Guy Prevost
Well Known Member
Seeing all of the wonderful trip reports lately inspired me to write one of my own. Although beach vacations can be nice, Merideth and I are mountain people. Neither of us really knows what to do on a beach, but give us some mountains and we are in heaven.
Great mountains, close proximity to home, and great music compel us to attend the annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival more often than not. In the past this has always been a motorcycle trip for us. TBF for us is generally several days of ?spirited? riding on twisty mountain roads culminating in a 4 days of great music, food and relaxation in the heart of the San Juan Mountains. This year, weather, work schedules, pilot preparation, and plane preparation all came together to make this an RV trip. Yay! I have wanted to fly into KTEX (Telluride) for as long as I can remember. Alas, most of the big dip has been taken out of the runway, but it is still a challenging airport at 9070? elevation. Summer density altitudes routinely top 12,000 feet. Adding to the challenge are 14,000?+ mountains on 3 sides of the airport.
Trip planning and weather watching began in earnest about a week before hand. I made sure the plane was ready with a medium fuel load, homemade oxygen system installed, and tie-downs and canopy cover stowed in the baggage compartment. There was an additional element to my go/no-go weather criteria for this trip as 14,246? Mt. Wilson is due south of the airport. Southerly Winds over about 15kts can cause a rotor right over the Telluride airport. Even moderate southerly winds were no-go for me.
Thursday morning dawned clear, but with a forecast for winds later. We made a start as early as possible after dropping the dog off at the kennel. The trip started to the NW in our typical 10,500? 7.6gph LOP cruising mode. It was exciting to have a 1.3 hour ETE instead of the 5.5 hours it takes by car. Winds continued to be light, so we opted for the more scenic approach through Lizard Head Pass. Our route was basically direct to Dolores, CO then following CO-145 through the canyon and to T-ride from the South. This let us fly below peak height for great views, while giving us a canyon wide enough for a 180? turn if we encountered strong downdrafts or turbulence. The highway can also provide a challenging but doable landing site if necessary.
Time for some photos.
At 12.5k now as we enter the mountains.
Looking North at Wilson Peak. Lizard Head if visible to the right.
Lizard Head is a ?fun? climb. To quote the first ascencionist, Albert Ellingwood, ?A rottener mass of rock is inconceivable. The core may still be solid but the "surrounding tuffs" are seeking a lower level in large quantities. This far-advanced disintegration was our greatest obstacle. Absolutely the whole surface of the rock is loose and pebbles rain down from the sides as readily as needles from an aging Christmas tree. In many places one could with one hand pull down hundreds of pounds of fragments, and occasionally we could hear the crashing of small avalanches that fell without human prompting.?
Rapid descent on base for 27.
At the venue
To be continued....
Great mountains, close proximity to home, and great music compel us to attend the annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival more often than not. In the past this has always been a motorcycle trip for us. TBF for us is generally several days of ?spirited? riding on twisty mountain roads culminating in a 4 days of great music, food and relaxation in the heart of the San Juan Mountains. This year, weather, work schedules, pilot preparation, and plane preparation all came together to make this an RV trip. Yay! I have wanted to fly into KTEX (Telluride) for as long as I can remember. Alas, most of the big dip has been taken out of the runway, but it is still a challenging airport at 9070? elevation. Summer density altitudes routinely top 12,000 feet. Adding to the challenge are 14,000?+ mountains on 3 sides of the airport.
Trip planning and weather watching began in earnest about a week before hand. I made sure the plane was ready with a medium fuel load, homemade oxygen system installed, and tie-downs and canopy cover stowed in the baggage compartment. There was an additional element to my go/no-go weather criteria for this trip as 14,246? Mt. Wilson is due south of the airport. Southerly Winds over about 15kts can cause a rotor right over the Telluride airport. Even moderate southerly winds were no-go for me.
Thursday morning dawned clear, but with a forecast for winds later. We made a start as early as possible after dropping the dog off at the kennel. The trip started to the NW in our typical 10,500? 7.6gph LOP cruising mode. It was exciting to have a 1.3 hour ETE instead of the 5.5 hours it takes by car. Winds continued to be light, so we opted for the more scenic approach through Lizard Head Pass. Our route was basically direct to Dolores, CO then following CO-145 through the canyon and to T-ride from the South. This let us fly below peak height for great views, while giving us a canyon wide enough for a 180? turn if we encountered strong downdrafts or turbulence. The highway can also provide a challenging but doable landing site if necessary.
Time for some photos.
At 12.5k now as we enter the mountains.
Looking North at Wilson Peak. Lizard Head if visible to the right.
Lizard Head is a ?fun? climb. To quote the first ascencionist, Albert Ellingwood, ?A rottener mass of rock is inconceivable. The core may still be solid but the "surrounding tuffs" are seeking a lower level in large quantities. This far-advanced disintegration was our greatest obstacle. Absolutely the whole surface of the rock is loose and pebbles rain down from the sides as readily as needles from an aging Christmas tree. In many places one could with one hand pull down hundreds of pounds of fragments, and occasionally we could hear the crashing of small avalanches that fell without human prompting.?
Rapid descent on base for 27.
At the venue
To be continued....
Telluride airport was friendly and courteous. Although I could not afford $100/night for a hangar, tie downs were ~$4.00/night and the landing fee was about the same price. Telluride is very noise sensitive in addition to all of the physics imposed challenges. Do your homework prior to arrival. I highly recommend some mountain flying instruction, (or at least an on-line course) prior to coming here. You need to know which side of a canyon to fly on in a given set of wind and sun conditions, know why you never fly in the center of a canyon, etc. Keep pounding those rivets. Then fly the heck out of that wonderful airplane!
