CALL TO ACTION: SAN RAFAEL SWELL TRAVEL MANAGEMENT PLAN
We need your help to preserve Utah’s scenic backcountry airstrips. Due to the 2017 lawsuit settlement with an environmental group, the BLM is obligated to revise 13 Travel Management Plans (TMPs) in Utah. Each requires public comment periods. RAF Utah Liaison Wendy Lessig says, “Please hang in there and keep sending your comments. Every voice counts.”
Draft San Rafael Swell TMP comment period closes July 22, 2024.
The 5 airstrips in the San Rafael Swell TMP area are:
Hidden Splendor
Cliff Dweller Flat
McKay Flat
- These three airstrips were listed in the 2008 Price Resource Management Plan (RMP). It says these airstrips cannot be closed without formally consulting with the FAA and pilot user groups. The BLM is proposing to limit use at these airstrips to aircraft only.
Sagebrush Bench
- This airstrip is overgrown and doesn’t get as much use. The BLM is under pressure to close motorized vehicle routes that are disused and overgrown.
Gilson’s Butte
- This is an airstrip that was just recently identified, and is in a spectacular setting to enjoy primitive camping under dark skies. The BLM has not had a chance yet to perform the necessary studies to formally approve its use as an airstrip.
Talking Points – Your comments should be substantive and provide the BLM with new information or new perspectives they had not considered before. In your own words, tell the BLM what access to the backcountry airstrips means to you.
- Thank the BLM for considering Hidden Splendor, Cliff Dweller Flat, McKay Flat, and Sagebrush Bench airstrips in the TMP. Ask the BLM to please include these four airstrips as open designated airstrips in the final TMP alternative selected.
- Please include Gilson’s Butte airstrip in the TMP, either in the current revision of the TMP or as soon as possible thereafter.
- Tell the BLM that as pilots, we support limiting use of airstrips to aircraft only, but are open to allowing combined use with other OHVs. Signage requesting that OHVs not drive on landing surface (runway) would minimize ruts and would make combined use safer.
- Aircraft meet the definition of an OHV and should continue to access the same designated routes that are open to other OHVs. Ask the BLM to please avoid language in the TMP that restricts aircraft to only landing on designated airstrips.
- Aircraft are the lightest impact motorized access to Utah’s spectacular backcountry.
- Ask the BLM to not eliminate access to an airstrip because of encroaching vegetation. Pilot organizations, such as the RAF and Utah Back Country Pilots (UBCP) regularly rally volunteers to perform airstrip maintenance to make them safer for use. Airstrips are already previously-disturbed areas, and with a day or two of work, most airstrips can be adequately maintained.
- Aircraft noise within the San Rafael Swell TMP area is short term and transient. Once on the ground, pilots and their passengers value the peaceful, quiet tranquility of the Utah backcountry for dispersed primitive camping, similar to hikers and backpackers.
Your comments should be personal and tell the BLM what access to the backcountry airstrips means to you, to making memories with your friends and family, enjoying backcountry environment while making a very light footprint on the land.
Simply use this button to comment by July 22, 2024:
Above photo by Wendy Lessig of Hidden Splendor.
Posted in News
Recent Posts
Our many RAF supporters have such vast and varied experience, and we’re capturing some of their words of wisdom to share with you. This guest editorial is by Neil Mortine, a marketing and relations executive, RAF Supporter, and husband of RAF Ohio Liaison Christine Mortine.
