Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountain Flying

The past few months I haven’t flown very much but the little I did has been exciting and a great learning experience. My bi-annual flight review was due at the end of August and I knew I would be up in the Mammoth/Bishop area at the end of July. So I decided it would be a great opportunity to complete my flight review and get  instruction in an environment I don’t normally fly, mountains and high altitude airports. Back in September (see Mammoth, Bishop page), I did the same type of flight with Geoff Pope and his 180 hp Cessna 172 at Black Mountain Air Service in Bishop. So we departed Bishop for an early morning flight, climbing up over 12,000ft, landing at Mammoth, and then back to Bishop. During this flight, we worked on flying up close and tight to the terrain, turning around in a canyon, reading and flying the wind and terrain, engine out procedures in the mountains, and of course the pure enjoyment of flying in God’s beautiful creation.