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High, hot and gusty: windy conditions in the mountains can be too much to handle when it's already high and hot.

Article Excerpt
BY JOSEPH E. (JEB) BURNSIDE

Some of the more memorable flights I've made over the years involve flying over or through mountainous terrain. The terrain itself, of course, is visually interesting, with vivid colors and shapes, contrasting with the overwhelming monotony other geographic areas may present. I will long remember a late afternoon, eastbound flight over New Mexico, with some of my favorite music blasting over the headphones as I watched the terrain underneath change to its nocturnal state. I was overflying the terrain, though: The airplane performed as it always does at 13,000 feet msl. The weather was utterly benign, yet I'm glad I was cruising instead of taking off or landing.

On another occasion, I found my self looking at decent weather but strong winds aloft for a flight over other portions of New Mexico, plus Arizona and Nevada. I scrubbed that flight due to the forecast winds at altitude, which were at or above the airplane's stall speed.

But it wasn't the winds' velocity that concerned me. Instead, it was the turbulence guaranteed to result from winds of those speeds flowing over and around the various terrain features over which I needed to...

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