Escalante Mountain, Utah

Here's one more neglected and overgrown airstrip in Utah. Based on historical imagery, I'd guess it has been unused for about thirty years.

The airstrip is located on a small and relatively level plateau above Escalante Canyon, between the Escalante Muni (1L7) and Bryce Canyon (KBCE) airports. The Utah Back Country Pilots Association lists it as Escalante Canyon, whereas OurAirports calls it Escalante Mountain; I had a slight preference for the Escalante Mountain name because the airstrip itself is located up high, but I have also included a POI for the adjacent Escalante Canyon.

Pine trees and sagebrush have been cleared from the runway itself, but still grow in close proximity to it. A dirt track runs along the airstrip, so try not to be distracted by its meanderings: the first planes to use the airstrip since I reopened it have left a faint brown trail of disturbed dirt to follow.

There's a nice meadow down the southeast end, with a couple of benches and a fire ring.

• N 37.531702505, W 111.705562105
• Code: U5315 (abbreviated from the real code, US-5315)
• Elevation: 7497 feet
• Runway 12/30: 2023 feet x 39 feet dirt/grass/sagebrush, gradient 1.8 %.

I am indebted to Gala for correcting a mesh issue (leading to trees floating in mid-air) that became apparent in SU7.

Known issues:

• The simulator draws the visible ground level at slightly inconsistent heights (both on separate flights, and at diferent times on the same flight), therefore some scenery objects can appear just above or below ground level.
• When starting from parking positions on non-level ground, the character sometimes appears almost underground. If this happens, enter then exit the aircraft, and the character should then be correctly placed for your exterior inspection.
• I've attempted to remove all the airport services from these airports (or at least the majority of them); thank you to Grey Skies Simulations (flightsim.to: GreySkies). You may also want to lower the number of static aircraft and characters etc. under Settings > General > Graphics > Advanced Settings.
• Only one of the runway starts works as intended (i.e. runway 12 goes to runway 30). A long-standing bug.

Donations: If you enjoy my work and wish to donate, send some money to your local animal charity or go volunteer. If you do, send me a note or a picture about it. 🙂