Backcountry Pilot

[BladeRunner offline]

As for the comment about it not being a "family event" at Burning Man, and 20's something girls running around.... LOL, go to Google Images, and type in "Burning Man Women". This will spell it out.

Maybe I should attend.

Wife:

Hmmm, maybe not

[clippwagon offline]

Here's a live feed of burning man:

http://blog.lessthan3.com/2014/08/watch-now-burning-man-live-stream/

[GumpAir offline]

I flew around it today. There's a shitload of people there already, and a pretty steady stream going up the road from I-80. The airport was fairly low key. A new arrival every 5 minutes or so, and it sounded like a couple guys were flying charters from Reno/Carson City. WX couldn't be nicer.

Blue Wing dry lake looked great. Still damp in a few places, but it'll be flyable pretty quick.

Gump

[Scolopax offline]

I am flying my 180 out to Burning Man on Saturday morning. I was never particularly drawn to it, but I contributed heavily to an art/business project that is being set upright now and I need to/get to go.

Is it necessary to put the 31s on?

Who else is going to be out there?

[svanarts offline]

You don't need big tires there. Just keep your speed up while taxiing so you don't get stuck in a soft spot. I wish I could be there this year. Couldn't afford a ticket.

[Zenithguy offline]

but I contributed heavily to an art/business project that is being set upright now and I need to/get to go.

Yeahhh, that's the ticket, that's what I'll tell her…….."heavily"……that's it…

[50Tango offline]

I'll be headed out tomorrow, now that the playa has dried out..should be perfect...lotta new rules to deal with though, gotta pay to play I guess...here's a shot from '07 of a backward-spinning AN-2 lumbering toward the sky:

[jomac offline]

..wow, to pay to be there boggles my mind a bit...i can see why ground-pounders would go there looking for a good time i guess...but back country pilots who can go anywhere....??!!

sorry, i just dont see the value i guess...having done bike trips,airplane trips all over the west to some remote places both camping and not, i tend to value my hard-earned equipment and where i drop it into...airplanes are damn expensive....that kind of dust a few remote times dont hurt, but a week of that stuff is damn harsh on everything...just sayin.....! o.k. carry on.......!

[OregonMaule offline]

..wow, to pay to be there boggles my mind a bit...i can see why ground-pounders would go there looking for a good time i guess...but back country pilots who can go anywhere....??!!

sorry, i just dont see the value i guess...having done bike trips,airplane trips all over the west to some remote places both camping and not, i tend to value my hard-earned equipment and where i drop it into...airplanes are damn expensive....that kind of dust a few remote times dont hurt, but a week of that stuff is damn harsh on everything...just sayin.....! o.k. carry on.......!

Some guys I know take 2" blue painters tape and tape the plane up. Guys I know and respect who have been say it is a hoot. Maybe I'll check it out someday. All the big events I have been to, I have my fill after 2-3 days and I'm done.

G'Day

[jomac offline]

u make good sense rob...know what u mean, and i do understand, i think...

im guessin i dont feel that desperate for entertainment, so lately we have been doing

large all dirt motorcycle trips as well and lovin it....we average 450 miles per day all dirt and it is a hoot, then get up and do it again...just did 957 miles, idaho falls, mccall, magruder corridor, salmon and home what a total blast....!

have done a bunch of similat trips in the 182T as well, but i really try to keep it clean and in one piece...some stuff, like rock dents in the horizontal are real for sure, but fixable at annual each year, so it seems like a cheap price of admission considering the places we go....have a fun fall, i know im going to...!

[Scolopax offline]

I have several close friends who encourage me to attend every year. My reason for never attending has always been that I would rather be in the wilderness than in a crowd. This year, I have already spent a ton of time airplane camping, mountain biking, motorcycle riding, boating and fishing. Then I have a few weekends of hunting and mountain biking planned for next month. A free ticket came my way, so I decided that this was the time to check it out.

I have never heard an unfavorable review from anyone who has been before. I am intrigued by the "anything goes" nature of this event. I fully appreciate human creativity and expression. I know that Burning Man is a bastion of exactly that. I am always up for observing a spectacle, and possibly even contributing if the allure is there.

As far as the alkali dust on my sweet old airframe goes, I'm not too worried. I have cleaned the Alvord desert from my planes many times before. I got back from a 3500 mile cross country adventure a couple of weeks ago ant spent 3.5 hours cleaning bugs, dirt and oil from the beast that I bought to take me to places where more highly evolved creatures like Citations and cirruses are not suited to dwell.

[clippwagon offline]

I have several close friends who encourage me to attend every year. My reason for never attending has always been that I would rather be in the wilderness than in a crowd. This year, I have already spent a ton of time airplane camping, mountain biking, motorcycle riding, boating and fishing. Then I have a few weekends of hunting and mountain biking planned for next month. A free ticket came my way, so I decided that this was the time to check it out.

I have never heard an unfavorable review from anyone who has been before. I am intrigued by the "anything goes" nature of this event. I fully appreciate human creativity and expression. I know that Burning Man is a bastion of exactly that. I am always up for observing a spectacle, and possibly even contributing if the allure is there.

