denverpilot
Tied Down
I had the mighty 182 up to 13,500 briefly today.
I wanted to be above the rocks in the passes today. That photo was SE of Salida (KANK) in Hayden Pass. It was a touch rougher than my usual Mosca Pass which I used coming home.
The entrance to Mosca is where the nose is pointing in this shot. I was more interested in taking a photo of the Great Sand Dunes National Monument with snow all over the dunes. Purty.
Definitely one of those questionable days as far as winds aloft go... it was bumpy crossing the passes but not insanely so. I did stay the hell out of La Veta Pass though. It looked set up to be gnarly today in there. Winds at the AWOS station were blowing 40+. Bad juju.
But the mountain wave was less well defined down south in general. Which is why Hayden was bumpier than Mosca. I poked my nose into Hayden to see how it was and managed to cross without incident but the plan was to do the escape turn out and continue south of Hayden and poke through elsewhere if it was still too rough up north there.
And if it was still too rough down south, the plan was to bail and go to Pueblo for a burrito. Hahaha. No. Seriously. One of those days.
Denver and north passes would have been an exercise in “continuous moderate to severe” today and I wouldn’t have gone north. I bet Corona Pass was unflyable or nearly so today. Lovely sucker weather but the winds aloft were the limiting factor.
Of course...
Got bumped harder at 11,500 downwind of Pikes Peak passing east of KCOS on the way home. Always happens. Pikes makes its own rules and weather. I was the Delta Airlines stereotype guy high over the Springs Class Charlie today. Mr. Continuous Light Chop.
But I didn’t make the PIREP. Everybody knows it’s doing that downwind of Pikes this time of year. It’s just a given.
Anyway... density altitude... the 182 was making a whopping 15” of MP in the first photo. I’m still jealous of @Clark1961 ‘s Turbo. But the old girl got the job done.
Mission was to go to KALS and back for a tweak to the panel covers and the controls that were hanging up on them a little after the Avionics work. Mission Accomplished. Mark tried to tell me I could fix it with an Allen wrench but I didn’t quite get what he was saying, so it was a nice excuse for a flight.
Someone in a NORDO Cub was having a ball at KALS. It was dead calm. They were running around the pattern. But right as I arrived they aborted a takeoff when I was on a mile final and then surprisingly turned around and faced me. (I don’t think it was a directional control issue but they just didn’t know I was there and wanted another shot at that takeoff. Hahaha.) I got to practice my go-around procedures. Haha. Hi there little Cub. Runway not clear... cram, clean, climb, call...
A Mooney had just called in a few miles out the other direction (they were doing ILS 2 practice and we were all using 20) so I let him know what was up with the NORDO Cub out there playing around.
He thanked me and then we met them a little later when they were in the FBO while I was settling up on buying some gas. Two nice kids, guy and a girl, both working on different ratings and flying with an older guy. Younger guy had just done his Instrument ride and blew it but knew what he did wrong, so he was out shooting approaches to practice and the girl had just soloed recently in the Mooney (M20E) and was riding along on the Instrument stuff. Nice folks. Think the older guy was his safety pilot.
They wanted to see the STOL kit so we walked over and ran the flaps (and ailerons) up and down and chatted about flying in the area around KALS.
Gorgeous really big King Air on the ramp. I really wanted to borrow it for the flight home. Sexy beast. They said no. Haha. I asked.
I wanted to be above the rocks in the passes today. That photo was SE of Salida (KANK) in Hayden Pass. It was a touch rougher than my usual Mosca Pass which I used coming home.
The entrance to Mosca is where the nose is pointing in this shot. I was more interested in taking a photo of the Great Sand Dunes National Monument with snow all over the dunes. Purty.
Definitely one of those questionable days as far as winds aloft go... it was bumpy crossing the passes but not insanely so. I did stay the hell out of La Veta Pass though. It looked set up to be gnarly today in there. Winds at the AWOS station were blowing 40+. Bad juju.
But the mountain wave was less well defined down south in general. Which is why Hayden was bumpier than Mosca. I poked my nose into Hayden to see how it was and managed to cross without incident but the plan was to do the escape turn out and continue south of Hayden and poke through elsewhere if it was still too rough up north there.
And if it was still too rough down south, the plan was to bail and go to Pueblo for a burrito. Hahaha. No. Seriously. One of those days.
Denver and north passes would have been an exercise in “continuous moderate to severe” today and I wouldn’t have gone north. I bet Corona Pass was unflyable or nearly so today. Lovely sucker weather but the winds aloft were the limiting factor.
Of course...
Got bumped harder at 11,500 downwind of Pikes Peak passing east of KCOS on the way home. Always happens. Pikes makes its own rules and weather. I was the Delta Airlines stereotype guy high over the Springs Class Charlie today. Mr. Continuous Light Chop.
But I didn’t make the PIREP. Everybody knows it’s doing that downwind of Pikes this time of year. It’s just a given.
Anyway... density altitude... the 182 was making a whopping 15” of MP in the first photo. I’m still jealous of @Clark1961 ‘s Turbo.
But the old girl got the job done. Mission was to go to KALS and back for a tweak to the panel covers and the controls that were hanging up on them a little after the Avionics work. Mission Accomplished. Mark tried to tell me I could fix it with an Allen wrench but I didn’t quite get what he was saying, so it was a nice excuse for a flight.
Someone in a NORDO Cub was having a ball at KALS. It was dead calm. They were running around the pattern. But right as I arrived they aborted a takeoff when I was on a mile final and then surprisingly turned around and faced me. (I don’t think it was a directional control issue but they just didn’t know I was there and wanted another shot at that takeoff. Hahaha.) I got to practice my go-around procedures. Haha. Hi there little Cub. Runway not clear... cram, clean, climb, call...
A Mooney had just called in a few miles out the other direction (they were doing ILS 2 practice and we were all using 20) so I let him know what was up with the NORDO Cub out there playing around.
He thanked me and then we met them a little later when they were in the FBO while I was settling up on buying some gas. Two nice kids, guy and a girl, both working on different ratings and flying with an older guy. Younger guy had just done his Instrument ride and blew it but knew what he did wrong, so he was out shooting approaches to practice and the girl had just soloed recently in the Mooney (M20E) and was riding along on the Instrument stuff. Nice folks. Think the older guy was his safety pilot.
They wanted to see the STOL kit so we walked over and ran the flaps (and ailerons) up and down and chatted about flying in the area around KALS.
Gorgeous really big King Air on the ramp. I really wanted to borrow it for the flight home. Sexy beast. They said no. Haha. I asked.
