Thanks for Coming to the CIRP page of Return to Misty Moorings. Everything here is FREEWARE, just respect our copyright statement. Download, put it in to FSX and ENJOY!

Similar to the FS2004 release by "The Amigos" called SIRP, which stood for "Stikine Icefield Research Project", Return to Misty Moorings is proud to bring you our version of that masterpiece which centers on the Cambria Ice field and other nearby ice fields in the Stewart area. This is to give our visitors several remote outposts which are situated up on the ice to go explore in FSX. Look for ice airstrips, glacier landing spots, outlying expeditions to re-supply and other challenging reasons to land on the ice. Our inspiration for this was SIRP, but we were re-inspired by this site: Cambria Icefield & Salmon-Frank Mackie Glaciers. Visit the site to see actual pictures of the CIRP area.

This scenery package will bring users ten isolated research camps at various locations in the Cambria Ice field. This area has been beautifully rendered with glacial textures and accurate land class in the ORBX FTX scenery package “Pacific Fjords”. This is a seldom visited piece of North America and pilots will find many scenic treasures up above the mountaintops. Having destinations with airstrips that will challenge even the most experienced aviator is part of the attraction. Weather conditions will never be the same and each visit will yield different results. Even if you only fly out to one location several times in a row, it’s never going to be “Routine” up here. The camps will range from small and hard to find, to large and easily approachable. But they are all situated on the ice and will present certain challenges you won’t find on any other surface.

We've also included several files for you that will add to the experience. NDB radio beacons that help guide you to the ice stations. Each station will have an NDB beacon nearby that will transmit a discreet signal that can be tuned in on an aircraft’s ADF. Look for custom objects that are made specifically for CIRP. You will find dedicated sounds and visual effects ready for you to download and install. We hope you enjoy this new experience as much as we've enjoyed creating it for you.

MUST HAVE OBJECT LIBRARIES ... Listed HERE
INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS ... Listed HERE

Click on Map for Larger Version - Click HERE for Google Earth Map

Camp Designations - There are 10 camps in all, designated PF-40 to PF-49. Each of these will have a name based on a glacial feature nearby.

NDBs - Each camp hosts an NDB good for a range of about 20km (12 Miles), which means you'll have to first VFR your way into the proximity of a camp before the NDB becomes active. The NDB frequencies are all a variation of "24*.0" with the "*" being the camp number designation, For example, the PF45 NDB frequency is 245.0 etc. If you get lost, these NDB's will show up on the FSX GPS, but of course experienced bush pilots need no such help

Fuel - There are no aviation fuel stations in the glacial area around Stewart. Bring what you need.

Airstrip and Taxi Precautions - All of the airstrips, taxi and turnaround areas are all delineated by "ground textures" that feature tire tracks and ground wear. Try to stay in these areas! Straying away from these "worn" areas is not recommended because you will soon come upon the default "ice" ground textures, which have very little to no braking characteristics. So if you overshoot a runway or taxi area stopping or turning around may be difficult to impossible. In such cases your engine and rudder are your only friends. Good Luck!

To learn about the many features of CIRP, click here, to read the official introductory "readme," click here.

CIRP is a natural extension of Return to Misty Moorings, taking advantage of the vast glacial area above Stewart, BC. Now and then you will see a road, but they are few and far between. On the vastness of the icefields, there are no roads and the only way to effectively reach all of the locations is by air. The two main aircraft modes being fixed wing (airplane) and helicopter.

Step one in designing a package like this for the flight sim community is creating the individual, and in this case outlying packages. These are placed where ice stations would be placed in order to study the glaciers, their topography, their movement and their "character." Step two is "doing something" with the scenery locations. For CIRP, there are two "Operations" tables ... one for Air Operations, the second for Land Operations. These will include flight plans and interesting uses for the carefully placed and designed scenery packages.

