Fellow flatlanders-mountain-trained pilots are welcome to read along-here's what we are doing wrong. We're not getting training. I asked mountain flying instructors in Colorado how we can improve our mountain flying skills. Bill Standerfer and Bill Dunn, who teach for the Colorado Pilots Association; instructor Levi Brown of a newly formed flight school at Lake County Airport (elevation 9,934 feet) in Leadville; and Gary Kraft of Aspen Aero at Aspen-Pitkin County Airport (elevation 7,815 feet) at Aspen all weighed in. Standerfer recalled a pilot in June 2014 who decided to fly from Denver above Interstate 70 through the Loveland Pass (elevation 11,991 feet) in a Piper Cherokee 235. Like many before him, he was unable to climb above terrain and tried to turn back toward Denver, but all aboard were killed when the aircraft crashed near the beginner's slope of the Loveland Ski Area. The Rawlins Pass (elevation 11,660 feet) would have been a better choice, Standerfer said.
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