So Ive driven by this little strip near Gorman a few times on the way to camping in the adjacent BLM area and always thought it'd be cool to fly there and camp. All research says its active, private, and gives one disconnected phone number for contact. Does anybody know anything about this neat looking little strip?

Thanx in advance
SD

That strip's been there for years-- I didn't fly back then but I remember seeing it when I used to go prowling around that area more than 20 years ago, when I lived in LA. I don't recall there being a building or anythig at all at Quail Lake-- just a paved airstrip. There's another (grass) airstrip near there, west of I-5 & Fraser Park, called Conover. Don't reall what was on or adjacent t that one with regards t hangars, houses, etc. I never saw any activity at either of them, although to be fair I never did more than just drive by occasionally.

Still an active airport, but kinda quiet. Yes it is private, and you do need permission to visit.

If it is important to anyone, I can track down a woman who I know lives there. A few years ago I found a big dog wandering around at my home airport (KWHP), needed to find a home for her, and this lady took the dog and gave it a home (at Quail Lake). I thinkn I know where the woman works. Like I said, if it is important enough, I'll go track her down.

hotrod150 wrote:That strip's been there for years-- I didn't fly back then but I remember seeing it when I used to go prowling around that area more than 20 years ago, when I lived in LA. I don't recall there being a building or anythig at all at Quail Lake-- just a paved airstrip. There's another (grass) airstrip near there, west of I-5 & Fraser Park, called Conover. Don't reall what was on or adjacent t that one with regards t hangars, houses, etc. I never saw any activity at either of them, although to be fair I never did more than just drive by occasionally.

Interesting........ One of my co-workers has a buddy that owns close to 10,000 acres (sounds like a lot for that area, but thats what he says) southwest of Frazier Park. He said there is a fair amount of pasture to land if you have oversize tires. Might be fun for some of you SoCal guys.

As EZFlap has mentioned about the other strip. If it's really important to you, I can find out more details. My co-worker meets up with his buddy who owns all this land often to go dirt bike riding on his property.

Thanks for the replies guys, I was beginning to think it was a complete unknown (should've known better).
Important is not exactly the word I would use for this quest, more like interested. I live in Camarillo, rent a Citabria, and have been scoping out some tame off the beaten path places to expand my experience base and Quail lake as well as Conover is about 20min flight from home field. Please don't go out of your way to find contact info but if you happen upon it please pass it along.

Thanks again,
SD

EZflap, Straydog and 58 Skylane, I am based in Santa Ynez, and would love to share your knowledge of those potential playgrounds. Please count me in

There's a dirt strip named Brian Ranch out near Pearblossom (east of Palmdale)-- I read an article in a 1990's Sport Pilot magazine (before "sport pilot" & LSA) about the place & it sounded like a lot of fun. Mainly ultralight op's at that time, but some full-sized airplanes. The writer flew in with a 290-powered C140. It might be the same now, much larger, or gone completely-- who knows?
Given the flat & somewhat barren terrain and relatively low population, I would imagine that there's probably lots of little strips & "landing sites" out in the Mojave desert. Although I haven't lived down there in over 20 years, I'd be interested in hearing about them. Any of you other SoCal guys know of any good ones?

From the looks of it Brian Ranch is still very alive and kickin' details at http://www.brianranch.com. Lots of ultralights but plenty of runway for full sized craft. AND you can go pick your own fruit while you're there. I think I'll put this on the list of places to visit. I think first is Oceano, not terribly remote or backcountry per se but looks pretty cool.

Glad to hear of some local gems folks, keep em comin'
Thanks,
SD

Yeah they got some real special fruit you pick out in that area. Actually it picks you... it's called the "Mojave Green" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crotalus_scutulatus

If you're on a jihad to find interesting places in the Antelope Valley region, don't forget a few interesting spots to see (from above):

Bohunk Airport (inactive, private) just west of Palmdale
White Oak RCS radar range (actually not an airport) on the south flank of the Tehachapis
Mountain Valley gliderport in Tehachapi Valley (nice sandwich shop on the field, powerplanes welcome, 661-822-5267)
Cocaine International Airport (not maintained, Bushwheels only) just northwest of Red Rock Canyon
Goler Wash Strip (maintained, but by gun-toting tweakers who do NOT want you there) just north of Koehn Dry Lake
Randsburg / Red Mountain Airport (long unused, probably 8.50's or Bushwheels only) right on US 395 in scenic Randsburg, CA 20 miles northeast of California City
Kelso Valley Airport (supposedly now being refurbished as a fly-in destination) 10 miles west of Red Rock Canyon

Of course the most valuable God-send resource of them all for air exploring is Paul Freeman's Abandoned and Forgotten Airstrips website http://www.airfields-freeman.com/ . You can find hundreds and hundreds of interesting and long-forgotten airstrips to explore.

EZFlap is correct concerning the Mojave Green. Read more from that link that's given.

First ran into a Mojave Green snake bite case when working in the pharmacy at Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center back in the 70's. The ER brought in a patient that who had been walking through the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve east of Lancaster. It's next to the highway and when they bloom the poppies carpet a large area. People stopped their cars and strolled through the field with their kids, even though there were warning signs posted.

We emptied the refrigerator of all our antivenom( 16 boxes if I remember correctly). I looked up the snake in our poison reference book. It turns out it has a venom that's FIVE times the potency of a King Cobra. It was and maybe still is the fifth most deadly snake in the world!

Best to wear boots when hiking around that area.