• AirOps Dispatch 001 - Glacier Tour -(zip) This flight originates at PAKT and flies to the Summit Ice Station. This would be a typical flight for visitors and first time pilots to CIRP. The route is autopilot friendly at 1200 feet until the final waypoints where you will take manual control to climb the glacier and land at Summit Ice Station.
• AirOps Dispatch 002 - Glacier Tour, Return (zip) This flight originates at the Summit Ice Station Visitors' Centre and takes the visitors back to PAKT via New Eddystone Rock. The flight is designed to fly nearly direct back to PAKT, but for bad weather, the auto-route guides you to a safe descent zone for an approach to PAKT.
• AirOps Dispatch 003 - Glacier Grand Prix (zip) This is an airplane or helicopter tour of all 10 ice stations with a few side trips to see some of the interesting "extras". The flight is "autopilot friendly" ... but you will be very busy changing NDB frequencies and adjusting altitude. It is best to download the flight plan and follow your GPS or Plan-G Side window. The flight plan lines you up with the runway on each of the ice stations so you can land, do a "touch and go" or just a low flyover. You can also see a chart for each of the ice stations to see the runway layout. This is a good dispatch to see all the stations.

Helicopter (only) Operations

• Air Ops H-D001 (map) (zip) - This is a good helicopter dispatch for people new to CIRP. The storyline here is an experienced heli pilot is showing a rookie pilot the routes and procedures for the first time. Since this is probably your first time too, this is a good route for an introduction to CIRP. Download the FSX plan from the dispatch.
• Air Ops H-D002 (map) (zip) - This is the second route that picks up many of the helipads not seen in the first route. You can download the flight plan from inside the dispatch.

Auto Routes (for bad weather) - autopilot-friendly routes for gps to be used when weather is difficult. Follow the gps route or use the autopilot ... you must adjust the altitude.

• McLeod to Summit (map) (flight plan)
• Summit to McLeod (map) (flight plan)

CIRP is a flight sim site with an added "land" dimension. While working on the locations, we discovered how fascinating it is to actually work on the glacier at land level. So we decided to create some interesting things for our fans to do "down on the ice." Why Maintenance Runs and Land Routes? When there are active Ice Stations ... the work is never done. Because of the severe weather, the instrumentation placed to monitor the glacial activity can fail interrupting data streams for critical research. Many are powered with solar panels and, of course, snow covering a solar panel will shut down the sensor. There are also ice core drilling teams out on the ice as well as other scientific expeditions. The following two vehicles are recommended but not mandatory:

The "Stolly": The hama Stalwart vehicle is another perfect vehicle for work on the glaciers. The Stalwart could carry 5 tonnes of stores, or tow 10 tonnes. In the water it was driven by vectored thrust water-jet propulsion units at about 6 knots. The drive system including the all-wheel drive, multiple gearboxes, and the water propulsion units was complex and needed a lot of maintenance. When the amphibious qualities become unnecessary, it was common for the water jets to be removed to reduce weight and maintenance. Stalwart by Hama, Repaint by Gary Moore.

Download the CIRP-modified vehicle HERE
Download the "readme" HERE

Routes and Maintenance Runs (for land vehicles)

1. Dispatch SIC-001 (map) - Salmon Glacier Maintenance <= A good "starter" route
2. Dispatch SIC-002 (map) - Summit Lake Maintenance Run
3. Dispatch SIC-003 (map) - Mt Lindeborg Maintenance Run
4. Dispatch SIC-004 (map) - Frank Mackie Glacier Run
5. Dispatch SIC-005 (map) - John Jay Weather Stations

Includes all Summit Ice Station Dispatches

NOTAM: FSDiscover@ dat file for "CIRP Routes & Markers" ... see "map room"

B. Soule Glacier Routes

1. Ops Base (Stewart) to Summit Ice Station
2. Ops Base (Stewart) to Rest & Recreation Lodge
3. Ops Base to Soule Landing (water route)
4. Ops Base to Through Glacier
5. Summit Ice Station to Ops Base
6. Summit Ice Station to Rest and Recreation Lodge
7. Summit Ice Station to Soule Landing
8. Summit Ice Station to Through Glacier <= Good "starter" route
9. Through Glacier to Summit Ice Station
10. Through Glacier to Ops Base
11. Through Glacier to Rest & Recreation Lodge
12. Through Glacier to Soule Landing

All Routes included in Zip

NOTAM: FSDiscover! Dat file for "CIRP Routes & Markers" ... see "map room"

Here are some of the features you will find in CIRP ...

• FSDiscover! "dat" file for CIRP ... All the sensors and camps - Updated: 08.30.2011
• Smoking Barrels: You'll find smoking barrels near the ends of airstrips to help line up your approach
• Custom CIRP Airstrip Ground Polygons: Designed by Xavier Carre', these airstrips look like they should up here.
  
