Big Sur

Palmpilot

Palmpilot

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Apr 1, 2007
Messages
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Location
PUDBY
Display Name
Richard Palm
Home Airfield
Palo Alto (SFO area)
You never know when you're going to NEED an airport.

"Bridge failure severs Big Sur’s ties to outside world"

http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/...ties-to-outside-10958200.php?cmpid=fb-premium

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Only problem is except for the private strip near Hearst Castle there are not even airports to be able to service those affected by the closure in that region.

Heard a report that they are using helicopter services at $1000/hour to get in and out.
 
I was a paramedic in Big Sur during the last El Nino. (I think it was 98.) We were choppered in by CA ANG Chinooks. First day, I had to fly a 1 week old with difficulty breathing out on a Coast Guard Dauphin. Scary call, but fun flight. After that, they gave us a dedicated Blackhawk based 1/2 mile from our quarters. But, the south route was still open. It was about a five hour drive from Monterey to Big Sur taking the southern route. (Down 101 to King City, then across via Fort Hunter Liggett.) This time, the road is out in at least 6 locations, both north and south of the Sur.

I have several friends that are still medics there, and they are not getting the help that we got last time. Apparently, Governor Moonbeam is so busy trying to become a sanctuary state that he has forgotten about his own. Shame, really. Running serious calls in the Sur is challenging, even when the road is open. I hear my friends asking for someone to bring them supplies. I'm half considering flying over and doing an air drop into a meadow near their quarters!
 
Shawn said:
Only problem is except for the private strip near Hearst Castle there are not even airports to be able to service those affected by the closure in that region.

Heard a report that they are using helicopter services at $1000/hour to get in and out.
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That's part of what I was getting at!
 
Rykymus said:
I hear my friends asking for someone to bring them supplies. I'm half considering flying over and doing an air drop into a meadow near their quarters!
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Boy....imaging doing that, with FAA approval of course, and getting it on the news....

Yeah Moonbeam, you hearing this... this is the POA Airlift calling
 
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Is there even room to put an airport along that stretch of coast? I looked at a sectional and it doesn't seem as if there is.
 
Palmpilot said:
That's part of what I was getting at!
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Yes, except there have never been airports on the Big Sur coast, aside from the Hearst site and the Carmel Valley Vintage Airport site (which is not connected to the isolated area).

Almost no one lives there, so it has never been necessary. It's not like the various inland valleys, which are pockmarked with ag strips and abandoned fields. If it weren't for Hwy 1, that 100+ miles of coastline would be wilderness.

If you go looking hard, you may find an uncharted strip or two in there. But getting to the strip by land may be a challenge, and the strip may be in poor condition, given recent weather.

The lesson here is not so much that an airstrip would be needed, but that a single road in and out is a bad idea.

There is nothing stopping delivery of goods by SEA.
 
Yikes.

I bet there is a stack of inspection reports where someone clicked on the 'OK' button on the pdf.
 
The terrain in the Big Sur area is as rugged as you'll find anywhere. Steep mountains, deep canyons and draws, covered with forests and brush. A couple years ago, my department participated in a Search & Rescue for a missing hiker in that area. A team of our deputies said that they were going through steep uphill brush and couldn't see each other even though they were only five to six feet apart.

It's some of the most beautiful, incredible scenery. I can't wait until 1) my arm heals enough from surgery so I can ride the Harley again and, 2) the highway is fixed so I can ride through there. I have only been going down through Big Sur once or twice a year but really should bump that up to monthly.

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Pretty airplane. But maybe next time move that scooter out of the way. What is that.. a vespa?


:)
 
weilke said:
Nope. There isn't really any place to put one. The land rises vertically a hundred feet or so from the water in most of that area.
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There are several examples of historical clifftop whaling stations further north. It could be done, and it was done 150 years ago. Not easily, but substantially more easily than building an airport in that terrain. A container terminal is out of the question, but a floating jetty and crane is not. There are also a couple of sandy beaches along the coast with good access from the highway. It is NOT all cliffs.
 
Everskyward said:
Is there even room to put an airport along that stretch of coast? I looked at a sectional and it doesn't seem as if there is.
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I seem to remember couple of years back there were some folks Med-A-Vaced from the road/parking lot road in-front of the Gorda Springs Resort and taken to Natividad in Salinas.. pretty gnarly trauma case.
 
MAKG1 said:
There are several examples of historical clifftop whaling stations further north. It could be done, and it was done 150 years ago. Not easily, but substantially more easily than building an airport in that terrain. A container terminal is out of the question, but a floating jetty and crane is not. There are also a couple of sandy beaches along the coast with good access from the highway. It is NOT all cliffs.
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All the beaches I remember in Big Sur are behind a row of rocky breakers.
If there was a natural harbor in Big Sur (or geography that allows a railroad), the area would have been densely settled 150 years ago. It's remote because it wasn't accessible until the automobile came around and the road got blasted through.
 
