Terrain Departures

Departing airports in mountainous areas can mean maximizing your rate of climb into the teens. Know before you go.

Thursday, February 01, 2024 at 08:00 AM ET

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Key Takeaways:

Flying from high-altitude airports with challenging terrain requires meticulous pre-flight planning and precise aircraft performance calculations to ensure adequate climb rates, accounting for true airspeed, runway gradient, and wind.
Aircraft performance, even in multi-engine planes, is significantly degraded at high altitudes, making engine-out scenarios extremely hazardous and necessitating careful risk assessment, including potential weight reduction or using alternative departure airports.
Pilots must utilize tools like the FAA's Rate of Climb/Descent Table and apply risk management frameworks such as the PAVE model (Pilot, Aircraft, enVironment, External pressure) to thoroughly evaluate all factors for safe operation, noting regulatory differences between commercial and non-commercial flights.

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A friend told me about his airline’s final takeoff briefing, the acronym for which is WARTS: Wind and Weather, Aborts and Abnormals, Runway and Route, Terrain and Specials. It’s a useful guide to making sure everything is ready for departure, and I use it regularly, even in the Cessna 150 I sometimes fly. (It’s cheap and fun!)

In the 150, there isn’t too much to say about terrain. I only fly it VFR, and the airport I fly it from is surrounded by farmland. Given some of the terrain I’ve flown over in the past, that seems like a luxury. But it’s probably a good thing in the 150.