Mammoth at Minimums

Sometimes Mammoth gets packed. Not from skiers, but cloud cover.

Recently, to take advantage of Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort’s significant snowfall, my son, Rick, and I piloted a Piper Malibu from Montgomery (MYF) to Mammoth Lakes (MMH).

Flying round-trip for two commercially was more cost-effective, but no where near as fun.

Our Steed

We could’ve flown to Mammoth in our DJ, but the TKS is not FIKI-certified.

Thankfully, the Plus One Flyers Club has a Piper Malibu Malibu for rent to members.

We had the unfortunate luck to have our auto-pilot out for service. Flying solo would’ve been a bit tedious; thankfully Rick was along to fly the controls affording me to fully take in the scenery at FL20. The Piper PA-46 series is a very capable line of aircraft, and it makes a great airplane to fly in the winter at the Flight Levels.

I teach in these aircraft and it is always great to fly them.

Flying Through the Blanket

Our initial weather research indicated an overcast ceiling (1300 AGL) at minimums for the Mammoth RNAV GPS approach , but we hoped to have it lift by approach time. Bishop was our filed alternate due to the MMH weather, and it is always a good idea to file an alternate.

An hour from approach, clouds were expanding into the valleys and foothills. A short while after, ATC told us that we were 3rd following two commercial flights, one from SAN and the other from LAX. We had to hold at 14,000 over NIKOL.

Our timing couldn’t have been better. The first flight, from LAX, attempted but met below minimum conditions and aborted. Unfortunately, Reno was also suffering below minimums. The SAN flight then made its attempt about 10-minutes later only to also return home to SAN.

That would’ve been our commercial flight. Now our luck and planning would be put to task. Rick and I decided to try it and if we had to go missed, we would go to Bishop. This would be Rick’s first approach to minimums, and in a very challenging mountainous environment.

The clouds were blanketing the basin with peaks jutting out the top. You could see why the MDA was so high. Descending through the cloud at 11,000 we thought we would also go missed. Fifty feet above minimums we were preparing to execute the missed approach, and just a few seconds later we were able to see the airport environment. The approach is not straight in, which also adds to the situation. Rick did an great landing.

The Mountain

The skiing at Mammoth Mountain was great. Mammoth had received a considerable amount of snow this season. The first day was fun, flying in the morning and skiing by noon. We stayed at the 8050 in the Mammoth Village, very convenient and adjacent to one of the gondolas. The second day started out under sunny skies with some hard conditions in some areas. By noon Rick had crashed hard enough to earn him a toboggan ride down the mountain with the Ski Patrol, enduring a small fracture on his fibula. So much for a third day of skiing!

Return Trip

The fog had blanketed the airport all morning, however by noon it was clear enabling us to fly back to Montgomery (MYF) early.

Now with Rick, my auto-pilot, down and out resting in the back seat, I sat left and taxied us to runway 9, prepared for the strong cross-wind. Departing Mammoth is done best on 9 due to the slope, if conditions are right.

The initial climb was quite turbulent. The cross-wind on departure wasn’t difficult, but the rough conditions once airborne were bucking. About five minutes out the air smoothed made for nice flying back home.