Mountain Flying With Jer/

Mountain Flying With Jer/
by Rich Lane

SEPTEMBER 2000

Yes, his name is spelled with the slash. Jer/ Eberhard is a computer software engineer with Hewlett-Packard Company in Fort Collins, Colorado; hence, being a computer scientist (or computer nerd, as he refers to himself), Jer/ added the slash to his moniker. However, he will answer to just simply Jer (rhymes with air); you don�t need to address him as Jerslash verbally, but you can if you want to.

Jer/ holds an FAA Commercial Pilot Certificate and a CFII (certified flight instructor and instruments) for airplanes, seaplanes and gliders. He is an FAA aviation safety counselor; a Colorado Wing Civil Air Patrol officer, search and rescue mission and aircraft check pilot; soaring and mountain flying specialist; and a ham radio operator (N0FZD). He owns a Cessna C-206, and has 138 Young Eagles to his credit. (Young Eagles is an Experimental Aircraft Association program whose goal is to expose flying to 1,000,000 young persons, ages 8 to 17, to aviation, via a flight in a general aviation aircraft.)

Jer/ is an accomplished pilot with more than 3,300 total hours aloft. He had his first flight at the age of seven, and knew right then that he wanted to become a pilot. In 1974, he earned his first pilot certificate in an airplane, and then continued with a glider rating.

Mountain flying is a completely different ballgame from flatland flying. Flatlanders: Beware of attempting to fly over or through the mountains! You�d be well served to get local mountain flying instruction from someone such as Jer/, who teaches the ground school and mountain flying for the Colorado Pilots Association. I have my ASEL (aircraft single engine land) pilot certificate, but after flying through the mountains with Jer/ the other day, there's no way I would attempt to even fly near those things, let alone through or over them, without expert instruction!

Jer/ did let me fly right seat (straight and level for about 15 minutes) in his 206. At all times, he (and any well trained pilot) is constantly looking for a possible landing site in case of an emergency. He also informs FAA Flight Service (FSS) of the progress of his flight, stating his identity and position and gives them a Pilot Report (PIREP) including weather visibility, temperature, winds aloft and cloud bases, to pass along to other pilots who are planning a flight in the area.

After filing his flight plan (always file a flight plan!), we lifted off the runway of the Fort Collins � Loveland (FNL) airport at 6:30 a.m. and headed for the small grass airstrip at Marble, Colorado. The route took us over the Narrows portion of the Big Thompson Canyon, Estes Park, the Roosevelt National Forest, the town of Granby; the State Bridge on the Colorado River, and the town of Eagle in the White River National Forest. We landed on a beautifully maintained grass strip at Marble, Colorado where, yes, they quarry the famous Colorado marble. Along the way, a lot of the mountain valleys were foggy, including Marble Canyon, but it lifted in time for us to safely make a landing there.

It was a full stop landing at Marble, as touch and goes are unlikely to be successful. We shut off the engine, got out to stretch, relax, and converse with Sue Blue, who manages the private grass strip. Before taking off, we all �walked the runway� looking for stones and twigs to toss off the strip so that the prop couldn�t suck them up and strike them, creating �foreign object� damage. That strip is 3,800 feet long, so it took a while to walk it, but you�d better do it, as �the pilot in command is the final authority as to the safety of the aircraft.� You know: An ounce of prevention.

From Marble, we flew down the Crystal River, past the Redstone Castle, and on to Glenwood Springs, which has a paved runway 3,300 feet long. After catching lunch in town, we hosed down the 206, because the grass strip at Marble splattered some mud, dirt, and grass on the airplane. (Every pilot knows the necessity of keeping your aircraft clean, especially the leading edges of the wings.) After filing his flight plan at Glenwood Springs, we took off and flew to Granby (another small, but paved high mountain runway at 8,203 MSL) where we got out to self-fuel the 206.

It was somewhere along the final leg, from Granby back to Fort Collins, that Jer/ looked over at me and said, �You have the controls.�

�Me?�

�Of course, you,� said Jer/, �You�re a pilot, aren�t you?�

So, I took control of the aircraft! Not having flown for a long, long time, I admit that I did rather well maintaining straight and level flight. (I gained about 80 feet in those 15 minutes, but Jer/ didn�t criticize me for it; what a nice guy!) Talk about a strange feeling; although we were below the mountain peaks, Jer/ said to pick out a reference on the horizon (over 50 miles away), such as a peak or a cloud, and fly straight toward it. It feels strange to be flying straight toward a mountain, but, of course, at some point, you turn left or right and negotiate AROUND that mountain peak. Whew! The view! The sense of awe and wonder! We are truly blessed to be able to fly in our nation, and these Colorado mountains!

When the Fort Collins � Loveland airport came into view, I was sad that we had to end the trip, but I will never forget it. Like I said before, mountain flying is a completely different ballgame.

One more thing about Jer/:He has a personal mission to land at every public-use airport in Colorado, and as many private ones as he can get permission for. Of the 84 public-use airports in Colorado, he is up to 52, so he is about 2/3 of the way toward that goal. And that doesn�t include private airports with grass or dirt strips, of which he has landed at 10.

I asked him what the most interesting places he has flown into in the mountains and why. He remarked that the strip at Marble (7,800 MSL; 3,800-foot grass strip) is one because it is the prettiest. Quarter-Circle Circle (9,500 MSL; 2,800-foot dirt strip, near Gunnison) is another, as it is almost as high as Leadville (9,927 MSL), and is difficult to find. And his third most interesting is the airport at Glenwood Springs (5,916 MSL; 3,300-foot paved) because it is the �tightest� paved public airport in Colorado. Not much room for error; at that one, �flight proficiency is all.�

So, if you are a flatland pilot, but would like an introduction to, or would like to become proficient at mountain flying, think about contacting Jer/ for lessons and: Have fun! I did.

For information, contact Jer/ Eberhard at (970) 898-2861 or E-mail: [email protected]

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