The Big Pine Airstrip was used as a CPT facility prior to WW2. You can see the slap from the old hanger on Google Earth. The strip is 1200' long and pretty smooth. The pix is looking South. Note the white painted tires. No courtesy car. Lat/Lon 37 8.637N 118 14.397W

Walking distance to town?

Gump

Private or Public land? OK to land? And have you considered updating this strip on Shortfield.com?

The land belongs to LA Dept. of Water and Power. It was leased to Inyo County for the airstrip. I am sure they don't care if anyone wants to use it. It is about 4 miles to town. As with many of these old airstrips it is good to remember where they are just in case. The Owens river is not far so you could fish.
Watch out for cows as they use this area also.

Found a pix.

Just moved to Edwards and was driving around up there a couple weeks ago with kids looking for fishing spots. Is that across the street from the Japanese camp from WWII? We drove down a road to try to get to river and drove across what seemed like a runway.

bocephus wrote:Just moved to Edwards and was driving around up there a couple weeks ago with kids looking for fishing spots. Is that across the street from the Japanese camp from WWII? We drove down a road to try to get to river and drove across what seemed like a runway.

No. You were at Manzanar Airport. The runways at Manzamar are paved. Big Pine is North of Manzanar. The original airport was South of town but the sand was such a problem there that they stopped using the runway. You can still see where it was located. Strange that Big Pine is about the only town in this area that doesn't have an official airport. When the airport in my pictures was in use there was a bridge at the river so the distance to town was only about four miles. No bridge now though.

Gump, why would you want to walk into Big Pine?? Years ago I was working in Olancha and flew my 206 into a dirt strip that was behind the old, closed 76 station south of "town", did this for a couple of weeks. No idea if it is still there.

I like Big Pine. I'll have to wander down and take a look.

Gump

FloatFlyer wrote:Gump, why would you want to walk into Big Pine?? Years ago I was working in Olancha and flew my 206 into a dirt strip that was behind the old, closed 76 station south of "town", did this for a couple of weeks. No idea if it is still there.

I've landed gliders at the old Olancha strip. There were originally three runways, but the one bigger wider one parallel to the road is now probably the only thing usable. That 76 station closed down a LONG time ago, I didn't think anyone else remembered what it was way back then

So does that mean you remember the old Robber's Roost airstrip too

Don't know Robber's Roost. Another useful landing site was in Walker. Worked their for a month or so and landed on a rancher's driveway for the duration of time there. Didn't even have to sigh a 50 page "hold harmless" agreement or anything, oh the good ole days.

Gump, Rossi's is the only redeeming quality for BP.

EZFlap wrote:

FloatFlyer wrote:Gump, why would you want to walk into Big Pine?? Years ago I was working in Olancha and flew my 206 into a dirt strip that was behind the old, closed 76 station south of "town", did this for a co uple of weeks. No idea if it is still there.

I've landed gliders at the old Olancha strip. There were originally three runways, but the one bigger wider one parallel to the road is now probably the only thing usable. That 76 station closed down a LONG time ago, I didn't think anyone else remembered what it was way back then

So does that mean you remember the old Robber's Roost airstrip too

Olancha is still there, kinda like big pine tho not much reason io land there.

FloatFlyer wrote:Gump, why would you want to walk into Big Pine?? Years ago I was working in Olancha and flew my 206 into a dirt strip that was behind the old, closed 76 station south of "town", did this for a couple of weeks. No idea if it is still there.

The one in Olancha is called Grant. Here is a pix. I landed there and stayed at that Motel over on 395. Big wind, much dirt. BTW There was another airstrip north of Grant at the 190 junction but it has been replaced by a lake. Maybe if you had floats...

Grant Airstrip, Olancha Ca.

Glidergeek wrote:

EZFlap wrote:

FloatFlyer wrote:Gump, why would you want to walk into Big Pine?? Years ago I was working in Olancha and flew my 206 into a dirt strip that was behind the old, closed 76 station south of "town", did this for a co uple of weeks. No idea if it is still there.

