Input?

[Turbine]

As you may know by an earlier thread i am moving to Seattle Washington, and will be flying out of Paine Field. You really get spoiled flying in Florida with the nearly sea level airports, and not much in the way of terrain. I was looking for some input on mountain flying, things to be aware of, and also icing is more of a factor since there's almost always visible moisture and the the temps are much lower there. Anyone fly in the Seattle area, or into KPAE?

Thanks!

Turbine

 

[stensonb]

Anyone fly in the Seattle area, or into KPAE?

The 'ole PNW is the most beautiful place in the world....when the sun is out.

And, it offers some great actual IFR time too...but the second the OAT gets close to 0, get down. The Cascades are pretty notorious for taking down some pretty large planes on account of ice.

Look around for a flight club - while the first rule of flight club is no talking about flight club, it's certainly the cheapest way to fly.

Find an instructor that will take you into some of the smaller fields around...do some island flying....take a scenic flight in a float plane at Kenmore...

It's beautiful up here, until at least October!

 

[SurferLucas]

I will echo the icing over the Cascades. Having flown 1200 hours with Horizon, I've seen first hand the amounts of ice that can build up on an airplane.

The Cascades act like a big ice maker when you take moist air off the sound and push it up the face of the mountains and cool it rapidly.

I've seen ice horns grow off the unprotected area of the windshield on the Q4.

It's BEAUTIFUL out there from May - Oct, other than that, get ready for some real IMC flying.

I've got several pictures from my time out there where you have 125-150nm vis!