Flying Colorado Mountain Weather - Margaret Lamb

I only have one chapter left and it's been a great read. Lots of information on cloud identification and how it pertains to mountain winds, turbulence and impending weather. The book expands on basic mountain weather learned during initial mountain flying training and is written in a way that is interesting as well as informative. Mainly the book focuses on micro scale, localized winds and weather, how to read it, and avoid bad situations.

The book does focus on Colorado topography which is great for me since most of her flying experience is in the same ranges I fly in. That said it's applicable to any mountain flying.

Margaret Lamb represented me well in the 80s. I had been known to do a little maintenance on my own airplanes. When I left Gallup early one Saturday morning, the Flight Service guy asked where I was going. I told him Coronado (in Albuquerque). When I got there before 0800, Mr. Runyan from GADO was there to ramp check me. It wasn't the Tri-Pacer he expected and after a thorough inspection of the airplane he removed the airworthiness certificate and grounded it. She made them meet with me the next Monday and return the certificate with an apology. Their reason for grounding the airplane was that the mechanic twelve annuals prior had put a line through the 135 of PA-22-135 and had written in 150.

She was quite a bit older than me. I am now 70. Tough lady. I will be ordering the book.

Thanks for the recommendation. I just ordered a copy from Sporty's.

I just finished "Flying Colorado Mountain Weather" by my former aviation lawyer, Margaret Lamb, and was very impressed. I knew I would be. She is a a great lady, lawyer, and pilot.

I learned a lot about predicting mountain wave micro and macro. I was one of the locals she mentioned that use hydraulics rather than circle up in the valley first. Therefore I expected downdrafts whether on lee or windward and used energy management turns to exit when necessary.

The downdraft crash survivors wisely used flaps and flew slow to the crash site. That was because they were starting across high and directly to the pass. Encountering unusual west or windward side downdraft, correcting with power and pitch, and losing vertical space for a turn down hill; leaves flying to the crash the only choice.

Those of us who use the better windward ridge, the downwind ridge, to gain enough energy to climb with the valley expect valley curves possibility cause our ridge to go lee. And we are always lee of the pass. Because we expect problems and always have and know a downhill direction (usually the valley the other way) we avoid running out of airspeed and altitude.

I really liked her emphasis of rudder and admonition against aileron usage in turbulence. I also loved it when she said many times that the wind is our friend.

contactflying wrote:I just finished "Flying Colorado Mountain Weather" by my former aviation lawyer, Margaret Lamb, and was very impressed. I knew I would be. She is a a great lady, lawyer, and pilot.

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Where did you find the book? It sounds like a good read. Amazon? ABE Books? B&N? Other??

I'm not good with computers. It seemed to be available for Kindle but I couldn't make it happen. So I bought the paperback from Sportys. Good reference so worth the extra. And I know her.

She saved my license after my NG unit commander represented me poorly. He was also city attorney for Albuquerque. After she saved me at $125 per hour on an eight day clock, she asked who had represented me and what I had paid. I told her Tom Horan (a good pilot and commander) for $50. She said, "You got what you paid for." Always use an aviation lawyer and not a good friend.

I finished this book a little while ago and meant to post a review. So here it is...

It is an excellent book and a must-have for Colorado pilots as it is essentially an instruction manual for operating in the central Colorado Rockies. That said, it would also prove instructional for pilots in other regions albeit with a less personal connection to the specific terrain and mountain passes that serve as illustrations of general principles throughout the book. The production quality of the book is very good with many color photos illustrating real-world observations from the author's extensive experience flying in the region. The author also discusses the phenomenon of windward counterflow downdrafts, and as a result I will be paying much closer attention to relative altimeter settings when crossing passes west to east. Her discussion of mountain wave prediction and atmospheric stability was excellent and very helpful, and I have adopted her process for briefing the weather before a flight in the mountains.

While I heartily endorse this book, others might find criticism in the scope. This is a detailed discussion of mountain weather and aeronautical decision-making and succeeds, in my opinion, in balancing the inherent complexity of the relevant micro-scale weather phenomenon with actionable advice for pilots. Others may prefer a different balance on this front, but as an earnest student of the weather I found the level of detail appropriate and fascinating.

If you haven't read this book and you fly through mountainous terrain, I encourage you to pick up a copy. Sporty's has copies, and I also noticed the Salida airport (KANK) has copies for sale if you happen to be flying through there.

An excellent book, right on topic. The book can also be ordered from the publisher, Nighthawk Press in Taos, NM

http://nighthawkpress.com/titles/flying ... n-weather/

Just checked Amazon--says currently unavailable. Too bad--much rather use my Amazon Prime account than the ridiculous delivery costs from Sporty's.

Cary

Cary wrote:Just checked Amazon--says currently unavailable. Too bad--much rather use my Amazon Prime account than the ridiculous delivery costs from Sporty's.

Cary

Hop over to Salida

I also saw some copies for sale at the Pagosa springs fbo

Okay.

I just finished this book.

And now I'm trying to figure out how the hell I've been able to fly across the mountains of New Mexico without becoming another NTSB stat. I bought this book to help me identify ways to avoid the known snares that exist in the mountains but instead she identified even more snares that has left me with the impression that light aircraft really have no utility. It was a depressing read. I bought the book and glad I did since I really do want to know where the threats lie BUT I also want to know how to avoid them and complete the mission. I didn't really find many work arounds in the text (I was making a cliff notes word doc to help me retain these points). "Don't Fly" is not what I was after although there are circumstances where that is the only advice. It is obvious that she would continue to use her aircraft for the utility she intended. How she did so was less of her point in this book than the reason I bought it for. This type of flying is woefully vacant of useable training materials and she makes this point in her book (I have bought numerous books on this subject: Stick and Rudder, Mountain Flying Bible, Weather Flying, etc).

I suspect that many of the Alaska air taxi pilots have dealt with much of this and have come away with techniques to deal with these threats through experience or nuggets passed along from other pilots. I would like to here more from them but may best be served in another thread. Maybe if we can come up with enough cumulative wisdom on this we can create a knowledge base article that all can benefit from.

I know how to fly the plane; I want to learn how to fly the sky so I can continue using the plane for our purposes.

DeltaRomeo,

Because I know her, I found the book to be more positive. She is a very honest lawyer who tends to be clear and concise. In the 70s she punched her eight day clock, when she picked up the phone, and charged $125 per hour. She was worth it.

Because of considerable distance and desert between ranges, southern NM has better flying weather than northern NM and southern Colorado. Getting trapped between ranges with nothing but rough terrain below is much less likely. In the interest of safely, think good place to land, not airport. I was able to commute thrice monthly between Tohatchi and Santa Fe nearly 100 percent in spring, summer, and fall and at least 90 percent in winter.

Staying low where we can see best and get down quickly really helps. Laying up to wait for rapid storm passage really helps. There are a zillion safe places to land in the desert. It makes go take a look much more doable than most anywhere else in the country. It makes continued VFR into IMC really, really unnecessary.

Compare summer to winter diurnal rate. There is a much greater chance of the weather changing in the summer.

Southern NM is a good place to safely learn marginal weather. There are those who don't believe learning marginal weather is appropriate. I believe it creates more incidents and fewer fatalities. Aircraft are most dangerous when the pilot comes unglued. The pilot is more likely to come unglued encountering a totally new situation he has not even partially experienced.

Contact