IFR In The Mountains

A cardinal rule of mountain flying is to always be mindful of places where the terrain climbs faster than the airplane, and then avoid them. This isnt exclusively a backcountry issue-you dont have to fly in the Western U.S. or in the mountains to get bitten-there are plenty of airports on the U.S. East Coast where we can run into things if we cant climb well enough or if we stray off the published route, whether IFR or VFR.

Mike Hart

Monday, May 16, 2016 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Thorough pre-flight planning is essential for safe departures, requiring pilots to calculate aircraft climb performance against published departure procedures (ODPs/SIDs) to ensure terrain and obstacle clearance in all environments.
Pilots must be especially vigilant for specific hazards, including disorientation from "black hole" terrain during night operations, power lines often found in topographical pinch points, and "pop-up" obstacles requiring NOTAM checks.
Modern electronic flight bags (EFBs) facilitate comprehensive pre-flight briefings, providing easy access to current charts and NOTAMs, which pilots should leverage to avoid excuses for inadequate preparation for obstacle avoidance.

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A cardinal rule of mountain flying is to always be mindful of places where the terrain climbs faster than the airplane, and then avoid them. This isn’t exclusively a backcountry issue—you don’t have to fly in the Western U.S. or in the mountains to get bitten—there are plenty of airports on the U.S. East Coast where we can run into things if we can’t climb well enough or if we stray off the published route, whether IFR or VFR.

The good news is there are well-established and published procedures we can use—VFR or IFR—when failing to outclimb terrain or obstacles poses a threat. The bad news is we can’t always meet the minimum rate of climb requirements. That’s where some additional flight planning is necessary.