Mountain qualifications
Mountain qualifications :
Wheels rating : This rating can be acquired in a range of 15 to 40 hours of flight. Everything specified in the manuals must have been assimilated and must be used at the first landing, the go-around on short final being generally excluded.
Skis qualifacation : It can also be done in a range from 15 to 40 flight hours, depending on your skills. The knowledge of the snow and its multiple states according to the season, the temperature, the time of passage, the practice of sliding on skis without the possibility of braking, with a radius of turn more difficult to control, slopes and important overhangs make it a qualification all the more “mountainous” as it includes landings on glaciers, in “high mountain” thus, in a most severe environment.
Each of these qualifications is valid for 2 years and allows the use of all mountain terrain.
Before starting this activity, it is advisable to have already acquired a good level of piloting: if on the plain you do not know how to perfectly hold a speed and a descent plan on approach, it is more than likely that in the mountains your weaknesses will be amplified and will make your learning laborious (and expensive).
You have to be a good maneuverer to be able to pay attention to the environment and not be focused on flying. You have to be able to quickly analyze the information: speed – vertical speed- altitude.
At a glance in the dashboard, you can perceive the situation in an atmosphere that can vary from one moment to the next, going from a downdraft to an updraft or the opposite. A current that can surprise you, too long on final landing when any go-around is impossible, too short when even “full throttle”, nothing will allow you to arrive at the threshold of the planned landing place.
This is as true for practice on wheels as it is for practice on skis on altisurfaces or glaciers. Depending on your level of training, it may be a good idea to proceed in order of increasing difficulty.