Now that it's public information that it was Pete...
I met Pete a few times. Most notable was last year at the annual 1CO8 fly-in. He was supervising the pancake breakfast and making sure that no one walked away hungry. You could tell that it was his goal that everything be perfect that day for everyone who came.
He was the driving force behind the airport, which originally was another family's land, or so I'm told. Thus the name, Everitt Airfield. Rocky Mountain Airpark was for marketing. Everyone called it Everitt. There's a beautiful green and red sign on the hangar with the Everitt Airfield name and logo.
Tireless in his efforts to build his dream, the airport started a number of years ago, and as you can tell from my links above, both of my co-owners in 79M, LLC knew Pete far better than I. When they first purchased the aircraft they rented hangar space at 1CO8 until they could find the hangar they wanted at KAPA.
During that time, they befriended Pete and one of my co-owners and his wife are both pro photographers. They assisted with the early marketing materials for the airport. Thus, 79M was the easy to use photo subject for the early information materials.
79M and all of us were therefore frequent visitors to 1CO8 and on the "non-resident permission list" to stop by anytime. One of my co-owners always liked going out there and would ring up Pete on his cell phone to check the condition of the grass runway before heading over. 79M being a 182, sometimes the field conditions weren't ideal for a nose-dragger. The field is rough grass, but the Goboshes from KAPA handled it fine and while it's probably not the nicest thing to do to our gyro-based avionics, 79M seemed to enjoy the grass even if she did shake our teeth a bit out there.
In fact, I can say my first landing on grass ever in a light aircraft was in 79M at 1CO8. It has an appeal all its own, rough or smooth.
Last time I was out there was the fly-in last summer in the video above, and I have some great photos of that day. Parents and kids everywhere, airplanes of all types, pancakes, and even a mini-flyby by a Guard F-16... Who asked to "circle for a moment" on their way into BKF. (Nothing official. Wouldn't want the brass angry.)
The Carbon Cub guys were there giving test flights to any potential buyer they could find. A breeze out of the East and the CC would almost hover in slow flight over the runway up 1000' AGL. Showing off a little but not doing low-passes or any antics. Just running around the pattern showing off the capabilities of that bird. (Different airframe than the accident aircraft.)
The grass was dry and rough and Pete knew this was a downside for the non-backcountry equipped aircraft. I heard at the KAPA gas pumps from a 180 owner that hangared out there in the summertime, who was "hiding out" at KAPA for the winter that Pete had worked much of the winter to install a massive sprinkler system to grow better (softer) runway grass. I can only assume that someday after the runway grass was in great shape, a future project would have been runway edge lighting. Who knows.
It was a true labor of love for Pete. He also had some part in building an enormous two-story "community" hangar, which always had lots of airplanes in it, and in a corner under the stairs, he was building his own aircraft. We were peeking in at it when he happened by on that busy day, and you could just see the twinkle in his eye that a number of us had pushed the plastic aside and stuck our noses in to see his work.
The hangar also had a large upstairs entertaining room for "hanging out" which led to a large deck, but I noticed that everyone's lawn chairs were parked downstairs, in the main hangar door. Closer to the airplanes and no steps to climb. I can only imagine that it must have been the morning place to sit, drink a cup of coffee, and look out over the runway for residents of the Airpark on nice mornings.
As someone else mentioned, there have been huge problems with the neighbors. Most fanned by a small number of NIMBYs, including one guy who's not even a property owner, but who rents a house quite a ways off of the airfield, on the final approach course. He doesn't like airplanes, it's very plain to see. He's got tons of videos on YouTube and even captured 79M on final approach once on one of them for a fly-in in 2009 I believe. His video commentary is full of the usual non-sensical stuff about "lack of safety" and "dangerous airplanes" usually reserved for such small folk who aspire to their biggest opportunity in life as being able to shut down the dreams of others. Bitter is an understatement with this man, and having seen the type before, there's probably no point in attempting to reason with him.
This of course stirs up all the neighbors greatly and there have been numerous meetings and lots of press, all things a small airport doesn't need. The crashes haven't helped public opinion either, but none to date have ever been the fault of the airstrip or its facilities. But they bring out the kooks with their agenda to close the place every time, and I see in the news reports that other neighbors are now saying and mimicking the words they're hearing over and over... "dangerous", "out of control", etc. My understanding is that Pete was a pretty good "diplomat", something us pilots aren't often good at. I never saw him in "action" in this role, however.
My fear is that this is a turning point for 1CO8. Either the loss of Pete will doom the airport, or it will invigorate the owners and community and bring them closer. Someone will also have to pick up the hard labor of runway and taxiway maintenance, and I have almost zero information on the financial aspects of the sub-division or the Airpark itself.
It's a darn nice community. One of the most prominent houses with a hangar adjacent to the runway is a top-level exec at Jepp, I hear. But it's going to need another caretaker that loved it as much as Pete did, or a whole lot of caretakers and volunteers.
The plots are expensive by most standards, even for us "rich" aircraft owners. Building a house would make it even more so. Too rich for my blood, as they say... But if there were one airport I've seen in Colorado that I'd love to call "home", 1CO8 is it.
Not trying to be combative, but in all seriousness, I hope the runway gets the usual Spring work done and the community holds a massive fly-in this year in Pete's honor. We'd certainly take 79M out and I would happily man a pancake griddle if it were the right weekend.
Maybe it would annoy the NIMBYs enough that they'd make fools of themselves on camera during a memorial tribute day. One could only hope.
I hope they had a lawn chair waiting for Pete beside a quiet little runway and the grass was already green, well-watered, and they gave him a nice lawn tractor to trim it, that never breaks down. And that lots of friends fly in to visit in all sorts of great airplanes and sit and chat for a while, with no need to sign limited liability waivers or anything like that. Maybe he'll now get some time to finish that airplane too, and get to fly it from that lovely little grass strip some clear, calm, morning for the first time.
RIP Pete, and whoever the fellow aviator was, since we don't know yet. I wish I'd have flown 79M out for a morning cup of coffee at Everitt to get to know you better. But I'll remember you as you were last summer, running around making sure everyone was fully enjoying their time at "your" airport. Godspeed and happy flying.
I settled for putting out a few fliers showcasing their (husband and wife) idiocy by telling people how nice the ambulance drivers are at turning off the sirens when possible and how little the chopper lands. not
However most pilots I've met do try to be nice and try to avoid irritating people.
