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flying to Whitefish Montana


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When we left there was some heavier rain to the south so I ended up circling in the vicinity of Kalispell, climbed to 11,500 then headed WNW and crossed directly over the mountains near Marias Pass which I believe is Hwy 2.  If I were faced with the same scenario I'd probably wait the weather out.  The ceiling was 12-12,500.  There was light rain the whole way which mixed with some snow at times so visibility wasn't the best.  Wasn't IMC but certainly wasn't enjoying any views.  Thought about getting an IFR clearance but that meant I would've had to climb to 13,000 which would've taken some time and put me in the clouds.   Temp was +6 at 11,500 and the icing reports were between 14-17k feet so should've been fine with ice but would have been getting borderline.  Winds were forecast to be around 10 kts at 9k but I think they were a bit stronger than that and did experience a bit of turbulence.  All in all maybe not a horrible call but at the same time probably not the best.   

 

The rest of the trip back was uneventful.  Stopped at MLS and ABR to C29.  Cruised at 9,000 feet and enjoyed some tailwind just above some white puffys.

 

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  • 2 months later...

Planning almost similar flight to GPI or S27 in Jan 2020 from WI in M20C so this has been helpful. Have a friend at S25 I can fly to on day one in afternoon and then on to GPI next day. This will be my first mountain flight so I'm taking it all in. Thinking about asking a CFI at GPI or S27 to go flying with me one day in and around the area to teach me more about mountain flying.

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The first time I flew out there, I talked to an experienced CFI in Great Falls before making the jump to GPI.  There was a pretty good cloud cover on the Great Falls side and I wanted to know what the icing risk was.  Turned out no problem.  But I do have a recollection of him telling me that the locals stay away from prolonged routes over the lake especially in the winter and early spring (Flathead), some kind of icing phenomenon and I don’t remember what it was.  Advection fog in low temps or something like that.  Probably not very helpful, but thought I would mention it.

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3 hours ago, INA201 said:

This sounds nutty but if you just click edit on your photos and resize them even minutely they will load correctly. Makes no sense but works for me.

Or rotate them and rotate them back, then they will be right. You just have to touch them with an editor in some way and they'll load correctly.

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