May Mountain Adventure

Leg 10 - 5/17/2023 - Grand Junction, CO (KGJT) to Leadville, CO (KLXV)

Leg Stats

• Time Enroute: 1.4 hrs
• Distance (direct): 103nm
• Distance (actual): 139nm
• Fuel Used: 10.7 gal

Up at 5am to get ready for departure. One last check of the weather showed (as expected) clear skies and calm winds, so we hauled our stuff on foot back to the airport and loaded up for departure.

The plan was to depart just after 6:30am to land at Leadville, and then continue on to Colorado Springs. I had planned my fuel such that we departed Grand Junction with just over 30 gallons of fuel. I wanted to have as little weight onboard for Leadville as possible.

Our route would take us northeast from Grand Junction towards Rifle, and Eagle, then turning south towards Tennessee Pass and into Leadville.

We departed on time, and climbed northeast towards clear blue skies. We had another smooth transit at 12,000ft of the mountains, passing over Rifle, Eagle, and ultimately crossing Tennessee Pass before descending into Leadville. The mountain views on the way were spectacular.

We arrived around 7:45am, followed very shortly by a Cessna (we waited at the end), and we both taxied to the FBO. Unfortunately, the FBO was closed up tight. The guys in the Cessna got out to look around and relayed their findings over the CTAF, and despite the website indicating that they would be open at 7am, there were no signs of activity close to 8am.

Ultimately, we both decided to depart rather than wait around (we had to get to Colorado Springs by 11am local to start work that afternoon), so I got ready to depart.

Trip Leg Navigation