May Mountain Adventure
| << Leg 6 - Wichita, KS to Pueblo, CO | Trip Home | Leg 8 - Grand Junction, CO to Salt Lake City, UT >> |
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Leg Stats
- Time Enroute: 2.8 hrs
- Distance (direct): 196nm
- Distance (actual): 376nm
- Fuel Used: 28.9 gal
Sitting at the FBO around 3pm local, the weather looked pretty good, with winds aloft almost non-existent, and the only hazard being some cloudiness and scattered thunderstorms activity up north near Denver. The radar and ASOS on the various passes to the southwest of us looked good. We had plenty of fuel, so I decided that we would depart south and try to get a visual on the various passes, and if necessary, we could go all the way to Santa Fe and around the 'long way'. My optimistic case was getting across La Veta Pass, but there was significant cloudiness in that direction when we got close to that area. I knew that the weather further south at Red River Pass was almost certainly good, so we kept heading south to get a look.
Sure enough, when we got to Red River Pass, it was clear and I could easily see blue skies for a long way on the far side. Checked the winds aloft on my G3X display and as forecast they were light, so we encountered only occasional minor bumps as we transited at 11,500 ft. Once on the other side, I checked all the ASOS reports and it looked good visually, so we turned northwest again to head for North Pass.
As we got to North Pass, there was a bit of wispy cloudiness and scattered misty rain showers a bit above, and my backup plan if anything looked ugly was turning back towards clear blue skies. Fortunately, we found a clear, smooth path up towards the Gunnison area. The weather was again much of the same, with nice smooth air and just a bit of cloudiness at 13k and above, so we decided to make a loop around the gorgeous Crested Butte.
As we came around Crested Butte, I saw the weather through Kebler Pass was clear blue skies, so we took the 'shortcut' and went through, towards lower terrain. The weather in Grand Junction was pretty windy at this time (despite the winds aloft still being dead), but we made a normal landing and ordered some fuel at the FBO. At this point we were done flying for the day, so we decided to call it and spend the night. Unfortunately the line guy had a brain fart and misunderstood my "10 a side" fuel order and topped off my tanks entirely, 30 extra gallons! Fortunately I discovered this before we left the airport, and we would still be within W&B, but I wasn't happy to have the extra weight.
Katherine and I grabbed an Uber into town and ended up staying near a nice little main street area. We visited Trail Life Brewing, and I enjoyed a delicious Hazy IPA to celebrate a successful crossing of the Rockies.
Trip Leg Navigation
<< Leg 6 - Wichita, KS to Pueblo, CO
