College in the mountains

[Ghost]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently working on an associate's degree in aviation at a community college in the Midwest, and am currently trying to knock out my instrument rating. My original plan was to go to an instate four years school and getting all the ratings through CFII and MEI. It has occurred to me that the view in the Midwest is probably going to get old, so I thought about moving to a mountainous area for flight training and the degree. My reasoning for this move would be: 1.) The awesome view, I think mountains are beautiful. 2.) The experience, shooting approaches in mountains sounds pretty exhilarating. Plus flying in the mountains is just plain different than flying here. I would have to think that putting mountain flying looks great on a resume. 3.) Airplane camping. I would really like to do some back country flying and do some camping. The schools I'm looking at are the Metropolitan State College of Denver, Utah Valley, and Utah State. I'm leaning towards one of the two Utah Schools simply because you'd have to deal with Class B in Denver. I've also thought about building time here to get my commercial that way it lessen the load at the four year school, that way I only have to work towards the CFI ratings and Multi Engine stuff. So my questions to you guys are:

Are my reasonings (flying in the mountains, camping)good enough to make the move and pay more for out of state tuition?
Does anyone here have any experience with these schools?
Any other advice?

 

[nutz4life]

Your making a very good decision, midwest blows and it does get old real fast especially if your life is ran by something called policies and procedures that's as thick to be a text book. But its a good choice, add cost in there also. Life is what you make of it.

 

[hemaybedid]

Though you will have an opportunity to do VFR mountain flying in Utah, you are likely to get far more real world IFR and IMC experience in the midwest. The MEAs in Utah are so high that you usually need oxygen and most likely a far more capable airplane to do much. As far as flying to unimproved strips and such for camping I've never had the opportunity. I asked around a couple times and it seemed to me that you'd need to own your own plane to have an opportunity to get to those types of places.

Not trying to discourage you. Just letting you know about my experience.

 

[jonnydwolf]

Currently I am working on trying to get back to working on my instrument rating, but the little bit of advice I have is why not try it out here in Oregon? We have mountains, beautiful scenery, clouds, lower MEAs where you do not need O2, and usually high enough freezing levels. Also there a bunch of 4 year schools around for you to attend. unless you are stuck on Utah, I'd say Oregon has everything you need.