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:

Departures from high-altitude, mountainous airports demand meticulous planning and precise performance calculations (e.g., climb gradient, true airspeed) to safely clear terrain, as aircraft performance is significantly degraded at altitude.
Pilots must thoroughly understand their aircraft's limitations at altitude, accounting for factors like runway gradient, wind, and the drastic loss of performance during an engine failure, often necessitating weight reduction strategies.
Effective risk management, utilizing tools like PAVE (Pilot, Aircraft, enVironment, External pressure), is crucial for assessing the interaction between the aircraft and environment, and for making sound Go/No-Go decisions or implementing mitigation strategies in challenging flight conditions.

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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.