soyAnarchisto wrote:Rick,
What shape was the strip in? From the pictures, it looks like it wasn't rutted out very bad at all. I don't understand why the NPS shut it down. You guys could have mostly flown in there for a work party - you would've gotten a bit more help I imagine. Instead of everybody having to drive in there 5 hours or whatever it took.
Thanks for all the hard work!
It's super hard to judge damage in that country by photos. I've got a picture of a washout I could barely cross on a KTM LC4, but in the picture it looks like you could drive a Prius across it. And aside from a few minutes in the morning and evening, you can't see
anything from the air. There could be a five foot deep trench across the strip and you wouldn't be able to tell. If Lee thought it was damaged enough to be closed, then I trust that assessment.
Lee has a drag that does a good job of smoothing the strip, but it's just pulled by a pick-up, and not a very powerful one at that. Once the gullies are too deep for the drag, the strip gets closed. Remember, it's summer...in Death Valley. You don't grab a shovel and wheel barrow and start moving dirt when it's 125 degrees by ten in the morning.
The Park has to assume that people are about as smart as, well, people. If they allow the aviators with the landing gear and skill necessary to use the airstrip, even just to fly in and repair it, it's a forgone conclusion that someone without either is going to try to land and ball their airplane up. Now there's that mess to deal with.
If enough people ball their airplanes up at the Chicken Strip, it's going to get closed. I guarantee it. The park doesn't want it there, and one of the main reasons that it's still open is because the DV Superintendents are only there as long as it takes for another position to open up at a different park, then they leave. (If you imagine trying to raise a family in Death Valley, that makes perfect sense.) Part of getting out of there ASAP is not having any frowny-faces on their personal record back in Washington. Thus far they've figured that the backlash from closing the strip is going to be worse for them than leaving it open, but as soon as that dynamic changes, by-by Chicken Strip.
RAF volunteers, Joe, Joseph and Pat, worked most of Saturday Oct 15th to get the strip back into safe operation. Things went quite well thanks to the camp host Lizard Lee. So the next time you’re enjoying the springs be sure and say thinks to Lee.
