Hi Tom,

We don’t want to be heavy-handed about shutting the site down (I want to go flying too), but should be clear about a few points:

The US Forest Service has been pretty clear about the closures and the reasons behind them:

As of 5:00 PM on Monday, September 7, the Regional Forester is closing 8 National Forests in Southern California, including the San Bernardino National Forest.  This means the National Forest is temporarily closed to ALL public use due to the threat from high fire danger and firefighting resources being spread stretched to the limit.  This includes driving Forest Roads, Hiking on Forest Trails, and being in any Forest Service Developed Recreation Areas.

As of now, the order by the regional forester is in effect from September 7 through the 14th (unless things develop differently). We only miss a weekend of flying if the restrictions get lifted at the end of that.

Sylmar has completely shut down their site as well (they are in the Angeles National Forest), so we’re not doing something crazy or unique: shga.com.

Whether we like it or not, crashes and land-outs happen. Helicopters get called. Dirt roads get driven on to help extract pilots. None of that is something that should be an option at the moment, and unfortunately, it’s always an option in our sport.

I’d suggest that everyone read the various pieces of information that are out now regarding the fires and forest closures, as they provide a lot of detail about the when and why:

• Iniciweb (map and data about the fires in the area)
• Regional Forester Letter about the closure
• Forest Service Closure Order