-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Macklin [mailto Posted At: Friday, November 03, 2006 4:10 PM
Posted To: rec.aviation.ifr
Conversation: IFR in the Eastern Mountains
Subject: IFR in the Eastern Mountains

... are also a lot of flat landers who die in Arkansas.


I don't remember exactly when, but in the '70s or early '80s PGO just
West of KMEZ was renamed from Page VOR to Rich Mountain VOR. A voice
message was added to the Morse identifier -- Caution, rapidly rising
terrain... The identifier remained the same however.

This was specifically in response to the growing aluminum content on the
Southern slope of that hill. The terrain to the South is relatively flat
and then all of a sudden the Kiamichi Mountains jump almost straight up
in a very short lateral distance. We never thought about it because
traveling from the North you already had to account for the Ozarks and
the Boston Mountains; Rich was just one more hill to cross.

I was in Mena last Saturday and had a chance to fly over that terrain
for the first time in about 20 years. It still looks like hills, and at
this time of year - beautiful hills.