If you read my blog regularly, you'll know that I did a Mountain Flying checkout (flying and ground school) this summer. My flying consisted of two trips with my instructor, one to Granby and then another to Leadville. I had wanted to get a third one in before summer ended, but finances prevented that...airplane parts to buy. ;) So, last weekend, it was one of those glorious Colorado mornings that I love...fresh snow, crisp air, skies of baby blue, not a cloud in the sky and no wind. Winds aloft were favorable...12 kts from the west, so I figured for my monthly flight...why not cruise up to Granby and back? Its a short flight, about 35 mins in the old Citabria, pretty simple...and only one pass to cross, Rollins. It would be a good flight for my first solo mountain flight.
My backyard...the Rocky Mountains. If you look close you will see Winter Park ski resort in the center of this photo.
Coming over Rollins pass, the altimeter was reading about 13,500 ft MSL at this point. Our "hills" are big out here.
If you click on this photo to enlarge it and look closely, you will see a hot air balloon that had just launched. Pretty cool.
And this was on the return trip over the pass. All in all, it was a great flight. I was admittedly a little nervous being my first solo over the rocks, but except for a few pockets of light turbulence, it was nice and smooth.
I always do a personal debrief of my flights and think about the mistakes I made (there are always some...yet to have a perfect flight) and try to learn something from every flight. On this flight I want to share something...I realize it will make me look like a bonehead, but that's ok if you learn from it.
As I was climbing up to Rollins pass I made a little mistake...let me elaborate. Boulder airport sits at just about 5300 MSL and I needed claw my way over the Flatirons to 13,500 MSL to clear the pass in short order. With the westerly winds that are common, you are almost always climbing into the wind which doesn't help. As I was approaching the pass I noticed the plane wasn't climbing like I thought it should...being solo, light headwind and nice chilly air the ol' Citabria should be biting into the air quite well...but it wasn't? I leaned my mixture to make sure I was getting maximum HP but the climb was still agonizingly slow. Slow enough that I started to formulate a turn back plan if I needed it. I finally got to my target altitude for a safe crossing, but none too soon, and didnt think much more about it as I descended into the Granby valley.
After I landed in Granby...taxied back (recommended one way in, one way out for inexperienced mt pilots...which I certainly am!), I then closed my flight plan on my cell phone. As I prepared for takeoff and did my pre takeoff checklist I noticed that my carb heat had been on the whole flight...since I left Boulder!! Shoot! No wonder the ol' girl couldn't climb worth a hoot!? Somehow I missed that when I did my pre takeoff checklist in Boulder. Grr, aggravating...
And one last parting shot..not related to the flight. About a month ago we had some huge winds, 90 mph gusts were recorded if I remember right. Boulder has wind events like this a handful of times every year so its not that uncommon as the winds swoop down over the Rockies onto the plains. Well, I guess this is what happens when you don't tie down your airplane properly!!! I have seen this old Cessna 150 out at the airport since I started flying here...not sure how much it was flown, but as you can see...its flying life may be over? D'oh!
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