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.

The hospital helipad is currently listed.

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)

                                                          SE PARKING 3 – DOCK GA
                                                                 parked near eastern side of main docks – no dock

                                                           N PARKING 4 – DOCK GA
                                                                 parked at dock position 4 (Sunshine Coast Air dock)

Icao                     CBP4

Airport                SECHELT HOSPITAL HELIPAD

IFR                     No navigation aids exist

                           H01 (helipad)

   
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 scenery changes then why not leave me a note for encouragement.

Version 1.8

-           On request from Martin78 the helipad at Sechelt Hospital (St Mary’s) has been added. The helipad is approximately 950 meters from the docks and the helipad ground texture is from Google Earth dated July 2022.

The helipad has it’s own ICAO viz CBP4 and it can be selected by entering ‘Sechelt’ in the search bar in the world map and then either selecting CBP4 Sechelt Hospital Helipad or selecting CAX3 Sechelt Water Aerodrome and then selecting your preferred parking location  or simply entering either ICAO in the search bar in the world map.

Take care of the stiff leg construction crane when maneuvering.

Released 4 August 2024 as a memorial to my wife one calendar year since her passing.

 

Version 1.9

Modification to prevent auto generated building overwriting my Lighthouse pub. Problem started after a recent MSFS upgrade. During this minor modification I have taken the opportunity to include the following additions -

Recent FUEL sign on the roof of the pub

Buccaneer restaurant adjacent to the pub together with the iconic radio mast on the roof and three Canadian animated flags which will only appear if the WINDY THINGS library by trfsto is installed.

Block block of offices adjacent to Buccaneers.

More of Mamudesigns boats which only appear if Mamu’s Marina’s package is installed.

 

Version 1.9.1

Added extra parking for large aircraft near the eastern side of the main docks.
It is named  SE PARKING 3
When starting from this location it is wise to deploy the aircraft’s anchor to prevent drifting especially if windy.

Note the northern parking now becomes N PARKING 4
Also addition of ramp to the docks from rear of Buccaneers restaurant, fence around office block and correct texture for end wall,  plus Open neon sign illuminated only during the day on the shed near S PARKING 1.

 

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.

 

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 1.39.9.0  (as at 20260205)

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/

WINDY THINGS by trfsto available at flightsim.to (three Canadian flags on Buccaneer roof)

 

Installation Instructions –

If earlier versions of my scenery are installed then firstly -

Delete the following from your Community Folder -

              cax3-sechelt

              cax3-aerial

Unzip this folder to a temporary folder and copy the “sechelt-cax3” folder into your FS2020 COMMUNITY FOLDER.

Copy “sechelt-cax3-aerial” folder into your FS2020 COMMUNITY FOLDER – this is optional and simply removes some satellite ‘ghosting’ of old and existing docks.

 

According to one person who has downloaded this scenery it works in MSFS2024 even though created in MSFS2020.

 

John Arnold

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CAX3 Sechelt/Porpoise Bay Water Aerodrome - CBP4 Sechelt Hospital Helipad

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. It is located around 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) WNW of Sechelt-Gibsons airport. Whilst the aerodrome has been closed, the Sechelt Inlet/Porpoise Bay area is still used daily by private airline operators including Harbour Air.

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