If you’re a Flight Simulation Association (FSA) member then a reminder that you’ve got some goodies available to you in the form of some free scenery for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and X-Plane 12. Today I’m doing a spotlight series which is kind of a mix of a flight journal and a look at a specific scenery package while I look at KAVX Catalina Airport and surrounding region. Let’s go!

The scenery

KAVX Catalina Island Airport is one of those iconic airports that real world pilots and flight simulation fans tend to know of. The “airport in the sky” is famous and infamous for its challenging approaches and sometimes difficult weather conditions. In my cross country series where I flew mostly in a Beechcraft Model 18 across the United States I made Catalina island my destination and the airport has also been featured by Microsoft’s team being part of the second USA World Update.

Orbx’s KAVX offers a few things that the World Update version doesn’t have. While the World Update is focused on the airport itself, the Orbx version has an equally good airport but also adds local scenery with several buildings, towers, USC Dornsife Wrigley Marine Science Center, and historic Avalon bay as part of the experience. The nearby Maverick Helicopters – Catalina Island is also part of the scenery package giving you a spawnable helipad. It brings the whole island to life!

Orbx have also added 30cm ortho imagery around both Avalon and Catalina airport and there’s some cool custom additions here including the famous Catalina Flying Boats DC-3 (not to be confused with the PBY Catalina flying boat… yeah).

Journey to Catalina

Let’s start off with the first journey I did. I loaded up in an old favourite and flew a simple GA flight from KVNY Van Nuys Airport (another Orbx airport scenery package) in the Carenado Mooney M20R. This terrific little GA airplane is relatively fast, very nicely detailed, and while Carenado aren’t known for deep systems simulation, its still good with everything in the cockpit largely working as it should minus some deep engine simulation. It was the first purchase I ever made for MSFS and I’ve taken it on several long tours.

Taking off from Van Nuys, I turned the Mooney for Catalina island and headed out. It’s not a long flight but it is a scenic one offering great views of the California coastline, of Las Angeles proper and the surrounding areas.

Once out over the water you have to keep an eye on the weather as the island can experience high winds or dense fog. Fortunately the wind was my only challenge for this one and even then I managed to make it work.

Catalina island airport approaches typically suggest flying over the two harbours (where the island narrows) before turning in on runway 22. I was a little tighter than that making my approach but ultimately managed to get a pretty good landing in without too much difficulty…. just a couple of minor bounces in the slippery M20!

After that, it was time to taxi and park. First impressions of the Orbx version of this airport are great. There’s great details and lots to look at. But the scenery package goes beyond just the airport so here’s a look at some other areas of the island!

Helicopter tour

For my second flight I took up CowanSim’s excellent H125 helicopter for a tour around the island starting and ending at Avalon and the helipad there. The helipad has its own scenery and it looks generally great!

After taking off I headed down to Avalon itself and the historic harbour which, thanks to the scenery, has some nicely detailed unique buildings.

Then it was along the northern coast up to KAVX itself for a quick stop. Again, very impressed by the scenery here. There are a few bushes that are in the fuzzy pixelated MSFS style but the hand placed ones look great and everything else has lots of detail. I love the old DC-3 that used to be used for freighter ops (more on that in a bit).

After that I flew further along to the other side of the island checking out Two Harbours and off to West End at the very western tip of the island before flying the reciprocal route along the southern coast and back to Avalon to end the trip.

Lots of extra buildings and custom scenery elements in here. There are piers and docks scattered along the coast, villas, and comms towers and the like. It really elevates the whole area.

Catalina Flying Boats freight

On the third flight I decided to do something a bit more historical. This one was with a Catalina Flying Boats DC-3 livery. The livery is available here on Flightsim.to. You’ll also notice right away that the weather is very different on this one as live weather was giving us thick clouds just above the airport and that makes things fun!

After working my way through the DC-3’s start-up, I taxiied the aircraft out to Runway 22. Along the way I was able to see the DC-3 static display that the scenery makers have placed on the far side of the runway. It’s what clued me into this historic flight and aircraft.

After that it was time to take off and head for Long Beach Airport. This is a short flight but a necessary one to move supplies over from Los Angeles to Catalina Island. A lot of materials need to be shipped in either by boat but aircraft is, of course, faster.

Heavy thick clouds made for an interesting descent into the airport area, however, we broke through the clouds and setup for a visual approach at Long Beach. I don’t have any special scenery here so its the standard MSFS generic visual. After an easy landing I brought the DC-3 in and parked it.

Just some of the fun you can have

All of these flights are intended to show off just some of the fun that you can have with this scenery pack with aircraft that regularly fly there or used to and with whatever aircraft you have in your inventory. I hope this scenery focused journal was of use. I may employ this style in the future so see what you think!

If you’re not an FSA member, Orbx’ KAVX Catalina Airport scenery is available for about $18 USD.