback or even a small donation if you'd like to help inspire me to make more of these adventures, please email me at: [email protected] or use my paypal.me/bradallen43.

Thanks and enjoy your flight. "Keep the Blue Side Up"

Copyright 2021-2023 by Brad Allen and Let's Fly To Productions