Avro Gimli & HMCS Hudson

CYGMA Avro Gimli is an expansive, narrative-driven freeware scenery environment for X-Plane 12 built by creator rlawson. Grounded in Canadian aviation history, the package reimagines the historic RCAF Station Gimli in Manitoba—famed both as an air force training base and the landing site of the fuel-starved "Gimli Glider" Boeing 767 in 1983—as the resurrected 2050 design, production, and flight-test hub for Canadian Airborne Shipyards.

The onshore layout is arranged as a continuous 14-building manufacturing line flanking the 2,113-meter primary runway (33L/15R). The production corridor flows logically from initial parts receiving and composites fabrication, through engine and lift-fan test cells, into a six-station final assembly line, finishing at paint, low-observable coating, and the dedicated LYNX drone assembly hall. The facility interiors are illuminated day and night, featuring detailed 3D assembly jigs, overhead cranes, autoclaves, and active shop-floor personnel. The complex incorporates climate-conscious regional architecture, linking all major halls with seven elevated, heated skywalks to withstand harsh prairie winters. Outside the security perimeter, the scenery details an Avro Heritage Visitor Centre where static CF-105 and CF-106 airframes mount pylons alongside a commemorative granite boulder honoring the 1983 glider incident.

Beyond the shoreline aerodrome, the download includes HMCS Hudson (CYACH), a conceptual airborne aircraft carrier stationed seven miles off the coast over Lake Winnipeg at 3,000 feet MSL. Configured with parked and flying airframes from community contributors, the platform operates as a functional airborne recovery base, supporting catapult launches and wire-arrested traps when paired with the companion HMCS Airborne Fleet plugin.

While purely fictional in scope, CYGMA Avro Gimli serves as a highly detailed operational home base for speculative military and VTOL flight operations, blending functional runway infrastructure with living industrial scenery.

Primary Missions & Operational Roles

• Factory Acceptance & Experimental Flight Testing: Conduct maiden flights, envelope expansions, and supersonic departures straight off the assembly line.

• VTOL Transition & Hover Drills: Practice zero-airspeed hovering, hover taxi, and vertical recoveries on dedicated factory test pads.

• Airborne Carrier Traps & Deployments: Navigate seven miles offshore to locate HMCS Hudson at 3,000 feet for carrier approach, hook arrestment, and catapult launches.

• Regional Cross-Country Sorties: Operate high-speed Arctic patrol and intercept profiles departing directly from Lake Winnipeg out to northern airspace.