Lahontan is Lake Again

Image: Renee Aldrich via RGJ

The Interwebz are all abuzz with pictures of people kayaking on the Playa, which has been under water for a couple of months now. Check this story at the Reno Gazette-Journal Kayakers Take Over Black Rock Desert.

Once upon a time, the Playa was a prehistoric mega-lake


Re-blogged from djbios.com:

THE BURNING MAN PLAYA IN THE BLACK ROCK DESERT IS CURRENTLY UNDERWATER

03.12.2017

A weather phenomenon in the Black Rock Playa is creating a stir amongst this year’s prospective Burning Man attendees. The innermost basin of the 200-square-mile expanse located outside Gerlach, Nevada has flooded as a result of torrential downpour, and some question whether or not the transformational gathering will still take place.

Over the past couple weeks, murmurs have circulated about how the flood has left the Playa submerged in up to 6-8 inches of water. Much of the Burner community dismissed the rumors as “fake news” (with varying degrees of apparent seriousness), but Nevada Magazine Associate Editor Eric Cachinero posted the following photo in the Burning Man Facebook group:

To verify the authenticity of the photo, Cachinero followed it up with a video:

However, perhaps the most picturesque photos of the flooded Playa were posted by another group member named Ted K. Stoltling:

Several Burners have speculated that the water will evaporate by the time organizers start setting up for the gathering in August, and indeed, a visit to the Friends of Black Rock-High Rock website reveals that floods take place on the Playa every few years. However, if uncharacteristically high precipitation did threaten the event, Burning Man promoters Black Rock City, LLC (BRC) would not be held accountable. An excerpt from the organization’s legal disclaimer to ticketholders reads:

Tickets are nonrefundable even if the Event is terminated early or canceled due to harsh weather, acts of nature, government regulation, or conditions beyond BRC’s control. BRC is not liable for acts of God or actions taken by government agencies.

Burning Man has taken place annually in one form or another since 1986; 1990 marked the first edition that graced the grounds of the Black Rock Playa. As opposed to similar large-scale festivals, the ethos of the event is built upon ten principles which include radical inclusion, decommodification, and radical self-reliance, among others.

As of this writing, BRC has yet to issue a statement regarding the Black Rock Playa flood. The 2017 edition of Burning Man is slated to take place from August 27th to September 4th.

[Source]

Sheriff Takes Family on Raven Trip to Burning Man

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Who said Burning Man is not a rave? The Sheriff of Washoe County took his wife and kid on a joyride official police business trip to Burning Man in the company chopper. The name of the military grade, electronically souped up aerial enforcer? RAVEN.

Anjeanette Damon at the Reno Gazette-Journal has the scoop:

Washoe County Sheriff Chuck Allen hitched a ride on a preplanned RAVEN helicopter flight to Burning Man last year, and brought along his wife and adult son.

Allen said he had to attend a multi-agency meeting at the annual arts celebration in the Black Rock Desert 110 miles north of Reno on Sept. 5 and didn’t want to make the two-hour drive that often ends in a traffic jam. So, Allen said he asked the department’s chief pilot if he could jump on the flight planned for that day.

“Yes, I did include my wife and son,” Allen told the Reno Gazette-Journal on Thursday. “I can do that as sheriff.”

“I checked to make sure I wasn’t breaking any of my own policies,” he added.

The policy that governs the sheriff’s office helicopter program does not specifically address civilian ride-alongs. It has a section, however, that limits “non-RAVEN affiliated personnel” who are authorized to ride in the helicopter.

“Police, fire, REMSA, (Search and Rescue), county, city, state, military and federal employees actively involved in public safety missions may be carried on RAVEN aircraft in accordance with public law,” the policy reads.

The sheriff’s office Regional Aviation Enforcement Unit was formed in 1996, when the department obtained four helicopters through the U.S. Department of Defense’s surplus program. The unit’s primary mission is to respond to crimes in progress, search and rescue operations and drug enforcement surveillance missions…

Allen said he saw the trip to Burning Man no differently than if his wife went along with him to a department function in “my vehicle assigned to me.”..

Allen said his undersheriff and a chief deputy also brought their wives along on a previous flight to Burning Man…

Allen needed to make the trip to Burning Man to meet with Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen, as well as Bureau of Land Management personnel. Burning Man staff also gave him a tour of the 70,000-person Black Rock City. Allen said he also greeted all of the Washoe County deputies working the event and attended a dinner, which included other law enforcement personnel and their spouses…

The day Allen and his family traveled to Burning Man included the celebration’s pinnacle event of the burning of the man.

Read the full story at the Reno-Gazette Journal

What is RAVEN? It’s the Regional Aviation Enforcement Unit.

In 1996, The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office was able to obtain four helicopters through the Department of Defense’s excess property program. The four aircraft that were delivered to the county were hulks that need quite a bit of restoration and overhaul before being transformed into useable assets. Building two flyable aircraft from the original four, the Regional Aviation Enforcement Unit, or RAVEN, was born. In addition to the two Kiowas that the unit operates, RAVEN is the proud operator of the very first of only 30 manufactured HH-1H Huey helicopters, originally built by Bell for the United States Air Force for Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) purposes. The two Kiowas and one Huey are all in outstanding mechanical condition thanks to the dedication of the full time and part time maintenance personnel assigned to the unit, and were acquired and refurbished using drug forfeiture money rather than taxpayer dollars.

Originally staffed with part-time pilots from the local Army Guard helicopter unit, RAVEN has become a self sufficient aviation unit that has dedicated deputies assigned both full and part time to flying duties.

[Source]

The RAVEN unit operates both rotary and fixed-wing aircraft. They use the OH-58 Kiowa, which is a 2 seater surveillance chopper; and the HH-1H Huey, which is a USAF Search And Rescue variant of one of the largest passenger capacity helicopters ever made. The standard model can take 14 troops as well as the 2 pilots. I’m guessing the Sheriff and his family rode in on the Huey; were there other civilians with them on this flight?

The story has this to say about the logistics:

The Reno Gazette-Journal obtained a flight log from the sheriff’s office that listed three RAVEN flights to Burning Man last year on Sept. 3, Sept. 4 and Sept. 5. However, no public records apparently exist to document the family members’ flight or whether any other civilian ride-alongs have occurred in the past.

According to the log, the helicopter departed Reno at 10:50 a.m. and returned at 11:20 p.m., reporting a total of three hours of actual flight time.

Allen said the flights were not “joy rides.” Rather, they were pre-planned missions that were able to accommodate the extra passengers.

“I would have to stress, yes, it was a scheduled mission,” he said. “I would never encourage or even allow someone to go on a joy ride.”

He said his wife and son stayed with him the entire day and did not travel to participate in the Burning Man event itself.

“My wife and son shadowed me the entire time,” he said.

[Source]

Even though they watched the Man burn (presumably from a VIP position), and attended a fully catered dinner, the Sheriff takes pains to stress that they didn’t participate in the Burning Man event. This is similar logic to BMOrg’s claim that 80,000 people sitting down to watch a 30-minute uninterruptible performance with hundreds of fire dancers, followed by an hour+ pyrotechnics show when they burn the Man, does not in any way constitute live entertainment.

It doesn’t sound like these civilians needed tickets. Glad to hear that the LEOs can entertain their families by spectating on all the participants. Hey, if they can’t have bottomless Chocotacos, at least they can perv on some titties and shirt-cockers, and laugh at all the freaks they’re looking down on.

washoe sheriff huey1

Read more about the Washoe RAVEN unit at Vertical Magazine.