Incident at Applegate lake: Woodrat is CLOSED

[Dan Wells]

Sorry to have to send another E-mail on this subject, but this time I am copying all local and visiting pilots registered with RVHPA.

http://rvhpa.org/news/temporary-closure-at-woodrat/

See the attached E-mail. Here is a report of an incident of a pilot flying in the vicinity of Applegate lake. Assuming this is all correct the pilot most likely launched from Woodrat Mt.

Please follow the notice on the RVHPA website and do not fly in the Woodrat local area. Fines and court costs if you hamper firefighting operations could be substantial.

Thanks,

Dan Wells
Treasurer, RVHPA
503 804-1077
treasu...@rvhpa.org




-----Original Message-----
From: Louis Garton [mailto:louieg...@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, August 19, 2017 7:56 PM
To: Norm Young; Dan Wells; Rick Ray; Ryan Grizzell; Steven Carter; Rich Stewart
Cc: Paul Murdoch
Subject: Miller Complex Wildfire Air Support Grounded due to Hang/Paraglider intrusion over Applegate Lake

All,

I just got a call from Bob Newmann, liaison for the Miller Complex fire based at Cantrell Buckley (they have also opened helicopter operations at the base of Applegate Lake Dam). He reported that all air support to the fires in the Miller Complex, which includes the Chetco Bar fire that went to evacuation level 3 today, were grounded when either a hang glider or paraglider (he does not know which) was spotted flying near Applegate Lake.

He thinks the pilot who intruded was either cited or possibly arrested for the intrusion, despite there being no official TFR.

The intrusion caused them a lot of lost time fighting the fires and a lot of money to ground all the air support while the situation was evaluated.

I told him that we placed a temporary closure of our landing sites due to the fire fighting operations yesterday, but that since our launch sites are on public land (BLM), we had not put signs up at the launches. He is going to touch base with BLM and see about putting signs up on the Woodrat launch sites. I offered to lead him to the launch sites, but he is not sure yet what they will put up, when they will have it or who will put them up. He has my number if he needs my assistance as he is from California and does not know the area.

What he wants from us is to try to get the word out to all our local pilots to stay out of the air until these fires are under control! He is not sure if this was a local pilot or not, but wants us to stress the situation as much as we can. I asked if he could let me know who the pilot was, but he didn’t know yet and if he could do that if he finds out. I then asked to at least let me know if the pilot was from the local area or not and he said he would if he could.

I will be calling everyone on this email in a bit to make sure everyone is aware, because this is a big deal! I will be asking Dan or Steve (whoever has access to all the club emails) to send out an alert to every member to stay out of the air around Woodrat until further notice.

Bob Newmann’s phone number is 805-441-5469 and he was very nice speaking to me about this incident. He knows we have tried to keep people out the air, he just wants us to stress it some more.

Cheers,
Louie