Bush flying is huge fun in Flight Simulator. Low and slow is how this simulator was meant to be enjoyed, with the impressively detailed terrain that is often a very close representation of the real-world location. This has led to impressive developments on bush activities in MSFS, with the creation of bush flights that take us on some challenging backcountry adventures and also the release of a series of bush planes that pilots have enjoyed taking on said adventures.
Some of the coolest bush plane modifications have come from GotGravel, a freeware developer that brought us the magnificent Savage Carbon and Savage Grravel, powerful modifications of the Cub that turn this little aircraft into a STOL champion. Many have enjoyed taking these airplanes on the toughest challenges, in regions such as Idaho’s backcountry or Oregon.
While going on these adventures is definitely a tremendously fun experience, there’s always a time to go home. And that’s what we are bringing you today. The GotGravel STOL Academy, a brilliant freeware scenery created by Kevin Lewis, is the perfect place to base your STOL airplane and test your skills in the wide variety of challenges that surround it.
Located at Squamish airport (CYSE), in British Columbia, the GotGravel Academy enjoys the good facilities provided by this local airport, which include food, fuel and accommodation. With these basic conditions met, you have all you need to start exploring all the things the GotGravel Academy has to offer. Designed to help you develop and train your skills as a STOL pilot, the Academy is home to a growing number of pilots that look to fine-tune their skills in one of the nearly 40 off-airport strips.
That’s right, this freeware scenery includes a huge variety of dirt strips that you can explore, from simple strips to tiny, hard-to-find, nearly impossible to get in and out off strips. To help you find all these locations, the developer included a handy LittleNavMap flight plan and a bookmark file, containing the locations of all these bush strips.
But there’s more. Besides the aforementioned variety of bush strips, the GotGravel Academy Airport is also home to two dedicated STOL strips right next to the main runway, a 2000′ drag strip to do some races and two pylon circuits along the river. As you can see, there are plenty of opportunities here to have fun, develop your skills and enjoy the STOL life in Flight Simulator!
There’s a couple of Easter eggs to keep you entertained too, something about a distress signal on 320kHz, some mysterious search and rescue efforts, and a restricted hangar that should be avoided by airport personnel. What’s there to be discovered?
In the end, this is a very fun scenery that is now freely available from flightsim.to. Every STOL pilot needs to practice and be prepared for the toughest landings, and the GotGravel STOL Academy is an absolutely brilliant choice to train and have fun doing it!
