​Alaska Awaits Flight Sim Pilots on MSFS2024

I want to share a sim flight that took me deep into one of the most scenic locations on the globe. It’s a region that still heavily relies on general aviation to connect rural communities in the real world—Alaska. 

The idea was born out of watching my friend and content creator Steve Thorne (@FlightChops on YouTube) train to fly Apex Alaska’s authentic DHC-2 Beaver. Thorne’s video series introduces viewers to the joys and challenges of seaplane flying during a beautiful Alaskan summer. The series concludes with an iconic landing on a glacial lake sandwiched between tall mountains. I got the itch and my home sim offered the perfect on-ramp to try landing the Beaver on floats while exploring some of the vast Alaskan wilderness and waterways.

This Article First Appeared in FLYING Magazine

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The DHC-2 Beaver is one of many aircraft available to any sim pilot who has downloaded Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (MSFS2024). From the home screen, you can visit the MSFS2024 store and find the mission pack called Floatplane Pilot, which costs a one-time fee of $8.99. After purchase, you’ll find the pack within the Activities menu. Scroll to the right and click Custom Content. You’ll see the floatplane mission pack, where the six scenic excursions can be selected and flown in any order. 

Based loosely on the real-world Rainbow River Aviation service, which flies eight DHC-2 Beavers on floats out of nearby Iliamna, Alaska, your seaplane will be based at the Lake Hood Seaplane Base (PALH), adjacent to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (PANC). Beavers regularly operate out of PALH, ferrying passengers and cargo all over the state, so it felt quite authentic to be flying from the home of real-world floatplane activities.

The first mission is called “Drop-off at Heather Bay,” and I spent about 30 minutes practicing water and pavement landings and some basic water taxiing. I remembered how high the Beaver sits on wheeled floats, as there was one based at Concord Municipal (KCON), the airport I trained at in high school. Staring up at it as a 14-year-old, I was awed by its size and rugged appearance. It dwarfed the Cessna 152 and 172 I was training in and left an impression on me all those years ago.

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Next, I printed sim user @JayDee’s checklist for the airplane and placed it beside me for quick reference. Then I learned the basic cockpit control layout, practiced the different camera settings, and bound my main controls, including throttle, yoke, and mixture, and some of the light switches. Omitted from most Beaver checklists is the lowering and raising of the water rudders for taxiing. To do this, click on the metal ring directly below the fuel
selector on the panel.

Each mission includes a written briefing that you can review again if you pause the sim. As part of my preflight activities, I sketched some notes on my kneeboard for the mission to Heather Bay so that I had the general view of the goals and order of the required destinations. Once loaded, I was placed in the left seat of the Beaver, idling at a low power setting, drifting away from the ramp and pointed toward the main east-west waterway for takeoff. The low-rpm idle of the 9-cylinder radial sounded great, though I wish it were a bit louder. Drifting out into the waterway, I lowered the water rudders and got my feet involved on the rudder pedals. 

The mission provides some spoken narration from the pilot, who doubles as the tour guide. Sure, it’s a “gaming” element, but it isn’t too distracting. On the Beaver’s provided EFB, you can see the airplane on the moving map display and the course you’re to fly. The EFB can be moved or relocated off screen to a secondary monitor. I regularly use ForeFlight on my iPad, so I don’t have to move the in-sim camera. 

With the before-takeoff checklist complete, I pointed the DHC-2 in the correct direction on the waterway and increased the throttle to set the manifold pressure for takeoff. @JayDee’s checklist provides detailed power settings, which were quite helpful as the real-world Pratt & Whitney radial requires attentive power management in all phases of flight. The mission creators set the time of day and weather to simulate one of those long summer evenings Alaska is known for, but you can turn any VFR mission into IFR conditions by adjusting the in-sim weather. 

Off the water and flying east, the afternoon sun was cutting through the clouds, bathing the mountain ranges on either side of the Turnagain Arm waterway. Even in the sim, the snow-covered mountains looked foreboding and captivating. Per the mission details, the pilot chooses the route into the western waters of Prince William Sound. I flew over Portage Pass adjacent to Whittier, Alaska, navigating the Beaver toward a small bay nestled into the side of a remote island. This was the first stop where I was to drop off the first load of passengers for their fishing trip. I overflew my landing area, trying to estimate the wind direction and set up for landing. There were discernible waves in the water below, and my landing caused the Beaver to slosh and plow a bit on touchdown. I lowered the water rudders and did my best to taxi up at an idle speed to the shore, where the virtual passengers thanked me and departed. 

