Western US: new airports and standalone option

[Keith Smith]

When we first launched the Western US Expansion Area at the end of 2016, the idea was to provide a small number of core airports and a healthy number of rotating bonus fields for jet pilots to stretch their legs. The airspace didn't have enough towered airports to warrant a standalone subscription, so it was released as an optional add-on.

Since the launch, our thinking has evolved and the purpose for Western US has changed from a relatively small collection of widely-spaced airports for airliners to a larger ecosystem of airports for a wide range of aircraft, including pistons.

To that end, we've made some changes:

1) The bonus fields have all become full-time airports. No more rotation.

2) Amarillo, El Paso and Four Corners Regional have been added to the airport list.

3) We've announced a road map for the Western US coverage area containing just over 40 towered airports, including all of the Class Bravo airports, all of the Class Charlie airports and strategically-selected Class D airports within the Western US coverage area.

4) This is a big one...Western US is now available as a standalone subscription. It will eventually contain as many towered airports at the ZLA coverage area and is already well on the way with 20 towered airports. This change allows pilots to have "Western US only" access for the same cost as a traditional ZLA-only subscription. They'll even have ZLA overflight privileges at or above 14,000ft, allowing them to transition ZLA as the go from one Western US airport to another (eg, SFO-PHX)

[Keith Smith]

6 more airports have been added as we continue to build out towards the v2.0 road map.

1) Arizona: Flagstaff (KFLG),  Prescott (KPRC) and Tucson (KTUS)

2) Colorado: Centennial (KAPA), Colorado Springs (KCOS) and Grand Junction (KGJT)

[Keith Smith]

3 more airports have been added to Western US, bringing us to 29 towered airports for that coverage area and counting:

1) Eugene, OR (KEUG)

2) Medford, OR (KMFR)

3) North Bend, OR (KOTH)

The current coverage area can be viewed here: https://www.pilotedge.net/pages/operating-hours-and-service-area

Edited November 11, 2017 by Keith Smith

[Keith Smith]

2 more airports have been added to Western US:

1) Boise, ID (KBOI)

2) Friedman Memorial, ID (KSUN)

Friedman has a pretty neat NDB/DME-A approach with a long visual segment and a FAF inside of NDB.

[Keith Smith]

3 more airports have been added to Western US:

1) Boeing Field (KBFI)

2) Olympia (KOLM)

3) Tri-Cities (KPSC)

[Keith Smith]

January saw the addition of Fresno (FAT) and Redding (RDD) to northern California. 

On February 1st, we added Jackson Hole (JAC) and Casper (CPR) to Wymoning.

Montana should be receiving its upgrades in March and then Western US V2 will be complete.

[Keith Smith]

As promised, Montana received its upgrades earlier this week, including BIL, GPI, HLN, and MSO

 

This marks the end of the Western US v2 upgrades! There are now 42 towered airports within Western US and 43 within ZLA.