On 10 Jul 2003 10:22:21 -0700, Tim K wrote:
It's a Welsh mountain, so it's not all that big (highest peaks in that
area are at or below 3,500' MSL) and certainly flyable (by a properly
trained pilot of course) in a training-type aircraft. Just nowhere
around that's flat to land on.

Smaller mountains are still mountains and require knowledge of mountain
flying. The only thing the Welsh mountains don't have that the Rockies
do is the very high density altitudes. All the other mountain flying
hazards are present, though: rough terrain and few good spots to make
forced landings, big differences in weather conditions over a short
distance, downdrafts, mountain waves, rotors and turbulence when it's
windy. (Even small mountains will do this - the glider club here
has had several wave soaring flights off Snaefell, whose peak is a little
over 2000' MSL). As for the weather, you'd expect with the Isle of Man
being only 30 miles long and 12 or so wide, the weather conditions would
be substantially uniform across the entire island, but Snaefell and friends
ensure that the weather can be dramatically different depending on where
you are. Quite commonly it can be drizzly and wet with ceilings so low
not even the airliners are flying at Ronaldsway, but in the north, it
can be bright sunshine and a nice day for flying gliders!

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"