Is flying in the mountains in the northeast usa such as ny, vt, nh, and me considered actual mountain flying? Mountain flying is pretty much always associated with the west and you don't really hear much about the east at all. Are these mountains big enough to create things such as rotors, lenticular clouds, and mountain waves?

We can get plenty of rotors, lenticular clouds and mountain waves in the east, especially after a strong frontal passage. Two personal experiences come to mind. One was when I was ferrying a C-172 from the Cessna Witchita,KS plant back to Leesburg,VA on a pretty but very windy day. While crossing the Appalachian Mountains near Charlestown, WV I caught a mountain wave that pushed me from 8500' to 12000' in about 30 seconds. I remember this well, because as I was being pushed through 11000', engine at idle with the nose pushed forward and the VSI off the scale, I seriously gave thought about putting the aircraft into a spin to get down if this continued since I did not have any supplemental Oxygen on board. On the Unicom frequency a Piper Archer was reporting temporary complete loss of control of his aircraft about 100 nm to the north of me in severe mountain turbulence. The reason I was there in the first place was that the Wx forcast had no mention of expecting severe turbulence. Our Pireps changed that in a hurry.The other was a charter flight in a Cessna 421 Golden Eagle from Columbus,OH to Washington DCA. We had to climb to 24000' ( just shy of her service ceiling at our weight ) to get above some very good looking, but dangerous lenticular clouds over the same mountain range. We heard a Speedbird B-747 having to do a go-around at Dulles (KIAD) because he " almost lost her " in servere turbulence while on final approach to Runway 30. That was an eerie radio transmission to listen to.So yeah, we may not get the severe mountain flying as often as the our western cousins, but we can get out fair share out here in the east. These two bumpy memories can attest to that.John M

Wow, that is an amazing story, 8500 to 12000 in 30 secs, I can only imagine what that must of felt like! Goes to show weather doesn't discriminate as far as aircraft size, gosh a 747!

>Is flying in the mountains in the northeast usa such as ny,>vt, nh, and me considered actual mountain flying? Mountain>flying is pretty much always associated with the west and you>don't really hear much about the east at all. Are these>mountains big enough to create things such as rotors,>lenticular clouds, and mountain waves?the federal government thinks so. it is designated a mountain area in AIM 5-6-5 (Figure 5-6-2).

Alright, that clears up an doubts I had ;).