Leach Field (1V8) now has self serve 100LL. Great news for those flying into/out of La Garita Ranch, Morning Shadows Ranch, Quarter Circle Circle Ranch or just passing through. Many thanks to Saguache County for the effort and to CDOT for the money.

Fantastic news!

yay, good news Tom!

Nice.

I instructed for Mr. Leach while my wife was getting her Masters in Ed from Adams State. I haven't been back in years. I suppose they took the wire down over the south end of the N-S runway. The only safe way out was under the wire.

Thanks Tom, good work being done to improve GA in the valley.

Any idea whether the proposed fuel at Del Norte has happened? There was talk about that at the fly-in to La Garita last Spring.

I notice that the approach slopes for Leach are pretty dramatic: 20:1 for 12, 21:1 for 30. I assume that's for the power lines at both ends.

Cary

Contact and Cary are correct: BIG power lines on approach to 30, not so big into 12.
Del Norte KRCV ran into a bureaucratic snafu. Should have fuel online next spring. Very frustrating process.
My hat is of to Saguache County for getting their fuel system online so quickly.

flynbeekeeper wrote:Contact and Cary are correct: BIG power lines on approach to 30, not so big into 12.
My hat is of to Saguache County for getting their fuel system online so quickly.

Thanks Tom for the update. This is great news. Here are a few pictures of the Leach Airport and the nearby powerlines. They powerlines on the East end are marked and lighted. 7000' paved runway. Both Leach and Del Norte also have new runway light systems. Nearest AWOS is at Del Norte or Saguache.

Looking to the West:


Looking to the East:


Looking to the West:


Lights on the powerline poles (West End)


Communication Antenna to the NorthEast of the runway near the hangars:

MTNWEST wrote:

flynbeekeeper wrote:Contact and Cary are correct: BIG power lines on approach to 30, not so big into 12.
My hat is of to Saguache County for getting their fuel system online so quickly.

Thanks Tom for the update. This is great news. Here are a few pictures of the Leach Airport and the nearby powerlines. They powerlines on the East end are marked and lighted. 7000' paved runway. Both Leach and Del Norte also have new runway light systems. Nearest AWOS is at Del Norte or Saguache.

Looking to the West:


Looking to the East:


Looking to the West:


Lights on the powerline poles (West End)


Communication Antenna to the NorthEast of the runway near the hangars:

I have this repetitive dream, of taking off from some road and having to dodge power lines, up and down, until I finally get out of them. Those pix will probably bring on that dream tonight!

Cary

Am I just senile or wasn't the runway N-S and much shorter in the seventies?

contactflying wrote:Am I just senile or wasn't the runway N-S and much shorter in the seventies?

I was told that when the County bought it from Kenny Leach's family that there was an old crosswind dirt strip. I don't know if this is the E/W strip that you can see in Google Earth or if there was an original N/S strip. A good question for one of the SLV folks.

I'm not sure about the direction, but I am sure we had to takeoff and land under the wire. Spray pilots never go over anything they can go around or go under, especially at that altitude. Ken Leach ran a spray operation, but that was before I went to spray school at Slaton, TX. I instructed mostly for Fred over at Monte Vista, but Ken asked me to get the local radio station owner's nephew a Commercial and Instrument in a brand new C-182 RG. Ken was a Cessna dealer and had traded airplane time for radio advertising. We put a lot of hours on that plane, and I got the feeling the kid's uncle was going to buy it for him.