VictorValencia
Pre-Flight
Last Friday I took an introduction to mountain flying lesson just to see
what it was like. What a blast! It was more fun than I expected. I am
a solo sport pilot student and was passing (driving, ugh) through Boise
and I had seen some videos posted by Stick And Rudder Aviation on the
Kitfox and mountain flying.
The Kitfox was gorgeous with an amazing amount of visibility and
has a side-by-side configuration. It was powered by a 115 hp
turbo-charged Rotax. It's a geared engine so the higher RPMs
took some getting used to but it was pretty darn smooth.
(not trying to sound like a Kitfox salesman
) That turbo gives you
sea-level performance up to 16,000 ft. The airport altitudes we flew
to were in the range of 4,000 - 5,000 MSL. It was fairly warm so
that added to our DA.
We flew into 5 small airstrips in increasingly difficult locations. In
some cases once you are committed there is no way out. You have
to land.
Some of the interesting things I learned were:
1) You have to use as much space as possible to attempt a regular
pattern. This can mean flying quite close to terrain both below
and to your sides.
2) You don't always see the runway while on final.
3) If the trees are moving up on the runway during final you are not
going to clear them.
4) A departure strategy can be "follow the river".
5) For the most part, ignore the wind direction.
6) It is possible to land on a 20 degree (est.) uphill slope on a couple
hundred feet of tire tracks pretending to be a road.
During #6 we had to keep the RPMs up at 4k just to keep taxiing uphill
to the end of the runway in order to turn around and takeoff downhill.
What an amazing experience. I now have a great respect for
bush/mountain pilot skills and fully understanding the capabilities
of the aircraft you are flying. I hope someday I can learn to fly
like that...
Here's a link to their website: http://stick-rudder.com/
Victor
what it was like. What a blast! It was more fun than I expected. I am
a solo sport pilot student and was passing (driving, ugh) through Boise
and I had seen some videos posted by Stick And Rudder Aviation on the
Kitfox and mountain flying.
The Kitfox was gorgeous with an amazing amount of visibility and
has a side-by-side configuration. It was powered by a 115 hp
turbo-charged Rotax. It's a geared engine so the higher RPMs
took some getting used to but it was pretty darn smooth.
(not trying to sound like a Kitfox salesman
) That turbo gives yousea-level performance up to 16,000 ft. The airport altitudes we flew
to were in the range of 4,000 - 5,000 MSL. It was fairly warm so
that added to our DA.
We flew into 5 small airstrips in increasingly difficult locations. In
some cases once you are committed there is no way out. You have
to land.
Some of the interesting things I learned were:
1) You have to use as much space as possible to attempt a regular
pattern. This can mean flying quite close to terrain both below
and to your sides.
2) You don't always see the runway while on final.
3) If the trees are moving up on the runway during final you are not
going to clear them.
4) A departure strategy can be "follow the river".
5) For the most part, ignore the wind direction.
6) It is possible to land on a 20 degree (est.) uphill slope on a couple
hundred feet of tire tracks pretending to be a road.
During #6 we had to keep the RPMs up at 4k just to keep taxiing uphill
to the end of the runway in order to turn around and takeoff downhill.
What an amazing experience. I now have a great respect for
bush/mountain pilot skills and fully understanding the capabilities
of the aircraft you are flying. I hope someday I can learn to fly
like that...
Here's a link to their website: http://stick-rudder.com/
Victor
