On Saturday, September 21, 2013 8:49:19 PM UTC-6, wrote:
On Saturday, September 21, 2013 9:59:05 PM UTC-4, Bill D wrote:

On Friday, September 20, 2013 3:28:38 PM UTC-6, wrote:



As part of my new 12-step crash recovery program, I have taken a sacred vow to never go to a new soaring site without a thorough Google Earth review of all airports/airstrips in the published site waypoint database. When I find that airports in the database aren't there anymore (and there are always some - think Lincoln Station at Moriarty) - I manually modify my personal waypoint database so that I don't try to fly to a non-existent airport (again).















I have completed my preliminary review of the current Minden waypoint database, and although I only found a few missing/abandoned airstrips, I found that a LOT of them are problematic - usually due to a runway that is nominally much too narrow for an 18 (or even a 15) meter glider. I say 'nominally' because such an airstrip might be more than adequate if the surrounding sagebrush or other vegetation is low enough - but that's hard to tell from the GE imagery.















I have placed photo sets (usually 2 but sometimes 3 photos) of each problem airstrip, along with a Word document containing captioned versions of the photo sets on my Google drive at















https://drive.google.com/folderview?...sha ring#list















Each photo set contains an overview shot showing the airstrip's orientation and distance from Minden, along with a closeup of the airstrip itself, with the runway width shown via the GE 'ruler' tool. Some sets have a third photo showing a nearby alternate (usually a real airport with decent runway widthh)















If anyone has additional information about any of these airstrips (or any new ones discovered that aren't in the database yet), please post it here so all Minden-bound pilots can benefit. If someone wants to copy these files over to the Minden Soaring Club site, that's fine by me too.















Hopefully the contest organizers will consider modifications to the database as appropriate ;-).















One last note. One of the airstrips in the database is 'Black Rock City' which turns out to be the site of the annual 'Burning Man' festival. The airstrip itself is nowhere to be found (or at least I couldn't see it), but the GE image was coincidentally taken during the festival period when the city was actually there (in theory, everything is carted away at the end of the festival) - neat!















Regards,















Frank (TA)











Frank, many states have a "back country airstrip" associations which have documented many remote and rarely used strips with aerial and ground photos both as well as pilot reports. While they don't cover every strip, I've found these useful.



Bill,



Good point, but they are much more likely to be tail-dragger oriented and not too worried about usable width. What a Maul or a 180 would consider perfectly acceptable might not work too well for an 18m glider ;-).



Frank (TA)

Of course you're right, some are completely unusable for gliders even though a tail dragger can land there. OTOH, some listings have runway width dimensions and excellent photos which give a glider pilot a pretty good idea what the field is like. The only way to know for sure is a "boots on the ground" reconnaissance of the strip. If anyone does that, please put a report on-line somewhere so other pilots can be informed.