Thanks for all the advice and suggestions I got in this thread. To help out any other low hour pilots from flat areas contemplating the same trip, I'm going to revive this old thread to give up update of my experiences of flying to Aspen. If you don't want all the boring details, skip to the end on the actual landing to Aspen.
First of all the house we rented is about 10 minutes outside of Aspen, and a few miles due east of midfield KASE about 1000 ft above the field. I can't see the runway from the house, but can see traffic arriving and departing, and also anyone on right downward for 33 (depending on how wide they are) basically fly pretty much over where we are. The first couple of weeks, due to logistic issues, I did not have the plane here and flew commercial to and from Dallas. But I paid close attention to the airport, and my initial reaction was that it didn't seem that bad to get into, just looking at the other traffic around.
But being the cautious fellow (cluck cluck cluck) that I am, I still intended to come in the first time with a CFI. I finally got a chance to bring my plane here last week. The trip started at Addison (KADS) with a temperature of 106 F. A neighbor of ours in Dallas who is also spending a few weeks in Aspen asked me "if it is not too much trouble" to take some wine for her. "Some" wine was 80lbs. I admit to having some wine for myself too, so I had about 150 lbs of wine, as well as the rest of my luggage. Luckily the 206 can swallow a lot without complaining too much. More on that wine later...
Some big storms were just starting to roll in, and a bunch of planes were trying to get out before the storm hit. I taxied from my hangar with a 210 just behind me, and joined the line at the runup area for runway 15 with that 210 and about three other planes. The 210 pretty much just rolled directly onto the runway, he obviously called tower and got permission without doing any runup or anything. Naughty... Got my IFR clearance, and waiting for my release while looking nervously at the XM weather NEXRAD (as well as on my iPad). There was a line of storms approaching, with a cell probably 10 miles away and heading directly towards Addison. My initial vector on takeoff was 045 degrees, directly at the storm. I asked tower if they could give me a different initial vector, but they said departure would turn me away and "not to worry". I worried, and briefly considered going VFR to get out of the area then pick up an IFR clearance later. Anyway, decided to trust the system and departed. As promised, departure quickly and expertly pointed me at a hole in the approaching line of storms and got me through that hole. ATC was busy squeezing a bunch of commercial flights through that same hole or sending others further south and around.
There was a bunch of heavy thunderstoms in Western Texas and Oklahoma, so I ended up deviating probably 100 miles to the south to get around that. And looking ahead at the XM NEXRAD images, there was a whole lot of activity over the Rocky mountains. So I decided to make a stop in Pueblo, spend the night then complete the trip in some nice smooth quiet flying conditions the next morning. I went to the Rocky Mountain FBO. They usually close at 5 pm, but luckily were still open at 6 pm and said they would organize a rental car for me. As I descended into Pueblo and got the weather, etc, I discovered it was almost as hot there as Dallas. It was almost 100 F. Well this sucks, I thought, I can't leave all this wine in the plane with those temperatures. So landed, and hauled those heavy boxes over to the FBO and into the rental car. Got it started up with AC on full, while I paid for fuel and made arrangements for the next day. Headed into Pueblo, got a hotel room, and hauled that damn wine up to the room.
The next morning, I had arranged to meet a CFI at Rifle at 7 AM... So I had to make an early start. Got up at 4:15 AM, checked the weather, filed a VFR flight plan that would take me to Leadville first, then Hagerman Pass, over the Ruedi reservoir, then down/across the Roaring Fork Valley to Glenwood Springs, then follow the valley to Rifle. Hauled the wine down to the rental car (which incidentally was parked in the overfill parking lot. How can such a small town need an overfill parking lot for a hotel???). Finally got on the road to the Pueblo airport. I had been told where to dump the rental car, near a single gate with a coded entry. I parked as close to the gate as I could, then carried the boxes of wine and luggages (swearing under my breath) to the gate. Hit the code, propped the gate open, moved the boxes inside the gate. Then had to haul the boxes to the plane which was tied down 10 miles away. Okay, it was not 10 miles but felt like it!
I loaded up the plane, did the preflight (the dawn was just beginning to break), and got in. Then I remember I needed oxygen! I was planning to cross the area towards Leadville at 16500 feet to take a bit of a short cut. So... get out again, move the boxes out, get the oxygen mask, put the boxes back in.
