A route across wide-open America
Wyoming Air Service Inc. mainly served Wyoming in the early 1930s. The documents used to rebuild this route come from Timetable Images, the archive maintained by Björn Larsson and David Zekria, a useful reference for historic airline timetables.
The route is short on paper, but full of atmosphere: Denver, Cheyenne, Casper, Sheridan and Billings, crossing part of the Rocky Mountain region and the high plains of the American West. It is a flight about terrain, changing weather and old-style navigation.
A regional route through the American West of the 1930s.
Suggested model: Jens B. Kristensen, file b247_v20.zip.
GPS is recommended as a backup for the longer stretches.
High plains, terrain, wind and wide-open space.
Preparing the flight
- The Boeing 247-D is the ideal aircraft for the atmosphere of this route; Jens B. Kristensen's model is available through Flightsim.com.
- Watch altitude and weather carefully: the Rockies and high plains can make a short route much more demanding.
- Keep the navigation plan simple: there are only a few stops, but enough distance between them to settle into the flight.
- Light turbulence and moderate winds make the route feel more convincing than perfectly smooth weather.
Suggested route
Colorado
Fly this chapter as an organized sequence, keeping the departures, arrivals and stops shown in the navigation cards.
KDEN → KCYS
Wyoming
This chapter sets the logic of the Wyoming segment: move step by step without compressing the historical progression.
KCYS → KCPR → KSHR
Montana
This chapter sets the logic of the Montana segment: move step by step without compressing the historical progression.
KSHR → KBIL
Atmosphere tips
This plan works best with good visibility and a living atmosphere: moderate winds, high clouds and distant terrain. The charm is not in the number of stops, but in the feeling of distance between towns and the gradual push north through the Rocky Mountain region.
© Michel Lagneau 2021.