GG Academy - Pilots Briefing

'Taking STOL to the next level'

v4.0 update after the SU10 and WU11 for Canada releases; correcting a lot of elevation issues and taking the opportunity to freshen up all of the off-field landing strips. Please let me know if you find any 'quirks' anywhere and I'll fix them.

v4.1 a few hours spent playing 'wack a rat' to clear some pop-up LOD spikes to the south and north of the main airport. I'm sorry for two updates in two days

v4.2 a number of the strips have been adjusted to smooth them out a bit, without making them too easy. Thanks to everyone that is providing feedback on the scenery so I can make improvements :) 

==== Notam #3 (29th June 2021) ====

The signal on 320kHz has been heard but 3 recent search and rescue teams sent to investigate haven't returned yet. Local residents have been advised to remain indoors while additional SAR teams are flown in to continue the search.

GGA Hanger #1 has a restriction notice in force and airport personnel should avoid the area.

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The GotGravel Academy Airport (GG Academy) is based at Squamish airport (CYSE) alongside the Squamish river in British Columbia. At an elevation of 192' the 2400' asphalt runway (16L/34R) can accommodate most GA planes with good facilities at the airport including food, fuel and accommodation.

The academy has been developed to help new pilots safely explore the back country of British Columbia. It is also home to the growing number of GotGravel pilots and aircraft who want to practise the art of STOL.

Bush Strips

The off-airport landing strips, almost 40 of them, vary from simple short dirt strips, some strips that will test the plane and the pilot as you try to work out how to get into them in one piece. There are some that are simply beautiful and others that are extremely difficult to find, extremely difficult to land on and just as difficult to get out of. Included in the Scenery pack is an LittleNavMap flight plan as well as a bookmark file that can be imported into LNM, both of them contain the locations of all the bush strips (use Squamish as the Region keyword to filter for them).

STOL

In addition to the back country locations there are two dedicated STOL strips next to the airport for competitive STOL events (Rwy 16R) and STOL practise. (NW Parking slots #1, 2, 3, 4 and 5)

If you want to drag race against your friends you can do that as well on a custom 2000' drag strip. (NW Parking slots #6, 7, 8 and 9, these slots can also be used to gain access to STOL #2 landing strip). The scenery is also compatible with the STOL & STOL Drag Tracker mod (https://flightsim.to/file/28235/stol-tracker)

The academy also has two custom pylon racing circuits if you want to blow the cobwebs off along the river.

As you venture out please bear in mind that we have permission to use all of the locations but the locals can get upset should too many planes arrive/crash at the same time. Beer is a good way to smooth any ruffled feathers.

To support the local community helipads have also been placed for the local helicopter services to use.

For STOL support and guidance please join the GotGravel discord server https://discord.gg/5sGKFnzHaf

Technical notes:

To get the best out of the GG Academy scenery you should have the following library installed to see the windsocks and flags.

https://www.flightsim.to/file/14024/windy-things

You should also have the MSFS updates installed for some of the generic models used at CYSE. This includes the EGCB, EGHC and EGPR scenery packages from the MSFS content manager.

The pbk-effects library has been used to provide more life around the cabins and to give smoke effects for wind direction assessment https://flightsim.to/file/21769/pbk-effects-library

Optional libraries have been used to populate the landing strips to add some 'life' into them.

https://www.flightsim.to/file/5806/fisherman-dave-s-seaplane-base-object-library (required for float planes and Anvil Island)

https://www.flightsim.to/file/5452/dave-s-3d-people-library

https://www.flightsim.to/file/1923/mikea-at-assetpack

https://www.flightsim.to/file/8887/beekay-pack1

NOTAM #1: Pilots coming into the airport from the North have reported hearing an un-identified intermittent NDB beacon transmitting on 320kHz. It's possible that someone needs assistance or more beer.

NOTAM #2: This scenery is not optimised for any of the DEM 'enhancement' mods currently available, so if you have one enabled you will see elevation problems.

Scenery pack contents:

One scenery folder (pbk-gaa-cyse) containing all of the CYSE scenery and airstrips

One scenery folder (pbk-gaa-race01) that contains the Air Race 01 pylons for the circuit to the South West of CYSE. If you put this folder into your community folder you will see the Air race 01 pylons, if you don't you won't see them (optional installation)

One scenery folder (pbk-workshop) is for the workshop in the main hanger (optional installation)

One scenery folder (pbk-anvil-island) for the Anvil island landing strip and dolphins. Anvil Island has its own ICAO code PZ43 with a sand strip and a pontoon for float planes

One Littlenavmap bookmarks file that can be imported to show all the locations

One LNM flightplan covering all of the locations

Credits to:

GotGravel and the great mods on the GotGravel discord server for development and testing.

CarbonProp from Bush League Legends for the loan of the Air Race pylons.