Instrument Rating Eagle Airport | Colorado Mountain Instrument Flying
Considerations When Planning IFR in the MountainsA couple years ago I had a Private Pilot come to Eagle for a two day mountain flight training course. As with all pilots that attend this training, the starting place is a discussion about the type of flying they do, the flying they plan to do, skill level, their goals for the training, and their aircraft.
Based on these conversations I tailor the training to suit each pilot. While every pilot will learn the same basics... mountain weather, density altitude, etc, some things will be different for each student. For example a Malibu driver looking to fly to the Rockies mostly in the winter to ski will have a different training experience than a husky pilot looking for unimproved fields in the summer. Along those same lines the experience will differ from a VFR pilot to a pilot planning to fly IFR.
In this case, the pilot I was working with had a very capable (turbine) aircraft. He planned to fly instrument approaches and departures into mountain airports.
During the first day of training I asked the pilot to fly and instrument departure from Meeker airport. This pilot promptly put on his foggles, throttled forward and got in the air. Within about 15 seconds I knew he was not following the DP, and was just flying runway heading....(as he didn't have the chart out). I asked him to continue with his instrument departure but to please take the foggles of so he could see how this departure was playing out.
5 minutes later his comments were that "I guess maybe my aircraft doesn't have the performance to fly IFR out of mountain airports". I politely responded that I didn't think aircraft performance was the issue.
The next few minutes was a chain of leading questions that lead nowhere. As it turns out, this pilot had spent the last 10 years flying from flat land airports in an aircraft with incredible performance. He was completely unaware that textual departure procedures even existed. In fact he had never even noticed or looked at that section of the NOAA chart book. For this pilot, if there was no SID that meant runway heading, contact atc.
For those of you Jepp users that I just lost... NOAA charts have all the DP's in the front of the book - not like Jepp charts that have them with the airport.
While this a somewhat comical situation, there is a moral to the story. All pilots should seek mountain checkout, not just VFR, and not just those with aircraft short on performance. I offer IFR mountain flying instruction as well as VFR mountain flying instruction.
Consider the how these are influenced by mountainous terrain:
- MSA, MRA, MDA
- SID / DP's - Climb Gradient / Density Altitude / Performance
- Approaches - Steep - VDP's (visual descent points are common)
- Missed Apporoaches - What happens if you go past a VDP and need to go missed? (This is sticky - I'll cover in the next post)
- Circiling Approaches
- Off-Angle Approaches (LOC, VOR and LDA)
- Weather
- Airframe Icing
Mountain Flight Instructor | Mountain Flying Courses
I figured I would dedicate this blog post to telling a little about our mountain flying courses. We frequently instruct pilots who own their own airplane, and are from areas without mountainous terrain. One of the first questions that comes up, is how do I get to Eagle Airport to fly with you in my airplane given that Eagle is in the mountains and my reason for coming is that I don't know how to fly in the mountains. We can and do frequently fly our airplane to the front range to meet pilots. Generally, if you’re coming up for a couple days of training then what we do is fly our plane to an airport east or west of the Rockies, and we just park our plane there for a couple days and then ride back to eagle with our student. There are a couple airports where parking is free or cheap that we generally use. In that type of scenario we charge a flat fee of $200 for the round trip just to cover the gas and time on the airplane. When you’re ready to depart to go back home you would just drop our instructor back at the airport where we left the plane.
In terms of a mountain flying course, we custom tailor the course to a pilot's experience, goals, and their airplane. In most cases, pilots will spend two days flying with us. Sometimes we have students that want more, others want to simply limit it to a half day or 1 day. So in that regard a pilot can really determine how much time you want to spend.
As we're planning your training it helps to know a little more about the student... their goals for the course, as well as future goals for your flying. For example some people come to us as a prep for flying to alaska. Are there any any specific airports you want to be sure to visit – resorts you like going to etc. Are you an instrument pilot? How much time, ratings, how much time do you have flying your airplane?
On the typical 2 day plan, we generally start off with a couple hours of ground instruction/discussion on the basics. Following that, we work through a variety of scenarios basically navigating to and from different mountain airports, pass crossings, and mountain corridors. Throughout the training we mix in additional discussions and ground instruction. The goal is not to bore the student with hours upon hours of ground, and instead have an integrated learning experience. At the end of two days most pilots will have landed 10-15 different airports with different challenges, flown most of Colorado’s major mountain corridors, and tackled the major passes generally used to navigate east to west in the central Rockies.
Occasionally we have students that simply want a 1 day, or a half day because they maybe have a 2nd home in a certain area, like Telluride, but live in Texas. In those cases they may only be interested in flying that route with an instructor and learning the most basic knowledge. We’re happy to do this type of training also.
In terms of cost, Our instructors bill hourly @ $75.00/hour for mountain flight instruction in customer aircraft and $40/hour for ground. If you’re flying with us 1 full day or more we provide a 20% discount. The two day courses generally work out to around $700-$1000. In most cases we have a total of 4-5 hours of ground and 10-12 hours of flight.
Mountain Flight Training in Colorado
If you're interested in flight training with an emphasis on extending your knowledge with some mountain flight training then Colorado is the place to come to, and Alpine Flight Training can provide the instruction. We operate from Eagle County Regional airport, located in the central Colorado Rockies. Whether for several hours, or for several days, Alpine Flight Training instructors will show you what it takes to fly safely in the mountains. Each mountain flight training instruction session is specifically tailored to the student. We can provide training in your aircraft or our rental Katana.
Throughout each session, we will build on your aviation knowledge and airman-ship by presenting opportunities for hands-on practice and application of learning on some of Colorado's mountain airports including Steamboat, Eagle, Aspen, Telluride, Glenwood Springs, Gunnison. We'll also show you how to navigate the mountain passes and give you strategies for dealing with mountain weather in a small aircraft.
Mountain Flying Checkout in Colorado
Colorado is a great place to learn the ins and outs of mountain flying and get a mountain checkout. While there is no formal FAA rating or endorsement for a mountain checkout, many insurance companies will still require such checkout before pilots are allowed to fly into high terrain. At Alpine Flight Training we follow a curriculum that follows the topics developed by AOPA Air Safety Foundation. In Fact, we recommend every student coming for mountain flying to take the online ASF Mountain Flying Course prior to mountain flying with us. Doing so will make your mountain checkout count towards a wings phase of pilot proficiency, and that can mean a reduction in insurance premiums.
Any mountain checkout should consist of a combination of ground and flight instruction. Topics should include weather, performance limitations, specific maneuvers, strategies, practice landing and departing mountain airports with a variety of challenges, and practice flying mountain passes.