This past year has certainly been a year of mountain flying for me. It’s included a Boxing Day sightseeing tour through the mountains, a short trip into the mountains to Invermere, and a long excursion over several mountain ranges to Portland. However, the airstrips visited were all around 3500’ or lower and relatively unchallenging density altitudes.

This was all to end last month with an impromptu trip to Ram Falls. I arrived at Carstairs relatively late that morning but found Pat Cunningham and Mike Sweere were still on the ground contemplating a destination. Since we were nearing lunchtime, we decided to head to Boston Pizza in Lacombe. Mike’s wife, Marilyn, and daughter, Erin, also joined him in the Cessna 170. After a nice lunch, we walked back to the airport and started to consider where we should head next. Mike suggested we head to Ram Falls and check out the abandoned strip there. I had heard about the strip before but had never visited it. I was in!

The trip there was beautiful as we made our way through the hills and valleys of the foothills. As we arrived over the strip, I realized that density altitude was not going to be the only challenge with this airstrip. The winds were light but across the runway. The approach had a rather tall hill in the middle of it requiring a steep approach. The wind direction was also creating a good updraft through the approach.

The downwind and base legs were flown at about 1800’ above the field so that the approach would clear the hilltops. Once clear of the high terrain, it was a full sideslip to the threshold for me through the updraft and turbulence. I actually ended up with a nice landing and taxied to the end of the runway to wait for Mike’s landing.

With all three planes safely parked at the end of the runway, we walked across the road and into the Ram Falls Provincial Park to check out the falls themselves. I was quite impressed with the park and the work they’ve done to provide a great viewing platform overlooking the river and falls.

After taking a couple of dozen pictures, we decided to make the long trek back up the stairs from the platform and head back to the planes. It turns out that the planes were as big a hit with the park visitors as the falls. By the time we took off, there were about a dozen vehicles waiting to see us depart. I did a quick calculation on the Garmin during the backtrack and realized that with the field elevation at 5600’ and a temperature of 26°C, the density altitude was 8500’!!! I decided to take it up to full power and lean back to get peak RPM before releasing the brakes. Even with this, I used up around 2500’ of the 3500’ strip. I cleared the trees at the end of the runway with a safe margin before passing over the edge of the falls and instantly gaining another 200’ or so as the valley floor dropped out beneath me.

With all three planes safely off the strip, we turned towards Carstairs and the end of a great day of flying.

Remember that Thursday, September 9th is our next meeting. Hope to see you all there and be sure to prepare to tell your summer flying stories.