The last legs of the trip to Salta was, weatherwise, more interesting. It was a mix of mostly broken cumulus clouds with a few scattered CBs (thunder-clouds). When cloud tops went above FL140 I ended up descending to FL100, the FL080, then FL060 (I had actually filed a VFR flight plan!) to stay under the base. Getting close to the two mountain ranges (or rather hilly ranges) before Salta, the tops had come down again to around FL120-FL130 - and there was a 500-700ft gap between the hill-tops and the cloud base. So, what to do: climbing all the way up to FL140 again, or do a bit of scud-running? ;-) Scud-running in mountains is normally a no-no, but in this case I had few problems doing exactly that, for several reasons: 1. I had observed the clouds for 15-20 minutes when approaching the hilly ranges, and the gap was stable (it was late afternoon and relatively cool, so no further build-ups). 2. I turned and flew parallel to the first range for a while, observing that the cloud cover in the valley beyond the first range was scattered (lots of sun coming through) AND that I could clearly see the next range of hills. There were also lots of roads and fields in the valley, i.e. lots of options for a precautionary if that should be required. 3. Crossing each of the ranges would take only around 5 minutes. 4. The TAF for Salta indicated VFR conditions with a 2000ft cloud base at that time. It worked out perfectly, of course - but as can be seen on the picture from the Salta apron, there WERE quite a bit of cloud around (less in the direction I came from, though). The lesson? Scud-running is mountains are acceptable, as long as you know what you are doing and make sure you can turn around or land when required....
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 02:30:46 +0000
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