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View Full Version : This could be bad... (Presidential TFR in Reno next week).


EridanMan
August 24th 07, 11:16 PM
A Presidential TFR went up for Reno next Monday and Tuesday, which
also happens to be the first two days of Burning Man.

Please, if you know anyone thinking of flying up, make sure they're on
the mailing list, and they know about this... While the potential for
news headlines is amusing to say the least ("BRC is a 'clothing
optional' airport according to their website), I think thats a level
of embarrassment for GA in general (not to mention the pilot) that
best be avoided.

Judah
August 25th 07, 06:00 PM
EridanMan > wrote in news:1187993808.735148.265210
@i13g2000prf.googlegroups.com:

> A Presidential TFR went up for Reno next Monday and Tuesday, which
> also happens to be the first two days of Burning Man.


Perhaps Bush is planning to attend?

Aluckyguess
August 27th 07, 12:21 AM
What are the cordinates for that airport.?
I might go check that out.

Gattman[_2_]
August 27th 07, 06:56 PM
"Judah" > wrote in message
. ..
> EridanMan > wrote in news:1187993808.735148.265210
> @i13g2000prf.googlegroups.com:
>
>> A Presidential TFR went up for Reno next Monday and Tuesday, which
>> also happens to be the first two days of Burning Man.
>
> Perhaps Bush is planning to attend?

*cackle* A friend of mine did a Yoga/stretching class with Sting there in
2005 and there's a judge and a couple of airline captains that go every
year.

I hear from the pilots as of today that there have been dust storms for the
past two weeks, but by now they've groomed the "runway", established Unicom
and probably had the FAA inspection. Nobody appears to have had any
problem with the TFR yet.

Wish I was there. We have a one-year-old so we're sitting this one out. A
charter service out of LV is trying to bring out a DC-3 and there's going to
be an AN-2 again this year.
-c

Gattman[_2_]
August 27th 07, 07:11 PM
"Aluckyguess" > wrote in message
...
> What are the cordinates for that airport.?
> I might go check that out.

Here's what it looks like from space (when the Google Earth guys are
regulars, you get space imagery):

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d9/2005-Black-Rock-City.jpg

The airstrip is along the southeast edge. You can land there but you need a
ticket to enter and the procedures are unique. They publish their own
procedures on Unicom, usually with a code phrase: Information Whiskey Breath
has expired and I don't know what the new one is.

Hard-packed surface, ~4,000 elevation, lots of dust and the airstrip is shut
down between sunset and sunrise. If you were to land you'd probably be
directed into the Customs terminal, which most likely has a brass pole in
the center of it and a bunch of mostly-naked young women looking for rides.

I'm serious. (And so are the folks who run the airstrip...the craziness is
only in jest) Unfortunately, it's kind of like Oshkosh except the
conditions are much more harsh, which means you have to prep your aircraft
quite a bit for the conditions.

-c

John Godwin
August 27th 07, 08:03 PM
"Aluckyguess" > wrote in :

> What are the cordinates for that airport.?
> I might go check that out.
>
40°45'15.87"N 119°14'11.18"W

--

Morgans[_2_]
August 27th 07, 11:37 PM
"Gattman" <> wrote

> Here's what it looks like from space (when the Google Earth guys are
> regulars, you get space imagery):
>
> http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d9/2005-Black-Rock-City.jpg

Is there a version available that is capable of high levels of zoom?

That is really a killer picture. I have always been fascinated by the whole
event, and have vowed that I will make it there some day.

Without the wife, though. I don't think she would "get it." <g>
--
Jim in NC

Gattman[_2_]
August 28th 07, 01:15 AM
"Morgans" > wrote in message
...

>> http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d9/2005-Black-Rock-City.jpg
>
> Is there a version available that is capable of high levels of zoom?

There is, but I don't recall where offhand. I know it was posted because
I'm in one of them. Here's the image gallery from last year:
http://images.burningman.com/index.cgi?q_keyword=&q_year=2006&q_category=&q_photog=&go.x=20&go.y=20


> That is really a killer picture. I have always been fascinated by the
> whole event, and have vowed that I will make it there some day.

It's unique and wholly unbelievable. Please keep your vow.

It took me a few years to convince my wife that it wasn't about naked
drug-addled freaks and now she gets misty-eyed recounting to friends how
amazing it is. It's not Disneyland, but a bunch of artists and engineers
building extreme things in the desert and then burning it all down at the
end of the week. The youngest person I've seen there is a toddler (bad
idea), but the guys camped across from our root beer saloon in 2005 were all
retirees, professors, lawyers, a few ranchers and an airline pilot.

I don't plan on ever flying there. I'm not a big drinker, but my head
wouldn't be in the game. Plus, it could be difficult when there's somebody
offering mamosas, pancakes and bacon, or somebody hands you an irish coffee
first thing in the morning or pizza and beer in the dead heat of afternoon,
or some half-naked hottie offering a champagne and a back massage...
Literally everything but the toilets are BYO so it would by tricky to fly in
unless you have somebody haul your stuff in exchange for a plane ride, which
is extremely common.

The only thing that costs money beside the ticket is coffee at the Center
Camp, and ice--fundraisers for the local youth groups--but you can't stroll
from one end to the other with an empty cup without somebody offering to
fill it. I spent much of Friday of 2005 in a whiskey saloon operated by
some folks from New Orleans who had dragged a portable stage, army tent,
antique bar and an ancient piano out to the desert and learned it was
basically all they had left in the world.

That year they kicked the media out of the media tent and turned it into a
Red Cross donation center...except nobody brings cash to Burning Man. So a
bunch of them loaded up in trucks, drove down to Gulfport and built a
24-hour free supermarket for the residents, and many of them stayed there
living in their own shelters for months helping out the locals. That's the
kind of mentality that you find there. It's -incredibly- powerful and
contageous to the extent that it can easily be life-changing.

> Without the wife, though. I don't think she would "get it." <g>

Many don't. You have to be able to deal with heat, dust, portable
toilets--cleaned several times daily--and you have to have your mind wide
open 'cause things roll by or happen that you literally can't believe you're
seeing. It's a lot safer now that they banned machine guns and stuff, but
it's still very common to see a fire-breathing viking boat (stripper pole
for a mast), pirate ship or Road Warrior relic roll by with flamethrowers
blazing into the sky. I've asked my wife to stop apologizing for not
wanting to go all the previous years.

Take care.
-c

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