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Many of the airfields from the ‘20s are no longer in operation, so they have been replaced by nearby fields available in flightsim.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