Hello everyone!
Winters in Colorado bring some wild weather especially in Aspen, which means diversions are more than common up here in the mountains. For the Garfield County Regional Airport, bad weather in Aspen calls for a busy day of diversions! Situated about 3,000 feet lower and about 50 miles from Aspen, the Rifle airport experiences a huge increase in traffic when the Aspen Airport is socked in. Back on February 14th, I decided to go spotting in Rifle since a storm was clearing out of the area. While I was there, I spotted a nice variety of aircraft from some PC-12s to E135s. The most interesting part of the day was when a Learjet landed with a completely shattered windshield. Luckily no one was hurt but it must’ve been scary for the pilots! Despite this, the day ran smoothly and it made for an awesome afternoon! Here are the photos…
A Cessna 525A (N96DD) passing by me on its way to runway 26:
Aero’s Embraer ERJ-135LR (N404AT), which operates regularly scheduled charter flights between VNY and ASE, lifting out of Rifle for Van Nuys after diverting to Rifle:
Learjet 45 (N711R) sitting on the ramp after flying in from Houston. If you look to the right side, you can see the windshield that shattered on approach:
Gulfstream GIV (N14717) departing on runway 26:
NetJets Embraer Phenom 300 switching it up and departing on runway 8 for FLL:
Embraer Legacy 600 (N227WE) departing on 26 for VNY:
Pilatus PC-12 (N922WV) taxiing in after a flight from SLC:
The following three pics are of N619FB, a PC12 operated by Air Smart Share that arrived from Vegas:
Here is 9FB starting up for a flight back to VGT:
Here she is departing on runway 26:
All photos were taken with a Canon EOS Rebel T6 (100/400mm lens)
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Thank you for viewing my photos! If you have any comments, feedback, or suggestions, I would love to hear them! Also, comment your favorite below! Stay safe and healthy everyone!