Saline Valley Warm Springs Airfield, commonly known as the Chicken Strip, is a non-towered

dirt Dirt is an unclean matter, especially when in contact with a person's clothes, skin, or possessions. In such cases, they are said to become dirty. Common types of dirt include: * Debris: scattered pieces of waste or remains * Dust: a genera ...

airstrip An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...

not depicted on an

FAA The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

sectional chart {{short description, Type of aeronautical chart In United States aviation, a sectional chart, often called a sectional for short, is a type of aeronautical chart designed for air navigation under visual flight rules (VFR). In Australia, Canada and ...

. The airstrip provides

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

fly-in A fly-in is a pre-arranged gathering of aircraft, pilots and passengers for recreational and social purposes. Fly-ins may be formally or informally organised, members of the public may or may not be invited, the gathering may be at an airport or ...

access to the

Saline Valley Saline Valley is a large, deep, and arid graben, about in length, in the northern Mojave Desert of California, a narrow, northwest–southeast-trending tectonic sink defined by fault-block mountains. Most of it became a part of Death Valley Natio ...

hot springs A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...

Death Valley National Park Death Valley National Park is an American national park that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern section of Eureka ...

. The closest airport to the airstrip is

Lone Pine Airport Lone Pine Airport is a public airport located one mile (1.6 km) southeast of Lone Pine (geographic coordinates N36-35.30; W118-03.12) serving Inyo County, California, United States. The airport has two runways and is mostly used for general ...

, to the southwest, and the closest airport with regular

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines for ...

service is

Fresno Yosemite International Airport Fresno Yosemite International Airport is a joint military/public airport in Fresno, California, United States. It is the primary commercial airport for the San Joaquin Valley and three national parks: Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon. It o ...

, to the west. Chicken Strip was built in the 1960s to provide quicker access to the nearby hot springs, sometimes called the warm springs, that are a short walking distance away. Without the airport the only other access to the Saline Valley hot springs is an arduous, dirt road that can take three to four hours to complete.

History

* On August 7, 2011 the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

(NPS) closed Chicken Strip due to safety concerns. The Recreational Aviation Foundation (RAF) worked with the NPS to repair the strip. Volunteers from the RAF and BackcountryPilot.org worked to restore Chicken Strip to the satisfaction of the NPS. Chicken Strip reopened to the public on October 15, 2011. * In July 2016 Chicken Strip closed because the airstrip had become too rough from storm damage to safely land on. With quick action from RAF volunteers, the airstrip reopened in September 2016. * In 2018 the NPS issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to designate the Saline Valley Warm Springs Airfield as a location "available for the operation of aircraft" and to be charted on a sectional and be entered in to the FAA registrar. *On August 19, 2019, the NPS issued an official authorization. Saline Valley Hot Springs, HDR (4619225699)

Saline Valley Hot Springs, HDR (4619225699)

Facilities

Chicken Strip is at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. ...

. It has one, slightly up-sloping,

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

: * Runway headings are approximately 18/36 measuring 1,350 x ~30 ft (411 x ~9 m).

References

{{Reflist

External links

Chicken Strip Facebook page
Airports in Inyo County, California Aviation in California