Moose flight over the Continental Divide

[Mike Davis]

Posted for Ted Waltman

Slideshow: http://www.i1ci.com/Flying/Creede/index.html

Flew my Moose from Denver (field elevation 4,690') to Creede (field elevation 8,680') in SW Colorado last weekend for an annual fly-in that a buddy of mine sponsors. Put in full power at take off and left it at full until I landed in Creede exactly 2 hours later. Went as high as 15,000' as there are basically three groups of peaks over 14,000' high on the direct route to Creede. Of course, I was on oxygen above 10,000' as per the regs.

I thought the visibility on the flight would be spectacular, as a strong storm blew through before the trip. Alas, there was tremendous haze and a strong smell of smoke at altitude. I assume this was from California fires.

Fuel burn averaged 13gph, with the Moose burning 11.3 gph at 15,000'. At 15,000' I was still able to get a 400'/min climb rate out of the Moose with the M-14P engine. Had a 30 knot tailwind at times heading W (extremely unusual). Due to a high 14,000'+ peak just outside of Creede, I stayed at altitude until over the airport then did a series of circles letting down at over 1,000' even with some power (to prevent cylinder shock cooling).

Flew over to a private strip (Morning Shadow) that evening in a buddy's 182 for dinner. Saw a lot of elk on the return flight but couldn't get pictures as we were literally just a couple of hundred feet up and really moving to let down into Creede.

Flight back was again up at altitudes approaching 15,000' though I did skit through some passes so I didn't have to be that high for the whole trip. Hazy again. Headwind going E that varied between 5 knots and 45 knots for one section! Geesh, why do I get headwinds heading E on trips this year (3rd time this has happened in '09)?

Moose performed well. Moose was definitely the coolest plane at the fly-in by far. There were 26 people standing by the Moose while I warmed up the engine before departing! Creede definitely has a very interesting departure, with one having to pretty much execute a sharp L 180* turn right after departing runway 25 to avoid rising terrain.

Great fun and wonderful folks in Creede! Highly recommended that you attend the fall 2010 fly-in if you can make it.



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