Catalina Airport (KAVX)
Catalina Island, Ca
By John B. Loney, Jr.
January 11, 2005
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ABOUT THE AIRPORT:
Catalina Airport serves Avalon and Los Angeles County and is owned by Santa Catalina Is Conservancy. The paved runway extends for 3240 feet. The facility is at an elevation of 1602 feet at a distance of about 6 miles from Avalon.
There are cliffs on three sides of the runway. The real difficulty comes from the fact that the runway slopes slightly upward and thus gives the optical illusion that it is much shorter than its actual length. The upward slope also gives the impression that the pilot is diving into the runway rather than approaching it. Note that Catalinas mountaintop location means that strong winds (10-25 knots) are quite normal. The winds are generally uniform in direction. Although there is no tower, the airport office monitors UNICOM frequencies and will generally let you know whats going on.
Just remember that: 1) There are no familiar visual cues for altitude reference. You MUST rely on your Altimeter.
2) There is usually a strong downdraft at the approach end of the runway caused by the prevailing winds falling over the 1600' cliff. Be prepared for this downdraft and possible loss of altitude during your short final.
3) The uphill slope of runway 22 can cause approach and flare problems for inexperienced pilots.
Because of its remote mountaintop location, a night landing at Catalina would be exceedingly dangerous and for this reason, the airport is closed at night and the runway is not lit.
The only shop at Catalina Airport, the newly renamed Buffalo Spring Station, (formerly The Runway Cafe'), home of the Famous Buffalo Burger, carries Souveniers, Knicknacks, and gifts, as well as Hot Foods and the famous Buffalo Burger. The local buffalo were reportedly brought to Catalina more than 50 years ago to provide local color for a Hollywood movie. Like most who have visited Avalon, the buffalo decided to stay.
Airport Operational Statistics:
Aircraft based on the field: 10
Single engine airplanes: 10
Aircraft operations: avg 63/day
Transient general aviation 93%
Local general aviation 5%
Air Taxi 2%
Military <1%
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ABOUT THE SCENERY:
I have done many Northern California airports from South county(Q99) to Sonoma County(KSTS). I just thought is was time to travel south.
Catalina Airport at Catalina Island presented a challenging project with it's "airport in the sky" concempt and it's harbors below. Unlike the real airport as described above, I did not alter the level of the runway in FS9. It is 1605 ft at both ends of the runway. I did do one of the two, or three if you will, harbors. The harbor at Avalon has been enhanced with yachts and sailboats. There is another harbor called Two Harbors that I am saving for later in an update of the scenery. However, I would not mind if anyone wanted to do Two Harbors themselves. If you run the Realtime weather in FS9, you may get some of those wind problems mentioned above. That might be a nice challenge for you on approach. There is room to add on more AI traffic. You will see the AI traffic I created if you use the startup files in the download. If you don't, start the scenery at 23:25:00 GMT. As usual, you will need the Nova texture sets from Rafael Garcia Sanchez. They are available from SurClaro, his website, www.fsnova.com or my website, www.lfssd.net. You can get the Rwy12 textures from SurClaro. Enjoy!
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ABOUT THE AIRCRAFT:
The startup aircraft is the default Beechcraft Baron. Below is the rest of the aircraft used in the AI Flight Plans. Also inclosed in this download is the flight plans source file.
The Rwy12 team for their great work with their scenery tool.
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INSTALLATION:
AFTER UNZIPPING THE FILE KAVX_V1.ZIP TO A TEMPORARY FOLDER, HOPEFULLY, YOU ARE READING THIS README FILE.
If you don't have them already, download Lee Swordy's Traffic Tools v2x and AFCAD2x. Follow the instructions from the files and install them onto your system. While you're at it, download the texture files necessary for this scenery and put them into the main FS texture folder. They are: ASDv2.1, Nova, Nova Gold and NovaSim textures, plus my own custom textures. All are available for free at my website, www.lfssd.net (the "l" is an L, not a one). Go to SurClaro for the Rwy12 scenery tool and textures.
Using the folders switch, unzip the file kavx_scen.zip to the drive where you have your FS. Using your file manager (Windows Explorer) check to make sure that all the files are in their proper folder.
C:\My Documents\Flight Simulator Files should have CA - Avalon Catalina Island FLT and WX files
Drive:\FS2004\Addon Scenery\scenery should have AF2_KAVX.bgl
Drive:\FS2004\Scenery\World\scenery should have TrafficCatalina.bgl
Drive:\fs2k4_scenery\KAVX\scenery should have the kavx_*.bgl scenery files
Drive:\fs2k2_scenery\KAVX\texture should have the following textures
Sign_Catalina Airport, Sign_Buffalo Spring Station.
Drive:\FS2004\Texture should have the following textures:
If you have Lago's FSE 2004, then check the following:
Drive:\FS2004\Lago\FSE\Data\should have CatalinaAirport.SE2
Start FS and select settings to add the scenery in the usual manner. Re-start FS and select Select a Flight. Scroll to CA - Avalon Catalina Island and click.
You should be ready to fly. Happy landings!
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Legal stuff. Copyright and Distribution
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This scenery is freeware. Copyright John B. Loney, Jr. Feel free to add or change this scenery. Especially if you know a more accurate placement of items. You do not have my permission to make any monetary gain from this scenery. It started out as freeware and it shall remain freeware.
- The author's rights and wishes concerning this archive must be
respected.
I do not accept any responsibility for any damage to any system as a result of running this scenery.
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Contact:
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As usual, I welcome any comments. I will try to answer as many as I can.
