Fly In at Escalante Airport (1L7)
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Many thanks to the City of Escalante and the Utah Back Country Pilots Association for planning and arranging a fly in at Escalante Municipal Airport (1L7) the weekend of April 30- May 2, 2010.
The City and many citizens of Escalante did what was humanly possible to make it happen, but the weather didn’t cooperate at all. Friday the 30th winds howled and it snowed or rained on much of the state making flying not practical. However the optimism for clearing skies prevailed and the program went on as planned. Since NOBODY flew in and there was plenty of food on hand, an invitation was extended to the towns people and about 40 folks came out to help consume the wonderful chicken and potatoes prepared Dutch Oven style.
Saturday May 1st, the weather north of Escalante was still bad, but around Escalante and south it was pretty nice. About 25 residents came out for blueberry pancakes and eggs and two airplanes flew in from the south.
About 10:30, Paul Bowmar flew his 1947 Cessna 140 to Boulder Airport and UFO Landing Strip. Joined by Mark Austin (armed with a backhoe), Dale Henry, the Desert Doctor, and Jeff Prows, began some maintenance on the old dirt runway and tiedown area.
They dug rocks out of the runway and flattened some wash out areas. Reset some old tiedowns that had dislodged over the years, and removed many of the oil pan bashing rocks from the road to the strip.
Mark Austin had committed his road grader to blade the runway, however on Thursday Mark began some maintenance on the grader in preparation, and found brake problems. So in a pinch, Paul Bowmar called Brian Bremner, Garfield County Road Dept. and Brian said it was too short notice to have the county grader there by Saturday, but Brian did commit to grading it in the next few weeks. So Mark brought the backhoe which proved indispensable for rock removal and setting tiedowns. (It’s called Boulder for a reason) Thanks Mark Austin and MAD Builders.
Saturday afternoon winds picked up to about 15-20 knots and made for a bumpy ride flying back to Escalante, however the work party did make some improvement and the county will help make it even better.
Please come see the progress!