Finally on my way, and climbed up to 16,500 ft well before I got to Leadville. My plan was to start high, then once I saw the pass to start descending immediately and basically go downhill all the way to Rifle. The flight was perfect, totally smooth and stunning scenery. The area around the Ruedi reservoir is beautiful. I followed the valleys all the way to Rifle, taking my time enjoying the scenery, making a few detours here and there and landed at Rifle 7:03 AM just a few minutes late. It is a very nice easy airport to land at.
I met up with Jim, my CFI who is based there, and we briefed Aspen. We got to the plane, and his first comment was "man you've got a lot of stuff in that plane!". I immediately hauled out the iPad to show him the W&B along with his weight. I may have detected some slightly raised eyebrows at the need to be carrying so much wine.
Got going, and he showed me a shortcut that works well to go from Rifle to over Glenwood Springs (follow the power lines on the sectional), which brings you over the airport rather than around the curve and less likely to meet up with other traffic suddenly departing Glenwood. He told me that many local pilots don't like to talk on the radio, even if they have them. Tsk tsk tsk. While heading there, he briefed me on the need to call Aspen approach. Not too early, because if they don't see you on Radar they will start hassling you for position reports. He pointed out the main landmarks, including Red Table VOR which a lot of the jet traffic come from directly so definitely good to know. We got the Aspen weather and checked in with Aspen approach, and they told us to go straight in for 15 passing us on to the tower fairly quickly. The tower also cleared us to 15. Jim advised to always ask for a wind check because it can change quickly and they don't necessarily update the ATIS for wind changes. Hmmm.... As we were coming in, he pointed out Snowmass Village which he said sometimes you will be asked to go to first (and it is not on the sectional). He also warned me that sometimes you have to hold over the golf course near Aspen downtown, and pointed that area out to me. Did the landing on 15 which was quite straightforward. It does slope slightly uphill but not enough to throw you off. When you get off the runway, the distance from the runway to the main taxiway is quite short. They want you off the runway quickly, but you need to look out for traffic on the taxiway because you basically have to go fully onto the taxiway to get clear of the runway.
Jim then suggested we taxi back to 33 which is the normal departure direction (appparently you need special permission to take off the other way). We took off, and did one trip around the pattern (right traffic) to land on 33. Landing on 33 is fine, there is plenty of room to do a nice wide pattern if you want to. The only slight difficulty is turning base to final, there is a hill basically right there so you have to be higher than you usually would. But using my usual 20 degrees of flaps and about five seconds of slipping, I was able to set up for a nice easy landing. The runway is very long so you would have to be totally inept in a small plane to mess it up in my opinion. We did a taxi back to 33, then departed back to Rifle. Coming out was interesting because there was a jet coming straight in for 15. We sidestepped to the right and the jet came shooting past. Pretty typical there apparently! I dropped Jim off, and fueled up again (fuel is 70 cents off at Rifle on Saturdays).
Coming back to Aspen, I followed the same route except I checked in earlier with Aspen Approach. As he had warned me, they asked for a continual position reports until they could see me. There was a lot of traffic now, being later in the morning. As Jim had warned me, Aspen Approach instructed me to go the Snowmass Village, then the airport to enter right downwind for 15. If I had not been warned about this, it would have been ugly because it is not marked on the sectional and not obvious if you don't know Aspen. When I was passed to the Tower, they repeated to go to Snowmass Village, but to then cross midfield and enter right downwind for 33 and hold over the golf course. Again, I had been warned about this so that was no problem. I followed the instructions, and started circling over the Aspen and golfcourse area. It is not a real hold, really just a tight circle. By habit I did it clockwise but I guess you could do it in any direction? It is a great way to see Aspen! The tower had me circle three times while they brought in a jet and departed three small planes. They are efficient! Then on the third loop, then cleared me to land 33.
In retrospect, my opinion of Aspen is that the actual airport itself with surrounding terrain is not difficult at all. The difficulty comes in the high traffic volumes which combined with the terrain means you have to be extra vigilant. And there are certain procedures that they follow which are not documented.
Now I'm looking forward to flying around the area.
The wine made it safely to its destination. Well, I did steal one bottle from my neighbor's box. Shhh, don't tell... They had more than enough. :wink2:
