Flying the West - July 2015

Intro

I started my Private Pilot training in the spring of 2012 in Northern Virginia. On my first dual cross-country in early 2013, my instructor had me fly from Leesburg, Virginia (KJYO) to Cumberland, Maryland (KCBE) across a small stretch of the snow-covered Appalachian Mountains. I became hooked on the beauty of flying this terrain and made learning mountain flying one of my aviation goals. In 2015, I had the opportunity to take a multi-week sabbatical from work, which I used to fly 3000nm across the western US.  This is the story of how I prepared for and safely flew this trip under VFR in a Cessna 172S.

Early Preparation

My preparation began with reading and speaking with experienced pilots. The most informative books I found included Flying the Mountains by Fletcher Anderson and The Mountain Flying Bible by Sparky Imeson. One of the instructors at my school had flown coast-to-coast in a Cessna 162 and I spent many hours studying his and others' routes, reviewing terrain and studying the details of the feasible routes through the Rockies.  I read posts on the Pilots of America and Backcountry Pilot bulletin boards. At this point I had around 100 hours total time.

Once I got my certificate and started flying cross-countries, I realized I needed to learn more about the weather. The Private Pilot curriculum barely scratches the surface in this area. I picked up a copy of the textbook Meteorology Today and learned the fundamentals. I read Weather Flying. I got lost for hours in the various data available in the Weather Geek app trying to understand the factors driving weather a few days ahead, then checked later to see if my predictions had been accurate. I joined AvWxWorkshops.com and went through several of the video tutorials. I highly recommend AvWxWorkshops, which finally helped me to understand and apply Skew T diagrams, which can provide more accurate, localized winds aloft predictions than sources like the area forecast. 

Flying the Rockies (with an instructor)

Common sense and my reading had convinced me that I needed formal training from a qualified instructor in mountains such as the Rockies before attempting such flights on my own. SkyMachines' three-day immersive mountain flying class with instructor Marc Coan was exactly what I needed. 

We started off in at KSAF in Santa Fe, NM and spent three days flying the Rockies (SkyVector link) in central CO and northern NM in June of 2014. Pre-flight was before dawn, having woken up hours prior for comprehensive route and weather planning. Safely on the ground by 1300, avoiding the worst of summer convection, we reviewed the day's lessons learned and planned the next. Highlights included a morning of ridge and valley work near Aspen, CO,  my first non-paved runway landing at Saguache, NM, flying into the country's highest public airport at Leadville, CO (KLXV), and experiencing downdrafts and learning to utilize ridge lift near Angel Fire, NM (KAXX).

I learned to plan short routes so we could carry minimum fuel to maximize climb performance and ceiling, and to be able to frequently evaluate weather from the comfort of the ground. I experienced moderate turbulence for the first time. I also gained valuable experience on using supplemental oxygen and formed the personal minimum of using oxygen above 10,000 MSL, though not required by regulations until higher. 

Most important to my ultimate long cross-country goal, I learned that it was in fact possible to safely fly in mountainous areas in a 172, subject to caveats such as flying early in the day, carefully selecting a route that maximizes options should conditions change, and carefully planning fuel from a contingency and weight perspective.

Day 1: KSAF E14 KPSO KDRO 00C KCEZ DVC KAIB KMTJ

 

Day 2: KMTJ KASE KEGE KLXV KANK

 

Learning to leverage ridge lift, manage up/downdrafts, and understand terrain-induced turbulence in the valleys near Aspen, CO.

After landing at KLXV, field elevation 9933' MSL. Calm winds at around 1000 local time. Landing isn't the tricky part (barring crosswinds), because you can just chop the power as you come over the Tennessee Pass and glide in. Going around can be tricky, and taking off is a long, long ground roll.  Density altitude was ~12,500'. When I got back to the sea level after this trip, takeoff in the 172 felt like a rocket ship ascending.

Day 3: KANK 04V KAXX KLAM KSAF

Flying the Appalachians

Back in Virginia, I added an fBIKE folding bike to my kit.

This strapped nicely into the back seat for lunch during practice runs into the depths of the West Virginia mountains. My favorite flight was from Leesburg to Elkins, WV (KEKN, SkyVector link) on calm days (less than 10kts of wind at 5000') when I could follow the roads and rivers at around 1500' AGL.

Elkins, WV. There's a reason the threshold on the westbound runway is displaced so far, and if you try to shoot a straight in approach over the mountain heading west you'll see why.

Leesburg to Elkins via roads.

Flying east over US 33 in the vicinity of Seneca Rocks, WV

I made many shorter practice runs into Front Royal (KFRR) and Luray (KLUA). These trips provided me opportunities to practice short-field techniques, gain experience with mild up-drafts/down-drafts, work with cross-wind landings and improve pilotage skills.  

Luray to Front Royal, VA following the Shenandoah River and listening to bluegrass

I used the CloudAhoy app to parse data captured by my Bad Elf GPS to review my performance after each flight, for example evaluating my actual short-field landing performance against my intended landing points and stop distances. CloudAhoy is a great companion for solo flying in that it records everything you do and enables debriefing all stages of your flights.

Weather Survey

I surveyed the weather along my planned route west by writing a computer script to process ten years of historical METAR data to show me what percentage of the time during daylight hours the weather met my personal minimums. This confirmed what I had predicted, which was that the weather was better overall in the summer.  Though afternoons are predictably filled with gusty winds, convection and thunderstorm potential, mornings are relatively decent. I booked my vacation.

July and August - best weather for the route. 

Goals

As the trip approached, I planned around a handful of  goals. The plan was built around flexibility: I had no deadlines and plenty of time on each leg to divert or wait out adverse weather. I originally planned to rent a single plane for four weeks to fly coast-to-coast. I ultimately decided to skip the East Coast to West portion of the trip to focus on where I wanted to fly most, and broke that into two rentals:  six days out of Salt Lake City and four days out of San Francisco.  (The San Francisco location was a member of the OpenAirplane network, meaning that my checkout there allowed me to rent at numerous locations nationwide afterward without going through an additional checkout at each FBO.) I had around 200 hours total time at this point.

Trip Log

Total flying time: ~37 hours

Route out of Salt Lake City: (SkyVector link)

Day 1: U42 VPWBP VPCHS VPAIR VPTIP CISBI OGD KBMC U10 KPIH KIDA KRXE U53 KWYS

South Valley Regional north across the Great Salt Lake, passing over Antelope Island. Picked up the Snake River at Pocatello, ID and flew north to Rexburg, ID for a fuel stop. North to the Targhee Pass and into Yellowstone National Park. 

Day 2: KWYS KP60 KDIJ KPIH KBIY KTWF

Aerial tour of the west part of Yellowstone National Park. Went east as far as Yellowstone Lake, then headed south back into Idaho. Had intended to fly down the valley over Jackson Hole, WY. The winds at ridgetop height were around 30kts from the west, making flight down the valley at below the height of the mountains a bad idea. Headed west to make progress towards Oregon, stopping at Pocatello for fuel and lunch. Had to land in Twin Falls, ID for the day because the sky ahead was looking black with thunderstorms. 

Day 3: KTWF KMUO KONO KBKE KPDT KHRI KPDX WN80 KAST KTMK KMMV 6S4 8S3 KBDN

Followed the Snake River out of Twin Falls around to western Idaho. Enjoyed the view of R-3202 (looked like a bombing range). Lonely desert between Ontario, ID and Pendleton, OR. Stopped at Pendleton for fuel. 

North out of Pendleton, picked up the Columbia River and positioned myself on the north bank to avoid the restricted areas to the south. Flew west along the Columbia all the way to the coast - great views of Mt. Hood and the Columbia River Gorge. Emerged at the mouth of the Columbia and circled the point off of Astoria, OR. Positioned a mile offshore and flew the coastline south to Tillamook, OR. Terrain and gusty winds made that an interesting approach. 

Had originally planned to camp in Tillamook, but the weather prospects the following day were poor. Fueled up and headed east across the mountains, past the Three Sisters mountains into Bend, OR. 

Day 4: KBDN S33 KGCD KMAN

Bend to Madras to see the Erikson Aircraft Collection, which used to be housed in Tillamook but was moved to be in a drier climate. Flew across a couple of hours of scrub back to the Boise, ID area. 

