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Big plans afoot for tiny Prospect airport By MELISSA MARTIN PROSPECT - When Gil Purdy tilts his Beech Sierra's wing, the deep-blue water of Crater Lake fills the horizon. Mount Shasta looks ghostlike in the background. The pilot tips his wing the other way, and Diamond Lake sparkles like a jewel in a forest, the jagged tip of Mount Thielsen standing guard on the south shore. The Three Sisters show off their pearly whites behind. Field hosted dignitaries PROSPECT - Jeanne Yeager and Dick Rutan flew into the Prospect State Airport in 1986 after they made a non-stop journey around the world in Voyager. The remote airstrip that runs parallel to Highway 62 and the Rogue River near the town of Prospect also beckoned the likes of Bruce Babbitt, secretary of the Interior under President Clinton. "He flew in from Nevada on an eight-passenger, twin-engine Cessna and was whisked away in a big limo by security when he arrived," said Walt Ridge, airport manager for 11 years. Ridge has never witnessed an accident at the lighted airport 2,578 feet above sea level. But he watched a rough-running Cessna coming back from Crater Lake circle four or five times before making an unplanned landing. The biggest plane to land in Prospect was a DC-3 flown by a retired Air Force colonel who had refurbished the craft into a "motor home." "He parked and spent the week riding Honda trail bikes around the area," Ridge said. Ridge follows in the footsteps of an airport manager who died in a plane crash en route to Portland during bad weather. Another previous manager died while landing his plane at Prospect at night and apparently hitting a herd of elk. Now the airport's claim to fame is hosting a fly-in every July for the past 12 years, Ridge said. Last month's event drew a record 65 airplanes, including a 140 Cessna piloted by a female pilot who flew coast to coast. While the narrow, tree-lined airport is not for the faint-hearted, it doesn't require years of experience to maneuver, either, according to resident George Fuller. "This is a safe place to practice landing; it's where I learned to fly." The airport that almost lines up with Lost Creek Lake requires a low approach over tall firs and a two-story house. "You do feel like you're down into a channel when you land here," said Shady Cove engineer Gil Purdy. "But it's a good runway." This bird's-eye view of the Southern Oregon Cascades is only 17 air miles away from what may be Prospect's best-kept secret - a state airport with a runway big enough to handle a DC-3 and a parking ramp clean enough for a King Air executive jet. The state recently spent $40,000 paving a parking apron at Prospect, one of the smallest of the 30 state-run airports, said Daren Griffin, state airports manager for the Oregon Department of Aviation. Prospect may be small, but it's considered a core airport because it offers emergency landing for pilots in trouble over the mountains. "It's on every aeronautical chart and well published," Griffin said. "Most pilots doing flight planning have it in the back of their mind as a place they could set down if they needed to, especially as they are going over the Cascades." Logging companies built the airport in the mid 1950s as an alternative landing strip when the Medford airport was fogged in, said Mike Burrill, a member of the state aviation board. His father helped clear the Prospect runway. The mountain airport also used to provide a way to get injured loggers to the hospital, he said. But today, airport enthusiasts have drawn up new plans for the airport that boasts a 4,000-foot-long runway, the longest of the state's rural strips. The Prospect Community Sky Park wants to build a hangar and coffee shop, a parallel taxiway and end zones free of trees. The group hopes to raise $36,000 to purchase 55 acres in Gold Hill's Sardine Creek area to swap with Boise Cascade for land surrounding the Prospect Airport. They hope to lure some of Crater Lake's 476,000 annual visitors and boost the economy in this region that used to depend heavily on the timber industry for its survival. "I think pilots are like boaters and hikers - always looking for a place to go," said Mike Turner, owner of the Prospect Hotel and Dinner House, which offers a free shuttle service for pilots. "This is the closest airport to Crater Lake. We have fishing on the Rogue River, hiking, rafting and a wide variety of activities." The state took the first step earlier this month when it paved a 55,000-square-foot parking apron big enough to hold 10 to 12 airplanes. The new asphalt accommodates prop jets, such as an eight-passenger King Air, that can't taxi on gravel because the engine's velocity could suck up dust and rocks, said Purdy, a Shady Cove engineer. His background includes designing expansions at the Los Angeles, San Francisco and Orange County airports. "A rock ingested in a turbine can kill a $300,000 engine," Purdy said. Prospect may never draw as many executive jets as the Sunriver, resort near Bend, but enthusiasts hope the forested airstrip can lure its share of tourists expected to descend on Crater Lake next year for the centennial celebration. "A Citation jet could come in here, park for two or three days, stay at the Prospect Hotel, visit Crater Lake, fish and hike," Purdy said. "We've got the ambiance and you could do almost everything that you could do at Sunriver." Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.