There is a book out, "Mountain Flying Bible" by Sparky Imeson. I would recommend this book to anyone who hasn't read it. One of the things he talks about in the book is marginal takeoffs. If your not sure if you can get out of a strip, pace it off and mark the halfway point. If you can't reach 70% of your rotation speed by the time you get to that point, DON"T GO. I thought that was pretty good info, and there is a lot more where that came from. Hope that helps. Gary

Good point.

There are a lot of techniques that are beneficial when mountain flying that are never taught anywhere else.

Another good title for a thread would be;

"Pilots that may be flying planes with marginal skill"

So many people out there who buy a Super Cub, Citabria, 180, 185, Husky etc. expecting the aircraft to perform in tight places without any additional training.

Yes you are corect about that. I have signed up for Lori MacNichols course July 18, so I am planning on your flyin then up to McCall to learn some of the finer points. REALLY looking forward to both. I feel as though I could fumble for years to learn what they can teach in 4 days. Not that I will learn it all, but hopefully enough to be a better and safer pilot, and be able to enjoy the more "fun" places to fly with confidence. Gary

Sparky's website has a lot of free info, it's good to just surf around over there and absorb some of his teachings. He has some good stuff up about mountain flying, tailwheel flying, takeoff flap setting, and some stories. I've had it in the Links section for a long time. One of these days I'll buy his book.

http://www.mountainflying.com/

We need to get him on this website...

last May I took Bob Plumber's river of no return Mtn Flying Seminar. Learned a lot of really good stuff in my 182B. 6.5 hrs of actual stuff in the canyons and landing at everything but Mile High. The ground school was worth the price of the whole class.

Just cus I have been to this seminar that does not mean that I am really skillful. We still need to be careful at what we attempt do with our toys. I got a reminder of this when I heard of Bob Plumbers death in his Piper PA 12 or PA 14. He was looking for big horn sheep with a buddy in terrain that he new very well.

The seminar is now being done by Middle Fork Aviation, 208-879-5728, [email protected] June 8 to 10. I highly recommend it. There may be some openings.

Tim

zane wrote:Sparky's website has a lot of free info, it's good to just surf around over there and absorb some of his teachings. He has some good stuff up about mountain flying, ...http://www.mountainflying.com/

We need to get him on this website...

Whew! What a good website he has. All the mtn. flying basics covered in a number of different ways. I spent the evening looking at the info there, and still didn't read it all.
'Course, there's no real substitute for going up for some dual w/ an accomplished mtn. pilot instructor in your own plane.
Thanks for providing the link, Berk

I'm just finishing Sparky's book. My wife gave it to me for Christmas and I've been slowly picking away at it. Overall, it is an excellent book. It reminded me of many things forgotten and there are a lot of things I had never heard before. Definately worth a read.

He's laid it out in a text book format so that you can jump from subject to subject if you don't want to read it straight through. This is makes it especially useful as a reference manuel when you need more info on a specific topic.

I took a local FAA primer on mountain flying and the instructor recommended Mountain Fury - the guide used by the Civil Air Patrol. He gave some excellent advice and had an amazing amount of technical detail to support his talk.

The guide is available here: http://www.mountainflying.com/cap.htm

Michael

Spakry also has a smaller version of the mountain flying bible called the pocket guide to mountain flying which highlights the primary points of the bible and is a great quick reference source before a trip into the backcountry. He also has a DVD on mountain flying that helps hammer home the points in the book with some great footage. All make good Christmas wish list items.

Joe in MT.