Day 5: KMAN KPIH

Boise to Pocatello, to position for flying back into the Salt Lake City area the following day. I had slept in so was flying around noon, which made for a washboard experience of constant light chop the whole way. 

Day 6:  KPIH MEDEA NORDD LCU KLWL KENV VPAIR VPWBT U42 

My most challenging day of flying ever. I had planned a relatively direct trip from Pocatello back into Salt Lake City following the interstate. Morning thunderstorms blocked my path, which I had known was a risk when I planned the flight, and I had to divert to the west. As I crossed the line back into Utah over the (cold) Lucin MOA, it was windier than forecast. I found myself turning on my oxygen feed to get as much clearance as possible over 10,000' mountains. Center was helpful in confirming my choice of alternate routes, but couldn't clear me through a restricted area, which would have shaved off hours, at an altitude where I could maintain VFR. I made my alternate at Wendover, NV and visited the museum. Then flew east across the Great Salt Lake Desert back to South Valley Regional.

Route out of San Francisco: (SkyVector link)

Day 1: KRHV KNUQ KSQL WATAP PYE CA51 KUKI MXW KRDD

Bay tour departure out of KRHV around the west bay. Attempted to fly up the coast but ran into a low stratus layer, so diverted inland. Ended up in Redding, CA. 

Day 2: KRDD BSR BLANC KSBP

Redding back through San Francisco. Positioned off the coast of Monterrey, CA and flew south down the coast to San Luis Obispo. 

Day 3: KSBP AVILA PRB KCVH KRHV KHWD COLLI VPGGF CA27 BERKS VPDUB MABRY VPTUC VPCRL BAXBE VINCO KHWD

San Luis Obispo back to Hayward. Picked up a friend and did part of a counter-clockwise bay tour. Ended up circling Alcatraz for a view of the Golden Gate before a lowering ceiling forced us back east. Went as far south as Salinas, then returned to Hayward. 

Day 4: KHWD VPDUB KRHV

Quick jump from Hayward back to Reid Hillview. Challenging departure out of KHWD with a ceiling just barely at my minimum, rising terrain to the east, avoiding KOAK traffic and a late-breaking VIP TFR.

Highlights

The approach into Yellowstone (KWYS) from the south was breathtaking.

Heading west from KWYS into Yellowstone National Park.

As I departed KWYS, I flew east over the park. With Mozart's Requim in the background, the twenty minutes I spent circling the Grand Prismatic Spring was one of my life's top sightseeing highlights. 

This is as close as I got to the Grand Tetons. I had planned to fly down the valley over Jackson Hole, WY (on the other side of the mountains from here, looking east). I decided since the winds at mountaintop height were 30kts, that was a bad idea. 

Flying from Idaho northwest into Oregon, stopped at Pendleton, OR to fuel up and take a break. 

Flew north out of Pendleton and intercepted the Columbia River, then followed it all the way to the Pacific. For a while I had to stay on the north bank because the south side contained restricted airspace. 

Mount Hood at 9 o'clock, flying west over the Columbia. 

Fuel stop at Tillamook, OR. I had reached the Pacific, and flew down the coast southward. I had planned to camp at Tillamook and see the museum (that old blimp hangar in the background; I found out that collection moved to Madras, OR and saw it the next day). Weather forecast was for ~36 hours of low overcast, so I took off again and headed to Bend, OR, which promised drier weather.

Heading northeast from Madras, OR toward Boise, ID. Over the Malheur National Forest. Some of the most remote country I've ever flown.

Descending down from cruise to take a look at the lava fields near Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho.

I had planned a fairly direct route from Twin Falls, ID back to Salt Lake City to return the plane. I couldn't tell from the forecast VCSH whether my route would actually be feasible VFR before I left. After setting off and taking a look, I could see that it was not: picture above is looking south (my original route) as I diverted west. Below is a radar image from the XM downlink.

I diverted far west into Nevada. On downwind at Wendover, NV. This was originally an Army Air Corps base built as a site to train the B29 crews on how to perform their atomic bombing runs.

"Little Boy" replica at Wendover museum.

Crossing the Great Salt Lake Desert.

