I have been told you cannot just land where you choose here in California or Nevada.

Obviously I understand the deal with private land and wilderness issues but what about remote roads, lakes or rivers below the high water mark that exsist in many places here or even high mtn medows, etc? What about the desert in Nevada? I knkow the indians own a bunch of land so that would fall under the private deal again but just not certain....

Coming from Alaska where you can virtually fly in the bush and land where you see fit does not apply here in the states.

Any beta on California and Nevada would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Kevin

Much of the public land in the western continental states is owned by the BLM. I looked around on their website once and found a place that stated something to the manner of that you can land, or do just about anything, on most of their land unless it is specifically stated not to. Wilderness for example. I'm too lazy to try to find this again, but it's sort of like in the scientific community, where you never try to replicate a successful experiment. I found it once, and I'm sticking to it.

tom

Just found this. http://www.montanapilots.org/backcountry/legality.html

Read the one line third paragraph in parenthesis. I know this is Montana but I think BLM is BLM

Tim

After Googling for an hour I've come to a conclusion:

This is a topic that really difficult to find definitive information on.

I can't speak to state laws or county ordinances, but as for BLM land, you can generally land off-airport outside of designated wilderness areas on most lands so long as you don't cause significant resource damage. I say "generally" because like everything else there is always the occasional exception in a designated national conservation area. I would call ahead to the field office and ask, but that's me.

I know that in Lyon County the county seems to be kind of cranky about it, something about the planning board?

45.3% of California is owned by state, local and federal government, and it's pretty mixed. Here's a link to a map showing which agencies own what. http://frap.cdf.ca.gov/webdata/maps/statewide/govtownmap.pdf


CAVU

Thats a really good site! Found a bunch of info out on the issue.

BLM is really good to go for landings. The forest service is not....I guess thats when your oil pressure is running low...

Below the high water mark is also ok as I cannot really find a ruling on that one except that its not really a clear issue....

I like what someone said prior...

Its better to ask for forgiveness than to beg for permission....

aktahoe1 wrote:Thats a really good site! Found a bunch of info out on the issue.

BLM is really good to go for landings. The forest service is not....I guess thats when your oil pressure is running low...

Below the high water mark is also ok as I cannot really find a ruling on that one except that its not really a clear issue....

I like what someone said prior...

Its better to ask for forgiveness than to beg for permission....

Outside of Alaska, there is a blanket prohibition against landing aircraft in a National Park Service unit outside of legally designated airstrips.

I am not aware of any blanket prohibition against landing of aircraft on US Forest Service lands outside of designated wilderness, except as might be prohibited by a supervisor's order. An "order" in the USFS is a legal document temporarily or permanently closing an area or restricting an activity for a specific purpose e.g. fire danger, resource damage, emergency, user conflicts, threatened or endangered species etc. It is meant as a tool to give local flexibility to individual forest management.

Hope this helps. It just again reinforces the rule that when in doubt, just ask. This forum is great...a phone call to a Forest HQ, Field Office, park HQ, state aviation department or land agency, or private property owner is even better.

Forgiveness instead of permission? How'd that work out for the several folks this spring in Zahn Bay?

Don't Land on a indian reservation in Cal , THey can legally confiscate your bird and there's nothing you can do about it. Depends though on who contacts you after you land > a friend of mine made a precautionary landing on a reservation here in SD. and the reservation police came and got him some car gas and helped him immensely. THey were great to him but not all reservation PD would be so helpful;