Mountain flying training; East Coast

J

JOhnH

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Can anyone recommend a good mountain flying training base or instructor, preferably in the North Carolina, Tennessee, North Georgia area? We want to fly our 172 up there (from Florida) but it should probably be in the foothills somewhere since we have no mountain flying experience yet.

John
 
Hey John...There are some really good instructors here in the Charlotte area and some great places to get mountain experience here in NC. 24A is a great mountain airport to really hone your flying skills, however I would not recommend going by yourself the first time (Its short, narrow and surrounded by mountains). If you want any more details on instructors here in the CLT area PM and I will send you some more info.
 
Flyparrothead said:
24A is a great mountain airport to really hone your flying skills,
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If you start near Charlotte, a good route would be to fly to Hendersonville(0A7), the airport isn't too tight but if you follow the road in you can get a feel for the mountains, then around to Transylvania county(22W). This is a real nice airport but very close to terrain and the runway is in kind of a gully so it feels pretty close. Then down a wide valley,turn right at the radiotelescopes, over a ridge and follow the river to Jackson County(24A).

Barb
 

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If you wanrt a mountain flying course, get a mountain :)
 

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It's a bump until a down draft sends you into the cumulo-granite... despite the lack of vertical draft, you're still just as dead.

The folks at KMRN (Foothills Regional) used to offer specific mountain flying. The Asheville airport (KAVL) is easy to get into. I did it as a newbie. Check with WNC if you go to KAVL. They were some of the nice people at the Parade of Pistons.
 
jdwatson said:
It's a bump until a down draft sends you into the cumulo-granite... despite the lack of vertical draft, you're still just as dead.
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Exactly. I come from the land of cumulo-granite and scoffed at the little hills of the east... until I did a circling approach in to Pittsfield, MA.
 
BillTIZ said:
Choose funny.. To us in the west... those little bumps in the east are not mountains.
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So I suppose you "real" pilots in the west started out by flying Lear jets and just skipped over those slow, simple little single engine piston planes that some of us had to learn in. If we live through learning to fly the bumps, we then plan to take on your real mountains, but I am too much of a wimp fly across the whole country to try to learn something I am not qualified for when I can learn the basics close to home.

But in the name of humor, I forgive you.
 
Dude... they are just poking fun at us flat-landers without any malice. It's the price we pay for living and flying in the East. I don't mind, I'm rarely out of gliding distance from an airport and ATC is always a mic click away.
 
Around San Diego, we have a few piles of dirt that probably simulate those east coast bumps a little bit. I have never heard it referred to as mountain flying. For real mountain flying you have to get into the real mountains, like the rocky mountains, Colorado and north.

There is one area near the Julian VOR that can shake your nerves up a bit, even bend your airplane a little if your not careful. Nobody calls it mountain flying though, I don't know why. The only thing I ever get admonished to do by my instructor is to cross that area with at least two thousand feet between you and the dirt.

We can get some exciting up and down drafts around here. A few years back, while just entering the western side of our dirt piles, I went from about five hundred feet AGL to over two thousand feet AGL in just a few seconds. Then my plane dropped its left wing almost straight down, and I dropped like a rock. The bird recovered a little below where I originally was, just a few hundred feet AGL.

Low enough to turn my instructor real white. He then said we would be practicing over the ocean that day.

John
 
John Baker said:
I went from about five hundred feet AGL to over two thousand feet AGL in just a few seconds. Then my plane dropped its left wing almost straight down, and I dropped like a rock. The bird recovered a little below where I originally was, just a few hundred feet AGL.

John
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You are right. What was I thinking. Why would I start off learning the basics over dirt piles, when I can jump right into something like that without knowing what I am doing? Where is the excitement when you think you have a chance to survive? And since my wife would be with me, then it would be ok if we die together.

Seeing as how I am not an immature kid anymore, I understand my mortality.
 
JOhnH said:
You are right. What was I thinking. Why would I start off learning the basics over dirt piles, when I can jump right into something like that without knowing what I am doing? Where is the excitement when you think you have a chance to survive? And since my wife would be with me, then it would be ok if we die together.

Seeing as how I am not an immature kid anymore, I understand my mortality.
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I think you misunderstood me, the "dirt piles" I was talking about are the low mountains that surround the San Diego area. most are under 8,000'. Unlike the mountains on the east coast that are well vegetated, ours are desert terrain and actually do look like piles of dirt and rocks.