I've landed gliders at the old Olancha strip. There were originally three runways, but the one bigger wider one parallel to the road is now probably the only thing usable. That 76 station closed down a LONG time ago, I didn't think anyone else remembered what it was way back then

So does that mean you remember the old Robber's Roost airstrip too

Olancha is still there, kinda like big pine tho not much reason io land there.

Hey no slamming Big Pine.. Looking 1t the 1949 Mount Whitney Sectional (you do have one of these right) you would see that there were two (2) airstrips in Olancha. Adamson and Grants. In the area we see Coso Junction, Monache Meadows, Darwin, Lone Pine , Tunnel and Inyo County (Mnazanar).

Had fun on Google Earth last night "flying" down Owens Valley again. Then had dreams about it all night. ha ha. I had a girlfriend in LA, back when I was in High School in Austin in the 60's and used to fly my little Cessna 140 back and forth down that cool valley a lot. Guess it's time to go do it again.. (Fly the valley, not visit the girlfriend)... I remember they were just building some of the big satellite dishes at that time, and yea, there were a bunch of little strips all the way down.

Yeah, the Owens Valley is one of the most breathtaking places on the planet as far as I'm concerned. Now if it just wasn't in Kalifornia.......

Gump

yeah It''s hard to fly Kalifornia without thinking of the stinking Lib Politics and damn laws and regs... but it still is quite beautiful in some places...

(sorry for thread hijack)
Well, the conservatives should still feel right at home here... we have the Ronald Reagan Freeway that runs right near my home airport, Reagan came from here politically, Kelly Johnson and his Skunk Works and everything that came out of it was built here

Conservatives will find many like-minded individuals here... in fact most of the San Joaquin Valley farming corporations, California construction companies and home builders, and businessmen in California (who happily hire all those illegal Mexicans that people say are ruining our economy) are conservatives. Most of the executives who run the big crooked health care companies (that are ruining our health care) in California are probably conservatives. The big evil oil company tycoons who own and hoard all that "national oil reserve" over there by Bakersfield are probably conservatives. I'm sure that those same evil oil tycoons (who keep us all on the verge of indentured poverty by manipulating gas prices), who also happen to own all those big oil tankers anchored off the California coast, are likely conservatives too.

So anyone who thinks we Californians have any more liberal idiots who ruin our way of life than we have conservative idiots who ruin our way of life... sorry to say but it's about even. It's just that the evil conservative type folks are smart enough to try to operate quietly, and the stupid-ass liberal zealots (who at least THINK they're saving the world with their stupidity) are much more noisy and do different stupid things. So choose between evil greed and misguided lunacy, and you will always have someone to point the finger at.

In the meantime, California has the best weather, and has absolutely beautiful mountains, gorgeous scenery, desert moonscapes, lush forests, spectacular coastlines, and green valleys with oak-covered hillsides for conservative and liberal pilots to fly around and enjoy. An for fun, our idiots are usually more interesting than your idiots!

EZFlap wrote:
In the meantime, California has the best weather, and has absolutely beautiful mountains, gorgeous scenery, desert moonscapes, lush forests, spectacular coastlines, and green valleys with oak-covered hillsides for conservative and liberal pilots to fly around and enjoy. An for fun, our idiots are usually more interesting than your idiots!

Sure SoCal has nice Wx most of the time, but "green valleys"??? Where?? Ok, maybe green valleys a few months during the year??

Don't get me too wrong CA does has some pretty cool spots.

Coyote Ugly wrote:Had fun on Google Earth last night "flying" down Owens Valley again. Then had dreams about it all night. ha ha. I had a girlfriend in LA, back when I was in High School in Austin in the 60's and used to fly my little Cessna 140 back and forth down that cool valley a lot. Guess it's time to go do it again.. (Fly the valley, not visit the girlfriend)... I remember they were just building some of the big satellite dishes at that time, and yea, there were a bunch of little strips all the way down.

I'm looking for a picture of your girlfriend. Wasn't she the one in "A River Runs Through it"