Windy Mountain Flight In Rans S-7

[Reggie]

I took off from KGNB this morning. The winds were 12G20, and it was rather smooth below about 9,500 MSL. If you look at the ForeFlight screenshot below, you can see the Front Range, including Denver:

Notice the turbulence reports popping up downwind of the Rocky Mountains. Granby itself was perfectly flyable, as seen by the screen grab below:

Even though Granby was flyable, any flying over the Continental Divide was out of the question. As a general rule of thumb, any wind perpendicular to a ridge line greater than 25 knots is a no-go scenario. Any flight over the Rockies in a small plane today could be hazardous:

Here’s a photo of the Rockies from an altitude of 9,500’ facing east. They are approximately 13 nautical miles away:

 

[gkainz]

Nice pics - thanks!

 

[murphey]

Rule of thumb for those of us on the east side (along the Front Range) is no going over the top between November and March in our underpowered singles.

 

[denverpilot]

Rule of thumb for those of us on the east side (along the Front Range) is no going over the top between November and March in our underpowered singles.

Haha it’s not quite THAT bad... but yeah, if the kids are out flying mountain wave at Boulder, it’s probably not a great day to cross Corona Pass.

 

[VanDy]

Great pics!! I've only crossed on I 80 and I90 so far.

 

[denverpilot]

Today looked like a great wave day for the sailplane kids, but I didn’t check NWS’ soaring forecast specifically.

The “frostbite just means you only have an hour left to fly” crowd will be happy soon... summer season is waning.

 

[ejensen]

Haha it’s not quite THAT bad... but yeah, if the kids are out flying mountain wave at Boulder, it’s probably not a great day to cross Corona Pass.

If you watch the winds aloft, you can safely cross in the winter. Bonus the DA is usually low so my plane actually climbs.