Rain hit the Chicken Strip over the Fourth of July weekend. It is now very RUTTED from the rain. I am waiting for pictures and will post them soon.

Please get the word out so we don't have an accident to deal with also.

More to come.

Rick

DON'T SHARE PICTURES OF THE DAMAGE AT CHICKEN STRIP !!

The outcry could shut down the BCP server an we'll all have pay the price for Mother Natures' transgressions!!

Too late SLT...I'm going there.

The strip is closed until a RAF crew can come in and fix it. The photo doesn't look that bad, but if it's bad enough that Lee can't just drag the strip with his grader then it's probably a lot worse than it looks.

Considering the political sensitivity of the airstrip it's best if even the folks who think they can still land there don't. It'll piss off the park something terrible, and Y'all don't want to be there this time of year anyway. It's WAY too damn hot.

I have been in contact with the Park Service and they are very reasonable about the situation. I will be taking a DRIVE-IN work crew in to clean things up as soon as possible. Anyone that would like to help please "PM" or e-mail me at:

[email protected] or [email protected]

Rick

I hear there's a Cub shaped dent at one end also.
(sorry, couldn't resist! )

https://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/news/rem ... r-heat.htm

NPS has started noting some of the aviation mishaps out that way. Looks like an RV nose dragger went off the end recently. Funny, in the press release they say the typical "pilot didn't file a flight plan" malarkey...but is there any way to close a flight plan from Chicken Strip? No cell service, no radio reception to get in touch with the FSS.

Dunno at what altitude radio contact with ATC is lost, but you can close your VFR flight plan in the air.
People close IFR flight plans in the air all the time.

hotrod180 wrote:Dunno at what altitude radio contact with ATC is lost, but you can close your VFR flight plan in the air.
People close IFR flight plans in the air all the time.

HIGH! On the west side of the Inyo's you need to be about 10,000 MSL or higher if approaching from the north. Once you cross the Inyo's it's even worse. Closing a flight plan while still 30 miles out rather negates the purpose of having one, and staying at 13,500 until over the strip so you can talk to Center makes for a very long descent and dramatically increases the chances you're going to have a close encounter with a F-18. That's a real issue at the chicken strip. I plan my descent into the valley so as to be as far away from the normal jet routs as possible, hugging the mountains close enough that even a cocky jet driver won't be there. A lengthy descent through clean air is akin to a lengthy swim over a deep, shark-filled ocean trench...uncomfortable at best.

I suspect the comment about flight plans was a little tongue in cheek, but in this age of cheap satellite trackers and PLB's, VFR flight plans are just flat out pointless.

Yeah, my main point at the comment was that it highlights that perhaps the Park Service does not understand what tools we should be using (PLB's, Spot Trackers, etc.) and is instead thinking an FSS Flight Plan is a practicable means to provide that kind of safety to Chicken Strip ops.

I posted this notice from the NPS on our Facebook page, and the article shows this photo:



Our favorite upside-down-Cub owner chimed in to say she had built this X with rocks after a thunderstorm had carved a ditch in the strip.

I suppose that might be helpful to some, but I'm also not a big fan of having big rocks get piled onto an airstrip. Also not sure how I feel about just anyone "closing" and airstrip.

Awesome, Rick!

pacerpilot wrote:I have been in contact with the Park Service and they are very reasonable about the situation. I will be taking a DRIVE-IN work crew in to clean things up as soon as possible. Anyone that would like to help please "PM" or e-mail me at:

[email protected] or [email protected]

Rick

Zzz wrote:Our favorite upside-down-Cub owner chimed in to say she had built this X with rocks after a thunderstorm had carved a ditch in the strip.

I suppose that might be helpful to some, but I'm also not a big fan of having big rocks get piled onto an airstrip. Also not sure how I feel about just anyone "closing" and airstrip.

WTF?

Zzz wrote:I posted this notice from the NPS on our Facebook page, and the article shows this photo:



Our favorite upside-down-Cub owner chimed in to say she had built this X with rocks after a thunderstorm had carved a ditch in the strip.

I suppose that might be helpful to some, but I'm also not a big fan of having big rocks get piled onto an airstrip. Also not sure how I feel about just anyone "closing" and airstrip.

