Diamond Colorado Fly In - 2021

Group opinion recorded by the community.

Moderators: Rick, Lance Murray

If you plan on attending, which weekends work best?

June 5-6
4
14%
June 12-13
3
11%
June 19-20
3
11%
June 26-27
4
14%
August 21-22
8
29%
August 28-29
6
21%
 
Total votes: 28
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Rich
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Re: Diamond Colorado Fly In - 2021

Post by Rich »

dmloftus wrote: Tue May 18, 2021 4:25 am As I said, I'm in Colorado Springs on business August 4-6, then I need to be in Vegas for another event by end of August. I might be able to do the weekend of Aug 21 if I can find a good route to Vegas from there. I was going to fly commercial from Atlanta, but maybe I fly myself and stick around and do some Colorado sight-seeing in between. Have you flown Denver to Vegas? Would I follow I-70 to I-15? Is that direct route too high for a normal DA40? Anyone have suggestions? I've only flown south and north of the Rockies back and forth between Atlanta and west coast.
I'm assuming VFR for the flight over Colorado Rockies.

I have, in fact, flown the Loveland/Vail Pass route in a normally aspirated Arrow with 3 men aboard. I know of several other options. And with favorable conditions I would do this. Favorable conditions include departing in the early morning, no wind, clear skies, and flying light.

Another route I've flown (to Phoenix) in a Piper Tripacer: Fly down over the front range, over Salida then Poncha Pass into the San Luis Valley then to Gallup (fuel stop) then on. Another option here is to go over Monarch Pass -> Gunnison and onward. Lower elevation from then on.

Another option, given departure from KFNL I'd climb as necessary before heading west-ish and then either go over Rollins Pass (West of Boulder/Nederland or over Loveland and then Vail Pass.

For most of these routes, though, you will need to be at 13K (at least) for a portion of the flight, and you will need to be comfortable with a fair amount of 13K+ ft terrain fairly close to your flight path. The Salida routes do allow for somewhat lower elevations to deal with, and going over Monarch Pass minimizes the time you deal with "really" high terrain.

If you haven't done this kind of flying before, you could take the opportunity to fly a bit up and down the Front Range to get a feel for flying near the Divide.

There's always the option to depart with a bit of a detour out of FNL to the NW and cross the divide across Southern Wyoming. It would be a detour but can be hedged at both ends at a mere 10-12K-ish ft.
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Rich
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Re: Diamond Colorado Fly In - 2021

Post by Rich »

Shall we then say the weekend of Aug. 21/22? There is a slight risk for me with my plane going into annual on 8/16 or 17. But my owner-assisted annuals have never gone past 2 days. Contingency for me is that I'll drive, unless Chris decides to go and could drop by and pick me up so we could plane-pool :D
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Steve
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Re: Diamond Colorado Fly In - 2021

Post by Steve »

Works for me.
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Re: Diamond Colorado Fly In - 2021

Post by janders »

I found a really nice colorado airport directory on the https://www.codot.gov website. You can also request them to mail you a copy here but it took about 6 weeks for my copy to arrive earlier this year.
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Boatguy
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Re: Diamond Colorado Fly In - 2021

Post by Boatguy »

Good chance that will fit into my cross country schedule.
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Re: Diamond Colorado Fly In - 2021

Post by Rich »

Rich wrote: Thu May 20, 2021 2:04 pm
dmloftus wrote: Tue May 18, 2021 4:25 am As I said, I'm in Colorado Springs on business August 4-6, then I need to be in Vegas for another event by end of August. I might be able to do the weekend of Aug 21 if I can find a good route to Vegas from there. I was going to fly commercial from Atlanta, but maybe I fly myself and stick around and do some Colorado sight-seeing in between. Have you flown Denver to Vegas? Would I follow I-70 to I-15? Is that direct route too high for a normal DA40? Anyone have suggestions? I've only flown south and north of the Rockies back and forth between Atlanta and west coast.
I'm assuming VFR for the flight over Colorado Rockies.

I have, in fact, flown the Loveland/Vail Pass route in a normally aspirated Arrow with 3 men aboard. I know of several other options. And with favorable conditions I would do this. Favorable conditions include departing in the early morning, no wind, clear skies, and flying light.

Another route I've flown (to Phoenix) in a Piper Tripacer: Fly down over the front range, over Salida then Poncha Pass into the San Luis Valley then to Gallup (fuel stop) then on. Another option here is to go over Monarch Pass -> Gunnison and onward. Lower elevation from then on.

Another option, given departure from KFNL I'd climb as necessary before heading west-ish and then either go over Rollins Pass (West of Boulder/Nederland or over Loveland and then Vail Pass.

For most of these routes, though, you will need to be at 13K (at least) for a portion of the flight, and you will need to be comfortable with a fair amount of 13K+ ft terrain fairly close to your flight path. The Salida routes do allow for somewhat lower elevations to deal with, and going over Monarch Pass minimizes the time you deal with "really" high terrain.

If you haven't done this kind of flying before, you could take the opportunity to fly a bit up and down the Front Range to get a feel for flying near the Divide.

There's always the option to depart with a bit of a detour out of FNL to the NW and cross the divide across Southern Wyoming. It would be a detour but can be hedged at both ends at a mere 10-12K-ish ft.
BTW, there are several non-airport AWOS stations at various high points in the Colorado Rockies. They are shown on the sectional. Helpful for assessing conditions in this spots.
2002 DA40-180: MT, PowerFlow, 530W/430W, KAP140, ext. baggage, 1090 ES out, 2646 MTOW, 40gal., Surefly, Flightstream 210, Orion 600 LED, XeVision, Aspen E5
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Rich
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Re: Diamond Colorado Fly In - 2021

Post by Rich »

I thought I'd make this 8/21-22 known to a couple more "Diamonders" that are not active here on DAN. Not to change date/location, but if they want to come they'd know about it. Any objections to doing that?
2002 DA40-180: MT, PowerFlow, 530W/430W, KAP140, ext. baggage, 1090 ES out, 2646 MTOW, 40gal., Surefly, Flightstream 210, Orion 600 LED, XeVision, Aspen E5
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Re: Diamond Colorado Fly In - 2021

Post by Boatguy »

Rich wrote: Sat May 22, 2021 2:33 pm I thought I'd make this 8/21-22 known to a couple more "Diamonders" that are not active here on DAN. Not to change date/location, but if they want to come they'd know about it. Any objections to doing that?
Certainly not. The more the better.
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Rich
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Re: Diamond Colorado Fly In - 2021

Post by Rich »

Boatguy wrote: Sat May 22, 2021 3:42 pm
Rich wrote: Sat May 22, 2021 2:33 pm I thought I'd make this 8/21-22 known to a couple more "Diamonders" that are not active here on DAN. Not to change date/location, but if they want to come they'd know about it. Any objections to doing that?
Certainly not. The more the better.
I'm thinking of posting the more general invite on the public forum. That sound good?
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Chris
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Re: Diamond Colorado Fly In - 2021

Post by Chris »

Sure!
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