Three years ago I reviewed
Vertical Studios ‘Mountain
Flying in Switzerland’ series of missions and was very
impressed by them. Fast forward three years and Vertical Studios
have released another series of missions called ‘Colorado
Camping Weekend’
The theme of the missions is very simple: 4 different flights
from Thursday – Sunday flying around the Rocky Mountains landing
at 5 airports and flying over 6 mountain passes in the default
Cessna 172.
The missions are priced at $1.99 each, which is around £1.30 or
€1.50 and come as a download from the Vertical Studios website.
The total combined download size is 264mb, although some of the
files are the same – presumably for people who only download one
or two of the missions.
VERTICAL STUDIOS
If you are not aware who Vertical Studios are and how they come
up with their ideas then read on.
Chris Klein (owner) is a private pilot in real life (FAA -
Airplane, Single engine, Land) and uses his license purely for
“fun” (as a hobby). Like many real world pilots he uses FSX to
help become safer with real-world flying. Chris tries to “give
back” to the FSX community a taste of what it’s like to fly in
real-life. This is why Vertical Studios’ missions use real-world
voice, charts, procedures, etc. (within reason). For example,
when there’s a towered airport they try to simulate the
communication that would take place in real life with ATC. For
the Mountain Flying in Switzerland scenario, this was EXACTLY
the route they took one summer and so the missions are actually
just the sim version of a real-life flight. In fact, when
customers finish the missions they are given a link to watch the
real-world video of the actual flight.
For Colorado Camping Weekend, this is based on a real-world
weekend Chris experienced a few years ago with the Colorado
Pilot’s Association. They offer a great, 3-day weekend course on
Mountain Flying and the route of their flight on day 3 is very
similar to that of the 4-day mission series. They added the Camp
Vertical airstrip, which does not exist in real life. In terms
of departing Boulder, going over the Rollins Pass, arriving in
Glenwood Springs, then Aspen, Leadville, and back to Boulder –
this was the actual route they took over that weekend course.
This also allows them to comment on the scenery along the way
since they know the area in real life.
INSTALLATION
The installation process, whilst easy, is not automated. You
will need to download the missions, extract them from the .zip
file and then manually move them into the FSX folders and
activate them within FSX. Full step by step instructions are
given in the manual and they are easy to follow through, but
there is always the risk of human error leading to a bad
installation.
Once they are installed correctly the missions will display
under the ‘Good Life’ section in the FSX Missions screen.
DOCUMENTATION
For the cheap purchase price of these missions I wasn’t
expecting much in the way of documentation, but I was wrong.
Each mission has a good manual containing the route information,
map of a sectional chart (although it is small) and information
about the airports and mountain passes which you will encounter
along the way.
DAY 1: THURSDAY
Thursday will see you depart from Boulder, head over the Rollins
Pass Berthoud Pass and Loveland Pass before landing about an
hour later at Camp Vertical. You’ll need to pay close attention
to your mixture when airborne as you will be flying at 12,500
feet to clear the mountains.
The Journey Begins |
Nice day for flying |
Make sure to get your headings correct |
Nice flat land for a change |
Destination in sight |
Parked up after the first mission |
After spending the night at Camp Vertical it is another early morning start flying over the Vail Pass, through Glenwood Canyon and on to Glenwood Springs. The final approach into Glenwood is quite fun and hectic.
As you are taxing to the runway at Camp Vertical your co-pilot informs you that you will need to follow Jerry for this flight. However, by the time I had got to the runway Jerry had already taken off and was long gone. The route is programmed into the GPS and your co-pilot gives instructions along the way about heading changes etc… and after a while I did manage to catch up with Jerry…. Only to lose him again in the mountains.
Jerry will be our guide today |
Great scenery |
Mind Those Trees |
The canyon is narrow, but we can make it |
The approach is blind |
Success! |
The third mission is one of the busiest! You’ll depart from Glenwood Springs, make a small detour to land at the Aspen Ski Resort. After a quick turnaround you’ll take off again and fly over the Hagerman Pass before landing at Leadville, which is the highest airport in the US.
Early Start |
Make sure that you choose the correct valley |
Now I know I'm high! |
Off for the 2nd part of this flight |
Aspen comes into sight |
Parked up after another enjoyable flight |
Unlike the other days Sunday sees you flying in the evening due to unforeseen circumstances! Along the route you’ll fly over several mountain passes and a few lakes before finally landing at Boulder to finish the weekend. You’ll also need to pick up Jerry along the way. Landing at the airstrip to collect Jerry was probably the trickiest part of the 4 missions for me, mainly because I was flying without using my GPS and there are two airstrips which look identical fairly close to each other. I managed to get it right second time around.
Hop Aboard Jerry |
Great Sunset |
Keep an Eye on the GPS |
Homeward |
It’s worth noting that if you are using Ultimate Traffic for your AI Traffic, it might be an idea to disable it prior to loading the mission. I had some fun and games on the ground at a couple of the airports with kamikaze AI.
CONCLUSION
Who would have thought that flying the default Cessna could be so much fun? The missions are not overly challenging and allow you to sit back and enjoy the flights. The region that the flights take part in has some great scenery to keep you occupied and, provided that you follow the instructions given, you’ll have no trouble completing the missions.
They are let down slightly by the lack of an automated installation process, but the manual makes it fairly easy to put the files in the correct location (provided you follow it step by step). For the price of a couple of beers you can spend a few hours enjoying yourself over and over again.
Verdict:
• Fun Factor:
9.0/10
• Difficulty Rating*:
5.0/10
• Documentation:
8.0/10
• Value for money:
9.0/10
*Omitted
from final score calculation
Mutley’s Hangar score of
8.6/10, with an "Highly Recommended" and a Mutley's Hangar
Silver Award!
Rob Scott
Review machine Spec: Intel i7 2600k @3.40GHz | 8GB DDR3 RAM 1600MHz |NVidia GTX570 1280MB GFX Card |Windows 7 64bit Home Premium