US Transcontinental Air Mail ‘20s

 

 

The above map for the transcontinental route is taken from Wikipedia at https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4444650

Many of the airfields from the ‘20s are no longer in operation, so they have been replaced by nearby fields available in flightsim.

Fields in bold are official stops and other fields are in locations which were nominated for emergency landings. We will be flying West to East from San Francisco to New York via Reno, Salt Lake City, Cheyenne, Omaha, Chicago, Cleveland and Bellefonte.

The basic route and airfield list is taken from a 1921 set of pilot’s directions from the Post Office Department. The total distance is 2,309.5nm.

 

San Francisco – Reno

 

Heading

Distance

City Name

ICAO

034

        0

San Francisco

KSFO

025

9.6 nm

Oakland

KOAK

033

66.3 nm

Mather

KMHR

042

71.0 nm

Truckee

KTRK

 

20.3 nm

Reno

KRNO

 

Reno – Salt Lake City

 

Heading

Distance

City Name

ICAO

042

        0

Reno

KRNO

051

65.1 nm

Lovelocks

KLOL

058

83.7 nm

Battle Mountain

KBAM

079

51.1 nm

Elko

KEKO

072

80.3 nm

Wendover

KENV

 

93.4 nm

Salt Lake City

KSLC

 

Salt Lake City – Cheyenne

 

Heading

Distance

City Name

ICAO

041

        0

Salt Lake City

KSLC

064

51.8 nm

Evanston

KEVW

068

90.5 nm

Rock Springs

KRKS

101

84.5 nm

Rawlins

KRWL

092

74.6 nm

Laramie

KLAR

 

40.1 nm

Cheyenne

KCYS

 

Cheyenne – Omaha

 

Heading

Distance

City Name

ICAO

081

        0

Cheyenne

KCYS

079

82.6 nm

Sidney

KSNY

087

104.1 nm

North Platte

KLBF

073

107.9 nm

Grand Island

KGRI

 

111.0 nm

Omaha

KOMA

 

Omaha – Chicago

 

Heading

Distance

City Name

ICAO

077

        0

Omaha

KOMA

083

101.4 nm

Iowa City

KIOW

087

95.2 nm

Des Moines

KDSM

 

170.2 nm

Chicago

KMDW

 

Chicago – Cleveland

 

Heading

Distance

City Name

ICAO

100

        0

Chicago

KMDW

097

146.8 nm

Bryan

0G6

 

119.6 nm

Cleveland

KCLE

 

Cleveland – Bellefonte

 

Heading

Distance

City Name

ICAO

104

        0

Cleveland

KCLE

115

109.1 nm

Clarion

KAXQ

 

76.3 nm

Bellefonte

N96

 

Bellefonte – New York

 

Heading

Distance

City Name

ICAO

091

        0

Bellefonte

N96

113

42.0 nm

Lewisburg

3PA6

103

52.8 nm

Lehighton

22N

133

61.2 nm

Morristown

KMMU

100

12.9 nm

Newark

KEWR

 

34.4 nm

New York

KFRG

 

 

Flight Simulator Files

The Golden Age Simulations freeware Waco ATO/CTO is a good representation of the aircraft used in the ‘20s along this and other air mail routes. The original FS9 set is available for FS9 from www.flightsim.com in the zip file wacotrw.zip.

If you’re feeling brave you could also use the default FS9 Curtiss Jenny. An airmail scheme is available in jn4mail.zip.

There is a set of Northwest Airlines Waco aircraft from this approximate era of the Air Mail available from www.flightsim.com in the zip file fs2004_nwa_waco_fleet.zip and also for FSX in fsx_nwa_waco_fleet.zip.

Both the original FS9 Jenny and the airmail scheme are packaged for FSX in jenny11.zip from www.flightsim.com

If you want to convert the files in the original Golden Age package with the original 2D panel for FSX you will need the Lockheed Vega gauge files from FS9. The file containing the gauges is Lockheed_Vega.cab. It is in the nwa fsx zip file above, or alternatively in the FSX conversion of the Lockheed Vega from www.flightsim.com in vega8.zip. We have put the cab file in a zip file, together with a replacement for the panel.cfg file and also the FSX prop file, in the download section here at: Waco panel

The panel_fsx.cfg file in the folder should replace the panel.cfg file. Change the name of the panel.cfg file to something else, like panel_fs9.cfg, then rename panel_fsx.cfg to panel.cfg. This will fully utilise the gauge files in the cab file.

The cab file needs to be put into the panel folder of the Wacos which will be in something like FSX\SimObjects\Airplanes\WACO CTO Mailwing\panel - depending on your FSX installation location. The other change which is recommended is to replace the prop_fast file in the texture folders with the one in the Waco_panel_fsx.zip file.

A panel with navigation instruments has been complied by Allen Peterson and will work with all the WACO ATO/CTO models. It is available here at: AP Panel