Mountain Flying in the Winter

[Brian Scranton]

Happy New Year! 

You know the old adage, flying is 99 minutes of boring and 1 minute of sheer terror? Well...I give you my last two trips so we can discuss risk management and decision making, 

United cancelled a flight out of my regional airport--a quick hop over the mountains to pick up my connection from Denver to NJ. Mooney to the rescue. Of course, I was moderately unprepared to fly--got to the plane and saw her completely covered in snow--in my dress shoes and fancy pants, I spin her around to face her into the sun, find some towels and deice her by hand. It only took 45 mins (damn my hands were cold)...anyway, wx was clear as can be, cold, with winds at 14,000ft expected to be 20kts. Expected. I start her, warm her up for a while, and depart. Once I get to altitude (17,000' and IFR) I notice that the wind is throwing me south as I fly east--and I see the ridge tops below blowing lots of snow. Red flag. Before I know it I am in a 2500 +/- mountain wave (PIREP and ask for block altitude), and right at the top of the wave, BAM! BAM! BAM! I hit my head on the ceiling twice, the plane rolls, I'm losing altitude, I pull back power to get to Va, BAM, BAM, BAM!!!! Pretty much singing, "Jesus take the wheel" at this point and ready to kiss my ass goodbye. I give another PIREP for severe turbulence. A few moments pass, totally worried that I bent the plane, and after a few more bumps, I am on the ground in Denver with aspirations of clean shorts. I check Foreflight and see a few other PIREPS for severe turbulence, which confirms I am not a pansy. But fellas, that scared the SHIT out of me. A few days later, on my way home an unexpected storm rolls is--DAMN!--this guy a't catch a break. So I wait it out a day. The following day, I plan an IFR flight, and fly an ILS down to 600'...thin layers, no ice, and home for Xmas. Whew. 

A week later, family ski trip to Jackson Hole. With a 90 kt headwind for a while the cars were passing me on the ground--jeesh. This time, fully expecting severe mountain wave and turbulence it's smooth as a baby's butt. Nice! What's more? We land in KBPI (Big Piney  Wyoming) where they hanger the plane ($15/night) and give us their courtesy car for 5 days!!!! Totally impressed. We cut the trip short by a day to avoid weather and on the way home, my IFR flight gets a bit tricky--we had to descend through a layer to get to our destination. ATC was awesome; I reported tops at 14,000 with trace rime if I popped into them. I saw the METARs surrounding me showing VFR with OVC at 10,000 MSL. He offered to bring me down below the MEA to 9000 where I could then cancel IFR and go VFR flight following for the final 20 mins. I figure, I won't be spending long in the clouds, and it's warm and VFR below so I'd be ok. I turn on my anti icing system (defroster and pitot heat!) and descend as fast as I can (1500 fpm) and after ~1 minute I am out of the clouds with very trace rime on my leading edge and windshield. It's gone in less than 30 seconds but still, my first bit of white on the plane and enough to make me think...

 

[peevee]

I would recommend the Colorado pilots association mountain flying course as it sounds like you haven't taken it. 

Flying around at mountain peak height is a great way to get kicked around or worse if your near rotor clouds. 

Edited January 3, 2017 by peevee

[Brian Scranton]

1 minute ago, peevee said:

I would recommend the Colorado pilots association mountain flying course as it sounds like you haven't taken it. 

Flying around at mountain peak height is a great way to get kicked around or worse if your near rotor clouds. 

My bad--I should have mentioned that over the mountains I was 17,000 ft and IFR (i'll revise). No rotor clouds (or any clouds)...all CAT. In my 350 hours of mountain flying, I had never experienced turbulence like that. It was totally unnerving. 

[peevee]

2 minutes ago, Brian Scranton said:

My bad--I should have mentioned that over the mountains I was 17,000 ft and IFR (i'll revise). No rotor clouds (or any clouds)...all CAT. In my 350 hours of mountain flying, I had never experienced turbulence like that. It was totally unnerving. 

There have been several days like that the last few weeks, as there always is in the winter. The warning signs have been there. 

[Brian Scranton]

Just now, peevee said:

There have been several days like that the last few weeks, as there always is in the winter. The warning signs have been there. 

There was an AIRMET for mod turbulence above FL24. No PIREPS at the time. And wind predictions were in the 20kt range with no rapid temp drops from 14K to 18K...what signs would you have looked for other than seeing the blowing snow on the ridge tops? Thanks for any info!!! B

[peevee]

What was the shear in the winds aloft? The last day I remember it was significant. There have also been pireps like crazy, what do I know. I just put them in. Also you seem to think 20kts isn't a problem. 20 from the wrong direction at 12-14k is enough to make me reconsider. 

[jackn]

I've flown in/out of ASE many times. One time I had the stuff scared out of me when I did the head banging thing at 15,000'. Glad I was in a Mooney, in a Bo I would have been looking at a cracked spar for sure. Anyway, I'm sitting in LGA now because the weather out there looks challenging. They're saying the storm of the decade is going to hit The Sierras, Then on to CO. 

[Brian Scranton]

1 minute ago, peevee said:

What was the shear in the winds aloft? The last day I remember it was significant. There have also been pireps like crazy, what do I know. I just put them in. Also you seem to think 20kts isn't a problem. 20 from the wrong direction at 12-14k is enough to make me reconsider. 

I saw +/- 10 kts IAS...and I guess it was early enough that there were no GA PIREPS except for the 737s at FL360. I agree on the 20kts...coming from the WNW it was an eye opener. I've flown with those winds before and never had a ride like that! 

[bonal]

Glad you made it out safe, did you remember to thank Chist for taking over as requested

[thinwing]

12 hours ago, peevee said:

I would recommend the Colorado pilots association mountain flying course as it sounds like you haven't taken it. 

Flying around at mountain peak height is a great way to get kicked around or worse if your near rotor clouds. 

Correct...during my years of glass slipper flying (Ventus B)always avoided entering mountain wave lift at or below ridge peak height.During a pacific storm I was getting ready to launch out of Minden nv for an altitude record attempt when an instructor comes in perfilght with a bloody nose..says in passing "hope you got your life insurance paid up"!He hit roter hard enough his hand held flew upward ,broke his nose ,and continued upward and cracked the canopy.I took the message and used ridge lift on a peak 20 miles downstream to get above roter...it was than 1500-2000 fpm all the way to FL 360.

Edited January 4, 2017 by thinwing

[Joe Zuffoletto]

On 1/3/2017 at 7:57 AM, Brian Scranton said:

Before I know it I am in a 2500 +/- mountain wave (PIREP and ask for block altitude), and right at the top of the wave, BAM! BAM! BAM! I hit my head on the ceiling twice, the plane rolls, I'm losing altitude, I pull back power to get to Va, BAM, BAM, BAM!!!! Pretty much singing, "Jesus take the wheel" at this point and ready to kiss my ass goodbye. I give another PIREP for severe turbulence. A few moments pass, totally worried that I bent the plane, and after a few more bumps, I am on the ground in Denver with aspirations of clean shorts.

Been there, done that. You can read about my adventure here.

[Brian Scranton]

47 minutes ago, Joe Zuffoletto said:

Been there, done that. You can read about my adventure here.

Yup--you sure have. Your account sounds eerily familiar.