Where to fly to get to yellowstone national park
How To Safely Fly Yellowstone and Jackson Hole
I'm Nick herring I'm a park ranger with
the National Park Service I live in
close to Gardner Montana which is where
my airplane is based and I wanted to
just talk to you a little bit about
flying over the park today the park is
is a fantastic resource for from a pilot
perspective it's as close to what you'd
find in Alaska in the lower 48 states
with that of course comes a lot of
different challenges as a pilot the
terrain a lot of our East boundary in
our North boundary are extreme rugged
mountainous terrain you've really got to
pay attention to wind down drafts the
southern part of the park is a heavily
forested part of the park so you don't
have a lot of options if you have engine
problems so you know you've really got
to pay attention to what you're doing
and you also need to be very prepared in
your aircraft you know carry a good
survival kit first aid kit make sure
you've got a good flight plan it's it's
certainly doable but you have to put a
little thought to flying over this
remote country Yellowstone is a
tremendously diverse place to fly you
all stone lake is a very large body of
water on the southern end of the park
gorgeous absolutely gorgeous country not
to mention all the thermal basins which
are located all over the park some of
them are quite spectacular from the air
one of the most probably well-known is a
grand prismatic spring in the Old
Faithful area it's been on the cover of
National Geographic many times and it
looks just as gorgeous as it does on the
cover of National Geographic I was
fortunate to have learned how to fly at
a high altitude airport and have flown
at sea level as well and the difference
is dramatic and where I see pilots get
into trouble as they'll fly into an
airport like West Yellowstone like this
they'd come from a lower elevation
they'll top off with fuel they've got
full passengers and it's an 85 to 90
degree day that's a recipe for a
disaster here I think that all of us are
hammered about keeping those fuel tanks
full this is the case where you might
not want it full you want to plan that
fuel and and your load calculations so
that you've got some some room for error
because the high altitude is just until
you've experienced it you really don't
understand how your aircraft functions
at a high altitude I think it's really
important for pilots to just be
sensitive about their flying in a
national park it's obviously a protected
area you know the charts recommend the
2,000 foot minimum flight level and I
think if you pay attention to not
buzzing developed areas where we have
large concentrations of visitors I think
that shows a level of sensitivity that
will probably help everybody involved my
name is Rick Smith I'm the Air Traffic
Manager the Jackson Hole control tower
first and foremost understand that we're
contained within a national park
so before pilot comes into this area
they need to familiarize themselves with
the federal air regulations concerning
flight in the national park as far as
altitude restrictions what you're used
to it most places doesn't really apply
here for weather and that's because of
the mountains we have a very simple
philosophy here as far as air traffic
control at Jackson Hole our goal is to
ensure that they receive the most
courteous the most professional and the
safest air traffic control service they
can get anywhere in the country
you
