Downdraft at 12,000 feet

James Robinson schrieb:

Can somebody explain what he did right/wrong?

His mistake was to go there in the first place.

I've been taught an iron rule: Never ever fly on top of a closed cloud
layer over mountains in a light single. Because if you hit downdraft
over mountains, you will *not* be able to hold altitude. With a closed
layer this means that you will find yourself between mountains in the
soup. (Which means that most probably you won't be able to tell anybody
about it afterwards).

A closed layer over mountains is a definitve no-go situation for a light
single, unless you like to gamble.

Stefan