Backcountry Flyers Extend Agreement With National Park Service

Though it has faced some recent setbacks, the Recreational Aviation Foundation (RAF) is celebrating the renewal of a maintenance agreement with the National Park Service (NPS) involving three airstrips within the Death Valley National Park in California. The five-year Memorandum of Understanding extends an agreement between RAF and NPS that was originally established in 2008.

Under the terms of the “Volunteer In the Park” (VIP) pact, RAF volunteers are authorized to “perform mutually beneficial repairs to park airstrips at no cost to the United States,” according to the RAF. The backcountry flying enthusiast organization coordinates with pilot associations and local groups to arrange for volunteer labor and to raise funds. The NPS provides the “drag device” to groom the “Chicken Strip” gravel runway in Saline Valley. RAF California Liaison Rick Lach said that volunteers routinely provide hand labor to restore the runway surface after seasonal washouts. Volunteers are also recruited to remove invasive weeds and perform other grounds maintenance work at the Park’s Stovepipe Wells and Furnace Creek airstrips.

RAF Board Chairman John McKenna said, “The RAF and the NPS have been successfully partnering for nearly 16 years to make access to these areas safe and available to the aviation community.”