Living in Colorado gives me the opportunity to give people instruction in mountain flying. I'm no legend in the mountains but I share what I know. Whether they get much out of it or not, I love doing it. I think the favorite thing for most people is landing at Leadville (aka Lake County, KLXV). They can get a certificate for landing at the highest airport in North America (9934 feet). They also get to make ridge crossings, course reversals, and a short-field takeoff and landing at Glenwood Springs (KGWS).
Here is Sweet Pea (740) sitting atop North America - the views are epic.
Southbound from Eagle (KEGE) to Weston Pass - pure mountains.
One of the best sections of the flight - the canyon between Glenwood Springs
and Eagle. You really have no where to go, but it's beautiful.
Painting of N19127 hanging in KIBM
Completely unrelated, but the within a day of a mountain flight, I landed at Kimball Municipal (KIBM) with Coppertop. First of all, to span that type of geography in that amount of time is only possible through airpower. Second, and more powerful to me, is my fascination in GA and its FBOs. You never know what you'll encounter and the people are almost 100% fantastic. Kimball is about 3 miles south of a 2600-person town in the middle of nowhere. When we landed there were exactly zero people at the airport. However, we could still get fuel, use a courtesy car (if desired), enter the FBO, use the restroom and even get water in the fridge! There really is nothing like the GA community. I made the owner of Coppertop follow me to the FBO just to showcase this incredible world. And he did concur that it was wowsers. I thank God to be a part of this world and I thank orgs like AOPA who fight for these freedoms.
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