• Custom CIRP Objects: Look for signs, buildings and other objects designed by Xavier Carre' that help with location, parking and building assignments at the ice stations.
  
• Custom CIRP Sounds: Blowing wind sounds and other noises surround you at the ice stations.
  
• NDB for each CIRP Ice Station: Encoded into each ice station is an NDB code you can tune in on your ADF equipped aircraft to help with navigation.
  
• Custom NDB Scenery: Matching that custom NDB code is a scenery file that shows you an NDB object positioned near each Ice station.
• AI Hovercraft: Dex Thomas created AI package for CIRP that uses Hama's hovercraft between Soule Glacier and Stewart.
• AI Aircraft: Xavier Carre' added an AI Maule aircraft with ski's that makes Bromley Peak supply runs.
  
• Blowing Snow Effects: We have blowing snow effects using the original FS9 file by Ed Truthan. Added to CIRP by Xavier Carre'. It's not too bad in FSX but look for a possible update in the near future that adds blowing snow effects by Ed Truthan specifically for FSX.
  
• Hidden Scenery Locations: Most bases have helipads on nearby mountains, away teams on the ice and other sights to locate. See if you can find them.
  
• Main Supply Depot: Be sure to add the additional scenery for the airport at Stewart that gives you a CIRP Operations Base and other nearby attractions.
• Ketchikan Office: Another additional scenery area that gets those tourists at the larger airport interested in visiting the ice fields near Stewart.
• Glacier Maintenance Dispatches: Summit Ice Station and Visitors Center offers fun and challenging Hovercraft dispatches that take visitors out on the ice.
• Nearby Scenery: Look for several more additional scenery locations around the icefields in our CIRP Extra Addon Sections. More to come in the future.
• Starting Points with Heading: All locations have a starting point you can manually enter, this includes a heading, also the type of terrain is indicated for each. 
• FSDiscover! ... all the CIRP locations are in the RTMM.Dat file now. For the routes and instruments dispatches for the Land Operations packages, there is a CI RP_Routes and Markers dat file that is separate so you can turn it on and off.

Why are there frame rate drops?

Some of you might experience a loss in performance while flying around our CIRP scenery. Without being able to determine a specific cause, you might want to try this approach to limit that possibility. Only activate two CIRP scenery areas at a time. What this means is that for example you are planning to fly from Stewart to Mt. McLeod and then on to Otter Mountain before returning to Stewart to reload, only activate Mt. McLeod and Otter Mountain in your FSX scenery library. This seems to work for some of my testing I've done in developing CIRP. Here's what I do.

Go to the Scenery Library in FSX once the program opens. Deselect all CIRP scenery except the two or three destinations I plan to visit on my flight. Then let the database recompile itself. Go back to the main screen and select free flight. Set up my initial flight leg departure airport, and for this example, it's at CZST, Stewart. Then I fly the first leg from Stewart to Mt. McLeod. I deliver my cargo there and I then fly on to Otter Mountain and land. If I plan on returning to Stewart, then I taxi back to the airstrip and return to base. However, if I want to stay up on the ice and go to another ice station, then I save my flight at Otter Mountain where I shut down as "Start" in FSX and make that the default flight. So next time I select "start" from the available flights, I'll be right back where I left off at Otter Mountain. Once I've saved that flight as "start", I end the flight I'm on and then I go back to the main FSX start up menu and select "Settings" and then "Scenery Library" again. This time, I deselect Mt. McLeod, leave Otter Mountain active, and then select my next CIRP destination, which we'll say for this example is Erickson Glacier. Save that setting and let the scenery library database recompile again.

Now go back to the Free Flight menu of FSX and select the just saved "Start" flight. Once that loads, you should find yourself back where you were at Otter Mountain, ready to begin your next flight up to Erickson Glacier. Take off and fly to your next destination. Then continue the practice of saving when you get to Erickson Glacier as "start", ending your flight and when you're ready to load up a new scenery area for CIRP, deselect Otter Mountain, select your next stop, etc. You'll figure out what works for you and by all means if you can activate all of the CIRP scenery and not notice any drop in performance when panning around, changing direction, etc. then please leave all the scenery active.

