I've flown the Alaska Range and the Brooks range but, when I got to
Colorado, I "needed" a mountain checkout to fly a club 182. We went to
Leadville via Mosquito Pass (elev. 13,186'). On departure my CFI warned
me about density altitude. There was a booming thermal at the departure
end and you should have heard the alarm as I rolled into a turn and
climbed up to 14,000' before heading back to the Denver area. The
following weekend I gave him a ride in a glider.


On 12/26/2014 4:44 PM, Bill D wrote:
On Friday, December 26, 2014 3:57:09 PM UTC-7, Bill T wrote:
Jean, NV. 2,833MSL, 100F jacks the DA.
I used to do mountain flying checkouts for flatland pilots in my Archer II. One warm afternoon we were taxiing out at Teluride, CO and the AWOS said the density altitude was 16,000'. My checkee looked alarmed and asked what the ceiling of the Archer was. I said 13,800' - no problem.

TEX is at 9,078' MSL and prior to 2009 had an 85' deep swayback in the middle of the 6,900' long runway with 800' drop-offs on three sides and a mountain on the forth. I knew the little Archer could get airborne in ground effect well before reaching the bottom of the dip and I could turn out over the valley at mid-field giving me good terrain clearance. If I flew the valley westbound it became lower as I went. I would either find a thermal or reach the airport at Montrose. I hit a 1,200 FPM thermal at Saw Pit, soared the Archer to 17,500 and cruised to APA.

--
Dan Marotta