Originally Posted by
David S.
Once upon a time I flew DHC-8’s all around the southwest, including CO.
I had one experience with mountain wave at 24,000 over the Front Range westbound out of Denver, where the aircraft accelerated to the barber pole (Vne) with idle power, and then decelerated down to near stall speed with max power. I don’t think we had to get a lower altitude, but it was close. It was clear skies and felt completely smooth. The autopilot was ON, and if we hadn’t been looking at the instruments, we wouldn’t have known it was happening. It occurred for a a couple cycles and then done.
I can’t imagine the same situation in a piston aircraft.