"Jay Honeck" wrote in message news:ENfic.12459$w96.1176412@attbi_s54...
According to Destination Direct, we are just 10.5 hours away from my sister
in Sequim, WA.

D.D. routes us northwest to Billings, Montana, and then west from there.
The terrain looks very high, indeed.

Can Atlas make the jump? Is it possible for a normally aspirated plane
(and pilots!) to fly over the Rockies? How high must one go?

Thanks in advance...

Jay,

I am surprised at the fear that you flatlanders have for the Rockies.
I live in Billings, and fly across them several times a year in my
180hp C172. Its a piece of cake unless you wind up IFR, though even
then its not really much more death defying than much IFR elsewhere.

Here's the story on the easiest flying to Sequim west from Billings:

Take either V247 or V2 to Helena(HLN), thence V2 to Missoula(MSO).
Thence either V2 to Spokane or V187 to Lewiston,ID (LWS). You're over
the Rockies!! It's a flat run from either of those for about 120
nm until you approach the Wenatchee Range about 70nm east of Seattle.
Frankly, crossing these mts creates more of a pucker factor in me than
the others. They are a bare, jagged range of rock. Then you're into
the Class B Seattle area unless you skirt in to the north. There are
beaucoup SUAs in this area-perhaps the most treacherous part of your
journey.

I don't know what your preferred level of adrenaline is, but there are
a few other options across the Rockies. Someone mentioned going
further north through Great Falls, but I sense that you may not like
that since there is a goodly stretch west of Great Falls across the
Bob Marshall Wilderness Area that might be a little, shall we say,
"too wilderness" for you. It is very pretty, though, and there is a
geographical treat known as the "Chinese Wall" that is very impressive
(that's the adjective I'd use, though yours may be different), and
flying west from Flathead Lake is, well,...breathtaking.

If you would like more info, email me. Also Newps is an ATC guy in
Billings, and can probably give you some insight also.