Yeah, Waldo...I've taken off from Granby before, density altitude wasn't quite as high when I was there, but I was in my Cherokee 180 with me and the wife and less than 1/2 tanks, and if I recall my climb rate was about 350. Learning that DA lesson early is important - not just the theory of it, but actually experiencing it.

Thanks SlowMover - I really do appreciate that. I am a tech guy by trade and work about 60 hours a week, plus travel about 40 weeks a year. My wife and I were talking and she asked me what I would like to do when I retire...and I said I would like to get my CFI and teach folks who really want to learn, not really use it to make money, but for the satisfaction. Perhaps sometime in the next 15 years I'll see that happen.

Thanks again for the compliment, it is truly an honor.

Spencer Hamons
Angel Fire, NM
N624DP Piper Turbo Saratoga

Angel Fire, actually Eagle Nest Lake, is the wine glass. All the rainfall, all the snow melt run off, from all the rising terrain in every direction, save east, goes into the lake. Every surviving drop then goes down the Cimmeron River, to the Canadian River, would have flooded a golf course job I supervised in Oklahoma City except they made us build a 100 year rain ditch, on to the Arkansas River, Old Muddy, and ends up in the Gulf of Mexico.

Water can only enter the wine glass from the open top. That is how we tell which way the water flows. That is how small aircraft pilots find down drainage; the safe way out of Angle Fire, or for that matter, Oklahoma City.