There are tons of these dirt strips out there in the deserts. Alot of them are privately owned and I'm sure you'd get just as many mixed reaction landing at them if the owners are there. Over the years they have been sighted driven to looked at by the glider community for alternate land out sites. Most looked at by us have to take into consideration width a 15 meter (49') sailplane doesn't do well on a 40' wide strip. Here is an example of a turnpoint data base used for a soaring contest.
http://soaringweb.org/TP/Inyokern if you know what to look for you probably could find a bunch of suitable landing sites for our high wing big tire planes.

Here is another one just loaded with land out sites http://www.socalsoaring.com/ over the years I've landed out at a few of these but I've walked on most of them first.

We have a couple species of croatalus here in Northern Colorado as well...and I've stepped right over a torpid one (at Grey Rock). They are neat to look at- from a distance, rather than from directly overhead as I'm leaping into the air.

Back to Quail Lake Airport: whole place was for sale a few years ago.
IIRC in Pacific Flyer? (not on there now) Price was not bad for the time.
There was a proposed 20,000 home development at the area: think it fell through.
Was a good commute location if you are into that lifestyle.

If the FAA owner info is out of-date, maybe a local real estate company would know a contact.

--Bill

"Good commute location" is relative. Back in the day, I lived in the South Bay area of LA (Torrance) and wanted to get away from the big city. I thought about buying a place up near Gormon (east of I-5 near Quail Lake or west near Fraser Park), but decided that since I'd still have to commute down to the LA area (or the other way to Bakersfield) to work, that it wasn't really a good choice for me. A long commute either way, and southern California or not it can get pretty wintry up there on the Ridge Route. I did like the wide open spaces up there on the Quail Lake side though.

Many landable places in the western Mojave but almost all are private land.

Cocaine Int'l is in Red Rocks SP, I think, and appears very washed out these days. I have landed there in years back in Cub and RV-4.

Kelso Valley is excellent but is also private.

Gohler Wash and Randsburg mediocre at best.

Stay OFF Koehn Dry Lake. It is not dry and highly unsafe, IMO

Cinder Cone Dry lake(s) are superb and it is a nice hike to the Lava Falls S.P. There are wind socks put up by some glider friends on the two best lakes.

Not wanting to hi-jack this thread but I thought you might want to here the latest. Maybe we should start a new thread?
The strip just north of Red Rock your calling Cocaine International is on open BLM property and they call it Smugglers. I have been working with the Ridgecrest office of the BLM to get there blessing to put it back into safe condition for use. They are very open to the idea and we’re trying to get a meeting to put together a schedule to get work party’s on sight. There work load is holding things up but I’m hoping to get a work schedule approved in a couple of weeks. We have identified four strips around Ridgecrest to bring back in to operating condition.
I a result of this effort I have waked and documented both Smugglers and Goler Wash, Garlock to the BLM.
Smugglers: is around 1500feet long with a large wash-out running down the south side of the strip. The wash-out is 3-feet wide at the top(northwest end) and 15-feet wide at the bottom (south ease end). There is also a wire fence on the top/northwest end put up by the BLM to keep the motorcycles off the strip. NOT recommended for landing at this time.
Garlock: Is also on BLM property and is in sad shape. The tweeker lives about a half mile to the east and I haven’t met him yet. The area is used a lot by weekend motorcycles groups with a lot of open camp sites around. It’s acutely about 3000-feet long but there is a low spot about 2/3 of the way down the runway that water accumulates. As a result there are deep ruts where 4-wheelers and motorcycles have gone through. The west end isn’t too bad just a little rutty from vehicle traffic. It wont take much to get this one back into service.
I have not posted anything about this area because I wanted to get a little farther down the road with the BLM. I/ we are learning how to work with each other on these things. They also have a new Area Manager that I have not met yet and he will be a key player in this effort.
If anyone knows of other old desert strips please let me know so I can try and get them on the list of strips to bring back into service with the support of the BLM.

Rick Lach
California Liaison
Recreational Aviation Foundation (The RAF)

Hi, everyone. Just bought Quail Lake. The runway had been neglected for years but is now cleaned up and should be ready to be used this Friday 8/4/23 at your own risk, of course. Asphalt is in fair condition. Windsock at the west end. No other facilities yet. Bring your own tie downs for now. 500' walk to the lake from the runway. There are two occupied home complexes and 12 available home sites (3 and 5 acres) adjacent. Please fly quietly and pattern over the lake, please.

Freedml wrote:Hi, everyone. Just bought Quail Lake. The runway had been neglected for years but is now cleaned up and should be ready to be used this Friday 8/4/23 at your own risk, of course. Asphalt is in fair condition. Windsock at the west end. No other facilities yet. Bring your own tie downs for now. 500' walk to the lake from the runway. There are two occupied home complexes and 12 available home sites (3 and 5 acres) adjacent. Please fly quietly and pattern over the lake, please.

That's awesome! Congrats!

Freedml wrote:Hi, everyone. Just bought Quail Lake. The runway had been neglected for years but is now cleaned up and should be ready to be used this Friday 8/4/23 at your own risk, of course. Asphalt is in fair condition. Windsock at the west end. No other facilities yet. Bring your own tie downs for now. 500' walk to the lake from the runway. There are two occupied home complexes and 12 available home sites (3 and 5 acres) adjacent. Please fly quietly and pattern over the lake, please.

Congrats!!! That's a dream for many of us. Wish I was closer, or I would definitely visit.

Thank you for purchasing the land and posting this!