Each year there are unfortunate accidents involving light aircraft as they fly through mountainous canyons. Many of these accidents need not happen and it should be expected by pilots that they can and will experience problems with up and down drafts in mountain ranges. That is not strange, that is typical of Bernoulli's principle and it can get dangerous in the mountains, unless you have unlimited power. Airflows speed up in canyons a more air is forced into a smaller space.

Some may think that rough air over mountains is just a Hollywood scenario used for plane crashes, which happen to be part of a storyline. Not so, they are real. I have been in a few scary situations in my life in a light aircraft and let me tell you that you have to pay attention in the mountains. That goes for any light aircraft or anything you are flying which does not have at least a 2:1 thrust ratios. You see airspeed is life and at altitude in the mountains the air is thinner and your aircraft flies different. Things do not perform as well and the wind currents are often very wicked. You have to pay attention. The wind could slam you into a mountain or cliff.

At LANL Los Alamos National Laboratories they do studies on wind currents in the mountains there, with artificial grids and measurements. I always thought that such modeling should be made holographic and used for studying the collection of wind energy and weather making. Which I hope they are doing. These can become very useful tools for pilot training and help save many lives lost each year for those who dare the mountainous terrain. And what we learn from these things using supercomputers and applying the butterfly effect could prove useful someday in controlling the weather with little energy if you had all the data.

Canyon flying and the airflows associated with them can be very dangers in Mountain Ranges and pilots should learn about the regional airflows and anomalies before flying thru them, otherwise they could end up against the side of a mountain deader than a doornail. So please be thinking here.

Lance Winslow

Currently Lance is retired at age 40 and is running an Online Think Tank Forum while traveling North America. Perhaps considering something extremely challenging to do that will exercise his mind and utilize all his experiences, observations and skills. Any ideas?