Departure
94%
vs 95% ▼ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Lake County Airport at Leadville, Colorado is the highest public-use airport in North America, sitting at 9,928 feet amid the Rocky Mountains. It is a county-owned general aviation field best known for high-altitude aircraft testing and mountain helicopter flight training, and it once hosted scheduled airline service to Denver.
Lake County Airport, also known as Leadville Airport, is a county-owned public-use aerodrome serving Leadville, Colorado. At an elevation of 9,928 feet it is recognised as the highest airport in North America, a distinction that makes it a magnet for high-altitude performance testing of fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, including trials conducted for the Bell 429. For a simulator pilot it offers the novelty and challenge of operating from a genuine high-altitude mountain strip, where thin air markedly affects aircraft performance on both takeoff and landing.
The airport lies about two nautical miles southwest of the central business district of Leadville, in Lake County, Colorado, within the Rocky Mountains. It sits under the jurisdiction of Denver Center for en-route air traffic control services.
The airport has a single physical runway, 16/34, 6,365 feet long with a hard surface and runway lighting. There is no ILS approach available.
Traffic and airfield information is provided over CTAF/UNICOM on 122.8 MHz. An automated weather observation is broadcast on ASOS 118.375 MHz, and Denver Center can be reached on 119.85 MHz for en-route services. There is no instrument landing system at the field.
Lake County Airport once had scheduled passenger airline service, with Rocky Mountain Airways operating de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter flights to Denver, giving Leadville the distinction of being the highest airfield in the United States ever to receive airline service. The field has long been used as a base for high-altitude performance testing of aircraft, including trials for the Bell 429 helicopter. It is also home to RAVCO, described as the highest helicopter flight training school in the world, whose Mountain/High Altitude Test and Training Site (M/HATTS) programme is recognised as having the highest training landing zone in the continental United States.
Lake County Airport remains an active general aviation field and continues to be used for high-altitude aircraft and helicopter testing, including work carried out by RAVCO's M/HATTS programme. Pilots who land here can receive a certificate commemorating their arrival at North America's highest airport. Facilities reported at the field include a terminal building with a pilots' lounge and a courtesy van, and pilots have noted a freshly rebuilt runway surface in recent years.
