Mountain flying for new pilots
 

I'm thinking of setting a personal minimum of getting to 100 hours pic before I go land somewhere like Telluride or Aspen, but living on the front range in Denver I'm getting tired of flying to Cheyenne and Pueblo for my xc time.

I'd like to get some opinions from other pilots as far as not flying to "mountain airports" until I get to 100 hours, and also about going palces such as Alamosa, where I would have to fly over one pass at 10,000 but after that it would be very flat with plenty of room for learning.

The Colorado Pilots Association has a great mountain flying course. It includes ground school and flight instruction into several mountain airports. I would definitely do something like that, as mountain flying isn't something you just figure out on your own.

Yeah, forgot to mention that, I will definitly take a Mountian Flying Course before I go fly into a mountain airport.

Would it be wise to wait on that until I get to the 100 hours?

Or would you say some pilots could be ready for that sooner?

Baby steps. When I started flying after my private, I went to Tahoe with less than 100hrs. My training was in a pretty mountainous area, so I felt pretty confident and safe, but I didn't just checkout and go right to Tahoe, I flew around the area a bunch, did a few trips where I went into the mountains, then came back with no landing, etc. I'd suggest the same "baby steps" approach. I've flown through CO multiple times in a light aircraft, which was lots of fun. It also required a good deal of planning and both times the weather didn't work out perfectly, so having lots of alternate plans was key IMO. Hopefully the first mountain XC is not the first time that you get halfway down the runway, rotate, and nothing happens :)

If you have your private, then absolutely! The fact that you're on here hoping to expand your experience, and humble about it, already tells me that you're ahead of most pilots with your time. Do the course, and like James above you said, baby steps from there.

You are going to love mountain flying, it really is awesome. But just be prepared for the fact that most of the time conditions will not be appropriate for flying in from the front range.

Thanks for the info everyone, very helpful as always.

Blackpaw,

There are plenty of locations in Colorado that are well worth the time to visit by air; Aspen, Telluride, Leadville, Rifle, Steamboat, and others are among them. You sound extremely inexperienced, however, and you might think about taking someone along who is experienced in the area, the airports, the weather and terrain, etc.

It needn't be a CFI, though it wouldn't hurt to do so. Find someone locally who is experienced (that doesn't mean the local private pilot with three hundred hours), and make a day (or two) of it. Hit several airports. Stop and have lunch. Do some landings.

If your'e going to be doing it in a single engine airplane, Cheyenne offers a lot of obvious landing spots enroute, whereas much of Colorado can prove considerably more challenging enroute in normal, routine conditions, to say nothing of an emergency. You need to be selective about where you go and how you get there, and to develop an eye for good, viable forced landing sites enroute. Remember, in a single engine airplane, you should always have one available to you.

You probably play the "what if" game already, asking yourself continuously where you'll put the airplane if the engine fails. That's essential in the mountains, as well as asking yourself what if you encounter descending air or other conditions that prevent you from outclimbing the terrain. Where will you go? If you have a good escape plan in mind all the time, you're in good shape. If you find yourself in a place where you don't have an answer or its not clear, then you're in the wrong place.

Remember the water principle. Water flows downhill. In a light single, so do you. Use that philosophy for exit in the hills, and you're good. Remember too that roads generally follow some of the lower terrain, winding around through valleys rather than over mountains. You've probably heard people jokingly referring to "IFR" as "I Follow Roads." It's not a bad plan in the mountains, as well as following rivers and valleys. They also provide many of the better choices for a forced landing.

Take the course, but also consider taking someone with you. It's a small investment, and you'll see why it was a good idea when you get out there on your trip.

Maybe try an Alamosa>Gunnison and back route first before jumping right into Aspen, TEX, etc... Less aggressive terrain and options to cross lower mountain passes.

I've taken mountain flying courses and flown around the region. Your knowledge about the subject should be inversely proportional to the overall performance of any airplane you plan to use there- the lower it is, the more you need to know.

It can be, some of the passes the roads go through are very constricting and do not leave much area to maneuver/options should something go wrong. The aspect of "flowing like water" that you brought up is a good one though, because even a high pass may not be all that dangerous if it's open on both sides and you can easily glide to safety at any point, vs. lower mountains and passes that may have more obstructions and less safe areas. This is all the planning stage of course, but I found the time spent here familiarizing and planning was the most helpful.