Category: Flight Simulator 2004 - Scenery
Cordova Smith PACV & Municipal CKU in Alaska US

Images related to this file:

• cordova_ak-1.jpg
• cordova_ak-2.jpg
• cordova_ak-3.jpg
• cordova_ak-4.jpg
• cordova_ak-5.jpg

File Description:
Cordova is on the south coast of Alaska, around 150 miles east of Anchorage and 45 miles south of Valdez. The town is mainly built on a small but relatively flat area between the east side of Prince William Sound and Eyak Lake, and has a population of around 2,350 in 2010, the approximate date of this scenery. The Municipal Airfield CKU is on the north side of Eyak Lake to the east of Cordova, with the runway that is 1,800 feet of unlit gravel squeezed between the lake and the road that runs around the lake. The hangars and parking aprons are reached by taxiing across, and to some extent along, the road. Float planes are also taken from the lake to an apron to the west of the runway. Cordova Airport PACV (named in the real world "Merle K. (Mudhole) Smith", and I will leave you to research this) is known as Cordova Smith in FS9 and is 10 miles to the east of the town on relatively flat ground between mountains to the north and the sea to the south. The runway is 8,080 feet of lit asphalt aligned 09-27 with ILS on runway 27 and VASI on both ends. The aprons are to the north side of the runway and are reached by back-taxiing; there are no taxiways parallel to the runway. The main apron serves Alaska Air via the western of two taxiways. The GA parking and hangars are mainly reached by using the eastern taxiway, though there is in fact a connecting taxiway between the two (for GA, but definitely not for airliner use). The taxiway further to the west serves the separated Alaska Coastguard apron and hangar, which is mainly for helicopter use. There is a nominally grass runway 1,900 feet long and aligned 16-34 to the south of the main runway; in fact it appears to be more gravel than grass. I have left this inactive as otherwise AI Alaska Air planes would be attempting to use this when the wind made it seem like a good idea. The AI includes Alaska Air (twice a day) and also Coastguard helicopters, along with GA.