Attention Wyoming PILOTS... (Cheyenne, Casper, Rock Springs: hoa, travel, work)

[TGM]

I am flying to Cheyenne the end of next week. After some interviews, I would like to fly west down I-80 to see some of the communities I may be assigned to work in (Rawlings, Rock Springs, etc).

I have not purchased a sectional chart for WY yet, however I noticed on my GPS that the MEA for most of the airways heading west is about 11,000 msl.

I will be in a Piper Arrow PA28-200 with a certified ceiling of about 14k, however I will be fully loaded and climing will be slow at 10,000 feet (I expect 100-200fpm) The plane is o2 equipped.

My concerns:

What is the actual altitude I would need to maintain to follow I-80 VFR at about 2000 feet agl?
and
Living in Houston Texas, my mountain flying experience is very limited. Are there any specific safety concerns with my planned flight that I may not realize of be familiar with?

Thanks,

Troy Marrs
Houston TX

[Munshine]

.....Did you happen to fly over Carbon County/the Town of Hanna this past Saturday, (the 12th), and between the time of 8 A.M. and 8:30 A.M.? If you did, I think it was your plane I probably spotted that morning.

[TGM]

Was not me... however that would have been really cool!

I delayed the trip - I will now leave next Wednesday morning (08/16/06). I will most likely fly the sightseeing trip Friday morning. I'll make sure I fly over Hanna.

Troy

[headingwest]

Originally Posted by Munshine

.....Did you happen to fly over Carbon County/the Town of Hanna this past Saturday, (the 12th), and between the time of 8 A.M. and 8:30 A.M.? If you did, I think it was your plane I probably spotted that morning.

Too funny! Talk about small town if you notice a plane. This is why I LOVE Wyoming.

[TGM]

Yea - I think i'm gonna love it up there...

The only problem now is that I'm so worked up about Wyoming & it's beauty, I hope I won't be disappointed because I expect too much perfection...

[Munshine]

Ya know, maybe it’s just me/us, but we have actually noticed, since moving here a year ago, that airplanes flying overhead, isn’t an , actual, common/daily occurrence around here, (speaking for Carbon County, only). When living in Colorado, all the time and everyday, if you looked around long enough at any given time, you’d usually spot an airplane/jet somewhere in the sky. However, we noticed not long after moving here, there’s a big difference between Colorado and where we’re located now in Wyoming, and pertaining to the amount of daily aviation travel, (what’s been noticed by us, anyway). And since air travel seems as though it’s not so common here, when an airplane can be audibly detected, yeah, we naturally go take a gander to see if we can see it too!

Hopefully we’ll hear/see you when flying around this area, Troy. If you spot a group of 1 to 4 hicks waving when/if you fly over Hanna, it more than likely will be me and my boys. Wishing you a great flight and a wonderful trip over this beautiful state!

[Munshine]

Regarding your “perfection”…..

Just thought I’d throw this in because today I was thinking this myself when coming home from Rawlins….. This state, as many others also, has been going through a drought. Reportedly, this was the driest year Wyoming has seen in a 7-year period. So, when you do travel here, it is going to be rather brown looking, and as I noticed/thought myself, just today. Speak from personal experience only, springtime provides the best for Carbon County’s scenery, but no matter what time of year, you will be able to see what actually makes for our scenery.

[NancyJo]

Just love this chat - my father came over to Hanna 80 years ago from Crete, and lived there until he was off to WW2...and I visited Hanna and Rawlins for the very first time (after listening to soooo many stories about Elk Mountain and Hanna, and the building of Seminole Reservoir)!
What is the difference in Colorado and Wyoming you mentioned? Our first love is Wyoming...and cannot decide WHERE yet...but we were going to also start looking into SW Colorado. Since you lived in Colorado, can you compare these two?
I am curious too how the cherokee works in those altitudes..we have a C140 taildragger, and just know we will have to get something more powerful to keep up at those altitudes!

[Munshine]

Hi NancyJo,

Prior to moving to Hanna/WY about a year ago, the entire other part of my lifetime was spent in northeastern Colorado, and the area/county which is located directly south/southeast of the WY border. So I’m sorry, I really can’t give you any actual information about the southwestern part of Colorado.

As for comparing the part of Colorado I am familiar with to Wyoming, (and of which, I can only relate to the part of WY which begins in its extreme southeastern corner, (Pine Bluffs), venturing westward from there and ending in Rawlins), I can give some examples of each state, and which will provide, at least, an opinionated-comparison, if nothing more.

