Goose and duck pond near old airport Quesada

enemylines wrote:

Jan wrote:

scubydoo wrote:Hi where is the old airport?

Cheers

When we first bought our property I was looking at old maps and Ave del Aeropuerto on Dona Pepa showed an air-strip . I assumed it was a small airport for private planes or the fire dousing planes and mosquito spraying planes.
That's why it's called the Airport Road I suppose.

If you look on the map link below and find the Ave del Aeropuerto (in the centre slightly to the right) you can see the shape the old air-strip was before the buildings were there:
resources/image/1049

Jan

Jan, Could you be a little more specific, I can't see the Ave del aeropuerto on the map? I had heard that Mr. Quesada had a vision to develop a resort in the town with airport facilities. He saw it as an up market golf destination. Perhaps that is the origin of thew airport road.
On a slightly different point, does anybody have any information on the little church and grounds behind the new church in Dona Pepa. There has been a clean up of the area over the past few years and it is a very interesting place.

Hi,
Sara19 has kindly explained the location of the airport road on the map for you but as for the little church, yes it has been tidied up nicely. I think it was volunteers a couple of years ago who undertook the renovation of the little church garden area. That and the old Finca next to it has been flagged up as a place of historical interest for the area. There has been a topic on TalkQuesada before, which may be of interest - Link here:
quesada-general-discussion-f9/does-anyone-know-the-history-of-finca-in-dona-pepa-t4169.html

Jan

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B4dzVqFRU0GqfjVjWkVicVk1M0ZFZ0hZNXNKcEt0Mzk2RHBoUzRIWHhOWU4zT0RUS2RoWTA&usp=sharing

Here is a link to google disk where I have shared pictures of the "airport" - and the pond.
Its not difficult to see where the airport was. I remember small planes - hangliders with motor on?

Merete

At the top of the aeropuerto rd are the original hangers, part of which is the car hire place. QC's Country club was the original Aero club house.

Thanks for this info ... very interesting. Something new I have learned, after 11 years here!

Very interesting any Ideas when it all closed up?

Many years ago when the water supply at the top of Quesada was very poor people moaned about the golf course not seeming to worry about how much water they used....someone did say that the pond referred to in this discussion was the water source for the golf course and was therefore not using the water that we had in short supply. The quest for the key to the gate etc maybe could be directed to the golf course management. Just a suggestion.

Not sure how accurate this is but, I was told that before CQ was as developed as it is now, Michael Schumaker used to fly in and land his small aeroplane on the old airstrip. He had an estate here (by the Happy Garden restaurant) but sold up & moved on when the airstrip was closed.

Jordy

You're right, not very accurate at all I'm afraid. Quesada is one of those places with lots of urban myths..
The duck pond has nothing to do with the golf course water supply. It was fed directly from underground wells on the course itself. The course was originally a 9 hole course and was located on the high street, opposite the has station etc. it was then moved down to La Marquesa valley in 1989 when they decided to expand Quesada more and, due to it's popularity, the golf course was to become 18 holes (19 actually, if you count the "spare" hole for championships). It's not the greatest course, but is charming and is rather flat, an intentional point made by Don Justo when he designed, in his words, to "reduce heart attacks!" Lol.
As for Michael Schumacher, he never lived here or flew a plane in I'm afraid, but his uncle had a place here which had an amazing mirror floored garage and a gleaming red Ferrari, which was something quite special. The mirrors allowed you to see the underside!
Anyway, maybe Michael came to visit his uncle once? That I don't now I'm afraid.
Cheers

I purchased my property in late 1988, it was completed a year later.
The house faces across the valley to where the airport was. The airport was used regularly by light aircraft and the odd micro-light. In the summer months the planes would fly along and above the runway and pick up advertising banners that they would fly along the coast towing.
I think(!) the airport was closed when people started giving flying lessons and the planes were taking off circling then landing and immediately taking off again, over and over again. The word at the time was that Justo had had enough of it. As said, rumours abound. The original hangars are indeed still on Aeropuerto.
With regard to the reservoir/duck pond. If you drive down the road to the golf course with the reservoir to your right and above you, there is a small pumping station. The pipes from which run from the reservoir via that station and down to the golf course, the pipe runs just outside of my perimeter wall, high up on the hill.
So, I'm not saying it is still used today but the water from the reservoir certainly was used to water the golf course and since water is regularly pumped into the reservoir, one wonders where it goes if not to the golf course, the pumping staion was also renovated in the last couple of years.
As I say I have been here since the late 1980's and there has since that time always been an 18 hole golf course in the valley. Though at that time the course was very badly damaged by a Gota Fria and took many years to recover.

Hi Mickey good info, what year was the Gota Fria out of interest?