CAX3 Sechelt/Porpoise Bay Water Aerodrome
Sechelt is a small town on the lower Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, Canada situated between the Strait of Georgia and the southern end of Sechelt Inlet.
Sechelt/Porpoise Bay Water Aerodrome was an aerodrome located adjacent to Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada. The airport was listed as abandoned in the 15 March 2007 Canada Flight Supplement.
Sechelt is located around 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) WNW of Sechelt-Gibsons airport.
Whilst the aerodrome is listed as abandoned, the Sechelt Inlet/Porpoise Bay area is still used daily by private airline operators including Harbour Air and Sunshine Coast Air.
Icao CAX3
IFR No navigation aids exist
Location Country CANADA
Province BRITISH COLUMBIA
City SECHELT
Airport SECHELT WATER AIRPORT
Runway/Starting Positions
NORTH, SOUTH (hypothetical take off positions)
S PARKING 1 – DOCK GA
parked at dock position 1 (Harbor Air dock near Lighthouse Pub)
S PARKING 2 – DOCK GA
parked at dock position 2 (Harbor Air dock near Lighthouse Pub)
N PARKING 3 – DOCK GA
parked at dock position 3 (Sunshine Coast Air dock)
Co-ordinates 49.48245, -123.75755
Version 1.0:
- Docks, (bump) tyres and static boats
- C172 Cessna floatplane
- White Islets
Version 1.1:
- MSFS control tower building removed
Version 1.2:
- Added Lighthouse Pub (Happy Hour 3 - 5pm Daily J )
Version 1.3:
- Modified land elevation at rear of pub and added car parks. My first attempt to change
ground elevation using ‘terraforming’. Hopefully I can improve on this in the future.
Version 1.4:
- Added dock and parking for the floatplane base used by Sunshine Coast Air which is located about 2km (1.5 miles) north of the Lighthouse Pub on the east shore on the inlet – refer Parking N Parking 3 – Dock GA.
- Removed visual hold short points at water runway
- Added exclusion of 3rd party library objects so that scenery such as mamudesign’s wonderful marina library will still work but won’t conflict with this scenery.
Version 1.5:
- More of a semi bug fix. Moved the parking location at N PARKING 3 – DOCK GA further away from end of dock to prevent possible crash when aircraft is blown onto dock which has collision detect. Also replaced the cone on the dock with a ‘sandwich board’ advertising Sunshine Coast Air and added collision detection to end of pier near the pub.
Version 1.6:
- Addition of the Sechelt Sand and Gravel Mine deep sea shiploader, and the gravel ship Illalangi in the Georgia Straight. Please note that this scenery model is LOW POLY as it is meant more as a VFR object seen from above. I dedicate this upgrade to my late wife who I lost while I was creating it.
Version 1.6.1
- Bug fix. Certain textures not included in v1.6 now fixed
Version 1.7
- Major scenery update to improve match to actual area, including reposition parts of the dock especially the position of the area where the shed is, addition of realistic shed plus gas/diesel and avgas pumps, avgas meter and stop valve, fuel supply pipes from the pub, life buoys, boxes, ladders, avgas refuelling areas, aircraft boarding step, more boat bumpers etc. Removal of drums near the shed. Added collision detection to dock parking. Added safety yellow coloured barriers on pier.
- Some lighting added to pier and shed for cosmetic purposes as this is not a 24/7 airport.
- Addition of pleasure boat launching ramp and poly floating pleasure craft dock.
- Also replacement of converted FSX static C152 by A F Scrubbs with DHC3 Harbour Air – see credits.
- Removal of ‘ghost’ satellite images of docks (separate package file viz cax3-aerial – see installation instructions below)
NOTE DAVE’S SEAPLANE BASE OBJECT LIBRARY is no longer required for display of life buoys
Also note that dock parking has aircraft facing away from the pub whereas in real life floatplanes are usually parked nose towards the pub. The reason I did not set up the parking orientation to what happens in real life is that the DHC2 Beaver model does not turn sharp enough to allow a 180 degree turn when taxiing without contacting the pier opposite.
If you enjoy these scenenry changes then why not leave me a note for encouragement.
I have put this scenery together using photograph images, videos and satellite imagery found on the internet plus photographs supplied by Lee Young. Topography next to the docks is not correct and I have attempted to adjust elevations to match the end of the pier only.
This scenery is freeware and must not be distributed for gain.
Let me know if you see need of improvement or have any issues with the package.
