Departure
93%
vs 95% ▼ 3
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Shelter Cove Airport (0Q5) is a small, remote airstrip on California's Lost Coast, tucked into the tiny community of Shelter Cove in Humboldt County. Cut off from the rest of the state by steep coastal terrain that made a highway impractical, the airfield remains one of the few practical means of reaching this isolated stretch of coastline besides boat or a long mountain drive. It sits right in the heart of the settlement, encircled by a nine-hole golf course.
Shelter Cove Airport is a single-runway airstrip serving the small, secluded resort community of Shelter Cove on California's rugged Lost Coast in Humboldt County. It lies at the centre of the settlement's commercial district, hemmed in by a nine-hole golf course, and is one of only three practical ways to reach the community, the others being boat or a winding mountain road. For a sim pilot, its appeal lies in the dramatic setting where the King Range drops straight into the Pacific and the strip itself is squeezed into a tight coastal shelf.
The airfield lies on the Lost Coast of Humboldt County, California, at the point where the King Range meets the Pacific Ocean, within the community of Shelter Cove. The area is otherwise served only by a paved mountain road and the sea; the nearest towns with fuller services, Redway and Garberville on the U.S. 101 corridor, lie roughly 20 miles of winding county road to the east. Much of the surrounding land is part of the King Range National Conservation Area, managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
Shelter Cove has a single physical runway, 12/30, with a hard surface. Runway 12 measures 3,284 feet and Runway 30 measures 2,894 feet. Field elevation is 62 feet.
The runway sits at the centre of Shelter Cove's small commercial district and is encircled by a nine-hole golf course, making the airfield easy to pick out from the air. The King Range rises steeply immediately inland, while the Pacific coastline, including landmarks such as Black Sands Beach and Mal Coombs Park with its relocated Cape Mendocino lighthouse, provides a distinctive coastal reference for pilots approaching from the sea.
The area was originally home to the Sinkyone people before European settlement. Shelter Cove gained early notoriety when, on 21 July 1907, the coastal passenger steamer Columbia collided with the steam schooner San Pedro in dense fog nearby; the Columbia sank with the loss of 88 lives, while the damaged San Pedro stayed afloat and helped rescue survivors. The extremely steep coastal terrain around Shelter Cove led highway engineers building State Route 1 to abandon plans for a coastal road along this stretch, leaving the small fishing village cut off from the rest of California. As a result, the airstrip became one of the few reliable means of access to the settlement, alongside boat and a long mountain road, and this isolation later helped Shelter Cove develop into a quiet vacation and retirement community.
Shelter Cove remains a small aircraft airstrip serving the resort community that surrounds it, with a nine-hole golf course wrapped around the runway. The settlement's remoteness means the airfield continues to function as one of the principal means of reaching Shelter Cove, alongside boat access and the long mountain road from the U.S. 101 corridor near Redway and Garberville.
