Orbx has been publishing scenery developer Ken Hall’s PNG Highland Bush Strips for a couple of years now. The packs are a series of bush strips located in Papua New Guinea in various locations around the island nation. In this review I’m going to take a look at Pack 5 though I do intend to revisit some of the other packs at some point later on. For now, let’s unpack what’s in this package!

Included in the pack

Unlike some scenery releases, PNG Highland Bush Strips are a collection of airports to fly into rather than just a single airport. This format has been popular mostly with bush strips and I do enjoy the fact that you do get a series of locations to go and visit.

Pack 5 features 7 airstrips in the eastern highlands area of Papua New Guinea. Their ICAO, names, coordinates, elevation and runway length are part of the product description:

• AYDS Dusin: 5.1999°S 144.4905°E, Runways: 29-11, Alt: 6274ft, Runway length: 1482ft
• AYJE Yomneri: 5.2346°S 144.6053°E, Runways 20-02, Alt: 5994ft, Runway length: 1495ft
• AYKJ Kanainj: 5.2845°S 144.7547°E, Runways 27-09, Alt: 3969ft, Runway length: 1206ft
• AYBJ Bank: 5.3742°S 144.7660°E, Runways 29-11, Alt: 3989ft, Runway length: 1584ft
• AYOU Kombaku: 5.3809°S 144.6526°E, Runways 36-18, Alt: 5333ft, Runway length: 1288ft
• AYMI Ambaluwa: 5.7806°S 145.2292°E, Runways 32-14, Alt: 6505ft, Runway length: 1294ft
• AYDI Bundi: 5.7393°S 145.2429°E, Runways 33-15, Alt: 4443ft, Runway length: 1986ft

The overall area

Microsoft Flight Simulator has its own, built in, pack of bush strips included in the sim. A couple of years ago, I took the SimWorks Studios Kodiak 100 out on a series of flights and wrote a journal about the whole thing. It’s a unique experience when you’re flying anywhere between 5,000 and 10,000 feet and landing at those same altitudes. That’s what happens when you’re flying in tall mountain ranges like these ones. I really wanted to return to the area and the PNG Highland Bush Strips are very much in the same vein as those I experienced before.

The pack advertises the scenic natural beauty of the area and they aren’t kidding. With MSFS 2024’s impressive vegetation system the whole area stands out as incredibly scenic though the satellite imagery is slightly worse than average. Still, taking off into stunning vistas below and above you makes for some seriously fun flying adventures and its a much more rugged kind of experience where its very seat of the pants kind of flying. I love the whole experience!

I’ve been flying from airport to airport using the Kodiak 100, PC-6 and Cessna 208 primarily as these are typical workhorses in the area. These airport supported villages are located high above deep cuts in the mountain ranges and supplies and people are often flown in and out of these via these types of aircraft.

With the high altitudes, its often the turboprop powered bushplanes that make the most sense and thus these types of planes are ideal. I have a strong preference myself for SWS Kodiak 100, one of my all time favourites, but both PC-6 and Cessna 208 are included in MSFS 2024 and Black Square has an excellent Cessna 208 if you have access to that one. Other aircraft will work but just know that the high altitudes are going to constrain the performance of non-turbocharged aircraft.

The airports themselves

Now to the main course. The airports! As mentioned, you get 7 airstrips in this pack and they are very good. I found no problems with the airstrips themselves or the terrain they are located on.

The airports themselves are all quite similar in theme. Most of them are located either on plateaus or on top of mountain ridges. Most of them are of medium challenge to get into but a couple of them are particularly tricky with curving approaches to avoid nearby hillsides making for some difficult approaches in thinner air. Careful, by the numbers, flying is needed and knowing your aircraft and how to get it down early and kick in the beta range is really a good challenge.

There’s no unusual or unnatural dips or divots that may upset a flight which is good. All seven are detailed with a mix of buildings, static people assets, livestock, and other associated doodads like triangle markers that mark the runways, fencing that run the perimeters of the airstrip areas. You’ve also got rocks, some hand placed, vegetation, and everything from lawn mowers to bicycles and laundry poles with laundry air drying.

The assets are done with high resolution textures and PBR materials and they look superb even at close distances. You can go for a walk and the immersion is definitely there with few issues. I did see a few floating rocks but that may be more the sim than the scenery. Generally speaking its very nicely detailed and of high quality.

The livestock are animated (presumably from the MSFS 2024 asset list) but the people are static. The do form some nice scenes and look great in screenshots but in action they do slightly break immersion.

The airport scenery is generally very well done though the launch points don’t always work well on both ends. At least one airport, AYJE Yomneri, has your aircraft spawn in the middle of a fence and has your wing up against a tree if you don’t pick the designated spawn location and try to spawn on “runway 02” (I say in quotes because its really just a field).

I also wish more spawn locations were available at the various airports. While I recognize the constrained space, when I did a group flight we weren’t able to spawn next to each other and instead had to taxi away from each other to get out of each other’s way. Not the end of the world but just a minor annoyance.

Everything is a grass strip here so locating the airstrips requires daylight. The airports do have a few light sources at night but not typically enough to make them viable in most instances. You’ll want to make sure you fly with some sort of light.

I do also wish, as a side note, if Ken Hall or someone else to take on the task of doing a payware quality offering of nearby AYGA – Goroka Airport (there is a half decent freeware here) to serve as a base of operations. The concrete runway and airport facilities contrast nicely with the more rugged out of the way strips that the packs focus on. Plus, its frequented by popular YouTube creator Missionary Bush Pilot and it would make a good narrative home base for the packs.

Final thoughts

This pack is really good! Its my first Ken Hall PNG Highland Bush Strips Pack 5 pack and I think its really well done.

With high resolution assets, carefully crafted airports, stunning scenery and unique flying experiences on offer, I’m happy to say that PNG Highland Bush Strips Pack 5 is a good buy if you like this sort of flying. Its very different than flying into major hubs with airliners and that’s quite a good thing.

At $15.32 USD regular and often selling with decent discounts, the PNG Highland Bush Strips in general offer good value. You can often buy single airports, albeit detailed ones, for similar and this feels like a good increase in scale for a very reasonable amount of money and sale prices make it even more affordable.

I’m pretty sure I’m a shoe in at this point for eventually picking up PNG Highland Bush Strips Pack 6 with 6 more airstrips with some very different airport approaches with more of a mix of low and medium or high altitude strips. I’ll probably revisit that in a review when the time comes.

So there you have it, a solid creation at a decent enough price, and some terrific flying options on hand. I highly recommend this scenery pack!

Learn more about PNG Highland Bush Strips Pack 5 here on the Orbx store.