4
$\begingroup$

I've heard that the Burning Man festival sets up a temporary airport each year for the week of the festival and that it is staffed by volunteers. What is it like to be a volunteer there? Do the employees at surrounding airports find dealing with them better or worse than non-volunteer airports?

Update: Previously I asked what it is like to be a "volunteer ATC", but that is not the right terminology. I have broadened the question to be less specific.

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
6
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ Black Rock City airport (88NV) has a website, such that it is. (portofentry.org) It appears that during the Burning Man festival, the airport has a Unicom operator, but there is no "ATC" as such. It's a non-towered strip. Any ATC would come from Reno, or whatever part of US ATC controls that airspace. $\endgroup$
    – CGCampbell
    Commented Aug 27, 2014 at 14:06
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for the details. What's a "Unicorn operator"? $\endgroup$
    – TomOnTime
    Commented Aug 27, 2014 at 22:24
  • $\begingroup$ @tom unicOM, not unicoRN. I admit, that's how i read it the first time, too. $\endgroup$
    – Steve V.
    Commented Aug 27, 2014 at 22:34
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ d'oh! The font really looks like an "r n" not "rm". (I guess it's the Stack Exchange unicorn mascot influence!) $\endgroup$
    – TomOnTime
    Commented Aug 27, 2014 at 22:36
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ In Tom's defense, he has been working at Stack long enough to be corrupted by the unicoRN memes... also the kerning in the default font is pretty awful sometimes. $\endgroup$
    – voretaq7
    Commented Aug 28, 2014 at 4:13

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
4
$\begingroup$

I volunteered at the Airport in 2015 and it was a really cool experience. I only worked one shift as "Night Watch" / "Border Control" which is basically making sure people going to/from the event to the parked airplanes have the proper wristbands and making sure no one tries to sneak in at night. There are a ton of other positions listed on the volunteer website you can read about here: http://airport.burningman.org/us-who-we-are-and-were/volunteer-info/

The volunteer jobs range from logistical stuff like processing passengers, to ramp operations like guiding taxiing traffic, checking arrival documents to actually running the UNICOM and giving weather advisories to local traffic, particularly about what runway/pattern is in use given the current winds.

Many of the positions (especially ramp side jobs) require some familiarity with how the airport operates and my impression was you "worked your way" up to those. Like many things at Burning Man, if you show up, volunteer and contribute you can end up doing some cool stuff.

You can subscribe to the volunteer mailing list by sending a blank email here: [email protected]

If you're curious about pilot experiences flying to/from the event (which is what I think your original question was about) I would subscribe to the aviators discussion list by sending a blank email to this address: [email protected]

Both are great resources for getting first hand information about what its like to fly into and volunteer at 88NV

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
2
$\begingroup$

From the website that CGCampbell links to in his comment, it can also be found that the airport is located in Class G airspace. Class G is uncontrolled (see and avoid) airspace, so there is no air traffic control active in the airspace around the airport.

It also says flight following may be requested from Reno:

The controllers in Reno are familiar with our location, and it’s OK to give them Burning Man or Black Rock City as your destination when requesting Flight Following. However, if you’re lower than 10,000 feet they will most likely end radar services with you around Pyramid Lake. Close your flight plan prior to losing contact.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .