Silver Peak NV

[Martin Eiler[_3_]]

If the land out site, Silver Peak NV at N37*45.720 W117*37.802 is
shown in your data base as a dry lake. You may want to look at Google
Earth and note that there is an X’d off N/S soft dirt runway there with
the
Southern third being land able with 75 ft by 2000 ft available. The strip
is conveniently located adjacent to the town of Silver Peak and the
asphalt
road [265].

Last year we nearly lost a Discus pilot when he crashed on a dirt road
midway between Silver Peak and Lida, a contributing factor was his
aversion to landing in some desolate dry lake with Thunderstorms in the
vicinity. To his credit this pilot not only manned up and admitted his bad
decision, but he also recently sponsored an https://www.ssa.org/Webinars
entitled ONE BAD DECISION THAT ALMOST KILLED ME. It is well worth
the time spent viewing this webinar.

Please pass this on to others and eventually maybe the land out
databases will more accurately describe available options. While there
are undoubtedly places on the dry lake that are land able. About a
decade ago a couple of dedicated straight pilots wanted to scout out the
dry lake itself. After spending a half day looking for a road access,
they
gave up and decided to limit their database to the X'd off dirt runway.

get high, go far, go fast and get home safe
11W

[JS[_5_]]

A bit of a convoluted way to get those details to me, but thanks, Marty!

That waypoint has been in databases for as long as GPS has existed. First time anyone has provided more info about it.
By the time you get low enough to use a dry lake the pilot decision about where and which direction to land would be made, but I moved the Silver Pk DL waypoint 2400' to the west in SW2019 v7 and noted the unused runway. Will publish locally soon (in CUP, CUPX, DAT, STX and KML). Currently one of fourteen updates since version 6, published the end of April. Much info for that version was from Danny Sorenson, thanks.
Version 7 or probably a newer update will go to John Leibacher for the annual update on the exchange prior to the Dust Devil Dash.
If anyone would like to provide more detail on any of the 1100 waypoints in the database below, feel free to contribute. Any waypoint with A or L attribute having a lower case x prefix is in some way questionable.
Caveat: Waypoint names too long and too many waypoints for ancient devices.
Jim

There have been about 100 updates since the 2018 Dust Devil Dash, available here:
http://soaringweb.org/TP/Tehachapi

[6PK]

Silver Peak has been walked on and looked at a few years ago by a couple of us Crystal Squadron "straight out bunch".
All of our data has been given to Jim and rolled into the Tehachapi data a year or two ago and I have reason to believe that it makes up its largest portion.
I can assure you that 100% the waypoints we provided were walked on and looked at, at least the last ten years. We do have an unwritten rule: "if you did not set foot on it you have no business landing on it".
But never the less these spots can and will change over time, even from year to year so use at your own risk.
We had posted detailed "driving directions" to the Region 12 website that were posted for years so all could study, look up on Google Earth and make a personal decision if not willing to set foot on it. It also would give the crew clear instructions as to how to get there.
Unfortunately the last two Region 12 director(s) neglected the website which was diligently kept up by Mike Havener, and it got shut down probably due to the lack of payment. A few of us even emailed the last guy offering money and the desire to keep up the website but never even got a response. This last guy now moved and resigned, good redens.
Some comments were made that we don't share information; well nothing further from the truth, not one group has shared a more comprehensive database than we did, please question your Region 12 director(s) for the blame....