IFR in the Eastern Mountains

Mortimer Schnerd, RN wrote:


They can be scary places under the right conditions. I remember coming out of
the Shenandoah Valley in a Piper Arrow with two others aboard on a nice warm
sunny day in the summertime and thinking I was never going to get over the
"hills". I was circling and trying to climb at the same time. Every time I'd
start to make a dash across I'd start sinking on the approach side and wimp out.
Probably it would have been less nerve wracking if it'd have been in IMC: I
just wouldn't have seen those ridges. OTOH, I might have had a really bad day.


Whenever you are a couple thousand feet below the ridgeline on approach
or departure, a blunder into the terrain has the same result as if the
mountains were 10,000 feet higher than the airport.

You found out about terrain-induced wind effect and high density
altitude on nice summer day. A turbo-charged engine is helpful, even
around those "little" mountains.