Autumn in Colorado

Rezrider · Post by **Rezrider** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 8:25 am

I've been lazy in putting up trip reports and now have a backlog. I'll use this winter to catch up and share some with you guys.

Back in September there was a small get together at a lodge in Castle Lakes Colorado. A high altitude strip at 9300 ft with 14,000 ft peaks all around.
The colors were amazing, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Not all images are mine so I'll give credit to Matt.

Some weather moved in on the last day, here's the Maule getting wet!

You can see the airstrip at the bottom of this picture, between the lakes.

Another shot of the strip between the lakes, keep it straight or you'll get wet!

One has to have their A game on when flying in this area, no room for error. With the weather rolling in it made it interesting to say the least.
It was a fantastic place with some great people, this is why we fly.

Andy Young · Post by **Andy Young** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 8:54 am

I've flown past this strip a lot, and always wanted to land there. What's the deal with access? Can you only get permission if you're staying at the lodge?

Rezrider · Post by **Rezrider** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 9:44 am

Technically you are supposed to be staying at the lodge. The owner of the lodge doesn't want folks dropping in to bag the strip only to get themselves into trouble with the density altitude and the terrain.
However, he is open to people calling him up and talking to him about landing there. He would likely give the go ahead after talking to you a bit.

Mountain Doctor · Post by **Mountain Doctor** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 10:00 am

Wonderful spot. How long is it?

I assume on all but the coolest flyable non-snowy days the DA is in the 10,000 foot bracket. Must take some serious HP and wise timing, planning, and packing to get in and out safely, especially considering the surrounding terrain.

Wonderful pictures.

Rezrider · Post by **Rezrider** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 2:31 pm

Mountain Doctor wrote:Wonderful spot. How long is it?

I assume on all but the coolest flyable non-snowy days the DA is in the 10,000 foot bracket. Must take some serious HP and wise timing, planning, and packing to get in and out safely, especially considering the surrounding terrain.

Wonderful pictures.

It is about 2800 feet long, DA is a huge concern so one has to take off early in the morning and keep your plane light.
When the throttle goes forward the power is underwhelming to say the least.
The trees at the other end seem to come up quick

crbnunit · Post by **crbnunit** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 5:22 pm

Typical Colorado. Beautiful!

Density altitude. Funny. Merrill field has started including DA in the ATIS briefing. It was -1860' this morning!

truthinbeer · Post by **truthinbeer** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 4:18 am

Wonderful photos Rezrider.

wtxdragger · Post by **wtxdragger** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 6:34 am

Rezrider

Saw a quote this morning.

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."
Albert Camus

I guess you proved the point

Flyhound · Post by **Flyhound** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 9:21 pm

Wow! Those colors are so vivid, they would be called unrealistic if someone made a painting with the same chromatic range. Sometimes reality goes beyond what our imaginations normally allow! Thanks for sharing. With my little 180 Hp power plant I probably won't fly there. Getting a peek through another person's camera is great though.

chris erasmus · Post by **chris erasmus** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 6:40 am

Fantastic pics . Did a quick calculation, in my m7 235 at gross with DA at 10 000 ft, I will need 292 meters to be of the ground, no idea how much I will need to clear 50 foot obstacle. 292 meters is about 1000 feet

Post by **andy** » Sat Nov 01, 2014 5:04 am

Beautiful colors! What kind of camera?

The highest density altitude that I've done so far is Cold Meadows (U81) in Idaho @ 7030 MSL in a Super Cub. At about 1030 in the morning in July it was around 75F so the DA was close to 10,000. It's a pretty long turf runway but the Super Cub still got off in about 500 feet with two of us and half fuel. Lori's Super Cub has a 180 hp engine like my MX7-180 but it's a lot lighter. It would have taken me about 1000 feet in my Maule.

Brenton C · Post by **Brenton C** » Mon Dec 15, 2014 1:43 pm

I know this is an old thread, but I'm eager to learn how you calculated your take off distance?

There's nothing in my M5 documentation to give any guidance.

chris erasmus · Post by **chris erasmus** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 4:21 am

http://www.mountainflying.com/pages/mou ... thumb.html

This could help to calculate the runway requirement, some of the numbers are a little conservative, but better safe than sorry

Brenton C · Post by **Brenton C** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 6:04 am

Hi Chris

Thanks for this. I can whip up a handy dandy spreadsheet based on this.

Perhaps, then, do some field research with my own plane getting some specific numbers pinned down for reference.

chris erasmus · Post by **chris erasmus** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 6:21 am

Hi Brenton, the most important thing is to find out exactly where your plane stalls, climb to a safe altitude and fly as slow as you possibly can under different load conditions

Autumn in Colorado

Autumn in Colorado

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