These are just suggestions to eliminate any possible frame rate hits that some people out there might experience when using this scenery. The causes for this are yet to be determined, it might be because the airstrips are photo overlays on top of the surrounding terrain, but that hasn't been confirmed, just a notion. But we're going to try and see if we can do whatever we can to help eliminate any drop in performance and this practice might do that for you, it might not. Again, you should play with your display settings and scenery complexity settings in FSX to help raise your performance in the program as well.

Why am I seeing dirt instead of snow?

When in your outside view and watching your aircraft move around on the ground, you may see dirt coming off the tires instead of snow. This issue is out of our control and seems to be an effect due to the ORBX seasonal terrain used in their "Pacific Fjords" scenery add on. Of course that scenery is used as the base of Return to Misty Moorings so we don't have any control over that. There are a couple of things you can try. Having rain or snow in your weather seems to eliminate the dirt on the ground when taxiing around and try setting your season to Winter. That might help eliminate the dirt clods and change them to snow. If none of those steps seem to work, then stay in the cockpit view and refrain from switching to the outside view if it bothers you that much.

Where's the blowing snow effects?

Well, there back. Sort of. You now have the choice of adding the original FS9 effects to CIRP but there are some caveats. On CIRP locations with significant elevation changes, the blowing snow will not stay on the ground. The snow effect will continue on above the terrain as the ground slopes away. Nothing we can do, you just have to get used to it or disable the effect and those are the only choices for now. One of the most enjoyable features of the FS9 SIRP scenery was the custom blowing snow effects that were incorporated in that release. We're in contact with the author of those effects, Ed Truthan, and he's interested in developing that effect for us to use with our scenery at CIRP. However, Ed is a busy man and real world commitment's take most of his time, so no time frame for release is available but Ed is looking into it for us. Keep your fingers crossed for an update to CIRP that includes Ed's blowing snow effects made to work in FSX.

Why do the wind socks flicker?

Sometimes it seems that the windsocks placed in CIRP will flicker and flutter in an almost strobe like effect. No fix has been found for this yet but we'll keep looking. There seems to be no pattern to the anomaly either. Sometimes they work as they should, other times they flicker.

Why do some objects show clouds bleeding through?

Not sure but we think it has something to do with the alpha channel of the object when it was originally created. Specifically, the one object we notice this on the most is the satellite tower used near all the bases and on some of the mountaintop scenery locations. It's a white triangle steel structure and has several satellite dishes attached to it at various elevations on the supports. You may see a transparency that almost looks "see through" and that's the anomaly you get. No fix for this is planned other than removing the object and it's not something we're planning on at this time. If we get too many complaints about it, then that might change.

Why are the strobes misplaced?

This is an anomaly in Instant Scenery, it is not a problem of the Strobe Effect Object. No matter what we try to do to place them exactly on the top of the weather instruments and route markers, they always are misplaced. The "size" of the object is "zero" so you won't see it in the daylight, at night, you won't notice so much the strobes are not exactly where they belong, but they are still very important to night navigation, so we left them in the program.

Will DX10 mode help with frame rates?

While testing out our CIRP Scenery, we tried using DX10 preview mode with FSX enabled and discovered that while some performance was gained, objects made for use in FS9 and being used in CIRP were no longer showing textures. Other anomalies being reported in this configuration were missing AI aircraft textures, scenery tile's flashing, runways flashing. There are plenty of known issues you can find doing your own search for using DX10 preview mode in FSX and our recommendation is to not use this mode since your results could be less than desirable.

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

DOCUMENTATION READ ALL OF THE INSTALLATION FILES IN EACH OF THE INCLUDED ZIP FILES WE PRODUCE. THEY ARE NOT ALWAYS GOING TO BE THE SAME!!

NOTAM, be sure you have downloaded the latest object library files, see below.

NOTAM, be sure to use the PFJ, CIRP, RTMM settings for FSX, listed below:

The Object Libraries: The "things" you see are called "objects". These are individually created little 3-D works of art. There are literally hundreds of them involved in something the size of RTMM and CIRP. These are found in object libraries. We deal with four object libraries. You must download the latest library and then have the objects active in your FSX Scenery to view the objects. Below are the links to the five key libraries we use. Be sure you have downloaded the latest from each of them and have them installed. Check the FAQ page for "Scenery Tester". Download the zip file there and install it, then follow the instructions. You will be able to tell if you have missing scenery objects.