I'm amazed she had the energy, what with being abandoned in the desert to succumb to the elements and all...

Zzz wrote:I suppose that might be helpful to some, but I'm also not a big fan of having big rocks get piled onto an airstrip. Also not sure how I feel about just anyone "closing" and airstrip.

Yeah, her heart was in the right place. But the execution is troubling.

I'm sure it was done at the direction of the resident caretaker, or at least with his approval. Lee calls the shots out there and he does a good job...he fixes what he can and if it's too much for him to repair he X's out the strip.

And honestly, it'd be pretty shitty to know the runway was unsafe and not X it out, even if you are a person proven to be of substandard judgement. There's only a few minutes in the morning and evening when a pilot could see that the strip is compromised before landing. Most of the time you couldn't see a five-foot-deep trench from the air.

Hammer wrote:staying at 13,500 until over the strip so you can talk to Center makes for a very long descent and dramatically increases the chances you're going to have a close encounter with a F-18. That's a real issue at the chicken strip. I plan my descent into the valley so as to be as far away from the normal jet routs as possible, hugging the mountains close enough that even a cocky jet driver won't be there. A lengthy descent through clean air is akin to a lengthy swim over a deep, shark-filled ocean trench...uncomfortable at best.

Forgive the thread drift, but if you or anyone else wanted to post a guide to the best way into the strip avoiding the low level military traffic, I for one would appreciate it.

Having driven many times to, and through, the area, each time we have been hugely entertained by fighters going way fast, close to the ground. Seems they like to head south through the Saline valley, then turn over the springs and head towards Steel pass, which seems kinda close to the strip when flying at 60 mph, making a landing pattern.

That strip is on my bucket list, and I have always wondered how best to get there without getting a shock.

Back to the thread.......



-M3X

The best published resource is the R-2508 Users Handbook. Found here:
http://www.edwards.af.mil/Home/R-2508
http://www.edwards.af.mil/Portals/50/documents/R2508/AFD-070103-052.pdf?ver=2016-06-21-080711-260
http://www.edwards.af.mil/Portals/50/documents/2016%20pilot%20guide%2020%20JUL%2016.pdf?ver=2016-07-22-190017-880

The R-2508 Complex is the name for the whole area of Special Use Airspace (SUA) that encompasses the area from Edwards AFB west to Tehachapi, North to above King Canyon, East to the northeast corner of Death Valley National Park, and south east to Fort Irwin and Barstow. The user handbook has some good info in it for routes and such that the jets will be flying. As well as bunch of admin stuff that's not really relevant to the GA folk.

Take a look at 5.2.2. of the Handbook for the Sidewinder Low Level route and the Jedi Transition (this is why you see so many low-level fast-movers at Panamint Springs Resort). Gives you a general idea of what they will be doing. Page 5-6 also makes reference to the Saline Hot Springs "Camp."

Also worth noting form there are the restriction that the military guys have on altitudes around airports and communities. As well as within the boundaries of the Death Valley National Monument (There is some different boundary from the Death Valley National Park) for which the MOAs exclude up to a certain AGL.

Has anyone checked to see if it is notamed closed?

M6RV6 wrote:Has anyone checked to see if it is notamed closed?

As far as I know it's not an official airstrip registered with the FAA so I don't know how it would be NOTAMed closed.

robw56 wrote:

M6RV6 wrote:Has anyone checked to see if it is notamed closed?

As far as I know it's not an official airstrip registered with the FAA so I don't know how it would be NOTAMed closed.

Yup...the only way anyone knows if the strip is safe is if Lee has inspected it and repaired it, or "X'd" it after a storm.

I'm not a spokesperson for Lee, but he goes out of his way to care for the airstrip, and if he wasn't there the Chicken Strip would have been permanently closed years ago. He gets paid ZERO to live there 12 months a year as a park service volunteer. His reasons for being there are his own, but when we fly in we ALWAYS bring something to thank him for his service to the airstrip. Groceries, services, and cash. Of all of them, cash is by far the most useful.

If you land at the Chicken Strip you do so in large part because Lee keeps it open. He's a good person and he does a good job.

Show your appreciation.