Colorado is a beautiful state, also. However, in Colorado, (and unlike what we’ve experienced/noticed with the this equally, if not more so, beautiful state we now reside in), there has been such a population boom, everywhere, that traveling anywhere in Colorado, (anywhere scenic, anyway), sometimes can be a hectic/a not-as-pleasant-as-it-should-be experience. Traffic and hoards of people and construction going on, has very much, changed many parts of Colorado. It seems that in Wyoming, beauty and peacefulness can be attained wherever you’re at, and because of the areas’ being so open and less populated, and so even in Wyoming’s larger cities, (Cheyenne/Casper).

The cost of living seems to be more expensive in Wyoming, however. We’ve noticed that if you’re not at a Wal Mart, (et. el.), prices are much higher, (and for the exact same items), then they would be anywhere in Colorado. And regarding Hanna/Carbon County, if a person isn’t able to drive the 90-miles, one way, to shop at the closest discount stores, you’re forced to pay more for necessities. In Colorado, (and I do believe anywhere in the state), cities/towns aren’t as distant from one another, like they are in Wyoming. This seems to make Colorado a more less-expensive and convenient state to live in, but we’ve discovered we’d rather forfeit both and reside where there is less crime, less traffic and people, and more abundant wildlife and scenery. More elbow-room, so to speak.

After I posted the comments regarding more noticeable aviation in Colorado,compared to where we’re at now, it dawned on my “why” there’s, probably, an obvious difference. Where we lived in Colorado, (and probably anywhere in Colorado, also), there were numerous privately owned, and municipal airports, and within a 75-mile radius of us. Smaller aircraft, (and along with crop-dusters, also), were always around, and I do imagine that the flight-plans of commercial jets to DIA, (approximately 115 miles away), is what kept jets always-noticeable. Without WY having as many airports, (of any kind), is probably why we hardly ever see such in this area. Also, practically every hospital in northeastern Colorado had flight-for life helicopters, and of which, Casper’s hospital is the only hospital in this area that offers such. There is a lot more railroad transportation in Wyoming, however.

And to end this probably way too long comparison, (sorry!), I just have to tell you about our first experience at the Rawlins court house, (the county seat for this area, and when we were getting our WY license plates right after moving here);

While going through the red tape part of attaining WY license plates, the elderly lady who was serving as the Clerk and I were talking about we needing to have transferred from Colorado , some document we didn’t have possession of, and which we needed in order to be issued WY registrations/plates, (can’t recall now what exact document it was we needed). I asked the Clerk why she couldn’t just look up/acquire whatever record it was, on her computer, (print it off, etc), and she stated that, “the Court House still used paper files and hadn’t started using computers in the office yet”. She did also state that , soon they would be operating the office with the use of a computer system, but she’d quit when that happened, and because she didn’t’ know how to work a computer. I didn’t have any problems with this county office/clerk not affording me the convenience and quickness a computer system would have provided, but it seemed really different to me that this government/county office operated like those in Colorado did, more than 25 years ago! This did just make this area seem more quaint to us.

Hope this lengthy post has given you, at the least, a little more insight to the differences we’ve noticed between the two states.

[NancyJo]

Thanks! I really appreciate your answers! I have a Rawlins courthouse story of a bit different kind...and yes, knowing that they didnt add that frustrating/stress raising-should-save-us-time-but instead-zaps-hours-away from us COMPUTER would have sealed the deal for me too!
When we went through Rawlins last fall, we made a point of seeing the courthouse, I took alot of pictures...cried a bit thinking of my dad's story, and then later showed him the pictures....guess it didnt look at all like it had when he lived in Hanna. His story:
My father was in the very first group of folks getting naturalized - citizenship at the NEW Rawlins courthouse! My dad studied so hard, wanted so badly to become a citizen, and helped neighborhood kids (alot of Greek folks who's dads worked in the mine) study - they all went to the courthouse together. He describes a building in progress...boards across dirt/mud to access the building. He was so confident - so unafraid, and they picked him to be first. 'Since this is our new place, and you are our first group, we WANT you to pass. They asked my dad just one question....'who was responsible for this building?' Well...my dad couldnt answer THAT....he had such confidence in our American history, but boy that really stopped him! He DID get citizenship, I think they asked him to study a little bit more and come back later!
There is a book on Carbon County that I received through ebay...it has some pictures and stories from an old doctor in the Hanna area. It was great to give it to my dad and listen to the rest of the stories!