Lake County Airport , also known as Leadville Airport, is a county-owned public-use airport located two nautical miles (3.7 km) southwest of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

of Leadville, a city in Lake County, Colorado, United States. According to the FAA's

National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) is an inventory of U.S. aviation infrastructure assets. NPIAS was developed and now maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It identifies existing and proposed airports tha ...

for 2009–2013, it is categorized as a '' general aviation'' airport. At an elevation of 9,934 ft (3,026 m) above mean sea level the airport claims the distinction of being

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

's highest. Pilots receive a free certificate commemorating their landing upon a successful landing. Aircraft performance deteriorates rapidly with altitude, so many organizations use the Leadville Airport as a base for high-altitude performance testing.

Facilities and aircraft

Lake County Airport covers an area of . It has one asphalt paved runway designated 16/34 which measures 6,400 by 75 feet (1,951 x 23 m). It also has one

helipad A helipad is a landing area or platform for helicopters and powered lift aircraft. While helicopters and powered lift aircraft are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fabricated helipad provides a clearly marked hard s ...

designated H1 with a concrete surface measuring 150 by 100 feet (46 x 30 m). For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2008, the airport had 10,000 aircraft operations, an average of 27 per day: 78% general aviation, 20% military, and 2% air taxi. At that time there were 11 aircraft based at this airport, all single- engine. At one point, the airport had scheduled passenger airline service. Rocky Mountain Airways operated flights with

de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter The de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter is a Canadian STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) utility aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada, which produced the aircraft from 1965 to 1988; Viking Air purchased the type certificate, then restarted ...

turboprop aircraft to Denver, thus earning Lake County Airport the distinction of being the highest airfield in the U.S. ever to receive airline service. The highest helicopter flight training school in the world, RAVCO, operates out of the Lake County Airport. Their Mountain/High Altitude Test and Training Site (M/HATTS) is acknowledged as having the highest landing zone for training in the Continental United States of America (CONUS).

References

External links

Leadville Airport

Aerial image as of 12 October 1999
from USGS '' The National Map'' * {{US-airport-ga, LXV
RAVCO
Airports in Colorado Transportation buildings and structures in Lake County, Colorado