SLC to LWT on Thursday

[Flash]

I've got a flight with passengers from SLC to LWT (Lewistown, Montana) on Thursday. Winds are forecast to be high. I'm considering a route that starts easterly and takes me over Riverton and just east of Cody so that I don't have to fly over the mountains near Yellowstone, where the winds across the tops are going to be 30 knots or greater. The other advantage of an easterly route to start is that there is going to be a system moving in from the west and I'll have options to my right if I need to deviate/land.

I know that there can be turbulence on the lee side of the mountains, but it looks like the lee side on Thursday morning is going to be the north side rather than the east side.

Any thoughts from locals about that route? Thanks in advance.

[carusoam]

See if this helps spur the conversation...

-a-

 

[Flash]

1 hour ago, carusoam said:

See if this helps spur the conversation...

-a-

 

Thanks, Anthony. That shows my options. Direct route will be almost straight downwind but over some tall rocks in gusty winds that I'd reach at about 10:30 a.m. Windy.com says winds at FL100 along my route will be greater than 30 knots in places; the tops of the tallest rocks along the route are at about that level. I can be over 12,500 pressure altitude for 30 minutes (to give me some margin between me and the rocks).

Surface winds at WYS will be somewhere between 9 gusting to 16 and 16 gusting to 26. I've left WYS heading to Montana in windy, gusty conditions, and it's not something I'd like to do with passengers. Billings, in contrast, is expected to be between 6 gusting to 8 and 6 gusting to 11, but Cody, which is in the valley south of Billings, is expected to be between 7 gusting to 15 and 12 gusting to 23, so not much better than WYS, although if I go through Cody I've got mostly lower elevation between me and Lewiston rather than the rocks that are north of WYS. So the eastern option gives me almost as much wind but flatter, lower terrain. My guess is I'm going to have moderate turbulence either way.

I think the eastern route might be wiser, but I'd value advice from locals.

By the way, Cody might be gusting to 41 at 6 p.m. on Thursday.

[toto]

6 hours ago, carusoam said:

See if this helps spur the conversation...

-a-

 

If you’re about to depart, I have some minor concerns about both your GPS situation and your battery life

[kerry]

Should be a quick trip. 30 knot tailwinds.  I'm flying this afternoon from Las Vegas to Pocatello Idaho.  Very seldom do I these kind of wind behind me.  Should be fun. Enjoy your flight and may the winds always be behind you.

[carusoam]

3 hours ago, toto said:

If you’re about to depart, I have some minor concerns about both your GPS situation and your battery life

When reviewing my post this morning...  this pic really shook me.

I need 100% to get through the day... 

And I saw my WingX and only 9%...   yikes!

Couldn’t close that pic fast enough...

I got the low cost ipad... it has to be connected to my SkyRadar... while in the plane...

while at my table... it somehow knows where I am every other minute or so....

Best regards,

-a-

 

[TTaylor]

On 6/8/2021 at 11:06 AM, Flash said:

I've got a flight with passengers from SLC to LWT (Lewistown, Montana) on Thursday. Winds are forecast to be high. I'm considering a route that starts easterly and takes me over Riverton and just east of Cody so that I don't have to fly over the mountains near Yellowstone, where the winds across the tops are going to be 30 knots or greater. The other advantage of an easterly route to start is that there is going to be a system moving in from the west and I'll have options to my right if I need to deviate/land.

I know that there can be turbulence on the lee side of the mountains, but it looks like the lee side on Thursday morning is going to be the north side rather than the east side.

Any thoughts from locals about that route? Thanks in advance.

That route should be good.  Crossing over near south pass should be good. If you know how to read wave clouds you might be able to pick up speed flying in the upside of the wave.  If you are uncomfortable with wave, just fly far enough east of the Wind River range to avoid the turbulence.  

[Utah20Gflyer]

I was planning on flying from KTVY tooele to GEG Spokane this morning but delayed until tomorrow morning because of the high winds and low ceilings in the Boise area.    Did you end up flying today?  If so how was it?   I don’t regret delaying a day, forecast for tomorrow morning looks excellent. 

[carusoam]

Message for @Flash above...

-a-

[Flash]

17 minutes ago, Utah20Gflyer said:

I was planning on flying from KTVY tooele to GEG Spokane this morning but delayed until tomorrow morning because of the high winds and low ceilings in the Boise area.    Did you end up flying today?  If so how was it?   I don’t regret delaying a day, forecast for tomorrow morning looks excellent. 

I did the same thing you did. I'm flying Friday morning. If I had been going solo, I might have tried it, with the idea that if I was getting beat up too much I could just land at the closest field and sit it out. But doing an AngelFlight in conditions that might bump a passenger's head against the ceiling didn't seem like a good idea. (I think I could have made it OK, had I taken the eastern route over RIW, COD, and BIL and departed by 8:45 a.m. But the forecasts and Airmets Thursday morning did not give me enough confidence that the flight would be a success.) 

FYI, flying from SQL (San Carlos, California) to Salt Lake City on Wednesday evening was an adventure, including a bump over Salt Lake that lifted me out of my seat. That's not an experience I want passengers to have.

I wish you a good flight, and I applaud your decision.

12 minutes ago, carusoam said:

Message for @Flash above...

-a-

Thanks, Anthony.

[carusoam]

Great follow-up Flash!

Thanks for sharing the decision making details...

Best regards,

-a-

[kmyfm20s]

Glad you delayed your flight. I flew from Missoula MT to San Diego on Tuesday, a day earlier than planned because of weather your talking about. One of the more uncomfortable flights I have had in years. Consistent light and moderate turbulence from Salmon ID to Las Vegas. The higher I climb the greater the head wind with no relief of the turbulence. I wanted to land Elko NV for a break but the surface winds were bad enough I opted to continue on. I also had the great fortune of head winds on my flight there the week before but at least it was smooth. This year in general has been a bumpy year of flying with lots wind.

[Flash]

7 hours ago, kmyfm20s said:

Glad you delayed your flight. I flew from Missoula MT to San Diego on Tuesday, a day earlier than planned because of weather your talking about. One of the more uncomfortable flights I have had in years. Consistent light and moderate turbulence from Salmon ID to Las Vegas. The higher I climb the greater the head wind with no relief of the turbulence. I wanted to land Elko NV for a break but the surface winds were bad enough I opted to continue on. I also had the great fortune of head winds on my flight there the week before but at least it was smooth. This year in general has been a bumpy year of flying with lots wind.

Thanks. I had a very similar experience to yours when I flew Wednesday evening/night from San Carlos, California to SLC. I had prepaid for a hotel room in Wendover, but the 70-degree cross-wind was gusts to 30. The cheapo in me seriously considered giving it a try in light of the 10,000-foot long and 150-foot wide runway, but the I've-had-a-long-day-and-have-piloted-through-challenging-conditions part of me said no, keep going to SLC, which had much more hospitable conditions (wind gusting out of 150, not as strong as at KENV, and I landed on 14).

Today's flight from SLC to Lewistown (dropping off two passengers) and then on to Helena was incredibly smooth by comparison. I definitely made the right choice by postponing one day.