Hammer wrote:

hamer wrote:Not sure how that is a bad thing? RAF is a great organization as far as I know. Charting it and having RAF maintain it sounds like an ideal way to preserve it.

RAF maintaining it is great...charting it is where the problem will be. It simply cannot accommodate a larger volume of traffic than it's already receiving. Scores of additional users aren't going to preserve it, they're going to ruin it.

The CS isn't difficult, but it's several steps above any other charted, public airstrip on the sectional. One-way approach, soft, short surface, sporadic and often STRONG winds, plus some simply ridiculous DA conspires to wreck a couple airplanes every year... And those were the pilots that found it without it being on the chart. When your average renter takes the flight school 172 for a spin and decides that the CS is an interesting looking place to go for the afternoon, it's going to get worse. Much worse.

Accidents, especially accidents with fatalities, WILL close the strip. Pilots and the RAF can raise all the stink they want, but if the Park Super decides there's more political or legal exposure to leaving it open than there is to closing it, they'll close it. You'll notice it's not part of the Saline Valley Management Plan....they don't have to re-write the plan to change their standing on the CS.

It's a small strip with a very small parking area. Just about every time a new pilot comes in they turn around in a direction that sand-blasts any other airplanes and camps. Given that they're blowing crushed volcanic cinders, that's not a small thing. Inexperienced pilots using the short/soft field departure taught in basic training create a cloud of dust and pulverized propeller aluminum big enough to be seen from space. There are no toilets and no garbage pick-up, and even without being charted, regular users are constantly cleaning up after other less considerate visitors.

Pilots who want to find strips like the CS because they're looking for a remote place to visit don't have any trouble finding them. But advertising it to everyone in So Cal with an airplane reserved for the afternoon and a sectional is a big mistake.

It's pretty academic to me...I don't live in that part of the world anymore and don't plan to ever return, but when I did live in CA my wife and I were the single biggest users of the CS for over a decade. We've camped there every month of the year, often racking up a couple months use during the year. We saw a lot of things during that time, none of which suggested that more inexperienced users was going to be a good thing for the CS.

I'll say it again: if the number of accidents, especially accidents with injuries or fatalities increases, the Park will close the strip. I can already hear the scores of people screaming "they can't do that...it's OUR land...they made an agreement", but they can, and they will. The simplest way to prevent that is to keep it off the chart.

ebag wrote:https://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/news/saline-valley-s-chicken-strip-airfield-authorized.htm?fbclid=IwAR1sia6juYO3lU-y231eG0vanVtWblq0iJj7tBoMr5ANU4bDOCZk_JwtvDk

News Release Date: August 19, 2019
Contact: Abby Wines, 760-786-3221

DEATH VALLEY, CA – Death Valley National Park announced that Saline Valley’s “Chicken Strip” Airfield is now officially authorized, as of August 19, 2019. This legally sanctions the long-established use of this backcountry airstrip.

The Saline Valley Warm Springs Airfield, commonly known as the Chicken Strip, is an unpaved landing strip that has been in use for decades. For most of that time, the land was managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which did not prohibit use of the airstrip.

The Chicken Strip was part of about one million acres of land that were transferred to Death Valley National Park by the California Desert Protection Act in 1994. This transfer from BLM to National Park Service (BLM) also closed the airstrip by default. Lands and waters of the National Park Service are closed to operation of aircraft unless specifically authorized by a special regulation. However, the closure was never enforced and many park staff were not aware that the Chicken Strip was not authorized.

“This special regulation is really a deregulation,” explained Mike Reynolds, Death Valley National Park Superintendent. “It removes any question about the legality of the airfield’s use by visitors. We believe this is a common sense approach that corrects a regulatory technicality.”

The Chicken Strip has been used by an average of 47 planes per year recently. Some pilots use it to access the nearby Warm Springs. Others are drawn by the challenge of the airstrip itself.

Volunteers with the Recreation Aviation Foundation (RAF) maintain the airstrip at no cost to the taxpayers. “The RAF and the NPS have been successfully partnering for nearly ten years to make access to [the Chicken Strip] safe and available to the aviation community,” RAF board chairman John McKenna said.

The Federal Register posting is available at: https://www.federalregister.gov/documen ... f-airstrip.

CAVU wrote:Maybe. Or someone took it upon themselves to X it out when the Park closed its campgrounds and facilities under the State's COVID order.