Question about wikipedia article on High Park Fire (Fort Collins: storage, airport)

[AMidnightSoul]

Hi all,

Someone sent me the Wikipedia page on the High Park fire and asked if the section about the old FTC downtown airport was true. This is the first time I've heard about it and there's nothing listed in the references that show where any controversy came from (which is usually the first place I check to verify data on Wikipedia). I've never heard any of this before and a brief Google search turned up nothing, so I told the person asking that I had no idea. Maybe I just don't talk to people 'in the know' in my day to day activities and missed this bit of info during the fire. I'm wondering if there's any truth to it or if the runways were blocked when the airport originally closed to airplane traffic, well before the fire (or maybe the runways weren't designed to handle tankers so they had to be blocked-I have no idea-that's why I'm here ).

High Park fire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thanks.

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by AMidnightSoul

Hi all,

Someone sent me the Wikipedia page on the High Park fire and asked if the section about the old FTC downtown airport was true. This is the first time I've heard about it and there's nothing listed in the references that show where any controversy came from (which is usually the first place I check to verify data on Wikipedia). I've never heard any of this before and a brief Google search turned up nothing, so I told the person asking that I had no idea. Maybe I just don't talk to people 'in the know' in my day to day activities and missed this bit of info during the fire. I'm wondering if there's any truth to it or if the runways were blocked when the airport originally closed to airplane traffic, well before the fire (or maybe the runways weren't designed to handle tankers so they had to be blocked-I have no idea-that's why I'm here ).

High Park fire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thanks.

The Fort Collins Downtown Airport has been closed for almost 7 years. The runways are likely in terrible shape and there are zero support services on-site to handle any kind of air traffic. It's commonplace to tear up runways or block them with obstacles when an airport closes down to prevent all landings.

That crap probably needs to be taken out of the article because it's all opinion and not relevant to the topic.

[AMidnightSoul]

That's what I was thinking. I'm surprised it hasn't been flagged for verification before.

[bluescreen73]

Here's a satellite view of the airport. The runway is marked with big X's to indicate it's closed. Additionally a small area of the runway about 1/3 of the way from the northwest end has been bulldozed and there are barrels and vehicles all over the runway.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Fort+...orado&t=h&z=16

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by bluescreen73

The Fort Collins Downtown Airport has been closed for almost 7 years. The runways are likely in terrible shape and there are zero support services on-site to handle any kind of air traffic. It's commonplace to tear up runways or block them with obstacles when an airport closes down to prevent all landings.

That crap probably needs to be taken out of the article because it's all opinion and not relevant to the topic.

Maybe with a few minor touchups we could make it Colorado's first Drone-Port! N'est pas?

[AMidnightSoul]

I tried to add something to the :Talk page on Wikipedia, but for some reason this article doesn't have one, so I'll send a note to Wikipedia letting them know there appear to be verification issues regarding the old airport.

[sydney603]

I'm the property manager for the old airport in Fort Collins, my company bought it this last November. And even before we owned the property people were using the hangars for storage of their normal domestic items. The runway ever since it closed has been used for CDL truck drivers to test and learn how to drive. The runway is not in terrible shape, regarding the High Park Fire though the runway was never blocked off or destroyed. Technically, it's not the ideal place for a modern aircraft to land there, but in dire situations, it would hold up.