I just reports 'em as I sees 'em. LOL.
Maybe I should have said, "medium-loaded", I guess? Two 200+ lb'ers in the front seats, 15 lbs of "whatever" junk in the back seat and far back, and about 50-55 gallons of go juice, if I remember correctly.
We launched out of KFTG that morning with full long-range tanks, so whatever we'd burnt down after KFTG-K20V-KGWS-KASE-KLXV. We were 80 on board with 75 usable, departing KFTG when we left in the nice cool early morning.
I knew intimately what we burnt that day, and sticked tanks at KASE and KLXV, but didn't stick at K20V or KGWS since those were full-stop, turn around and depart immediately, but I don't remember now what it was at KLXV. I was curious about the fuel-burn at the higher altitudes. It matched our usual experience with the aircraft... 13 GPH down low properly leaned, to about 11 GPH at altitude, super-consistent even between pilots with slightly different leaning procedures. Not that there's many options in a carb O-470.
Now that I think about it, probably someone with the short-range tanks would say that 50-55 gallons was "heavy" loaded.
I think the CFI lied about his weight too, or just hadn't gotten on a scale in 20 years. LOL! If we'd departed KAPA I would have made him stand on the scale in the hangar. ;-)
I'll go look for the TOLD sheet. I think I might have kept that one... Probably stashed in the front cover of the CPA book...
Back to your questions, uphill. Yes. North departure. Go/stop point was basically just before the terminal building. Wind was out of the Northwest that day.
I assume by downhill, you took off southbound, which is nice, since the terrain slopes away, but there's almost always a wind-generated "bump or two" over that treeline to the south. Kinda rare to get wind that cooperates with south departures at KLXV, though. Calm the day you were there?
Most folks get bumped around on arrival, landing to the north, since the prevailing winds are from the northwest. The trees on the left and the little plateau there make for a great "short-final bump generator".
I distinctly remember the CFI pointing out that there's a gap in the treeline northbound, if you turn about 10 degrees left after departure, and that he'd had to use it before... he joked, "You don't need to aim AT the trees straight off the runway, it's better to aim for that hole BETWEEN them, right there," as he pointed to the left a little as it passed my side window.
He said if you have to go through that gap in the trees, you very VERY gingerly continue the turn to downwind to go downhill toward Buena Vista. If you're climbing that weakly, that'd need to be a nice slow easy shallow turn... while you work on pulling the seat cushion out of your butt from just passing between the trees.
We cleared 'em by quite a bit that day, but he was just pointing out that he'd had to go through that treeline instead of over it, at least once. (I got the impression it was more than once.)
As for the VSI, we probably caught a "downer" in the bumps over the trees there, and that's when I looked. I don't remember it ever being very good in the afternoon heat all the way back to KFTG, though. Downhill in the downwind, as the terrain slowly descended and we slowly climbed, was nice. I recall thinking that we had finally made it above TPA abeam the numbers downwind.
The wind was medium-strong out of the West, but standing on the ramp it wasn't too bad that day. Light turbulence during the departure from the trees and terrain, and little bumps all the way back to Denver in the afternoon heat.
One of the funnest days in my logbook, for sure.