around the mountains today

Clark1961

Clark1961

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Flight from south-central Wyoming to Denver this morning. Scattered layer at 3,500 at the departure airport, looked really nasty south (snow) and east so opted to head north. Winds aloft for muddy mtn VOR showed about 50 kts at 12,000, not good but that was the best way to avoid the snow & mtn obscuration.

The Aspen agreed with the winds aloft prediction, Aspen showed 48 kts about 15 miles south of the VOR. Turned right toward LAR and hung on for the ride. Watching the sky and cloud shadows on the ground, many clouds were stationary. Now how is that possible with 50 kt winds? You got it, rotors, not good. I picked the clear spots and had lots of light to moderate turbulence. A few moments of luggage shifting and momentary loss of control. Never anything really bad. Kept at least 2,000 AGL and stayed away from clouds. Also stayed slow. Definitely not a Sunday afternoon pleasure flight.

When I got to FTG the winds were shifting but relative light 10 kts. A Cirrus was stranded on a taxiway and needed a tow back to the ramp, weird. Surprising amount of activity for a windy, bumpy day - 210 in the pattern, 182 departing, PA-28 arriving (other than me), King Air arriving, all sorts of stuff happening.
 
I got to Taos a few weeks back, and on the ground it was 220@6kts. Nice day, sun was out, and we were headed east. By the time we had lunch and took off about 1:30, I climbed up through 11k, and headed SE around Wheeler peak, where I got some nice ridge lift. Passing Angel Fire, the tail wind picked up and so did the wave. I was doing 1500FPM climb and descent for the next 45 minutes. Mr Toads wild ride. Higher was worse, so we just rode it out.

Spring in the mtns, wutreyagonnado.
 
You mean you didn't wait until it was truly nasty like we did this evening?
 
Everskyward said:
You mean you didn't wait until it was truly nasty like we did this evening?
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Lovely blown forecast from hell, eh?

Isolated showers my ass.

It was raining from north of Denver to south of Colorado Springs without a gap in it, and then out here it turned to snow for an hour.

TAF said 25 knot gusts and isolated showers with an occasional isolated thunderstorm around noon. Pretty sure I stored it in Foreflight even as a briefing.

Was going to go flying this evening. Mark 1 eyeball said, NFW and I went shooting instead. ;)
 
Everskyward said:
You mean you didn't wait until it was truly nasty like we did this evening?
Click to expand...

I would have left at dawn if I coulda...work frequently gets in the way.

Wish I could of gone over the top of the mess like you guys do. Like Doc said, whatchyagonnado? Get a Glasair and blast up through the ice? That'd be fun right up to the time when ya didn't find the tops...
 
docmirror said:
I got to Taos a few weeks back, and on the ground it was 220@6kts. Nice day, sun was out, and we were headed east. By the time we had lunch and took off about 1:30, I climbed up through 11k, and headed SE around Wheeler peak, where I got some nice ridge lift. Passing Angel Fire, the tail wind picked up and so did the wave. I was doing 1500FPM climb and descent for the next 45 minutes. Mr Toads wild ride. Higher was worse, so we just rode it out.

Spring in the mtns, wutreyagonnado.
Click to expand...

My first encounter with mountain wave was along the New Mexico front range. Smooth as glass and it was in control of my altitude. Tried to fight it for a few minutes but there was no way. I wonder if the Rio Grande valley helps set that up?
 
Clark1961 said:
Flight from south-central Wyoming to Denver this morning. Scattered layer at 3,500 at the departure airport, looked really nasty south (snow) and east so opted to head north. Winds aloft for muddy mtn VOR showed about 50 kts at 12,000, not good but that was the best way to avoid the snow & mtn obscuration.

The Aspen agreed with the winds aloft prediction, Aspen showed 48 kts about 15 miles south of the VOR. Turned right toward LAR and hung on for the ride. Watching the sky and cloud shadows on the ground, many clouds were stationary. Now how is that possible with 50 kt winds? You got it, rotors, not good. I picked the clear spots and had lots of light to moderate turbulence. A few moments of luggage shifting and momentary loss of control. Never anything really bad. Kept at least 2,000 AGL and stayed away from clouds. Also stayed slow. Definitely not a Sunday afternoon pleasure flight.

When I got to FTG the winds were shifting but relative light 10 kts. A Cirrus was stranded on a taxiway and needed a tow back to the ramp, weird. Surprising amount of activity for a windy, bumpy day - 210 in the pattern, 182 departing, PA-28 arriving (other than me), King Air arriving, all sorts of stuff happening.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a normal day of flying around Laramie. ;)

I was stuck there a year ago with winds gusting to 45 mph on the ground when I saw an instructor and student saddle up and leave. :eek:

I decided to taxi out and launch, I was in the air in 200'. :D
 
Geico266 said:
Sounds like a normal day of flying around Laramie. ;)

I was stuck there a year ago with winds gusting to 45 mph on the ground when I saw an instructor and student saddle up and leave. :eek:

I decided to taxi out and launch, I was in the air in 200'. :D
Click to expand...

Pretty much a normal day, agreed. If ya don't like wind, don't go to wunnerful-windy-wyoming. On the other hand, if you can fly there, you can fly just about anywhere. Gotta be a little careful during the taxi, knuckle-dragging nose-wheel pilots like me have to remember the one tail-dragger training flight they had and put the controls in the appropriate corners at the appropriate times...it's amazing how much that helps.
 
My primary instructor learned to fly in Wyoming. In a cub. He said "If the tumble weeds were just stuck against the barbed wire, I'd fly. If they were hopping over the wire, I wouldn't. And I had to taxi around behind the hangar to shut down without blowing away."

John
 
Clark1961 said:
Wish I could of gone over the top of the mess like you guys do.
Click to expand...
Gotta come down to land sometime. :D

Seems like we're always coming down over the northwest gate too. When the passengers ask if there is going to be turbulence my standard answer is "yes".

Then there was the rain which changed to snow on my drive home last night.
 
I'm based out of Laramie about 6 months of the year, nice to know others get to enjoy the winds also.:D
I was sitting at Cowboy Aviation one somewhat gusty day watching a Falcon try to get in. He tried 21 twice then switched around to 30, no luck, believe he went back to Casper.
 
I need a good trip to Laramie. I haven't made three landings on one runway in a while now. :)
 
We're back in Iowa farming now, folks back here think 20 to 25 knots is windy.
Our home out there is just outside of Centennial, right at the base of the Snowy's. Up there it CAN get windy, I've had my aluminum flag pole snapped off at the ground twice, once without a flag on it.:eek:
 
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