The "Bay Tour" route around the San Francisco Bay was more relaxed than I had expected due to the friendly Approach controllers. I departed Santa Clara (KRHV) headed clockwise toward the northwest to head up the coast. San Jose, CA.

Abeam SFO over the hills, Approach told a fully-loaded 777 headed for Japan to "maintain 3000" while departing out of SFO until he passed under me (I was at 3500'). Score one for the little guy, and for VFR flight following.   

I had a beautiful view of the city and flew right over the Golden Gate. 

Heading up the coast of California, north of San Francisco.

Trying to get to Shelter Cove, CA, but that low overcast forced me to divert inland. 

As I diverted east, surprise, afternoon thunderstorms.

I ended up going inland and landed in Redding, CA.  

I positioned around a mile offshore west of Monterrey, and flew the coast down to San Luis Obispo. Some of the most beautiful terrain I've seen.

Lessons Learned

As I reviewed my journal and logbook entries from this epic trip, I offer the following as lessons I learned:

General:

• Preparation with an instructor was essential. I still count myself as a mountain flying beginner (most of what I did would more properly be termed "flight in the vicinity of mountains" since I rarely flew into difficult areas and never into true back-country locations). That said, I learned what I needed to safely execute my plan.

• It IS possible to execute such a trip under VFR in a 172S! Sure, a T182T or SR22 would have made things easier. If I had wanted to get there quickly and comfortably, and to be honest the most safely, I would have booked a ticket on UAL. I don't deny that an instrument rating would have also added an additional buffer. But I wasn't interested in learning a new aircraft or devoting time to the new rating at this point in my life. I enjoy VFR flying and I wanted to do this on my terms.

• Always have an out. I applied this lesson constantly, whether crossing ridges and making sure I understood the wind and my escape route, or when planning a takeoff in the hopes of popping through a hole in the overcast that may or may not still be there once I got to it.

• Activating a mounted GoPro as part of my final pre-flight preparation on each leg helped alleviate the pressure to take pictures with a camera, which can be distracting at inopportune times. I set mine to capture a photo every minute, and each day used GeoTag to embed photos with location data based on my Bad Elf's track log. This helped immensely to remember which beautiful scenery went with which location. Pro-tip: set all devices to UTC to avoid having to time correct between devices.

• Respect your personal minimums. I once exceeded my personal maximum daily total flying time. When the end of that day came and I was setting up an approach into a busy non-towered field with a variety of training aircraft in the pattern, arriving business jets, jarring afternoon convection, high density altitude, and a stiff cross-wind, I wished I'd called it a day after the next-to-last leg.

• No matter how many times you've flown, run through the checklist after you think you're complete. It's a cheap insurance policy against forgetting to check the flight controls' travel, failing to set the fuel tank selector to the correct setting, or forgetting to release the parking brake. 

NAV/COM:

• Keep in touch with someone, and realize that many areas won't have cellular service. I used a SPOT personal locator beacon, set to broadcast my position every ten minutes via satellite and post to a website that my family could track. On my shorter trips into the Appalachians, I got into the habit of pressing the "ok" button whenever I was on the ground somewhere, which sent a text message to my wife with my location. 

• File a flight plan and remember to close it. You may not be high enough for radio contact necessary for flight following. Consider checking in with someone via phone each leg once on the ground.

• With G1000 and an AP, it's easy to shift into a "passenger" mindset. Setting a routine of recording notes of waypoint passage, checking the lean, monitoring weather ahead via XM uplink (when available), and calculating the continued feasibility of alternates helped. So did low-tech periodic position reports to FSS or Center. Sometimes it's nice just to hear someone's voice on the radio. 

• I started flying steam gauge 172s and didn't upgrade to G1000 until I had over 100 hours. Now that I've flown the west with it, and also come to appreciate TIS in the DC, SFO and NYC areas, I consider it an important tool in my kit. The XM weather capability made it easy to maintain situational awareness over multi-hundred-mile routes while enroute.

 Respect remote areas and high terrain:

• Respect density altitude. As a flat land pilot with my first 100 hours at a 400' MSL home field, I didn't truly understand density altitude until I took off from KSAF (6,348' MSL) in the late morning on my checkout flight for the mountain flying course.  

