This is a route I usually ride often during our dirt bike tours, there are 3 cables, 2 of them I found them from the air, the last one, the wooden pole had grown leaves in it and looked like a tree, I found it while riding my bike
I have been flying 15 feet over the cable without knowing it.


Fun area but it shows you the danger of flying canyons, even if you think you already know them.
Nothing beats an inspection from the ground , then you know really know the area.

motoadve,

While you don't have a density altitude problem there, small canyons are more dangerous than are large canyons. I think I saw some energy management in your turns. Here is a excellent opportunity to see the advantage of anticipating the turn, pulling up wings level a bit to slow a bit, and turning quickly to get the nose onto the new target (the river in the new direction) and the wings again level much before the natural return to low level. We don't want a wing down late in the turn when we are close to the ground.

Don't let a significant turn in the river put you between a rock and a hard place. Level turns, in a maneuvering flight situation, are very dangerous. If we gain a little altitude just before the turn, we have this gravity thrust of altitude to prevent load factor in the turn. We are also slower for a reduced radius of turn. Free energy is often the best, and most dependable, energy.

Contact

Thanks for the tips Contact.

Flying canyons always spooks me a bit. With minimal effort, anyone could string a cable across a canyon. A random, seemingly harmless cable system for crossing a river or taking water samples could very easily to ruin an unsuspecting pilot's day. FYI, cables have killed many including a notable expert on mountain flying.

Anyone know of any FAA regulation that requires reporting cables strewn across canyons?

Nice video Dave! Have fun. Be safe.

http://www.amazon.com/Flying-Mountains-Training-Single-Engine-Aircraft/dp/0071410538

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20051123/NEWS/111230024

motoadve wrote::shock:
...I have been flying 15 feet over the cable without knowing it.....Nothing beats an inspection from the ground , then you know really know the area.

Don't kid yourself, at best you only know it for that day. I've flown creeks/canyons one day, come back the next to find workers putting up a barbed wire fence across the bottom. On one river I fly frequently in a very remote area in the middle of a ranch, a new power line was strung across. Apparently someone had seen that I land the river bottom because even though it's an area accessible by no one other then ranch personnel, they added orange balls to the wire.

It doesn't matter how many times, or when you last flew there, always make a thorough inspection, from both directions, before dropping in. And even then assume you missed something and be hyper vigilant. Just the other day I was flying a "familiar" river, scouted from both directions, and was dragging a new sandbar in preparation for landing when all of a sudden I went right under an unsheathed wire no bigger in diameter then your little finger. I climbed out of the river, came back and looked at the wire from both directions. Even knowing where it was it was nearly impossible to see because it was new so reflected its surroundings. None of the usual indictors were in the area either, such as power lines, poles, roads, buildings, etc. Both sides of the river were lined with trees and I never did figure out what the wire was for or what it was attached to.

When flying in very remote areas, where civilization has yet to encroach, one might think there is no need to make inspections, and perhaps there are no wires that can snatch one from the air, but we humans require repetitive routines to not forget things, so even in these circumstances follow your inspection routine so as not to forget to do so when flying around civilization.

Be vigilant out there.

Good thread.

Watch out for other aircraft too. Scenic areas are becoming increasingly more crowded. Pilots will buy an aircraft believing that they have escaped the confines of civilization but, really not.

When checking wires, figure out how the wire gets into the area and how it gets out of the area. Every change of direction, even a slight change, requires a guy wire. The prop won't cut the guy wire, if you mess up. Where there is vegetation, wire right of ways are cut through the vegetation. Any such swath cut through the trees will have a wire. In west Texas and on west, the right of way is not obvious. Pipeline right of ways will look the same, so don't beat yourself up if you don't find a wire down there. In this country, because of hungry lawyers, the more modern a pipe or power line, the more crooked it will be.

Barnsotrmers you are totally right, every time I go , Im looking like if it is the first time, its fun, but can be very dangerous.