Rykymus said:
I was a paramedic in Big Sur during the last El Nino. (I think it was 98.) We were choppered in by CA ANG Chinooks. First day, I had to fly a 1 week old with difficulty breathing out on a Coast Guard Dauphin. Scary call, but fun flight. After that, they gave us a dedicated Blackhawk based 1/2 mile from our quarters. But, the south route was still open. It was about a five hour drive from Monterey to Big Sur taking the southern route. (Down 101 to King City, then across via Fort Hunter Liggett.) This time, the road is out in at least 6 locations, both north and south of the Sur.

I have several friends that are still medics there, and they are not getting the help that we got last time. Apparently, Governor Moonbeam is so busy trying to become a sanctuary state that he has forgotten about his own. Shame, really. Running serious calls in the Sur is challenging, even when the road is open. I hear my friends asking for someone to bring them supplies. I'm half considering flying over and doing an air drop into a meadow near their quarters!
Click to expand...

I was living in Monterey during the "Devil Slides" of the mid-80's. Only way in and out of the Point Sur Station was helicopters, for several weeks.
 
MAKG1 said:
There are several examples of historical clifftop whaling stations further north. It could be done, and it was done 150 years ago. Not easily, but substantially more easily than building an airport in that terrain. A container terminal is out of the question, but a floating jetty and crane is not. There are also a couple of sandy beaches along the coast with good access from the highway. It is NOT all cliffs.
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Catalina Airport was built by leveling the top of a hill. However, my point is not specific to Big Sur. I just think that the Big Sur situation illustrates a point that communities everywhere would do well to pay attention to: that small general aviation airports can become important in times of natural disaster.
 
Palmpilot said:
There is a federal regulation on dropping objects from an aircraft, and it contains no requirement to get permission from the government.
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In fact, 91.15 says you can.

Sec. 91.15 — Dropping objects.
No pilot in command of a civil aircraft may allow any object to be dropped from that aircraft in flight that creates a hazard to persons or property. However, this section does not prohibit the dropping of any object if reasonable precautions are taken to avoid injury or damage to persons or property.
 
I dont believe external load operations are covered under 91.15. They fall under part 133 and do require an operating certificate. I don't believe there is a requirement to get approval for individual lifts.
 
There's a nice big meadow just north of the Big Sur volunteer fire station at Post Ranch. (Where the ambulance is stationed.) Gotta be a least a 1/2 mile long. Pretty easy target for airdrops, but I don't know how I'd get anything out my door while flying.
 
Rykymus said:
There's a nice big meadow just north of the Big Sur volunteer fire station at Post Ranch. (Where the ambulance is stationed.) Gotta be a least a 1/2 mile long. Pretty easy target for airdrops, but I don't know how I'd get anything out my door while flying.
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String. Cut when ready. Bombs away.
 
Palmpilot said:
There is a federal regulation on dropping objects from an aircraft, and it contains no requirement to get permission from the government.
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However, doing it without bleeding money would require a Part 135 certificate. It's an on-demand cargo operation.
 
What a mess, I just started following this story. So I take it Highway 1 at Ragged Point is also washed out as well?
 
Sac Arrow said:
What a mess, I just started following this story. So I take it Highway 1 at Ragged Point is also washed out as well?
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Yep. And last I saw, Nacimiento-Fergusson Rd. running through Ft. Hunter Liggett to the coast is out, so the only way from the upper end to the lower end of the washouts is 101 to SLO and double back up 1.
 
Everskyward said:
Is there even room to put an airport along that stretch of coast? I looked at a sectional and it doesn't seem as if there is.
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There is a long, pretty much level stretch between Andrew Molera State Park and Point Sur just to the North of Big Sur itself. In the South there is a similar stretch at Pacific Valley - just North of Gorda. No one has proposed building an airport in either location - that I am aware of. The road (Highway 1) could serve as an emergency airstrip in those areas provided it were cleared of vehicular traffic.

Dave
 
cessna182b said:
There is a long, pretty much level stretch between Andrew Molera State Park and Point Sur just to the North of Big Sur itself. In the South there is a similar stretch at Pacific Valley - just North of Gorda. No one has proposed building an airport in either location - that I am aware of. The road (Highway 1) could serve as an emergency airstrip in those areas provided it were cleared of vehicular traffic.

Dave
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For someone to propose building an airport, the benefit would need to exceed the cost. In a real emergency, people could be transported by helicopter. Helicopters hold as much as a small airplane, and some hold more. When people decide to move to places like this, they should be prepared to be cut off, just like people who live in the mountains in winter, for example.
 
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