All the misinformation and browbeating concerning the upcoming airport terminal replacement ballot addresses the wrong issue.
The county should be more concerned about safety, rather than comfort only. If you talk to experienced commercial airline pilots, they would attest to the dangers of flying into the Durango-La Plata Airport when a stiff wind is blowing in from the west. The single north-south landing strip is not conducive to safe landings; especially since the wind comes from the west 90 percent of the time.
What is needed is an east-west landing strip. Every time I have flown into our airport, on commercial flights, the pilots are fighting the controls. In fact, one time we had to divert to Farmington and wait till the weather calmed down.
If you want comfort only, do a better job of flight scheduling. Most of the time, the airport lobby is empty and no one is there except for the car rental agents. Perhaps the next ballot issue will address this concern. I would hate to see a newspaper headline that reads, “Plane crash at Durango-La Plata airport kills all, but the passengers in the new terminal were comfortable.”
Tim Sanchez
Bayfield
