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Mountain flying tips


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What feck said...this can be said with the whole game especially when on finally approach. Don't need useless chat and finger pointing on final. I could tell you a good story about that some day ! Or the passengers that think they know more about flying than the pilot...lots of those around.

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My rules to live by in Mtn Flying;

My favorite Whitesnake song;

”slow and easy”

think of yourself at a pool or hottub, Always dip your toe in before you jump right in.....

know when your in upflow or downflow air,

dont be afraid to ‘shuttle’ in loads, by that I mean if you are heavy and the LZ is not quite right, find another spot and make a couple of trips to the LZ.

 

 

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I'm not going to try and write a manual here your course will be where you get all that, and I wouldn't be the most qualified to do it anyhow. I'll offer one point that's been rung home for me numerous times in the mountains, though it's logistical not technical; sufficient fuel and a bit more. 

Don't be tempted to go too light on fuel to save a little performance, staying within the bounds of your machine's performance of course. I'd rather have the extra 10-25% fuel and work harder for the approach and departure. In a training environment with known spots it's easy to work just the right amount of fuel, in operational flying there's always headwinds, an unplanned stop, choked out passes and valleys, or any other number of fuel sapping diversions.

In the mountains you need to take your time and fuel is time. 

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Great advice so far,

A successful day for me in the mountains begins with proper flight planning.  Know the current and forcasted weather, geograpical area (study your chart), know the alternate routes home, overnight spots, fuel caches, sunset time, etc.  Don't push the weather, always carry a sleeping bag and overnight kit so you don't suffer from get-home-itis.

I know this sounds pretty basic but I've seen younger pilots over look the importance of flight planning, myself included when I was starting out.

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21 hours ago, mountainheli said:

The professional passenger... I had a guy say to me once “ I probably have more hours in this machine than you do” our conversation after that didn’t go to well!!!! 

Love these guys! I was walking through our local airport and this guy starts chatting me up. (He was taking his private fixed wing) he proceeds to tell me that he’s watched enough pilots fly that in a bind he could take a helicopter and safely fly it. I said yeah you could . You will probably get it ioff the ground for less than double digit in seconds and then you will land it so the skid bottoms can be inspected. He then said he had thousands of hours in them so I’m wrong. I just told him you probably have a couple thousand hours on a toilet it doesn’t make you a plumber. Anyone willing to give me an endorsement on a K-max? That’s about all the hero passengers I want to put up with😄

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I guess i should have taken up the offer to fly a K-max that I was offered years ago...It sounded like a good way to write myself off so I declined....slinging powerline towers. Might have been fun..maybe not.Have some good stories about that one..not that specific job but in the same country!

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