Back with another preview of the Got Friends Taylorcraft BC-12D which the developer is currently putting the finishing touches on. The aircraft you see in the preview is still being worked on although I think it’s already in a fantastic state. Today’s adventure takes us to Northern California and the Klamath river taking advantage of Orbx’s 1O5 Montague-Yreka & River Strips scenery pack. There’s some genuinely dicey flying going on here so get the popcorn ready and let’s go!

Setting the scene

Orbx had a flash sale over the weekend so I took advantage of that to pick up a couple of new bush strips. The one on display here is 1O5 Montague-Yreka & River Strips which I thought was a great place to let me stretch the legs on Got Friends Taylorcraft BC-12D in bushplane configuration. As a side note, let me know in the comments if you’d like to see some reviews of these kinds of scenery packs.

1O5 Montague-Yreka as a scenery pack comes with a mix of scenery. You’ve got 1O5 Montague-Yreka airport itself, a general aviation focused airport, and then there are three bush strips along the Klamath river. I decided I wanted to visit each one so off I set!

Montague-Yreka airport (1O5) to Round Mountain Ranch Airport (CA09)

Setting out in the early morning sun, I prepared my Taylorcraft for the journey ahead. Got Friends offer a lot of customization so you can change the way your aircraft is setup in a bunch of different ways. For this one I picked the large bushwheels, an angle of attack indicator, and autopilot and the PMS50 GTN 750 GPS suite. This differs quite a bit from an entirely stripped down Taylorcraft with basic radio and instrumentation. You can make your Taylorcraft tailor made for the mission you intend to take it on. So I did!

With the various covers removed, I got into my airplane and powered it up. Battery on, fuel selector set, engine primed, starter engaged, and mixture and throttle positioned appropriately. The aircraft roared to life and we began our taxi at this uncontrolled airport.

With the taxi complete and the engine levels checked, I pushed the throttle in and away we went!

This scenery is interesting because this GA airport acts as a kind of hub for flying in the area. You can believably park your airplane here, set out and head into the mountains to visit the various bushstrips nearby. Orbx has a second scenery set, 36S Happy Camp & River set, which is also not too far away so the two products compliment each other (I may have to pick that up in some future sale). Heading into the mountains also changes the scenery significantly and you go from a more arid dry plateau area to greener mountain scenery fairly quickly.

After some time in cruise, we approached our first destination! Round Mountain Airport (CA09) is located up away from the river on the mountain side. It’s a flatter area which makes for a good airstrip location. It is, of the pack, the easiest to get into as a result.

The approach is not too difficult, however, the Taylorcraft requires some careful energy and power management and I didn’t quite get it right on the first go. Fortunately it has a good escape vector out at the end of the strip.

I got it right on the second try and got the aircraft stopped on the strip. I taxied it down to the end and over to the hangar.

Some hangars in this scenery are interactive with a placard on the hangar wall explaining that nav lights on will cause the hangar doors to open. Nav lights off will cause them to shut again automatically. Neat!

Round Mountain Ranch Airport (CA09) to Ladd road airstrip (CA108)

In the afternoon, I went out on the second flight. Starting in the hangar, I once again prepared my Taylorcraft for flight, taxiied and flew straight out of the strip into the mountain air.

Once again, we’re flying along the Klamath river as our main visual navigational aid. The scenery in the area is spectacular and some of MSFS 2024’s best so that really helps aid in the experience.

I located the next bushstrip which is fairly obvious depending on the direction that you approach it. The hills blocked most of my view on approach so I needed to circle overhead to get a lay of the land before attempting to bring it in for a touchdown.

I did manage to land it and bring it in, though not smoothly, on the strip. After securing things, I taxied over to one of the two hangars available on this particular strip and parked. The mission was going well so far!

One more strip to visit to complete the set before heading for home.

Ladd road airstrip (CA108) to O’Neil creek airstrip (CA109)

This was a short hop but it took me nearly as long to complete as the last one. O’Neil creek is a tough one to get into so let me set the stage a bit. Taking off from Ladd road it took just a few minutes to make the distance to our destination.

This strip is an interesting one with tall trees on the one end and a clearing on the other end, however, there’s mountains and hills on the other side too so you have a relatively small area to come in, get a visual ID on the strip, and then make a 90 degree turn.

I struggled with this one!

Lining up along the river, a house on the property makes for a good land mark for the actual airstrip. I got that part right but this first attempt went poorly with too much speed and not enough ability to kill it off on the narrow strip before I had to power up and abort the landing attempt. The Taylorcraft makes you work for a smooth bush landing!

So around I went with less speed in the corner, riding just above the BC-12D’s stall speed, and then settling into a slight nose down to get into the strip itself. I managed to get it down but not without a hairy one wheel moment I captured on playback.

Believe it or not, I recovered that before striking the wingtip. Phew!

Taxi, park, shutdown. Recover!

O’Neil creek airstrip (CA109) to Montague-Yreka airport (1O5)

The next day I came back to the airstrip and set out for a return sortie back to Montague-Yreka. With beautiful morning haze in the background, I once again prepared my Taylorcraft for the flight.

I taxied down to the end of the airstrip before turning and taking off. Away we went!

Climbing out of the valley and slowly up to 6,000 feet, this leg was more scenic than anything else. Once again, MSFS 2024 scenery is delivering in a big way on this adventure as everything was looking very crisp.

I just love how exiting the mountains and into the plateau area changes the scenery so dramatically. You’re out of the mountains and suddenly you’re in this more arid area with the city of Yreka and Interstate 5 dominating the details of the scenery.

With the airport now in sight, I turned downwind for Runway 33 before swinging around for a final.

Using some sideslip to kill off the speed, I brough the Taylorcraft down for a reasonably gentle landing on the narrow runway. Narrow but nothing like the bushstrips we just visited.

Fun adventure

That was quite the fun adventure making good use of Got Friend’s Taylorcraft customizability features while also checking out this new Orbx scenery set. These are some genuinely good airstrips to fly in and out of making for ample challenge in an aircraft like the Taylorcraft which, among other things, doesn’t have flaps. Power and speed management are very important coming into these locations. But that made it all the more interesting!

Look for the Got Friends Taylorcraft BC-12D to come out soon and do check out Orbx’s 1O5 Montague-Yreka & River Strips scenery pack too.