Bill Arras <<billarras>>
writes:

Last week, a storm dropped a foot of snow in the mountains. The
forecast called for clearing skies with calm winds after the storm passed. These
conditions were perfect for flying to and around the mountains, so I flew twice
each day for two days in a row, spending a total of 9 hours in the air on the
two days.

The morning flights began 1/2 hour before sunrise and the evening flights began
about 5:15 PM, with landings about 1/2 hour after sunset. My trike has three
little strobes on it for visibility, legally allowing the flight time to be
stretched 1/2 hour on each end of the daylight hours. The air was still active
at the beginning of the afternoon flights, so I was able to use the thermals to
help climb to altitude quickly and save some fuel.

There's an inherently higher risk with most of these mountain flights, depending
on the wind conditions, the altitudes flown and the general flight parameters.
Flying close to the mountains often doesn't allow me the capability to reach a
suitable place to land in the event of engine trouble, but I accept the risks in
order to be able to make the flights. Fuel management can also be tricky
because, on long flights, I'm pushing the limits of the limited fuel capacity of
the trike, but hopefully not too close!

On afternoon flights, timing is important. It's nice to see the sunset from the
west side of the mountains, but that's about 30 miles from the airport. The
trike cruises happily at 60 mph in smooth air, but it's not always smooth enough
to fly that fast down low. The trick used on these recent flights was to climb
high as the sun was setting, getting into strong westerly winds at 12,500' and
14,500' on the two different days. This allowed watching the sunset, then taking
advantage of a 25 mph tailwind, giving a speed over the ground of 85 mph. Of
course, it then takes some time to get down from that altitude, but it makes for
a suitably fast return to the airport when the winds co-operate.

Flying around the mountains this time of year when they have new snow on them is
a total fantasy. Once winter really sets in, the deep snow covers all the land.
It smoothes out the glacier crevasses, contours and small details. But at this
time of year with a foot of new snow, the mountains are especially beautiful,
white islands with a lot of detail and character.

During the middle of the day, the airport is a busy place, with heavy helicopter
training and plenty airplane traffic coming and going. But no one is flying at
dawn or at sunset, and I've never seen another aircraft near the mountains at
the time the light is best. I marvel at having such a beautiful playground all
to myself.

Links to the pictures are found here:
http://ozreport.com/19.193