As far as the alkali dust on my sweet old airframe goes, I'm not too worried. I have cleaned the Alvord desert from my planes many times before. I got back from a 3500 mile cross country adventure a couple of weeks ago ant spent 3.5 hours cleaning bugs, dirt and oil from the beast that I bought to take me to places where more highly evolved creatures like Citations and cirruses are not suited to dwell.

Hey Scolopax, did you draw the saw tags as last year (which was apparently for a completely different area than we scouted )?

Have fun at the burning man and remember antibiotics can't fix everything Take pics for us.

CW

[Scolopax offline]

I have several close friends who encourage me to attend every year. My reason for never attending has always been that I would rather be in the wilderness than in a crowd. This year, I have already spent a ton of time airplane camping, mountain biking, motorcycle riding, boating and fishing. Then I have a few weekends of hunting and mountain biking planned for next month. A free ticket came my way, so I decided that this was the time to check it out.

I have never heard an unfavorable review from anyone who has been before. I am intrigued by the "anything goes" nature of this event. I fully appreciate human creativity and expression. I know that Burning Man is a bastion of exactly that. I am always up for observing a spectacle, and possibly even contributing if the allure is there.

As far as the alkali dust on my sweet old airframe goes, I'm not too worried. I have cleaned the Alvord desert from my planes many times before. I got back from a 3500 mile cross country adventure a couple of weeks ago ant spent 3.5 hours cleaning bugs, dirt and oil from the beast that I bought to take me to places where more highly evolved creatures like Citations and cirruses are not suited to dwell.

Hey Scolopax, did you draw the saw tags as last year (which was apparently for a completely different area than we scouted )?

Have fun at the burning man and remember antibiotics can't fix everything Take pics for us.

CW

I drew the Silver Lake unit.

Indeed antibiotics can't cure everything. I'm a pretty reserved dude. I play it safe most of the time

[clippwagon offline]

I have several close friends who encourage me to attend every year. My reason for never attending has always been that I would rather be in the wilderness than in a crowd. This year, I have already spent a ton of time airplane camping, mountain biking, motorcycle riding, boating and fishing. Then I have a few weekends of hunting and mountain biking planned for next month. A free ticket came my way, so I decided that this was the time to check it out.

I have never heard an unfavorable review from anyone who has been before. I am intrigued by the "anything goes" nature of this event. I fully appreciate human creativity and expression. I know that Burning Man is a bastion of exactly that. I am always up for observing a spectacle, and possibly even contributing if the allure is there.

As far as the alkali dust on my sweet old airframe goes, I'm not too worried. I have cleaned the Alvord desert from my planes many times before. I got back from a 3500 mile cross country adventure a couple of weeks ago ant spent 3.5 hours cleaning bugs, dirt and oil from the beast that I bought to take me to places where more highly evolved creatures like Citations and cirruses are not suited to dwell.

Hey Scolopax, did you draw the saw tags as last year (which was apparently for a completely different area than we scouted )?

Have fun at the burning man and remember antibiotics can't fix everything Take pics for us.

CW

I drew the Silver Lake unit.

Indeed antibiotics can't cure everything. I'm a pretty reserved dude. I play it safe most of the time

Sweet! I just scouted this morning (the fun way)! Saw many of the mighty wapiti! Silver Lake has some cool areas!

Sorry for the thread drift. Now back to cultured people on pleasure island. "Heehaw"

CW

[Scolopax offline]

Sorry for the thread drift. Now back to cultured people on pleasure island. "Heehaw"

CW

I have heard that there is more to it than that. I will let you know what I learn.

[svanarts offline]

I went to Burning Man last year I believe Kevin was there too. I had a blast, I bet Kevin did too. If you've never been, whatever you think it is, it's not that. It helps if you're open-minded in that you accept people in all their various incantations. I've never met so many friendly people... ever. There is lots of eye candy to be sure but I didn't indulge in any of that. Everyone hugs everyone so be prepared for that. And forget the barter system, it's a gifting culture, you give freely expecting nothing in return. Some of the pilots there definitely expect SOMETHING in return. But that's not in the spirit of Burning Man and that's not how I roll anyway. I got a wife that's really cool and I'm going to keep her! And when you're walking through the city, keep the fact you are a pilot under your hat or you will get mobbed. Pilots are rock stars there. Seriously.

If I could go this year I definitely would!

Suggestion: Unless you like loud music 24x7, camp at the airport. It's relatively quiet out there and the port-a-potties are MUCH cleaner.

If you want any other "been there done that" intel let me know.

[motosix offline]

I'd love to see the average AWOS data for 88NV.

Do they have awos on 127.9 or is it a human conveying weather station data?

[svanarts offline]

They actually have a weather station this year.

http://65.161.206.29/brcweather/

Everything else you want to know about flying in is here:

http://88nv.burningman.com/

And here is a live video feed:

http://www.ustream.tv/burningman

[motosix offline]

Thanks! I have been trolling through the 88nv.burningman.com site a bunch but didn't catch the link to the weather station data. (I really want to add that station to awoslog.com even just temporarily for historical reference, hence the question...)

And I do have the ustream channel playing the desktop in the background. Yesterday they showed a bunch of the airops coming and going at a distance which was cool to see. Lots of little tires and big seats, but still cool to see.

[svanarts offline]

I wonder how having two runways this year is working out for them. I think it's a great idea. I hope we get some pireps this year on the fly-in portion of it. And the rest too!