A Dirty Job: The FAA at Burning Man
By Daniel Glover, FAA Office of Communications
The two weeks surrounding Burning Man are peak aviation season in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. The FAA maintains a presence at the annual event to help ensure safety in that remote pocket of the national airspace system.
The agency has increased its presence for Burning Man in recent years, in part because organizers want the FAA at Black Rock City Municipal Airport, a temporary airport that only exists for the arts event. Staffers at the Reno Flight Standards Office of the Nevada Flight Standards District Office volunteer for rotations into and out of the desert.
It is arguably the dirtiest job in the agency. “I’m normally a brunette. When I’m out at Burning Man, I look like I’m a blonde because the dust sticks to my hair,” said Kim Mills, an aviation safety technician. “We wear safety goggles, dust masks, scarves — everything.”
the art focal point of Burning Man (Photo: FAA)
The Burning Man community moved its signature event from a San Francisco beach to the desert in 1990 and first created a temporary airport on the playa in 1999. The FAA formally recognized the airport a decade later but focused its monitoring of flight operations primarily on Reno-Tahoe International Airport, where charter flights to Burning Man originate.
Previously, FAA staff were on call for day trips to the playa as incidents warranted, but as the event grew in popularity, that approach proved unworkable. “Trying to get through the traffic lines to the playa is insurmountable,” Jones said.
Over the years, the number of flights also soared from about 300–400 a week to about 3,500. At the request of Burning Man organizers, FAA personnel started overnight stays in 2014 and rotations of three days and two nights in 2018.
“They feel our presence out there deters a lot of the illegal charter pilots from flying in,” said Rose, who has worked Burning Man since 2012. “… They really feel strongly that our just being there has helped with aviation safety.”
Rose remembers one pilot who was particularly adept at avoiding scrutiny. FAA officials eventually caught up with him. Separate interviews with the pilot and his passengers revealed that they were all friends and the passengers weren’t paying customers — that constitutes an illegal air charter. The FAA ramped the aircraft, and the pilot left. A year later, the aircraft was repossessed.
Another incident ended in a pilot’s favor. A search of the N-number for his aircraft linked it to past drug-running operations. Burning Man asked to inspect the aircraft, and the pilot consented on the condition that the FAA monitor the inspection. “The aircraft had no drugs on board,” Rose said, noting that the pilot had owned it only a few months.
In addition to overseeing charter flights, FAA inspectors check the gear of aircraft at Burning Man for potential issues arising from dust and other environmental factors. They also address minor infractions and start investigations immediately if any accidents occur. The agency recently helped Burning Man set up an administrative system to increase airport security.
“We’ve had some prop strikes that we’ve looked at and determined that they shouldn’t fly the aircraft without having it inspected,” Rose said.
Aviation safety inspector Jim Richardson, who was at Burning Man for the third time last year, once saw an airplane get close to parachutists on the ground, but risks like that have been mitigated. “As we’ve stepped up oversight,” he said, “the air operations have been much safer.”
To prepare for the event, the Reno Flight Standards Office conducts training for its Burning Man team each year, usually in early August. The training covers safety equipment for the staff (self-reliance is one of Burning Man’s 10 philosophical principles), emergency response, safety training for air races at the event, and where FAA personnel stay and can go on the playa.
“We’re invited there,” Rose said, “and we try to have a very low impact on the event.” One year, he went so far as to dye his grey hair purple to blend into the Burning Man scene. “The airport personnel loved it.”
Jones said FAA personnel on location stay in regular contact with Burning Man officials. The FAA also works with rangers from the Bureau of Land Management, which issues the permits for the event to be held on federal property.
The work is time-consuming, the days are long, and the conditions aren’t pleasant, Jones said. “The weather out there is atrocious. You have extremely high temperatures, extremely low temperatures or dust storms that continue all day, every day. … You try to equip as best as you can, but you’re sleeping in powder and dust.”
But the role is fulfilling enough that FAA employees like Mills keep going back, even when it means walking several miles a day in blowing dust. Last year was her fourth at Burning Man, where, among other duties, she observed hundreds of parachute jumps.
Each year the FAA reviews the parachute operations procedures provided in advance by the skydivers’ collective Burning Sky. During the event, the on-site FAA team then monitors pre-flight briefings and loading operations, verifies certificates of authorization, and conducts daily spot checks and ramp checks. Planes with several jumpers take flight about once an hour.
“It’s a big group and very detailed and impressive,” Mills said.
Burning Man occurs during the busiest part of the year for the Reno Flight Standards Office. The three-day Great Reno Balloon Race begins three days after Burning Man, and the Stihl National Championship Air Races are Sept. 11–15 in Reno.
“All of these aviation events wear everybody out,” Jones said. “We get sandblasted, powdered, dusted, frozen, cooked and served up sunburned. The Reno office takes much pride in ensuring all of these events are well-supervised, and aviation safety oversight is the number one reason we are there.”
