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Highest airports in California
Apr. 30th, 2015 12:46 amHigh-altitude airports are noteworthy because - with less oxygen to burn in the engine, less air to push with the propeller, and less air to push with the wings - the performance of small airplanes is greatly reduced compared to when they are operated near sea level. The upshot is that you need a longer runway to take-off and land, and/or can carry less payload.
I had a hunch that the little airport in Lee Vining could be the highest airport in California. Surprisingly, a little Googling didn't provide the answer immediately, so a little hacking was in order. The FAA provides a downloadable database of all of the nation's aviation facilities, and via Nelson's blog I found some Python code to parse it.
So, without further ado, the highest-altitude public airports in California are:
There are 37 non-private airports in the United States that are higher than Mammoth, all in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Idaho, and Utah. The highest is Lake County, Colorado, at 9934 feet, and the most entertainingly named is Greater Green River Intergalactic Spaceport. The only two non-private airports above 5,000 feet not in the western states are Custer County (in the Black Hills of South Dakota) and Bradshaw Army Airfield on the Big Island of Hawaii (arguably a "western state").
I had a hunch that the little airport in Lee Vining could be the highest airport in California. Surprisingly, a little Googling didn't provide the answer immediately, so a little hacking was in order. The FAA provides a downloadable database of all of the nation's aviation facilities, and via Nelson's blog I found some Python code to parse it.
So, without further ado, the highest-altitude public airports in California are:
7135.0 MMH MAMMOTH YOSEMITE 6802.0 O24 LEE VINING 6752.4 L35 BIG BEAR CITY 6472.0 O57 BRYANT FIELD 6269.0 TVL LAKE TAHOE 5901.0 TRK TRUCKEE-TAHOE 5871.7 M45 ALPINE COUNTY 5299.0 O39 RAVENDALE 5284.0 BLU BLUE CANYON - NYACK 5116.0 1Q2 SPAULDING 4984.0 O79 SIERRAVILLE DEARWATER 4899.9 O02 NERVINO 4623.0 O59 CEDARVILLE 4602.0 A28 FORT BIDWELL 4534.0 O05 ROGERS FIELDIndeed, Lee Vining makes the list at #2. Truckee and Bryant Field, two other airports I visited on my recent epic hot springs trip, also show up on the leader board, at #6 and #4.
There are 37 non-private airports in the United States that are higher than Mammoth, all in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Idaho, and Utah. The highest is Lake County, Colorado, at 9934 feet, and the most entertainingly named is Greater Green River Intergalactic Spaceport. The only two non-private airports above 5,000 feet not in the western states are Custer County (in the Black Hills of South Dakota) and Bradshaw Army Airfield on the Big Island of Hawaii (arguably a "western state").