Next, I taxied away from the shore while trying to size up the waves and wind direction. Once airborne, I flew low over Prince William Sound, taking in the varied terrain, which must be all the more breathtaking in real life.

The next stop was a hunting party pickup in Heather Bay. My tour across the sound continued, and the mission notes recommended a straight-in landing into Heather Bay by flying over Glacier Island, giving me a comfortable 3-mile final approach. Again, it was difficult to discern wave height and wind direction, but I opted to follow the mission directions and land straight ahead. Having ForeFlight running on my iPad was helpful as I could pinch and zoom on the map, fine-tuning my approach. 

After a sporty landing, I shut down the engine near the shore, which cued the next set of virtual passengers to board. With the engine off, the Beaver floated and bobbed on the waves, an indication that MSFS2024 had improved the water-and-wave modeling. There was no animation of the passengers boarding or departing the Beaver, but that didn’t distract from the enjoyment of the mission. 

The start-up procedure for the DHC-2 felt realistic as I needed to use a wobble pump on the corner of the center pedestal to charge up the fuel pressure. The gauge is located above the handle, so you can watch your progress and not overpressure it. Also, the engine must be primed, and there’s a camera shortcut to locate the plunger, which is mounted on the floor by the front of the pilot’s seat and completely obscured in-sim unless you use the camera. I appreciated the attention to detail and systems modeling in the Beaver because it added to the realism and enjoyment.

The last stop in the mission was a short flight to Valdez, Alaska, Airport (PAVD), where the final landing was on a traditional paved runway. Checking to make sure I was running the correct landing checklist, I flew a traditional traffic pattern, extending my downwind, buying extra time to verify that I had configured the airplane correctly with the wheels extended down out of the floats. The checklist was helpful here. There are specific flap settings to become familiar with when flying the Beaver, and I double-checked to make sure I had the landing detent selected.

The Beaver lands a bit higher on its wheels compared to a water landing, so I tried to flare a bit higher above the pavement. Once down, I pulled onto the taxiway, and the mission automation took over, letting me know I completed the flight successfully. 

Flight time totaled about 90 minutes and introduced me to why the DHC-2 Beaver has become an indelible part of the fabric of Alaskan aviation. The controls felt balanced to fly, and it was evident that a lot of care had been taken to realistically model the airplane, complete with exterior details like a canoe lashed onto the right-side float struts. With MSFS2024’s improved modeling, water landings felt and sounded more dynamic. At touchdown, you can hear the water splashing against the floats, and you can see the airplane settle into the water as the Beaver transitions from airplane to resting on its floats.

The cockpit looks extremely authentic, with wear marks, scratches, and imperfections on all the high-touch surfaces that give the impression you’re sitting in a workhorse that has been in service for many decades. In-sim, the Beaver comes with many different configurations, both the wheeled and amphibious float models, with passenger and cargo variants for each. You also have the choice of choosing between the Garmin GNS 530 or nav radios. However, I couldn’t get the needles moving and believe it’s a known issue with the airplane specific to MSFS2024.

Another realistic detail modeled is the Beaver’s thirst for 100LL. Like the real airplane, you’ll be managing the fuel across the three main fuel tanks or risk running it dry in flight. I nearly did this by accident, but the engine’s coughing and sputtering woke me up in time to flip the fuel selector. More realism points here. The combination of flying a Beaver on floats in Alaska made this the most exciting of all of my sim flights this year.

I acknowledge that flying in-sim, no matter how realistic the programming, removes physical risks and erases the seat-of-the-pants feel (unless you have a motion platform for your sim). But I use my home sim for fun and to keep me connected to real-world aviation. I’ve enjoyed the water landings with the Beaver so much that I plan on starting seaplane lessons at Jack Brown’s Seaplane Base in Winterhaven, Florida, next year. I’m looking forward to seeing what translates over to the real thing and what doesn’t.

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Now, You Fly It

Title: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024

Marketplace: Purchase the Floatplane Pilot mission pack for $8.99, accessing it from the activities tab

Mission 1: Drop-off at Heather Bay

Airplane: DHC-2 Beaver on floats (passenger variant)

Departure Airport: Lake Hood Seaplane Base (PALH)

Arrival Airport: Valdez, Alaska (PAVD)

Approximate flight time: 90 min.

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This featire first appeared in the June Ultimate Issue 971 of the FLYING print edition.