Hey everyone. Jason Schappert
here, MzeroA.com. Alongside Hunter
one of our great CFIs. Probably helped you out with some customer service questions on the phone, on the live chat, on the
emails as well. You all have been asking for a mountain flying video
so, welcome to Scottsdale, Arizona. Heading north up to
Sedona right now. Hunter's been living
in this area for a little bit now. We're just kind of talking
about some mountain flying factors and the first thing that comes to mind,
we're flying through this ravine on our way to Sedona. You know there is no direct route to Sedona how we
wanted to go. We're kind of zigging and zagging. I mean looking at your,
I don't know if we can see ForeFlight here, but it's like, we're all over the place trying to get to where
we're going. So, good on you planning that out and flying this route ahead of time to know
but Hunter, the conversation we're having is, if we had an engine failure right now my
friend, where are you going? Well Jason if we have an engine failure, we have to look for our best possible
option and you know in the mountains here, you are basically going into the ravine and looking
for somewhere along the shore line or a road. But
that asking yourself where are we going to put it if we have an engine failure is a lot more difficult
in mountain flying. Well and that's you know I always say I'm never a fan of pushing it, so
like I would not, if it was IFR today, I just wouldn't be here
right now. It's not worth it. It's beautiful, don't get me wrong, I want to see it.
Forbid we had an engine failure, I've yet to see a
straight road. We could be swimming down there is
probably one of our best options honestly because these roads are
there is probably a gradient there that we can't see and realize
on top of all the curves, on top of that's also the best place to put power lines.
to bring power to these little towns and everything else. There are not
a lot of good options and then two, beyond that, now that we've entered into this
the thing I'm always concerned with is weather and winds. You've been out here
and when you think of Pheonix is it's always beautiful, it's always pretty, and yes, but I've heard
when it rains it comes on quick and it rains. I don't know if you've had a chance to experience
any IFR conditions, but like when we were flying in Florida, weather just
comes up so quickly you know. Absolutely, when we have
dust storms out here in Arizona, winds can go up from three knots up to 40 knots
in just a few minutes. So it's really important especially mountain flying, I like to
keep water underneath me and always have a way out especially. On that,
what you said is so important. Always having a way out. Yes, we're flying into this ravine, yes
we're following this little reservoir here, but not without a way out. We have options on either
side to get out. We're purposely above. Could we have flown lower and
got prettier, beautiful scenic shots? Sure we could have but
it makes way more sense to be up here, to be safe and give ourselves some more
options. We're coming up on this huge reservoir now. I see that big old dam in front of us.
And again just giving us more options, but you're not putting it down
over here or anything. So that's really a big concern. I'm starting to, I was
previously, it's getting better now, but catching those up drafts and those downdrafts. There's
leeward winds everything else coming off the mountains. It's a calm day today. Absolutely.
I know you've flown in some windier days where it's...
there's a reason why there's mountain flying courses, mountain flying books, and there's also
a reason that most flight schools won't just say here's the keys, go fly my
172. The mountains bring so many different elements to the equation.
Absolutely Jason. One thing I like to do when I'm mountain flying, when I'm planning a
route. Usually me planning cross country is like we want to go direct. Well out here in the mountains,
we can't go direct and one big thing is we're passing under this reservoir here in this dam
I like to have what I call an anchor point. And when I'm flying in the mountains, when I get to my
anchor point, I'm checking my climb performance, my instruments, the weather and this is my
kind of decision point of am I going to continue on or am I going to go back to where we came from?
to maybe fly another day? Wow and we're going to do the same thing. We're going to do a video out in Sedona
showing some high density altitude take offs and show that kind of
performance and rolling down the runway we are going to have that no-go point.
You saying even on a cross country, I have an anchor point that says I don't like the weather, I don't like the
way the airplane sounds. I just, I'm a little nervous right now and these mountains are intimidating
I want to go back home and live to fly another day and I will recreate this with my instructor
and build some more confidence up. I can choose a different route.
It is so great to have that. Aviation is very humbling
and yet you have to have that mindset though
to have the ability to turn back. And that's so hard to do early on as a student pilot because you think man I've got to get this
cross country done. My check rides next week. I have to, I have to, I have to. You never have to
be anywhere, you never have to do anything in aviation. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
It's just such a different perspective. And you know,
we've been watching the news a lot too. You guys have had, more so California, but out here
as well, a lot of wildfires and stuff. The smoke now brings the***
You say we never have crazy IFR days. You just said dust storms, you get smoke like
you don't get IFR like I think of IFR. Right, not at all.
The IFR here is mostly going to be blackout conditions. I mean it gets
so bad and not to get it wrong, the weather in Arizona is generally always good. That's why there's so much flight training
here, but when those dust storms come. I mean even when your driving along the road, they tell you to pull over
and turn your car off and wait it out. I mean it is huge so, now as we pass over
the ravine, what we're going to do is we plan to go toward Sedona. This is the point where we
have some low area. So what I'm going to do is start a climb up as we get into these higher
mountains on the way to Sedona and check my climb performance and make sure
that this airplane wants to perform enough so that we can continue on. And if for some reason
it didn't we would just turn back, go back to Scottsdale and try
a better weather day. Now lets see what we're getting here. That's not going to stay
but we can get 300 to 400 feet per minute.
I mean in Florida that would be disappointing, but out here that's a success you know.
in a way. Especially knowing we're at 6,600 feet and want to be
getting into Sedona, I want to be at 10,500 just to feel good. That's plenty of
cushion. Could we do it at 9,500? Yeah we could be around there but
I just want that extra cushion again if there's an emergency. And that's what you're thinking about too.
And not only, we're so worried about where we're going to put this thing down. Are we going
to put it in the water, are we going to put on this road, are we going put it in this valley that's filled with
cactus and everything else, but how long are we going to be out there for? What
is the last town you've see. You know, you are going to be waiting a while.
And how are we going to communicate this message because I guarantee our cell phones aren't going to work
All these little issues here that we have to think about here.
We left early. We're lucky. It's going to start getting hotter. That 300 feet per minutes going to
be 100 feet per minute before long. These are the things we have to start
pondering. Start really, really thinking about. Mountain flying is beautiful
yet it brings so many different and unique challenges that
we really want to think about. We're in a climb right now, but
in cruise, leaning that airplane out and
getting that. Are you a rich of peak or lean of peak kind of guy and doing what's best for
your non-turbo charged aircraft in this case when operating
through the mountains. That's what's truly so important. Listen guys. We're going to get back to
enjoying our trip over to Sedona. We're going to have some great videos coming out
of Sedona as well. So I can't wait to read your comments below this video guys.
Enjoy the rest of your day and most importantly remember
that a good pilot is always learning. Have a great day guys. We'll see ya. I wrote the
Private Pilot Blueprint with the intention of, if I could do my flight training
over what I wish someone would have told me. And I want that book
to be yours for free. All I ask is that you pay shipping.
Visit PrivatePilotBlueprint.com to get your free copy.