gkainz
Final Approach
posted with permission from the author:
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From: Bill Meine <bill.meine@sun.com>
Last Friday, pilot and friend of backcountry aviation, Wally Winfield
passed away in Grand Junction. He was 86. His obituary can be read in
the Grand Junction Sentinel here:
http://www.legacy.com/GJSentinel/Obituaries.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=19868595
In 1947, Wally was a uranium miner with a claim on the side of Dolores
Point, a mesa just west of Gateway, CO. At the time, there was a boom
business for uranium in the lands above Gateway. Roads, mills, shops,
and schools were all built to bring civilization a little closer to the
miners. In the midst of this activity, the Atomic Energy Commission
asked Wally to build an airstrip on Dolores Point.
Wally said that he burned up his truck clearing sage and blackbrush from
the meadow and leveling the dirt for the nearly mile-long airstrip. The
strip immediately connected the Dolores Point activity with the services
in Grand Junction, Denver, and beyond. For building the runway, the AEC
allowed Wally to build a house for his family next to the strip. He flew
many different aircraft from the airstrip but talked especially fondly
of a particular Call Air that he had owned.
Wally was forced out of his house by the BLM in about 1992 but continued
caring for the airstrip while he lived in Gateway. He seemed to be up
there all the time clearing weeds, camping, or fishing. As interest in
backcountry aviation for recreation spread in Utah in the mid 1990s,
word of a lovely destination on Dolores Point wound it's way through the
pilot community in Colorado and Utah. A small fly-in was organized by
the fledgling Utah Back Country Pilots in the spring of 1999 to see what
was there.
We saw that Dolores Point is a beautiful place. But, from that trip, I
most remember Wally Winfield. Sitting around the campfire, Wally was at
the center of things. He held our complete attention as the stories of
his history unfolded. I don't know if some of the facts were
embellished, it didn't matter. We enjoyed the telling.
Over the years, I have had the pleasure of introducing Dolores Point to
many pilots and our passengers. Many of them also met Wally. He usually
figured out from your engine noise that you had arrived and would hurry
up the miles of winding road to meet you on top. He loved to visit,
work, party, or help. This spring, he showed up to greet some aviators
with a cold watermelon. On a weekend campout with my son, Wally joined
us and took us fishing in Utah. In more recent times, he has taken many
of the airstrip arrivals down to see the town that Gateway had become.
He seemed proud of his community and country and couldn't wait to show
them off.
Wally was really something. We will miss him.
-Bill Meine
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Bill Meine <bill.meine@sun.com>
Last Friday, pilot and friend of backcountry aviation, Wally Winfield
passed away in Grand Junction. He was 86. His obituary can be read in
the Grand Junction Sentinel here:
http://www.legacy.com/GJSentinel/Obituaries.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=19868595
In 1947, Wally was a uranium miner with a claim on the side of Dolores
Point, a mesa just west of Gateway, CO. At the time, there was a boom
business for uranium in the lands above Gateway. Roads, mills, shops,
and schools were all built to bring civilization a little closer to the
miners. In the midst of this activity, the Atomic Energy Commission
asked Wally to build an airstrip on Dolores Point.
Wally said that he burned up his truck clearing sage and blackbrush from
the meadow and leveling the dirt for the nearly mile-long airstrip. The
strip immediately connected the Dolores Point activity with the services
in Grand Junction, Denver, and beyond. For building the runway, the AEC
allowed Wally to build a house for his family next to the strip. He flew
many different aircraft from the airstrip but talked especially fondly
of a particular Call Air that he had owned.
Wally was forced out of his house by the BLM in about 1992 but continued
caring for the airstrip while he lived in Gateway. He seemed to be up
there all the time clearing weeds, camping, or fishing. As interest in
backcountry aviation for recreation spread in Utah in the mid 1990s,
word of a lovely destination on Dolores Point wound it's way through the
pilot community in Colorado and Utah. A small fly-in was organized by
the fledgling Utah Back Country Pilots in the spring of 1999 to see what
was there.
We saw that Dolores Point is a beautiful place. But, from that trip, I
most remember Wally Winfield. Sitting around the campfire, Wally was at
the center of things. He held our complete attention as the stories of
his history unfolded. I don't know if some of the facts were
embellished, it didn't matter. We enjoyed the telling.
Over the years, I have had the pleasure of introducing Dolores Point to
many pilots and our passengers. Many of them also met Wally. He usually
figured out from your engine noise that you had arrived and would hurry
up the miles of winding road to meet you on top. He loved to visit,
work, party, or help. This spring, he showed up to greet some aviators
with a cold watermelon. On a weekend campout with my son, Wally joined
us and took us fishing in Utah. In more recent times, he has taken many
of the airstrip arrivals down to see the town that Gateway had become.
He seemed proud of his community and country and couldn't wait to show
them off.
Wally was really something. We will miss him.
-Bill Meine
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