From Paul Collins:
"With the demise of the Big Creek Lodge, the options for a cooked meal to the folks flying the FrankChurch are limited. At the recent yearly meeting of the members of the Flying B, several of us who are pilots presented the option of having the lodge at the Flying B help pick up the slack. After a discussion, the Flying B membership approved the opening of the lodge at the “B” for fly-in guests for both breakfast and lunch on an experimental basis."

More details here...

The B is a cool place. Never been there by air but by boat a number of times. Last I understood there was a $35 fee for landing but if you bought that much of more worth of stuff in their store then there was no fee. So if a mean is $20 do you have to pay $15 in landing fees.

Please be very careful of other traffic, especially anyone landing or taking off at Bernard.

Why do those taking off from Bernard have to be more careful that those at the B? I only bring this up because I have heard it said many times before and it always bugged me. A guy told me about a time when he sat waiting to take off from Bernard for 20 min while planes kept landing and launching from the B...

BTW: I didn't write that...just passing it on from Paul Collins, who submitted it to shortfield.com.

wasn't pointing fingers or trying to offend anyone...I just dont get why the B gets special treatment.

not really a "special treatment" deal at all whee...more a safety issue. bernard is only less than a half mile north
of the "B". some people turn base directly in front of bernard to land upriver at the "B". both very cool places. u should consider a camping trip to bernard. your luscombe will do it easily...! to me a very remote, quiet, strip.
kind of like upper loon or the falconberry...

I flewe into the Flying B ranch just last summer, and I made a video of my flight and landing. You can look at it here with this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y12T4p4eucY They didn't charge me a landing fee as we had three for breakfast. It sounds like they are waving the landing fee to take up the slack of Big Creek lodge burning down. Bob ps. this is kind of long as some of my other forum guys wanted to see some of the Middle Fork River canyon.

I agree with the safety issue because of the close proximity of the strips but the advised caution should go both ways. I'd assume pilots using each strip are conscientious of the other strip but it just bothers me that the only way I ever hear it is, pilots using Bernard need to watch out for the guys at Flying B.

Like has been said, the B is really a neat place and Bernard looks cool from the river. I hope to make it to both places by air this summer…partially because I won’t get to float the Middle Fork this year.

Whee,

I have always had the same feeling regarding the Flying B. I understand the need for safety, but what I have read in print always seemed to imply special treatment for the B, as if that was "their stretch of canyon" or something. I understand the need for being a good neighbor and not over flying the ranch if you can help it, but if I need to, I will...of course, announcing my position and communicating with other traffic.

After reading the "more details", I have a question. I thought that Root Ranch was already open for breakfast from some of the other posts about possible alternatives with BC gone.

"If this experiment works, we will perhaps look at opening the Root Ranch for this sort of thing, so please be thoughtful of those other pilots and the folks at the B when you come in. "

Personally, I'm really looking forward to checking out Mackay Bar Ranch.

Bernard is dirt poor.
The "B" be rich.
The rich always "B" privileged.
Same as that guest ranch down next to Atlanta.

Trimtab wrote:Bernard is dirt poor.
The "B" be rich.
The rich always "B" privileged.
Same as that guest ranch down next to Atlanta.

BINGO!!! We have a winner!

Trimtab wrote:Bernard is dirt poor.
The "B" be rich.
The rich always "B" privileged.
Same as that guest ranch down next to Atlanta.

haha...that is kinda funny. I have to say, the many times I have stopped at the "B" while kayaking the Middle Fork the employees have always been really nice and helpful. The "guests" at the ranch on the other hand, they seemed annoyed that us "hippies" encroached on their turf. The post on shorfield.com says "we do not charge for landing" so I'll probably stop by this year...meeting for breakfast would be cool.

GSP, I too am really looking forward to trying Mackay Bar. Remember they would like a days notice if you plane to eat or camp. Think you can make that 182 fly formation with my Luscombe If so let me know when you head that way.

You bet! I'll let you know when we head up that way for the first time this season. I'd like to go plink at some ground squirrels, but I don't know if I'll make it up in the next few weeks. Otherwise it will be early June.