• Respect the wind and think about what it's going to be doing as it flows over terrain. If the winds at ridge height are predicted to be 20kts or more, I don't fly near them. Don't rely on outdated information - use all available sources to stay updated: watching clouds, G1000, mountain pass AWOS, XM uplink data for winds aloft, asking FSS, even checking ForeFlight on the iPad if you can get a signal.

• If you don't live in the high country, practice your standard suite of maneuvers at high altitude to get a feel for what to expect during climbs, slow flight, and stalls. Figure out what your ceiling is with half tanks of fuel (with appropriate oxygen). At these altitudes back east, I recommend reviewing instrument charts to avoid common instrument arrivals and approaches, and coordinating with Approach/Center once airborne to get better awareness of other traffic.  Potomac TRACON accommodated me graciously as I maneuvered between 12,000 and 13,000 MSL over northern Virginia doing this.

• The West is remote, fly prepared. There were days that I flew for hours and saw only minimal signs of civilization. I was equipped to camp, with gallons of water, a week's worth of food, and winter clothing.

• When flying in the summer, particularly in the vicinity of mountains, get going early, and plan to be on the ground by afternoon. Mornings were generally calm. Afternoons were bumpy, gusty and unpleasant, at a minimum, and full of thunderstorms at the worst.

• With half fuel tanks or less, particularly when solo, I tended to fly final approach too fast. My POH figures are for max gross weight. Over-the-fence at 55kts instead of 61kts worked better than those figures and still gave me plenty of margin over stall. 

Planning:

• When planning a trip to an airport in the vicinity of challenging terrain, spend significant time planning the approach and also your eventual departure. 
• Google Earth helps, as do the detailed topo maps designed for hikers. 
• Set a decision point for aborting the landing. 
• Plan your go-around, including calculating climb at the anticipated density altitude (instrument departure procedures, where available, can help plan). 
• Plan for nasty, last-minute downdrafts. 
• Understand runway slope and its effect on your landing and takeoff. 
• Review historical METARs. 
• Review Skew T data based on the upper air models for that vicinity to predict winds at ridge height at the time of your arrival or departure. 
• Reviewing instrument approaches and departure procedures, if available, can also provide useful information on terrain avoidance. 

• Consider the combined effect of density altitude and terrain when planning descents and climbs. 
• The best approach or climb to cruise may not be as direct as you are used to. 
• You may need to climb in a circle over the field to ensure you can get enough altitude to safely attempt a ridge crossing. 
• For the climb, you may need to seek a source of ridge lift. 
• Plan in advance what climb rate you expect, and if it's not enough, don't fly there or pick an earlier time of day.

• Apply an enhanced level of planning to the other aspects of your route as well. On a typical VFR cross-country in populated areas where terrain isn't a significant factor, planning is often brief. For example, you might not check several sources of weather information to get a feel for what the winds at 15,000' are really doing. Other than affecting enroute time and fuel burn, it's probably not a significant concern. Besides, there's an airport every 20 miles along your route. Near mountains, the wind speed is much more important, and there may be no good alternates nearby.

• Plan short legs. This gives you more chances to reassess weather conditions, enables you to carry less fuel for better climb performance, and to stay hydrated. 

• When possible, stay near civilization and/or roads. You may find yourself going relatively far out of your way to do this, but consider maximizing your survival options should you have to land rough.

• When flying in busy areas, such as the San Francisco area, study the major names and orientations of highways in addition to the VFR and flyway charts, to be ready for ATC instructions using those names.

• Don't ignore practicing soft-field takeoff techniques even if you never intend to visit an unpaved field, as you may need that technique if gusty conditions cause you to become prematurely airborne.

Credits

I'd like to thank the following people who contributed to my endeavor's success:

• My Private Pilot instructor Paul Georgelas, for his patience with me during the ~40 hours it took for me to execute stable, consistent landings so I could solo. 

• Mark Coan of SkyMachines at KSAF in Santa Fe, NM for helping me get effective mountain flying experience in the real mountains of Colorado and New Mexico.

• The teams at Leading Edge Aviation at U42 in Salt Lake City, UT and Trade Winds Aviation at KRHV in Santa Clara, CA. These companies were the most professional and well-maintained outfits from which I have had the privilege to rent.