A Rocky Ascent

This week's adventure takes us through the Rocky Mountains' ski country just west of Denver, Colorado.

We begin at Denver's Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (KBJC). Formerly known as Jeffco, this has long been one of the region's primary General Aviation airfields. We head northwest to visit scenic Rocky Mountain National Park and take a look at Longs Peak (LONG) and its famous shear-faced climb "The Diamond." Turning southwest, we land at Granby (KGNB), pause for a moment of silence (see narrative), and continue to Kremmling McElroy (20V). Then southwest over the Vail Ski Resort (VAIL), now the most popular in Colorado, and head along I-70 to Eagle County Airport (KEGE). For some fun, flying low and slow, we run the Colorado River along Glenwood Canyon with its 1,300 foot walls from Dotsero (DOTS) to Glenwood Springs (GLENS). We turn quickly to land at the Glenwood Springs Airport (KGWS) which was named the country's 4th most challenging mountain airport by the AOPA.

Reversing direction, we head eastward and follow the valley to Aspen (KASE). The legendary counter-culture town has now turned toney ski resort with corporate jets crowding the airport tarmac. Following a quick cappuccino, we hop the mountains over to Leadville (KLXV), North America's highest altitude airport at 9,927 feet. Then, after collecting our certificates, we circle to climb over the 13,500 foot Mosquito Range and then land on the gravel runways of  South Park's Silver Heels (2CO9) only 20 miles to the east. Finally we ascend to majestic Mount Evans (EVANS) which is, at 14,271 feet, the highest summit of the Chicago Peaks in the Front Range. The view is stunning. Turning east, we descend almost 8,000 feet to Centennial Airport (KAPA), one of the country's busiest GA airports. The award-winning FBO at Denver jetCenter might be a great place to unwind.

This 260 nm General Aviation jaunt through the mountains will best be flown in an aircraft of some speed and high altitude capability. Recommended are those with a speed of at least 160 knots and capable of reasonable performance at something like 14,000 feet altitude. Candidates might include aircraft such as: Beech Bonanza or Baron, Cessna C210 Centurion or C310 or C337 Skymaster or C400 Corvalis TTX, Cirrus SR22, Mooney Bravo, Piper Comanche or Saratoga, or Vans RV7. Turbocharging may help but is not necessary. Many other aircraft will happily meet the challenge.

I shall fly the normally-aspirated Beech Bonanza F33 by Carenado.
 

 

Recommended scenery:
- Orbx Global (Set FTX Central to "Global" rather than "North America")
- Orbx Airports: Eagle County (KEGE); and the Freeware Airport Package for North America (includes KBJC, KGWS, KASE, and KAPA)

A Flight Plan is available here. A Narrative will be available later this week.

Date and time: Saturday 10 October, 1800 UTC

Where: AVSIM RTWR Teamspeak – Casual Flights Channel
Teamspeak Server Address: ts.teamavsim.com
Multiplayer: FSX Multiplayer (IP will be provided on Teamspeak – simply log into the channel)

Don't forget to enter your aircraft details on the multiplayer speadsheet! (linked here)

Note to Ron Attwood: Please set the server Start Time to 2000 UTC (1400 Local)

Well I'll be...! I've been working on a Carenado Bonanza repaint all week. i think I might just give it an outing. :smile:

 

Note from Mike MacKuen: Duly noted.

 

Looking forward to this.

The narrative has been added to the Flight Plan file which you can download here.

Two questions...

 

-- May I participate if I'm using FS9?

 

-- If I can't get my MP set up, may I still participate on TS3?

 

Thanks!

 

Alan  :smile:

Hey Alan.

 

-- Answer one. No. FSX only I'm afraid.

 

--Answer two. Of course you can. But expect some flak about being a Luddite.   Fear not though, us FSXers will have the same thing leveled at us soon. You can perhaps give us tips on how to resist updating.

 

We'll look forward to hearing you.

Ron,

 

Appreciate the heads up. Since the Route is in my back yard, I thought it would be a nice way to spend a Saturday, while listening to the Baseball game!

 

Alan  :smile: