Mount Blue Sky and More

“We Fly at Dawn!”

It’s always an adventure! And on this particular morning, I had an entire state park to myself for a little while. I was going to fly at Suhaka Field at Cherry Creek State Park, a recreational facility at the park run by volunteers, and also directly under the approach path for the main, north-south runway at Centennial Airport, the regional airport serving Arapahoe County, located three miles south of the park. That will become important later, but just consider the contrast between the model aircraft recreation facility at Cherry Creek with the nation’s 25th-busiest airport nearby.

Usually, there are many pilots readying their model aircraft at Suhaka Field, even at sunrise. Of course, since the temperature at sunrise was only 20°F (-6°C), less adventurous pilots were likely somewhere warm, wherever they were that wasn’t the airfield that morning. It was very unusual to have Suhaka Field all to myself, so I was determined to get a photo that I never could before, from directly over the runways for the model aircraft, now empty as the sun rose in the east.

I arrived before dawn, and requested clearance from Centennial airport (using an app on my phone—ain’t technology grand!) to fly in controlled airspace. A number of small, single-engine planes flew in and out of the airport using the western approach, flying over the towns of Centennial, Lone Tree, and Greenwood Village, against the steady breeze from the east.

The Colors of the HIGH SKY

Ironically, the drama fades quickly once the sun rises, but a cloudy sky just before dawn provides plenty of dramatic colors. Once I received approval from the airport, I was about to fly, but first I just soaked it all in. The fiery sky shifted constantly, contrasting with the cold, quiet, monotony of the plain beneath. I took some photos of the clouds, just as local birds woke up nearby and noisily took to the sky.

Denver Shows its Good Side

I (also a bit noisily) joined the local aviators in flight, but with my feet on the ground! I flew a Mavic 3 drone with additional strobe lighting to be highly visible to other pilots. Once aloft, the drone followed several programmed procedures for capturing various panoramas, while I kept watch in my solitude. The breeze blew frosty over Cherry Creek, chilling the flight range and my fingers along with it.

Catching sight of dawn’s first light reflected on the Foothills of the Front Range provided a perfect backdrop to Denver’s skyscrapers. The sun had yet to reach the park itself, but first provided direct illumination for the snowy mountaintops, followed by steel, glass and concrete.

All Mount Blue Sky, All the Time

There is one landmark that had dominated this part of the Front Range for millennia, but it only has had the name “Mount Blue Sky” for just over a year. Of course, there are people who insist on calling it by its most recent previous name, Mount Evans. Being so prominent, it has had more names that have long since been forgotten, possibly by people who have also been forgotten, maybe for ten thousand years or more.

The name, any name, could never be as powerful as its presence, which can only be approximated in photography. In the image of Mount Blue Sky below, clouds darken the foothills while the peaks and plains remain illuminated. There are many moods to this mountain, thanks to the ever-changing seasons, but it clearly inspires many still to this day.

If you are guessing at this point that there will be many more opportunities to see those moods of Mount Blue Sky in future editions of this newsletter, I think your guess will be soon confirmed!

Postscript

Suhaka Field, as a reminder, is directly under the approach path for the long runway at Centennial Airport. That means there is a 200-foot (60 m.) flight ceiling at Suhaka Field defined as controlled airspace by the Federal Aviation Administration. It also means that commercial and private jets fly directly overhead on approach to landing at the nation’s 25th-busiest airport!

I had already finished flying and put away my drone when a jet arrived in “my airspace”—that is, mine in the sense that I had requested flight clearance in that restricted area. But in the past when I had been flying a drone as a jet flies directly over the flight range, I drop to under 100 feet (30 m.) and fly to a part of the park that’s not directly under the flight path until the jet has passed, to be on the safe side.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end! Look for more Colorado HIGH SKY coming to you soon…