Taking A Chance

[Bill Greenwood]

On Saturday the 23rd I wanted to fly from Aspen over to Denver APA for the Morgan Adams event , a combined aviation and auto and motorcycle display that raised money for children's brain cancer research.

At breakfast it is overcast and light rain, low fog limits vis and ceiling about 2000 feet and layered above. I cannot see Aspen Mountain from my house across the valley less than a mile.
Over the next hours, there are a few breaks and some sun, but it never clears enough to fly. I don't even go to the airport. Rain showers continue and there is still fog, maybe the best weather is a few mile vis and broken at 3000 or 4000.

So at 12:30 pm I start driving from my house in the east part of town, and as I go up toward Independence Pass, the weather gets a little better as I climb. There is some clear spot in the distance and rain stops. As I past Lost Man Reservoir at perhaps 11,500 feet a Cessna single goes over my head going west toward Aspen. He is over the pass, which is 12,100 feet but not by much maybe 600 to 800 feet, and flying slowly. He disappears up the valley toward Aspen where the mist is. That valley is perhaps 3 miles wide or less as you go down toward town. I can't belive what I just saw, and say a prayer from them. I was concerned so that I stopped when I go to the parking area at the summit, at 12,100 and tried to phone the airport. But surrounded by mountains over 14,000 there was no reception.
So when I got to Denver I phoned and there was no crash and no one seemed to know who the pilot was or which plane.

My guess it that it could have been a local pilot and he was high enough to see the tops of the peaks on each side and stay in the valley, a very dangerous game, and in any event how would he get down vfr when he got to the airport.
Or maybe he had some G1000 or similar that could show him where the terrain was and keep him in the middle until over the airport. The valley is not straight so he would have had to follow a curve.

In any event, I think he was probably very lucky or very foolish or both.
It is possible that he climbed back into the clouds and turned back east toward clear sky and I didn't see that. But unlikley, as he was well below the 14,000 peaks and the mea would be 16,000 and there is no airway on that route.

Still gives me chills to think about it.
I had a great and safe time at the party.

[Floatsflyer]

Seems s/he made it through. No news is good news!