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Steven, Here's some information based on spending a couple of summers at Glacier National Park and having flown Portland - Coeur d'Alene - Kalispell - Marias Pass - the Great Planes - Iowa one time. Marias Pass is the lowest pass in the Northern Rockies. It's just at the Southeast corner of Glacier National Park. The pass is only 5280 feet high with the mountains going up into the 9,000' range. Highway 2 and the railroad both go through the pass. Though there are sections of the highway where the trees come too close to the road, if you have some altitude, you should be able to glide to a point with adequate space for an emergency landing. The valley is wide enough for a 360° turn all the way from the Great Plains to West Glacier and even wider from there on. (Be sure you start the turn near the side of the valley in the narrow places, naturally.) The plains, just west of the mountains and the park are about 5,000'. From Marias Pass, going westbound, the ground drops almost 2,000' before it opens out into the Flathead Valley. From here, west, it's all downhill into Washington. Kalispell has two nice airports. I like the one downtown (S27) because I was able (in the late 1980s) to park the plane next to the hotel and tie it down with my tie-downs. >From Kalispell, you would fly south past the Flathead Lake. From the big Flathead Valley to I-90, I think I stayed over the river valley which started about 12.5 miles NNE of Superior, MT, and which met I-90 about 12 miles NW of Superior. >From there to Coeur d'Alene was following I-90. I flew the route west to east so I had the tailwinds. I flew through the mountains early in the morning when I could. On my first take-off from Coeur d'Alene, I found the I-90 valley full of low clouds so I went back and waited till about 10 a.m. when the clouds had lifted up to about 9,000'. I flew through about 7,500'. An EOC National Convention was held at Kalispell (which I missed to my great regret). I'd urge you to call the Cut Bank and Kalispell airports and talk to the local pilots about that route. I'd also urge any westbound Coupe pilots to get to altitude before entering the mountains because the ground can rise faster than a Coupe can climb. I went through Marias Pass eastbound at 7,500 so I could fly level and still be at 2,000' over the high point. Going westbound through Marias Pass, you could do a slow descent after you pass the Pass. But keep in mind the Flathead Valley is about 3,000'. If you can climb high with no difficulty in that Coupe, you might consider checking the regulations for overflying Glacier National Park. Just passing by it is quite an experience. Flying over it is even better but beware of the "automatic rough" when there is no good place to land under you. Keep us posted, please. Ed Burkhead http://edburkhead.com ed -at- edburkhead???.com (change -at- to @ and remove "???") ============================================================================== To leave this forum go to: http://ercoupers.com/lists.htm
