Take a round-trip flight in the Beechcraft King Air 350 from Denver, Colorado's Centennial Airport to the highest commercial airport in North America, Telluride Regional.

You watch and listen as our pilot starts the 350, the largest King Air in the Beechcraft family.
Once both 1050 HP turbine engines are up and running, our pilot receives and reads back his clearance and the flight plan is entered into the flight management computer. We are then cleared to taxi to the active runway where our pilot goes through the before takeoff checklist. After all system checks have been completed, we are cleared for takeoff.

On climb out from Denver, we are assigned several altitudes before being cleared to our final cruising altitude of 28,000 feet. At cruise, views of the majestic Rocky Mountains from the flight deck are spectacular. It's a good time to turn off your business phone, take in the view and listen to the activity around you on air traffic control. Once cleared for the approach, we descend to our approach fix and the pilot announces his landing intentions on the Telluride unicom frequency.

At an elevation of 9078 feet above sea level, and located in a box canyon, the approach into Telluride is one to remember. On final approach you are amazed by the location of the runway as it sits on a mesa 1000 feet above the valley and river below. Because of the extreme drop off on both ends of the runway, local pilots have described it as comparable to landing on an aircraft carrier.

After our pilot completes the engine shut down, you are treated to some of the local traffic and scenery at Telluride Regional.

On the return trip to Centennial, you observe once again as our pilot gets the King Air up and running. Telluride Regional is a busy non-tower controlled airport, and with only one way in and one way out of the canyon, proper coordination among pilots during arrival and departure is most vital. As we leave Telluride Regional and we pass a Citation Jet in the canyon, you will value the importance of proper communication between pilots. On approach to our home base we are asked to keep our speed up for spacing as we land at one of the busiest general aviation airports in the country: Centennial Airport .