Could All Events Seen As Risky Be At Risk?
Commentary By Paul Plack, Senior E-Media Editor
As soon as I complete today's ANN Aero-Cast and turn the mic
off, I'm headed off to the El Mirage dry lake in southern
California to enjoy the only aviation event I attend each year
where I'm not working in some capacity. I'll spend the weekend
relaxing with some of the most fun and interesting people I know,
and do a little gyroplane and gyroglider flying while I'm
there.
Sometimes, there are movie or commercial sets on the dry lake
when we arrive, and we also get to see a wide variety of off-road
machines being thoroughly enjoyed. The Southern California Timing
Association has a groomed course for speed runs. There's also a Mad
Max reenactment group that holds events there. It can be a wild
place, and in years past it could also get pretty dangerous.
The Ken Brock Freedom Fly-In is named for the late gyroplane
pioneer who died a few years ago in a freak ground accident in a
fixed-wing plane, and whose family still has a ranch bordering the
lake. It got its name, in part, because there's no admission fee.
But the "Freedom Fly-In" isn't as "free" as it used to be. A few
years ago, the US Bureau of Land Management announced it would be
fencing in the famous off-road-vehicle recreation area to tame
things down.
So now, it's $15 a day or $30 a week per-vehicle to get in, and
as far as anyone can tell, it must all go into paying off the
fence, because the bad apples still tear up the surface during the
wet season. Maybe the fee is part of the deficit reduction program.
Wherever the money is going, it's killed off the more casual
attendance by guys from the local area who'd bring their sons out
just for Saturday morning to see the unusual machines fly.
The BLM's fencing in of the El Mirage dry lake looks to me like
a metaphor for what's happening to general aviation. It's being
increasingly fenced off, literally and figuratively, and now our
president wants to hit some of us with a $100 fee every time we
take off. That fee will almost certainly spread to Saturday morning
recreational flights if it gets started, and will keep us from
sharing the joy of flight with our kids and grandkids.
So I'm heading for El Mirage this year with a sense that I'd
better enjoy this unique place while I can. Especially in light of
what may come out of the tragedy in Reno, I'm concerned that our
freedoms to take part in activities which involve risk, whether as
participants or spectators, could be much more limited soon. The
writing has been on the wall for years.
Don't let a dumb recession stop you. Go fly this weekend. While
you still can.
(Pictured: Legendary gyroplane CFI and movie stunt pilot
Marion Springer, 82, (at left in orange flight suit,) readies her
Bensen Gyrocopter for flight at the El Mirage dry lake in
2009.)