Mountain Flying Training

Guest Discussion
1

I am an IFR-rated Floridian hoping to do some flying in Montana and Colorado this summer. Can anyone suggest specific instruction for mountain flying training?

Thank you, Jeffrey Cardenas

2

Sorry I am not good at impeding URLs. Try these two sites:


http://www.mountainflying.com/index.htm
Sparky Imeson has two books on mountain flying. I was told the first was better than the second. Also the AOPA has some publications available.
Make sure you get some training, IT IS REALLY DIFFERENT than flat land flying.

3

There is a course at Leadville. However, they are often limited by weather and my attempt to fly there resulted in ground school only.

Check out http://www.leadvilleairport.com/

Paul

4

I just signed up for the mountain training course through CPA last week. There are two sessions, one in July and then one in August. They are based just south of Denver at Centenial. CPA came highly recommended to me. If you attend the July course please provide a pirep as I’m attending the August session.

5

Be careful using the map supplied by the sate of Colorado. It shows “preferred” routes but some of them are unsafe. The person responsible for recommending many of them said she was surprised to see some dangerous ones added. It seems a state official had the attitude “My friend Bob takes this route so it must be a good one”. She also kept driving home that just because it is labeled a pass doesn’t mean a plane should fly through there. I wish I could have flown with her. The ground school was interesting.

Paul

6

I second the Colorado Pilots Association Mountain Flying Course. The course qualifies for FAA Wings and is very well taught and enjoyable. Don Dolce was my flight instructor – he had taught the course in an SR20 but not an SR22. I would highly recommend him for your flight portion.

7

In reply to:

Be careful using the map supplied by the sate of Colorado. It shows “preferred” routes but some of them are unsafe.

Thanks for that pertinent bit of info. I did obtain the Colorado map, and I’ll add a couple grains of salt based on your post.