OZx_Libraries_1.0_install.zip
OZx_LIB_v1.1.zip  

The link sends you to the FlightSim search page. Under file name, enter "EZ_1.zip" and download the file. If this download is slow, we are also hosting the file here at RTMM.

One word of caution on this library, it has an .exe installer for installing the library BUT it defaults to FS2004 (FS9) so when you run the installer use the 'browse' button in the installer to direct the installation to a temporary or dummy folder to prevent installation in the wrong places on your HD.  Once you have the library installed in the temporary folder you can then copy or move the various folders into the Addon folder of FSX and then add it to your FSX Scenery Library.  It should not matter where your FTX Central is set when you do the EZ-1 install as it is not scenery but if you're concerned you may set it to Default and then back to North America once the EZ-1 is installed.

Object Library Placement: The RTMM and CeyX object libraries should be "above" the CIRP and RTMM addon scenery folders. The ORBX folders should be "Below" RTMM and CIRP. This is a rough example of how they should look in the FSX Scenery Library:

1. CeyX Object Library
2. RTMM Object Library
3. CIRP Mt McLeod
4. CIRP Otter Mountain
5. OZx
6. ORBX
7. FSX folders

How do I know if Objects are Missing: Go to the Scenery Object Tester we have placed on the FAQ page (under "S"). You should download the "zip" file there that gives you "another" scenery location. You add it to your Addon Scenery folder just like the normal procedure. Then you go to PANT (airport) and to where the runways cross. You will see a row of buildings and objects lined up along the runway. Position yourself across the runway from these facing them. Compare what you see with the picture that is on the FAQ. Each object is numbered. If you do not see one, look at the corresponding number and you will know which object library is not working for you.

FTX Central and RTMM/CIRP: Whenever you fly in an ORBX area, your FTX central area should be set to that geographical area and be active. For example, if you're planning on flying in Australia, you'll need to make sure FTX Central is set to Australia and active. Same for North America, make sure you are setting FTX Central with North America active.  If you want to use our Return to Misty Moorings scenery addon's, you must not only have North America active in FTX Central, but you'll also need to make sure you've purchased and installed the ORBX FTX scenery addon for North America, "Pacific Fjords". All of our little contributions are made to fit inside that PFJ addon so it's a must have.

Credits

This project may have come out of one person's head and scribbled onto a piece of paper one day, but it takes a lot of people to bring the dream to fruition.

• Brad Allen - Overall concept, project development and management, research, scenery design, storyline, documentation, map creation, images, testing.
• Doug Linn - Project management, scenery design, CIRP custom objects, ice routes, documentation, website, testing.
• Xavier Carre' - Scenery design, CIRP custom objects, airstrips, NDB's, sounds, effects placement, documentation, AI flightplans, AI aircraft, testing.
• Guy "Spud" Maricich - Project coordination, quality control, testing.
• Dex Thomas - Sound design, AI Vehicles and AI flightplans.
• Jeff Greene - Aircraft repaints, vehicles and configuration, video creation, testing.
• Klaus Troppner - Video creation, helicopter ops, testing.
• Gary Moore - Land vehicle repaints, the CIRP Hovercraft and the CIRP Stalwart, video creation, testing.
• Tom Tsui - Images, testing.
• Dieter Linde - Plan G waypoints for CIRP.
• Chris Brisland - Scenery design for Through Glacier.
• Kim Gowney - Technical assistance.
• Dan Linn - Website Design, Website maintenance (making sure it works after we break it!)

Special Thanks

• Ed Truthan - SIRP blowing snow effects, support.
• Glenn "Woody" Fout - SIRP snowdrift objects, support.
• John Venema - ORBX FTX, FTX website banner.
• Holger Sandman - ORBX FTX
• Jay Kae - Project support.
• Mark Lee - OZx objects permission.
• Ken Hall - OZx objects permission.
• Francois Dumas - Tongass Fjords objects permission, FSAddon
• Bill Womack - Project support
• Mitsuya Hamaguchi - Vehicle Objects. (ships, vehicles)
• The remaining "Amigos" from SIRP, Bill Dick and Phil Cayton
• All of the EZ-1, RWY 12 and other library object creators and anybody else we may have missed.
• Thank you for your contributions to the FSX freeware community. We hope by our usage, these objects you spent so much time on will live on to see a current audience that can appreciate what you did.