Mountain checkout to Lake Tahoe

Before I flew to Oregon for my big trip I had a fun mountain checkout to Lake Tahoe and Truckee with an excellent CFI from Squadron 2 in San Jose, CA. Darrall Dalberg and I flew to KTVL and KTRK airports in South Lake Tahoe and Truckee in the Cessna 182P aircraft. It was fun and only took an hour to fly the Cessna 182 there from Reid Hillview airport (KRHV) in San Jose.

First we landed at KTVL had a meal and debriefed on mountain flying basics to avoid terrain issues and be safe flying in the mountains. After we took off, I noticed that even though it was cool in Tahoe, the climb rate was a lot slower than expected in the Cessna 182 so we did a few circles to reach sufficient altitude and avoid terrain nearby. Adjusting the mixture is crucial for safe flying in high density altitude airports. We then took off and flew over gorgeous Lake Tahoe:

We flew into Truckee airport (KTRK) and landed for some practice. Then we flew back home in only an hour to KRHV!