Earlier this year, the Colorado Division of Aeronautics established VFR GPS waypoints throughout key mountain passes in the state. The initiative was spurred by a similar program in Alaska. But while Alaskan pilots are challenged by flying under weather through lower, longer passes, mountain flying in Colorado is more likely to involve different techniques due to higher and shorter passes. Pilots there are trained to use orographic winds and thermals, crossing the passes as a 45-degree angle.
I understand there was a mountain flying school in NW US, perhaps in MT.
COPA had mountain flying seminars at a convention in Red Deer AB circa 2003. Most of the population of Canada does not have big rocks like the Rockies, I call easterners flatlanders. :-o)
Crossing ridges at an angle was one point (gives you a bit more time to realize your mistake and recover from it).
Then a practice flight in fairly mild terrain into the foothills, a loop route including over a reservoir and a river - the later wave of pilots experienced the effect of cooling of air by them.
Back then I noticed many accidents in BC, which is full of mountains, in which a pilot blundered into a blind canyon then lost control trying to turn inside it. Tip: going into trees under control is less hazardous than falling from stalling. Good idea to know your airplane’s stall speed in a hard turn.
I finished up and got my ticket in Colorado. On the east side of the rockies. All over the walls of the FBO were posters, stating that one needs additional training for mountain flying.
Since i wasn’t planning on doing any mountain flying, i never got said training. But every now and then, there’s pilots who do not heed the warnings, and end up making the news. In not a good way.
I was there Keith and I agree that flying in the rocks is a taste not often acquired. The weather has got to be good, not just legal. Think about the southern pass and “sunshine valley”. As you approach the “lower mainland” the cloudbase lowers, precipitation and fog increase and visibility is a quaint term. Take a hotel room, have a nice supper and a good snooze then deal with what the morning brings. My mothers Russian, my fathers Russian, but I’m takin’ my time!!
Providing service to communities in the interior of BC was challenging some times. One time Pacific Western went a week without being able to land in the Okanagan/Thompson region, transfer ambulances were preparing to drive to the lower mainland through the Fraser Canyon. (Before the Coquihala freeway.) Usually only a day or three lost but weather does vary.
(PW started to avoid even trying to land in Kamloops if forecast was poor, not worth the small amount of risk, cost, and inconvenience to pax who did not want to be in the next stop of Calgary.)
In the High Arctic an entire region could have bad weather. PW would launch out of Yellowknife with fuel to make two approaches to Resolute Bay then climb back to altitude and return to YZF. Even in good weather I sensed the pilots were making a conscious decision at TOD to ‘land up there’ (YRB had good navaids and recognizeble terrain on radar).
the crash of a B737 at Resolute Bay
(Captain missed that AP dropped back to heading hold turning final and refused to listen to meek FO)
the crash of a B737 at Cranbrook BC
(ATC gave Cranbrook advisory tower an erroneous ETA, it was improperly acting as a control for snow clearing equipment. Cleared to land by Calgary ATC, the crew couldn’t contact the advisory people so proceeded down the ILS, touched down, deployed reversers, then realized the blowing snow down the runway was a snow sweeper so stowed reversers, lifted off and was accelerating in the air. But a reverser opened, airplane not controllable at speed achieved.)