On Tue, 19 Dec 2006 20:47:50 -0700, Newps wrote:



wrote:
Newps wrote:

wrote:
IFR minima require a flight altitude 2000' above

the peaks.

Above the terrain, not necessarily the peaks. You may be in a valley
several thousand feet below the peaks at a legal IFR altitude.

Here in the Rockies the peaks are many and close enough
together that to be legal a pilot isn't going to be IFR in the valleys.
Not legally, anyway. A few try it but usually come to grief. And their
ELTs don't often work, either. Even with a good ELT they hit so hard
that everything shatters.


We are on the edge of the Rockies and have several airways that go
between mountain ranges and have MEA's many thousands of feet below the
peaks.

I guess the FAA trusts avionics a lot more than the Canadian DOT.