SUBSCRIBE NOW
GIVE A GIFT

DINING GUIDE

Select Cuisine --- American Asian Barbecue Breakfast Cajun/Southern Caribbean Contemporary Deli Ethiopian French Fusion Health Indian International Italian Latin American Mediterranean Mexican Middle Eastern Pizza Pub Seafood Southwestern Steak House Select Neighborhood --- Downtown Cherry Creek Central Denver Boulder Southeast Metro Southwest Metro Northwest Metro Northeast Metro

Advanced Search

TOP DOCTORS

Click here for our 2009 list, with 283 Denver doctors in 83 medical specialties. It's our biggest, most comprehensive Top Docs feature yet.

NEWSLETTERS

Sign up for 5280's weekly e-newsletters. Want the latest restaurant scoop? The latest happenings around town? Access to exclusive events and deals just for 5280 readers? Sign up today for our great 5280 email newsletters and you'll be in the know all week long.

TALK TO 5280

Tell us about it. Give us your restaurant feedback or submit your event for our online and printed calendar.

JOBS

Find out more.

Wings of Desire
I'd been chasing adventure for years. And then one plane ride changed everything.
By Peter Heller
August 2007

"44 Juliet, taxi 29 right."

44 Juliet is the call sign of my little rental Cessna 172, and when I hear the words crackle over the NAV/COM radio I take a deep breath. I look at the mountains, at a military helicopter landing, a commercial jet taking off into the lowering sun, two small private planes following each other on final approach. From the control tower I hear all the chatter ("52 Charlie go direct to numbers;" "Jeffco Tower 78 Romeo 10 to the north inbound with Whiskey;" "73 Bravo follow the Cherokee on final"—a lot of lingo that made no sense a few months ago), and I still can't believe I'm going to take this little rattletrap out there.

It wasn't like this where I learned, in the wilds of northern Montana. Most of the traffic was bush pilots, returning from backcountry grass strips where they had to buzz the runway to clear out the elk before they landed. My instructor was a bush pilot named David Hoerner. Hoerner could, if pressed, land his Cessna 185 in the length of two tennis courts. He has tracked more radio-collared grizzly bears, wolves, and wolverines at low altitude through rugged terrain than any man alive. When he flies into the mountains, he always carries a survival pack and a .421 Magnum pistol which, he says, "is mostly for me, you know, 'case I break a leg."

Read the full story in the August 2007 issue of 5280 Magazine.

 Save to del.ico.us

ADVERTISING