by Glenn Daly

Every year we warn about winter mountain flying because of the spate of fatal mountain flying accidents in San Diego County. Volcan Mountain resembles a five thousand foot aluminum trash heap. Back in 1996, I contacted four local experts and questioned them about the basic do's and dont's of mountain flight. Although one has passed away, and another has moved on, their collective wisdom about mountain flight remains true, today.

John & Martha King, Keith Bellenger and Cliff Carlburg all believe that mountain flight should be a safe procedure. Here are some clues.

1. Always be able to turn towards lower terrain.

According to Cliff Carlburg, that is the cardinal rule of mountain flying. "If you start losing altitude," he says, "Turn away from the high terrain. Go back where it's lower."

Cliff should know. He was a safety counselor for FAA and lectured about mountain flying at their safety seminars. He learned in the Army, flying the mountainous Korean back country in L-19 Bird Dog's. Then, for twelve years he flew for Mission Aviation Fellowship, flying in remote parts of Mexico, the Philippines and Brazil. He spent two years at Ramona teaching new pilots mountain flying techniques that can be used in this area.

2. Always fly as high as you can in mountainous terrain.

John and Martha King, well known to pilots throughout the world (and to readers of these pages - see "The Kings of Aviation Video") believe this to be the most important aspect of mountain flight. According John, the pilot of a recent crash was in IMC (instrument meteorological conditions) and flying at the MEA (minimum enroute altitude), " ... Which is 8000 feet in that area. One of the things I would do, is get myself up to 10,000 feet so that if I did begin to lose altitude and couldn't sustain it, I'd have room to turn around and go back and get out of it. [The pilot who crashed] had left himself no margin for error. Glider pilots fly in the same conditions with mountain wave and use it to their advantage ... it doesn't necessarily mean that, just because that you're in this situation, you're going to crash. There are things he could have done. Always maintaining an alternative course of action is one thing that would [have] help[ed] this guy ... and flying higher gives you that out."

3. Always plan your flight.

The most important mountain flying technique, doesn't involve flying skill at all. "Proper preparation [is the key]," says Keith Bellenger, former FAA Safety Program Manager at the FSDO at Montgomery Field. "Getting good meteorological briefings from a flight service station or from a national weather service pilot briefer," is extremely important.

"Winds aloft forecasts are very important," says Keith. "Anytime the winds aloft exceed about twenty knots in and around the terrain, then you can almost always be certain of mountain wave activity. And, that can extend for hundreds of miles on the leeward side of the mountains. Altitude is going to be your friend in that case."

4. Approach a ridge line at a 45 degree angle so that you have room to turn out.

John King says, "Are you seeing more and more on the other side of the ridge, or less and less? If you're seeing more and more on the other side, as you approach the ridge, you know that you're clearing it. If you're seeing less and less, you know that you're not. You can make a decision to turn out, away from the ridge, LONG before you get right to the ridge. You don't have to wait 'til the last minute to realize that you're not going to clear it."

Cliff Carlburg agrees. "Approach [a ridge line] at a 45 degree angle, or less. That way, if you get into downdraft, a 90 degree turn away from the ridge takes you away from your problem. If you come straight across it at a 90 degree angle and you start losing altitude, you've got to turn more than 90 degrees to get away from your problem."

5. Remember the 'Big Sky, Little Airplane' theory.

In the event that you find yourself in IMC in mountainous terrain and a downdraft develops, don't be afraid to turn around, with or without ATC approval. If you can't raise ATC, or ATC is busy, and you find yourself in a life threatening situation ... TURN AROUND.

Martha King says, "The odds of hitting something, if you turn around, even if you're in the soup and haven't gotten to the controller, [are infinitesimally small]. First of all, [the controller is] tracking you on radar - he knows almost right away what you've done, even if you haven't gotten to him on the radio. And, the second thing is, 'Big Sky' works with airplanes, but not with mountains."

Cliff Carlburg couldn't agree more. "You've got FAR 91.3: in an emergency, you can do anything you need to do." According to Cliff, the gist of FAR 91.3 is: 1. "The pilot in command is the final authority for the safe operation of the airplane;" 2. "In an emergency, the pilot in command may deviate from any other regulations in order to handle a situation;" 3. "If the administrator so desires, he may ask for a written report. "But," Cliff says, "That is fairly rare. The FAA doesn't like paperwork anymore than you and I do. If the situation was handled and nobody got hurt, they're not going to ask for a report. Now, if three airliners loaded with passengers had to go around while you handled your emergency, they might ask for a report, but it's just that. They want to know what happened.

"You have the responsibility and the authority to handle any emergency situation. And so, when I'm discussing mountain flying, that's one of the things that I emphasize: YOU are pilot in command. The mountain didn't hit the airplane. I haven't seen a mountain, yet, move and hit an airplane ... but boy, the mountains around here are littered with aluminum trash."

Keith Bellenger suggests that if your mountain flight preparation makes you aware of strong surface winds along your route of flight, consider this as a rule of thumb: Select an altitude that is half again as high as the mountains you are approaching. "That gives you pretty good clearance for surface winds. But, that doesn't always work.

"If you have two conflicting air masses, not only are you worrying about the turbulence caused by the flow of the surface wind over the terrain, but also the mixing of the two different types of air. And, unfortunately, that's what we get a lot of here in San Diego. We have very, very moist, cool air, coming in off of the Pacific, [which is] being forced up, orographically, over the very rugged mountainous terrain, and it's meeting very dry, warm desert air. And, those combinations can make for some tremendous weather - thunderstorm activity. In those situations, you can get extremely severe weather, with tops that go in excess of forty or fifty thousand feet.

For more information, you can contact the San Diego Flight Standards District Office, (619) 557-5281. There is an excellent mountain flying video produced by the FAA, and it's available to borrow, free of charge.

Cliff Carlburg passed away a few years ago and those of us who knew him, and better, flew with him miss his kind, gentle nature.

If you can't find John & Martha King on the safety seminar circuit, you can order any of their informative and educational flying videos by dialing their toll free number: 1 800 854-1001. The Kings haven't yet produced a mountain flying video, but they promised that they would have one in the future.

In addition, AOPA (the Aircraft Owner's and Pilot's Association) publishes a booklet on mountain flying, which is available through the AOPA Air Safety Foundation. The cost is $5 to AOPA members, $10 to non-members and you can reach them at 1 800 638-3101.

copyright 1996 Stephen Glenn Daly All Rights Reserved