Before I start, imagine the following: Imagine a thin, paved road through the dense jungles of Congo. Imagine villages of mud-brick huts and thatched roofs alongside this road, surrounded by ancient trees. Imagine children playing on the road, among the occasional truck or car and imagine goats grazing off the sides of the road in the dense vegetation usually associated with jungles. Now you should have an image of a peaceful town, but the truth is far from that.
Because besides its main use as a playground for children, grazing area for goats and important trough road for traffic, the road near Walikale in the Democratic Republic of Congo also functions as a runway, bends, potholes and guerrilla wars included.
For an upcoming episode of the most challenging airports in the world in Microsoft's Flight Simulator X (now available on Steam), I was planning on covering the airports of Northern Africa. Walikale was however not included in default FSX, so I decided, due to a slight lack of airports in the region to choose from, to make my own rendition. Based on satellite imagery and detailed-ish reports from frequent users of the pseudo-airstrip, I managed to piece together a relatively accurate rendition of the airstrip, although it is still a far cry from the real deal.
For one, FSX doesn't allow curved or sloped runways, so to achieve this, one must use taxiways (easy solution) or one must make custom mesh (hard solution). As I am a human being and humans are inherently lazy, I chose for the first option, so there is no 'official' FSX runway. It works for all intents and purposes, but as there is no high quality satellite imagery, you'll have to put up with default ground textures, unless you have downloaded replacements (like I have) such as ORBX global (payware). Besides this, FSX wont model political stability for some odd reason, so the full immersive Walikale experience cant be completed accurately. Still, there should be enough trees to keep you happy.
The file can be downloaded from Simviation through THIS LINK HERE (external website)
The readme contains all kinds of useless and partially useful info, and it repeats most of what i wrote here. If you are unfamiliar with Simviation, I suggest you check out their large selection of aircraft and scenery available for download
To recreate the flights to and from walikale accurately, take-off from Goma airport in the east of the DRC of Congo and fly west by northwest to reach the airport. Take care to choose an aircraft with:
A. A small wingspan
B. Good brakes
C. Powerful engines
D. Bulletproof windshield
Alternatively, you can set up a flight plan. Walikale has been given a fictional ID of FZWK, although searching for Walikale airstrip under airport name or Kilambo under city name should do the trick as well.
I would advise you to read the readme before you start and to turn the crash detection off, which should remove most bugs caused by trees close to the runway.
For those not persuaded yet by my little talk, here's a couple of pictures. The aircraft is the Freeware Douglas C-47 v3.12 also available through Simviation. (simviation.com)
Although the C-47 might not be the largest craft I landed at Walikale, it did offer me the biggest challenge when it came to avoiding vegetation and huts.
If you would like to see real-world footage (on which I partly based my design), go to YouTube and search walikale landing or CLICK HERE if you're particularly lazy.
TL;DR: I made a bit of scenery that works, DOWNLOAD HERE, lots of trees, some sheep
Happy flying and may the vegetation be ever in your favour.
