Volunteers with the Recreational Aviation Foundation are working with Nevada State Parks to make improvements to reopen the historic Flying M Ranch airstrip in western Nevada, 18 nm west of Hawthorne.
The famous ranch was owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton, who turned the property over to the State of Nevada on his passing in 2019. Hilton, who was a pilot, hosted guests from around the world at the ranch, including many famous pilots and astronauts. The ranch is well known in the glider community for the Hilton Cup, a multi-day competition bringing glider pilots from every continent and thousands of spectators, according to officials with the Recreational Aviation Foundation (RAF).
RAF Nevada Liaison Julian Pridmore-Brown, who has been working with officials from Nevada State Parks, organized a work party the weekend of Feb. 7-8 to get volunteers started on rehabilitating the airstrip.
The work party coincided with an America 250 event supporting the surrounding Walker River State Recreation Area.
“This weekend was a huge success on several fronts,” Pridmore-Brown said.
About 32 RAF supporters and a dozen additional volunteers from Nevada, California, and Oregon, helped. Several of the park’s top management were on hand working side by side with volunteers, pounding posts in rocky soil and stringing barbed wire nearly 3,700 feet around the crosswind dirt runway, he reported.
The volunteers also cleared brush from a nearby fishing pond using a dump trailer supplied by an RAF volunteer.
“The State Park folks are very committed to this project and it was clearly evident,” Pridmore-Brown said, noting that before the work party, three semi trucks of supplies had been brought in and about 15 people were on site getting things prepped and installing the fence corners.
The RAF volunteers were given special permission to land and were given access to the main house.
“Nevada Parks were outstanding hosts, providing lunch and making hand tools available,” Pridmore-Brown said. “Thanks to the hard work of volunteers and strong support from Nevada State Parks, the fence is nearly complete. Park staff expect to finish the remaining section quickly. There is clear momentum from leadership to open the airstrip to limited public use later this year.”
For more information: TheRAF.org
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