Mountain Flying Lesson 1: Granby HOBBS 710.5 hrs

Last week I did my first flight over the 'rocks' in a GA aircraft. Lyn and I took the short flight up to Granby (GNB) and back to introduce me to mountain flying. We are kind of transitioning away from purely tailwheel training now to add some other stuff to the curriculum. So, mountain flying is now front and center in my aviation development. I've been reading Sparky's book to prep myself for this.

It was quite amazing at how easy and short the flight was compared to driving up there. I have a friend that has a cabin near there so I've drove it many times over my years of living in Denver. Even flying the relatively slow Citabria, we were up there and back in about an hour and a half. At least twice as fast as driving. And the scenery was great! I really enjoyed the perspective of seeing my beloved mountains from the cockpit. Gotta love the utility of general aviation.

Winds aloft were light, about 17kts at 12,000 ft, and amazingly turbulence wasn't a factor during our warm afternoon flight. We crossed Rollins (Corona) pass at about 13,000 ft to give us a little more than our desired 1,000 ft clearance above the ridge. Not much to it, just approach the ridge at a 45 degree angle so that you can easily turn away from the ridge if you experience downdrafts that exceed the performance of your aircraft. Once you have the ridge made--ie, you can glide to at least the top of the ridge with the engine at idle--you then turn perpendicular to the ridge to exit the area asap in a direct route away. The ridge crossings are where the winds will be strongest, heavy up and downdrafts can exist, so its not a place to loiter if you don't have to.

Because it was a relatively warm day, coupled with the extremes of our altitudes (over 50 peaks exceeding 14,000 ft in Colorado) here in the Rocky Mountains, I kept an eye on our performance as we flew. We easily maintained a 500fpm climb without much laboring of the aircraft. That's with two people, full fuel and a small survival kit I threw into the baggage compartment. Not bad for the 160hp engine we have under the cowl. I would prefer 180hp or more for this type of flying, but this will do. You just have to be more careful without extra HP in the mountains, it gives you fewer options to avoid trouble. One of the reasons I plan to put such a big engine (200+ HP) in my RV.

This shot, taken from the AOPA flight planner shows a direct route from Boulder to Granby. We didn't quite follow that route as we went slightly to the left to intercept the pass before proceeding into Granby. If you click on the photo and look closely, you can probably see where the pass is located, to get an idea where we crossed. This kind of route is typical, mountain flying here is not usually done in straight lines...you are usually following the lower terrain. 

GNB sits at about 8,200 ft MSL and the pattern is flown at 9,000...at only 800 ft AGL, its a little less than the usual 1,000 AGL I am used to flying patterns at. Different sight picture, but no big deal beyond that.

We landed to the west on runway 27, which is the preferred runway because of rising terrain on the departure end of runway 9. Density altitude was 10,400 ft when I checked it during my preflight. I overflew the runway at midfield and entered the right hand pattern for 27.

Being uncomfortable with a new airport pattern and Lyn chirping in my ear on base to watch the rising terrain I mentioned earlier, I came in a little high and fast on final. I tentatively did a forward slip to shed some of it but still floated and landed long. Not a great effort on my part with the landing...the learning process continues. Because of this, I had to back-taxi halfway down the runway, before we lined up on 27 and took off for the return flight to Boulder.

I have to say, now that I've done it, it didn't seem nearly as treacherous as I was expecting. Flying in the mountains, despite the terrain, is nothing to shy away from in my opinion. Lyn instructed me, as all good pilots should, to always be on the lookout for places to set her down in the event of an engine failure. On this particular route, there were very few times there wasn't an open field within gliding distance. Of course, it might be a dicy landing, but should be one we could walk away from...that's what matters.

Our next planned flight is up to Lake County airport (LXV) in Leadville. Its perched at 9,927 ft MSL and I believe it is the highest elevation GA airport in the US. It is kind of a right of passage to land there and snap a picture so I am pretty stoked to add my name to that list.

Saturday I am attending the Colorado Pilots Association Mountain Flying Ground School. It is an all day class and it gets good reviews from everyone who takes it. I figured this would be a great way to complement my flying activities with some classroom learning. It should be fun, I love this kind of stuff.