The day of the accident, guys that were ignoring instructions by coming
up the tracks from Ripon were being cleared to land -- while dozens of
guys (who were following the instructions) were holding endlessly
around Rush and Green lakes.

One year we were just rolling out on 36 after doing the whole RIPON
thing when some clown showed up in a Bonanza calling the tower on
3 mile final, totally clueless about the whole RIPON thing (or the
general concept of class D airspace). I suspect the tower figured
it was less safety impact to just let them land than having them
turn around in face of all the other arrivals and cleared them to
land on runway 36L (which is the only runway 36 most times of year).
The bo pilot asked which one 36 was...there was a rather condescending
"It's the one with the big numbers and the dotted line down the
middle."

(Of course, I was standing on taxiway Papa when a plane landed there
one year as well).