On May 19, 11:59 am, scronje wrote:

How did you "get into" mountain flying? How much dual did you do before
you went at it alone? Some of those strips look pretty challenging, at
least in the photos.


I used to throw a load of camping gear on my motorcycle and head up
to the norther Rockies on my summer vacations. When I got a plane, I
just kept doing the same, only faster (and more fun).

I started flying to easy, unobstructed fields in mountainous areas,
then slowly worked my way up to the more challenging strips. Along
the way I got a lot of good advice from experienced mountain pilots,
and read as much as I could on the subject. I never really had any
dual instruction specifically for mountain flying. Coming from AZ,
you learn a lot about flying around mountains at high density altitude
as part of your private pilot training. Nowadays, there are
specialized mountain flying programs for those interested in flying
the backcountry, like http://www.mountaincanyonflying.com/ . They
will get you up to speed much faster than my "baby steps" approach :-)

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)