2003

August 21, 2003

The final frantic packing and preparations are nearing their finale. This may be the last transmission, as your Airport Manager will be out of email com range until after the event. If you have last minute questions, try joining the aviators mailing list and asking anyone who hasn't left yet. Send email to aviators-list-subscribe@burningman.com

I can tell it's close to departure time. There's a warm glow in the air, and a bizarre color in my hair. Airport Manager and Airport Camp Host have a particularly nice dye job this year, thanks to the Airport Camp Host's brother's wife. She's a professional working in Saratoga; let us know if you want contact information.

August 18, 2003

Runway is still not ready. If has cones down the side, don't land. If it looks unsafe to you, don't land. It's kind of scary driving down it in a car at 40 mph, don't take any chances. More work to be done. The weekend's work party started off slowly due to misplaced equipment, but finished up with a rush of good work when all the stored items finally made it to the playa.

One windsock is up, the other was delayed by Oshkosh, but is on its way to Gerlach. The helipad is in, just need to add some more colorant to make it look better from the air, and get the red lights going. The runway is partly dragged, needs a lot more. The crew is going to try a different drag. The container was unloaded, the shade structure for the world headquarters of the Black Rock Travel Agency was installed, and X's were painted on the unfinished runway.

August 15, 2003

Dean created a wonderful diagram of the Airport to show preferred flight paths, and give basic Airport information. Denny created a wonderful check-in form for the Customs Agents to use. A friend of hers did the Port of Entry logo. Take a look. They are both pdf files.

Airport Diagram
Customs Form 178 Private Aircraft Enforcement System Arrival Report

August 11, 2003

The runway is surveyed, and marked with cones, but not prepared. If you are flying up early, DO NOT LAND ON THE RUNWAY until you get notice through the aviators-list that it's ready for you. There are lots of safe places to land on the playa, but the runway isn't one of them. It has bumps which are to be removed, and the runway watered to prepare the surface.

It's lined with traffic cones for the benefit of the dragging crew; tall cones with concrete stakes keeping them in place. Not a good thing to hit. They will be removed when the surface is ready. If there're there, it's not ready. Meanwhile, pick another spot. Lots of good surface to the northeast of the city.

August 4, 2003

The location of this year's event is shown on this scanned image of the Klamath Falls Sectional. It also shows the location of the event in 1996, 1997, and 1998 (1999 was nearly the same as '98). Black Rock City has been in exactly the same location since 2000. The GPS coordinates for the corner of the fence where the Airport is located are:

N 40degrees 44'16.04"
W 119degrees 14'25.65"

Billybob put together a webpage in 2002 dealing with compass information and dimensions of the city. Some info does not apply to 2003, the street names are different, and there is one additional ring road in 2003, but there is lots of good detailed information still applicable.

July 29, 2003

We have a plan showing the location of the Port of Entry relative to Black Rock City. It's the same spot as 2000-2002. Take the 5:00 radial (Dubious) heading away from The Man. Go along the edge of walk-in camping, 1/2 mile beyond Vision. It's 1mile from Center Camp as the crow walks.

July 14, 2003
Whitney created a webpage for the Customs and unicom shift schedules.

July 3, 2003
The AfterBurn report for 2002 is on the web. It has a section on the Airport.

July1, 2003
An announcement for volunteers to work as Customs Agents went out. Lots of responses.

May 16, 2003
If you want to hitch a ride in a plane, or have a spare seat, you can post a message on the e-playa. Go to the e-playa, click on "Burning Man 2003", then on "Ride Share", then on "Black Rock City Airport". Use this for coordinating flights to and from Black Rock City, or for aerial flights during the event.