That incident I had was back when I first started flying. To quote the instructor I had at the time, apparently I was "too stupid to be afraid."

I'm sorry if I came off like I think getting mountain training in your area is not a good idea. (I thought I was being humorous, guess not.) The reason I related my story was to indicate that there is a need for mountain training, no matter what kind of mountains you are negotiating.

I will be doing the same thing as you soon, getting mountain training, my grandkids live in Colorado Springs.

John
 
I went mountain flying with Field Morey in the ID backcountry last year. Extremely valuable experience. The fundamentals don't change, only the scenery, although I will say without experiencing a real Rocky Mountain canyon it's hard to say you've really done the mountain flying thing. (Note, this from a flatland East Coaster)
 
John:

You ask about right coast mountain training - excellent idea! Although the basics are the same (45 deg entry to a pass, density altitude, weight management, etc) the three major mountain areas have different "peculiarities", so you really need training in the location you're going to fly.
 
jdwatson said:
Dude... they are just poking fun at us flat-landers without any malice. It's the price we pay for living and flying in the East. I don't mind, I'm rarely out of gliding distance from an airport and ATC is always a mic click away.
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True. But, as you know, its very different flying than in the East. Very different and the OP is wise to get some theoretical training before he going and augment that with some actual mountain flying in the big rocks with a qualified instructor. A airplane performs a lot differently at the higher DA's presented in the Rockies.
 
Hi John,

I've been teaching mountain flying out of Knoxville, Tennessee for several years. My course will take you across the Smoky Mountains into western North Carolina's most challenging mountain airports such as Jackson County in Sylva, NC and Macon County in Franklin, NC. We'll also go over in the Asheville area too. Knoxville is located in the Tennessee Valley and is very easy to fly into. You and I would then fly just 10 miles to the east to cross the Smoky Mountains. Here's a link to my course: http://www.smokymountainflightcenter.com/mountain_flying_course.php

Pricing is lower in your aircraft. Let me know if you have questions or need more info.

Brandon Hughett, President
Smoky Mountain Flight Center, LLC
brandon@smokymountainflightcenter.com
 
bhughett said:
Hi John,

I've been teaching mountain flying out of Knoxville, Tennessee for several years. My course will take you across the Smoky Mountains into western North Carolina's most challenging mountain airports such as Jackson County in Sylva, NC and Macon County in Franklin, NC. We'll also go over in the Asheville area too. Knoxville is located in the Tennessee Valley and is very easy to fly into. You and I would then fly just 10 miles to the east to cross the Smoky Mountains. Here's a link to my course: http://www.smokymountainflightcenter.com/mountain_flying_course.php

Pricing is lower in your aircraft. Let me know if you have questions or need more info.

Brandon Hughett, President
Smoky Mountain Flight Center, LLC
brandon@smokymountainflightcenter.com
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Brandon,
Thanks for the info, and welcome to PoA!
 
flyersfan31 said:
I went mountain flying with Field Morey in the ID backcountry last year. Extremely valuable experience. The fundamentals don't change, only the scenery, although I will say without experiencing a real Rocky Mountain canyon it's hard to say you've really done the mountain flying thing. (Note, this from a flatland East Coaster)
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Well, New Zealand counts too, and a few other places! :)
 
gprellwitz said:
Brandon,
Thanks for the info, and welcome to PoA!
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Thanks for the welcome. I just stumbled onto this site and am glad I did. It looks as though there's a lot of great info on this site. I look forward to reading everyones posts and also offering my knowledge to others too.

Brandon
 
If I'm not mistaken, one of our bumps out here in the East, Mount Washington, still holds the record for the highest recorded wind speed IN THE WORLD!

Airpix

BillTIZ said:
Choose funny.. To us in the west... those little bumps in the east are not mountains.
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I've flown upwind from the east near the Julian VOR in a Champ- luckily it was not very windy . I also had the sense to veer north as I went through. The drop-off east of the VOR can produce some nasty stuff (there's actually a warning on the sectional).
But you can certainly find similar terrain/wind conditions in the Eastern mountains... some of the worst turbulence in the country is produced there.

You won't see the kind of high-DA, hemmed-in airport conditions out here that you find in the west, but you'll learn plenty about air flowing over steep terrain near airports, and what can happen over ridges, etc.

I'd second learning more about mountain flying in the Asheville area- that's some of the roughest terrain I've flown over.
I'll also second Hendersonville as a nice place to stop in the area.
 
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