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Posted By:
Hal Brown
Date Posted:
Oct 11, 2008
Description:
With an elevation of 9,927’, the airport at Leadville is the highest in North America (there are actually two airports at higher elevations in the Andes…but they are for another trip). As I pulled up to the ramp at Leadville, the only person in sight was a bearded mountain man in overalls working on an old Citabria.
After putting on fuel, I went looking for the operator. I found him under a 1950 Ford fuel truck working on a leaking radiator.
“Oh, you’ve come for your certificate,” he said.
“What certificate?”
“A certificate showing you’ve landed at the highest airport in North America.”
“Uh, no, I don’t really want any legal proof. I’ve actually come to tell you about a cat wandering around the ramp.”
“Yup. That’s just Nipper. He’s been around here for 18 years, as far back as I can remember.”
“I suppose he knows what he’s doing then.”
Nipper is just one of the local characters. There are lots of great tales about Leadville’s characters, including the rise and fall of one of the richest men in the world, Horace Tabor, whose penniless widow froze to death in one of his mines. Then there was the “unsinkable” Molly Brown of Titanic fame who was married to a mine superintendent. She is said to have burned up thousands of dollars her husband had hidden in the furnace. And, of course, the infamous prospectors Jessie and Bob James and their buddy Bobby Ford that found fame robbing stage coaches. See http://www.narrowgauge.org/ncmap/ted/dspp2_leadville.html for more of the local tales.
The automated weather reporter warned that the density altitude in the summer heat (22 deg. C) was more than 12,500’ for departure. The wind was right down the runway at 13 gusting to 21 knots. Even at close to maximum takeoff weight, I wasn’t really worried. Peli made short work of the runway and climbed away without breaking a sweat.
Date Taken:
Oct 11, 2008
Place Taken:
Leadville, CO
Owner:
Dan Nickens
File Name:
32_High_Parking.jpg - Photo HTML
Full size - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZT4I0000h">
Medium - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZT4I0000m">
Thumbnail - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZT4I0000s">
Category:
329, Taking Peli Home
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