My reason for getting to the Calgary Springbank airport around mid-week was to try to hit a weather window over the Canadian Rockies - something with clear skies, or as clear as I could manage. I thought that I might downgrade to a module a little lighter and see the sights through those splendid mountains.
Being a VFR flight with little in the way of navigation aids along my proposed route, I wanted to make sure that I could get where I wanted to go and not get lost among the peaks and valleys. I ploted a route that brought me through one of the valleys west of Calgary, along the Trans-Canada highway, through to Morton Peak and it’s VOR station (YNY) before I would turn south for Kelowna (CYLW).
If I throw in a bunch of manual waypoints I get something like this:
Realistically, I needed to plot something a little more straightforward, so this will be what I was looking for navigation-wise.
With the route planned out, time to look at the weather. I had hoped to do the flight on Saturday, when the best chance existed for a flight all the way to Kelowna. Instead, I was delayed until Sunday with the weather looking a little more challenging.
I had to be prepared to stop or turn back before i would get trapped in a valley and have ‘aviation’ challenges getting turned around :-).
If you look up at my hand-written notes, you will see a few red boxes. These indicate cloud layers that I feel were marginal. Between CYGE (Golden) and CYRV (Revelstoke) I would likely hit my ‘decision point’.
For this flight I would be using the AirFoilLabs Cessna 172SP. I had this module in my hanger for a number of months but having encountered an issue that was holding me back I left it. With the recent talk of the King Air, I dug it out again to take a look at the systems AirFoilLabs had in place - a preview of what I could expect. I flew the Cessna 172SP a couple of weeks ago and was impressed enough to push up my King Air purchase.
The checklist system is a little bare when compared to the 350 - no voice to guide you through and no automatic detection that the steps are completed. The system is adequate and better than most given the external interactions are there and the Cessna 172SP is an older module than the King Air 350.
Starting X-Plane on this cold day and the first thing I noticed were the windows foging up. I appreciate this kind of feedback and detal and getting the airplane started, with the cabin heat on, it cleared it up.
Outside we can check the fuel caps (and adjust fuel), drain and sample the fuel, check the lights, static ports, etc.
This time, a lot of the external points bring up a different checklist subsystem. It shows a nice attention to detail that has, as I stated with the King Air 350 review above, put AirFoilLabs at the top of my ‘pay attention to’ list.
Once through the preflight and engine start checklists, it was time to taxi.
Up and away from runway 35, I turned west and headed closer to the mountains, searching for the river and highway that would lead me to the valley entrance.
River is to the left in the above screenshot, and under me in the screenshot below. The Trans-Canada highway is off my left.
The ortho sceneray for the area was amazing.
Ready to turn North-West up the valley. Soon I can make out Canmore.
Taking a dog-leg left to continue up the correct valley.
Keeping track on my position was helped with the topographical maps on SkyVector (the plus symbol on the map corresponded to my guessed position.
Continuing up the valley, I came across Lake Louise Parks and went with the valley off to the left.
Off to the right I had a glimpse of the Wapta Icefield. Off to the left, the low morning sun.
Continuing on, I encountered my only AI flight of this segment: a helicopter at high (for a helicopter) altitude. At this point I am headed south and was almost ready to turn back west and head for Golden (CYGE). I know not why it has that name.
I wonder what was down this valley. No. No! Stay on target!
Over that next little hill blocking the valley is Golden and, from there, north up the valley to continue my planned route.
There it is. Golden airport (CYGE) and my fall back position if the weather deteriorated as expected.
According to my flight plan, as I continued up this valley I hoped to get the ATIS from Revelstoke (CYRV) on COM 2. I have COM 1 tuned to the Unicom channel at Golden as I wanted to keep tabs on any local traffic. As I encountered the lake and my turn back to the south-west, before I entered more restrictive valleys and a somewhat increased difficult visual identification of my route, COM2 become active and let me know that the weather in the area had not changed for the better. My decision point reached, I turn back for Golden Airport.
To my left, the valley that would have taken me to Revelstoke, and to the front left a valley that looks promising but, according to the maps, would haven given me reduced ground clearance and maneuver room. If the weather fell during this leg, it would complicate everything.
Now I could continue, I could make it over the mountains and pick up the VOR station at Morton Peak but I am going to treat this as if I was doing it for real. The main driving factor was that the weather would deteriorate as I approach and pass through/over Revelstoke and I would have had no safe options.
At this point, maybe the MSFS 2020 tech alpha becomes available and I can continue this segment there? 
The ortho scenery for X-Plane 11 is not letting me down, and the modules here are 100% fun. It’s going to be a tough call.
Edit: I forgot to add my ground track map. Here it is. I am pretty happy that I was able to navigate without a GPS map (though I did have the waypoints (airfields and such, not the manual ones) entered into the GPS in the AirFoilLabs Cessna 172) it did not give me a ‘useful’ VFR map or navigation aid.
EDIT #2: tense … because I tend to get confused with that.
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…I quickly find the seat handle and move it back and carefully get out of the seat…whew, that was close…