A 172 can fly up here, but you have to be smart and very picky about the days you fly. We don’t fly with full fuel and take the back seats out in the summer.
If there’s enough wind over the passes, or density altitude is high, we stay in the valley. Mountain flying is an entirely different beast.
In that class of plane, 182s are my personal minimum up here in the summer. I have heard of very experienced pilots having close calls with unexpected downdrafts on otherwise calm days.
Literally feet away from death. That pilot is incredibly lucky.
Thursday Jul 4th 2024:
Incident United B739 near Chicago on Jul 3rd 2024, cabin pressure problems
Incident France B789 over Atlantic on Jul 3rd 2024, burning odour on board
> The Aviation Herald concentrates on "Air Transport", meaning in general The Aviation Herald will report only about commercial flights or commercial operators involving airplanes with capacity for 19 passenger seats or more.
The few times I've been in bush flights over terrain, it's always felt like the man upstairs is punching my dance card. When I'm feeling brave I'll sometimes ask pilots about it, and sometimes they're like, yep, feels that way flying too - that's why I love it!
Maybe if you ride some thermals…
He was flying to a different airport from the one he took off from. It's possible he was way past the point of no return and had to make it over the pass or emergency land in the mountains.