THIS EVENT IS CANCELLED DUE TO FIRES/SMOKE IN THE AREA!!
The founders of the Carver’s Cut airstrip and the CA RAF Liaisons are having a Fall Flapjack Fly-In at our brand new private airstrip in the southern High Sierras on Saturday, Oct 7 - Sunday, Oct 8th. The strip is on a private ranch holding completely surrounded by National Forest, gorgeous granite peaks, a stream with natural rock water slides and swimming, fishing, and hiking. If you would like to join us, you can stay for the day or stay for the weekend and enjoy a hearty Sierra Nevada flapjacks breakfast, good company, and beautiful mountain scenery. ALL ATTENDEES MUST COMPLETE THE "PERMISSION TO LAND REQUEST FORM" (blue box on the right side of this page).
THE AIRSTRIP: Located a 10min flight north of Kern Valley Airport (L05), the 4500’ MSL dirt airstrip is 1400' x 50' with an approx. 4% slope downhill towards the south. There is a short windsock at the southwest end of the airstrip. NOTE:
FREQ: 122.8
LAT/LONG: 36.006/-118.490
CAPABLE AIRPLANES ONLY
PLEASE CONSULT YOUR PERFORMANCE CHARTS
The airstrip is too new to be seen on Google Maps, sorry :/
If you need to land at Kern Valley Airport (L05) and get shuttled up, please call ahead of time to make arrangements with our Kernville Uber/Lyft driver Jim Warner 760-223-3635. The price is usually about $35/car ride.
THE AMMENITIES AND ACCOMODATIONS:Carver’s Cut airstrip has a cabin, toilet, shower, kitchen, BBQ, covered kitchen and eating patio, tent platforms and plenty of open space to camp. There's a shooting range area near the cabin, a swimming hole, the famous Tea Cups Waterfalls, hiking, fishing in the creek, and natural rock waterslides.
THE PLAN/CAMPING: We'll be hanging out and cooking a hearty flapjack breakfast and sides on Saturday, Oct 7th from 8:30am-10:30am. Feel free to camp out Friday and/or Saturday night.
The PIC bears the ultimate authority and responsibility for safe and approaches and departures from the airstrip.
Watch the video at the top right of this page before flying in.
Use a typical backcountry pre-landing checklist to circle and carefully assess the situation on the ground, such as possibility of cattle in the vicinity, number of planes on the ground, parked or moving and to determine their abort point and abort path. If the winds so favor it, landing uphill will require an earlier abort point due to rising terrain.
Typical morning canyon wind pattern: flowing lightly down-canyon during the very early morning hours then reversing and flowing up-canyon from Lake Isabella with gradually increasing intensity as the daytime temperature goes up. Afternoon winds have been very often out of the south in the canyon and variable south to southwest at the windsock. Maybe 5 or at most 10 degrees off the strip, with some variability in magnitude. The south wind creates an amazing amount of lift off the south slopes of the flat-top east of the strip.
Therefore, there are a couple schools of thought of how to land at Carver's Cut depending on the time of day you come in:
1) Early morning landings: Heavy airplane guys might anticipate the wind would still be flowing down canyon and land Runway 02 (uphill), but with the uphill landing, your go-no point should be picked slightly earlier in anticipation of applying go-around power in the slight uphill direction.. This would give the benefit of both a slight headwind and an uphill slope to reduce ground roll. Light airplane guys typically land downhill (Runway 20) as the slope is gentle enough that they are stopped and slowed in 70% of the strip with minimal braking. And they have the go around option until touchdown practically -they have much less go around option going uphill due to low horsepower.
2) Afternoon to late-afternoon landings: Bearing that the typical up-canyon winds are flowing up from Lake Isabella, land downhill (Runway 20) as the slope is gentle enough and headwind strong enough that you will be stopped and slowed in 70% of the strip with minimal braking. This also gives the downhill/down-canyon go-around option until touchdown.
Carver's Cut approach and departure video. Watch this before flying in ↓↓
Permission to land request form
Carver's Cut is a private airstrip for use by permission and accompaniment of the founding pilots only. YOU MUST READ AND SUBMIT THE CONSENT FORM TO REQUEST PERMISSION TO LAND/ATTEND THE AIRSTRIP/EVENT.