Taylor Flat Airstrip, just a stone’s throw from the wild and scenic Green River as it carves through spectacular Utah canyons, is officially reopened. Thanks to a cooperative effort between the RAF and Utah Back Country Pilots (UBCP), Taylor Flat Airstrip, TF9, is one more recreational destination pilots can once again enjoy as the RAF works on Expanding The Map ! In 2023, dialog was initiated with the BLM to reopen the airstrip. Daggett County got involved, and RAF Utah Liaison Wendy Lessig navigated the required NEPA process. Lessig was instrumental in preparing a right of way (ROW) lease agreement application, coordinating between Daggett County, the BLM, and other stakeholders, and gathering information to assist the BLM throughout the required Environmental Assessment. “Thanks to Wendy taking action as the RAF Liaison, and her professional persistence following through the lengthy public review process, Taylor Flat Airstrip will reopen as another unique backcountry destination," RAF President Bill McGlynn said. The RAF and UBCP teamed up May 9 to revitalize the airstrip, which had lain dormant for thirty years. “The work party was a resounding success,” Lessig reports. ”We are grateful for the twenty-five volunteers who hand-picked rocks from the airstrip, and used them to mark the runway corners and threshold. “
Starting this month, we’re sharing messages from our RAF Safety, Education and Etiquette “SEE” committee. We hope you like the way we present these stories, and most importantly, we hope you’re one of those folks willing to sit around the campfire and help your friends become better at this thing we call backcountry aviation. We all see things that might not end well. We don’t intend to call anyone out for what might already be a bad day in someone’s flying life. In the interest of safety, we’re inviting you to be part of the culture starting with, “see something, say something.” The hard part might be how to politely deliver that message, and even more important, how to react if we are on the receiving end of someone’s comment. It takes maturity to accept input, especially at one of those moments when maybe we realize things could have just gotten much worse for us. I know I’ve been in “that place” when some thoughtful input about my flying or behavior has been offered. Part of flying is to always strive to be better; and when we aren’t at our best, try to own our shortcomings, learn from them, and move forward. I think about this often. I worry that if we don’t work at getting this part right, at best we risk losing access due to bad practices or behavior; and at worst we risk people getting hurt or worse. It’s that last piece that keeps me up at night. Of all the joys that doing this work brings us at the RAF, the risk of people getting hurt is what I think about the most. Safety, education, and etiquette are tied. Getting these right means the best outcome. So, get out there this summer. Get some grass stains on your wheels, get some bugs on your windscreen, get better at your craft of flying the airplane, meet some new people, and for sure start to create those special friendships that begin around a campfire under a starlit night. - John McKenna, RAF Chairman Submitted June 16, 2026
By RAF Director Bill Brine and the RAF's Safety, Education, and Etiquette Committee. Too many backcountry accidents happen on the third approach. After two unsuccessful attempts at landing, the pilot is tired, anxious, behind the airplane, and making decisions with a brain that has been running down since the first go-around. The airstrip hasn’t gotten easier. Third time’s NOT a charm. What’s driving this is cultural. Baseball is “three strikes, you’re out.” Could this thinking have joined us in the cockpit? We aren’t playing baseball out here. The backcountry does not give you that third strike. It gives you consequences. Our RAF Code of Conduct calls on each of us to establish personal minimums based on sound aeronautical decision-making — before we need them. Decide your limits at the kitchen table. Write it down. Brief your passengers. Commit to it before you start the engine. That’s when the rule does its job and leads to that hoped-for experience you set out on. Here is one worth considering: two attempts, fly away, head somewhere else . Not because your mission failed, but because you made a sound decision. Flying away is not defeat. Head to your alternate. Land, shut down, and let everyone decompress. Unload gear, leave passengers, go back solo, or call it a day. Those are good outcomes. Submitted June 15, 2026 Photo Credit: Scott Newpower
This month, the RAF is featuring our friend Charlie Gregoire, co-founder of innovative Redbird Simulators. Redbird's story is of a few guys who acted on their great idea to make it easier and more affordable for anyone to become a pilot. In 2006, they imagined a flight simulator that made a pilot feel like they were flying a real airplane. “We thought a decaying Cessna Cardinal RG was the perfect prototype,” Charlie said, and “Redbird” was born. “After a few more not-quite-right prototypes, we arrived at our first product, the Redbird FMX.” And driven by the idea to make initial flight training affordable, Redbird FMX is a great primary loggable training platform. Since then, Redbird has delivered over 7,000 aviation training devices to more than 60 countries. From desktop models to full-motion units, “We’re proud of the revolutionary changes our employees and customers are bringing to this industry we are all so passionate about,” Charlie says. Charlie also serves as a member of the special RAF group of volunteers we call the Vy Group. Pilots know that Vy is the “best rate of climb” speed, and these folks help steer the RAF in ways to “gain altitude” efficiently. Redbird and the RAF have partnered on the idea to prepare pilots for the unconventional demands of backcountry flying. Redbird has incorporated backcountry training scenarios, and graciously shares their wide selection of “off pavement” experiences by inviting pilots to try their hand in simulators at aviation events, like AirVenture and Sun ’n Fun. This year we invite you to Redbird’s interactive display at AirVenture, booth 301. While there, enjoy coffee and donuts with the Redbird team and us from 8:30 am to 10:30 am on Tuesday, July 21. Charlie and his team recognize the value of partnerships like ours. He says partnerships are an important part of Redbird’s past and future success. We share a common goal to make GA as safe as possible – wherever, and whatever you choose to fly – and keep it strong with passion, dedication, and commitment. See Redbird’s complete story here . Submitted June 15, 2026 By Carmine Mowbray