It has been tested on MSFS2020 version 1.36.2.0 (as at 20240202)
And check out my other water airports (Nanaimo, Powel River, Vancouver Harbour and Whistler) available from flightsim.to
Credits
CGTrader.com Fishing boat
2016 Jeep Renegade on boat launching ramp
Blender
Airport Design Editor (used to start the airport for the first version)
Lee Young (Leeroy) Personal photos of Lighthouse Pub and dock area which assisted me in modelling the pub, shed and other objects on the dock to get the scenery looking similar to the real thing. Lee’s supply of photographs of the dock area used to develop version 1.7 was invaluable. Thanks heaps Lee.
Deadzone44 His request for the Sunshine Coast base to be added and his supply of photographs which assisted me to ‘model’ that area.
Kurtismedia From ‘sketchpad’. His excavator model was used and heavily modified to reduce the
poly count.
Premier Aircraft Design DHC3a (later turbo version) Otter amphibian aircraft (ex FSX)
The original aircraft used to create the static model came with the following –
This is freeware, and must not be sold, copied to any commercial product,
or uploaded to any site that charges and sort of fee for access.
This file may be freely distributed.
Please note that Premier Aircraft Design closed on February 16th 2022 and is no longer contactable (for permission to use which flightsim.to expects) and in fact at least two of its founders (Barry Blaisdell and Jean-Pierre Brisard) are now deceased.
I have unsuccessfully attempted to contact the only other founder, Bob May, for permission.
Optional
There are scenery objects which will only appear if you download and install the following libraries
ALL available from flightsim.to (thanks Badmen and mamudesign for saving me time) –
DAVE’S 3D PEOPLE library by BadMed (people on the dock)
MAMUDESIGN – MARINAS by mamu (adds heaps more realism by adding other docks and
boats both at Sechelt and many other places in the world – highly
recommended.
Please NOTE that as at 20240401 this addon is no longer available at flightsim.to It is available at https://mamudesign.eu/shop/
Installation Instructions -
Unzip this folder to a temporary folder and copy the “cax3-sechelt” folder into your FS2020 COMMUNITY FOLDER.
Copy “cax3-aerial” folder into your FS2020 COMMUNITY FOLDER – this is optional and simply removes some satellite ‘ghosting’ of old and existing docks.
If updating from earlier version then remove/delete cax3-sechelt from the community folder before copying the new version.
John Arnold
Leeroy
CaptainMoonlight
jarnie author
3 months ago
Leeroy
jarnie author
8 months ago
jarnie
Due to all your encouragements and assistance with photos my water airport now is look a lot better. Thanks.
Leeroy
Great job
DeadZone44
Hey, great work for this much needed area in BC. Wonderful to see that you recognized Harbour Air. My wife and I did a BC trip to Powell River and stopped for a flight in a DHC-2 (bucket list)on Sunshine Coast Air. What are the chances you could add another scenery for the Sunshine Coast Air Sechelt Office just down the shoreline - Here's to hoping!! I will be d/ling this tonight for sure!! Here is a link to our DHC-2 flight - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKKnooJdVHU&t=69s
jarnie author
Thanks for your kind remarks. Not sure where you mean re Sunshine Coast Air Sechelt office. I think you mean about 2 kilometers down Sechelt Inlet Road from Sechelt (Lighthouse pub) where I see some floatplanes in a Google Earth satellite image. I found just 1 photo in Google Earth and note the docks (construction) look a bit different from the ones at Sechelt. If I can find some time and you don't mind the same docks as at Sechelt Lighthouse Pub I will see what I can do but there will only be docks and no other scenery objects. I live in Australia and so can only model using photos I can scrounge. I did 'model' both areas years ago for FSX. I will be away from home for the next 4-5 weeks before I can start to consider this.
1 years ago
pilott22
Cool
ch4os1337
It even has fuel pumps? That's dope, thanks.
jarnie author
Just as the real life place also has.
1 years ago
CaptainMoonlight
I like it very much (v1.1 w/o TWR). Thx and always Happy Landings
Leeroy
nice job, just one thing, there is no ATC tower here on the water front.
jarnie author
I assume that you live near Sechelt. Apart from the docks all other scenery/buildings you see are auto generated by MSFS2020. You can check that out by removing CAX3-Sechelt from the community folder, take off from CAP3 Sechelt-Gibsons and fly to the area and have a look. I am currently working on creating my version of The Lighthouse pub to replace the MSFS auto generated building which looks nothing like it. Not sure if and when that will be a reality.
1 years ago
Ginete
Thank You!