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What do we want to accomplish?
As a comparison, here is what the LZ looked like in March of 2024;
So what didn’t go right and what can we do better?
Some of you might remember that in the spring of 2024 we had a super impressive looking LZ, a very lush, deep green with almost no weeds at all. It didn’t look quite as good this year because he had a slower start, so here are some of the things that contributed to that;
– I mentioned above that there were some broken (cracked) main lines we had to fix. Myself, Owen Morse, Brian Richey, and a few others had to do some major digging in two separate areas with the Back-hoe and repair the large 4 inch main water lines. This took several weekends to accomplish and several hundred dollars worth of repair parts. As a consequence, we had the irrigation system shut off for most of February and into March. At the same time that we had everything shut down, we installed the fertilizer injection tank, a filter, and some new shut-off valves.
– We didn’t have as wet of a winter as we did the previous year (23/24). When we don’t have a wet winter its pretty important to still have the irrigation system running in the early months of the year to give the ground a good soak. The over-seeding and fertilizer had a much later start to germination in 2025 than it did in the previous year.
– The later start for the new seed gave the weeds a head start on germination before the grass, that’s not good. Typically you want the grass to germinate and establish dominance before the weeds rob the available moisture and nutrients in the soil.
– We didn’t use the pre-emergent weed treatment over the entire LZ like we did in the winter of 23/24. Pre-emergent weed killers treat the area so weed don’t get the chance to start growing in the first place, vs. post-emergent weed killers which is what you spray on weeds that are already there. We will have a better deployment plan for this winter and spring of 26, similar to what we did in 23/24.
So how did we do so much better this year?
– Better watering schedule. We actually aren’t using any MORE water than we have in the past, we just water on a smarted schedule. The program still goes off at night, but we put twice as much water down, every other day. Soaking the ground more helps us beat the evaporation rate during the day so the grass has more time to absorb the water at the roots before the Sun steals it’s cut. There is a program every night, its just split into half the zones one night, half the zone the other night (odd & even calendar days).
– We have a fertilizer injection system (I posted about this in the past when it was installed in the spring). We can easily add both fertilizer and other supplement/nutrient products that gets diluted into the irrigation water. Its way less work than dragging around a spreader cart for three hours. Also, the water soluble products are actually cheaper to buy than the larger volume granulated products that have to spread manually.
– We had some leaks and other damage to the system that we had to repair. When we got that done in Feb & March it helped get us on track for the spring growth.
– We used a new supplement product called ‘Moisture Manager’, its basically a liquid supplement that goes into the injection system, it helps the grass retain its moisture during the hot months. It’s expensive, but I believe it was a huge help. FYI, the grounds keepers at the Del Mar Race Track use this product every year to keep their turf looking pristine all through the dry summer months… the results speak for themselves.
– We got lucky this year, there were very few days of 100 plus temps.
Tom,
Yes, as long as they are accompanied by the CSS member sponsoring them. Generally, the only way we can continue to have swimming available is when a representative from the Conservancy is present to monitor activity. As long as everyone keeps that in mind and behavior at the Pond keeps safety in mind, we can do it this way during special events.
The Pond will open for swimming from 4 to 7 pm. Rides will be provided in the Ranger, no personal vehicles are allowed to go up the pond road for safety reasons.
Dan,
That’s what the meeting is for. All members are invited to participate and have the opportunity to ask questions or get clarification.
John,
The Club still has permission to use the training hill for the time being. The situation is mostly resolved at this point, the majority of the mess has been cleaned up. Thanks for reminding me, I need to check in with the land owner, but we are ok for now.
Cheers,
Luke
I’m putting this thread on the forum for transparency, for respectful discussion, but mostly to let you all know how serious this is. A small, but loud, minority of pilots have a tendency to rant about the BOD, about USHPA, CALFIRE, SB National Forest, well just about every authority, agency, or organization that governs our sport or our public lands. I don’t know exactly what it will take to get these folks to understand that we are nation of laws, and the majority of us have no problem functioning just fine within the bounds of reasonable jurisprudence. I think that we, as in the majority of CSS pilots who conduct ourselves with midfullness as fully formed adults, have to reinforce our values as responsible pilots and stewards of the land we are privileged to use for our sport. We have to make sure that everyone understands that these types of behaviors that put our club and facilities at risk should not, and will not, be tolerated.
– CSS President-
One of the responsible parties, who is a CSS member, has received a notification of 30 day suspension from the the CSS. If they do not comply with the landowner’s requests there will be further consequences that may include a longer term CSS suspension and the possibility of USHPA credentials being revoked.
It’s very sad that any of this has to happen at all. This is basic stuff. One of the core principals of what we stand for as pilots is to respect the property rights of landowners. If we fail in that arena, if we trample all over the rights of parties, we will lose launches, we will lose LZ’s, we could lose our site all together. In this case, if the situation devolves further, we could potentially lose our access to the Training Hill. What do you think that will mean for our landing approaches? There is a lot more at risk here than just the bunny hill where we train new pilots.
Since Encore University Hills purchased all of this land to the east of our LZ (around 2021), we have had their permission to continue using the Training Hill. There is now a significant chance we could have that permission rescinded due to the actions of one or more CSS members.
A CSS member, without permission of the landowner or endorsement of the CSS BOD, has been storing personal vehicles, tools, equipment, supplies and other materials at the top of the Training Hill. This stash of personal affects and equipment was placed there over a period of about the last two years. An Encore University Hills Site Manager notified the responsible individuals personally, face to face, over a month ago. Encore followed up with an email to the CSS BOD that was forwarded to those responsible individuals. In early July, a letter was sent to the CSS Board by Encore Attorneys, notifying the club and the responsible individuals to remove their vehicles and other items from Encore property no later than August 1st. That deadline has come and gone, no effort has been put forth by the responsible parties to honor the landowner’s requests.
As many of you already know, Encore University Hills LLC has purchased almost ALL of the land to the east our LZ which includes the Training Hill. They plan to build over 300 homes right next us… very close. Danger close.
The CSS BOD has worked extensively, along with a an appointed committee of veteran CSS pilots, to maintain a professionally courteous relationship with Encore. We are committed to creating a solution with the developer to build those homes in a way that still allows CSS pilots to maintain a safe approach and traffic separation pattern for landings at AJX.
This effort will only work if the CSS respects the requests of landowner and works with them in good faith so that Encore responds in kind. The CSS does not have the financial resources to become combative and/or disrespectful with a Developer that has millions of dollars and a Cadre of Attorneys at their disposal.
Swimming at the Pond will be open from 4pm to 7pm on Saturday during the Fly-In for CSS members. Brian and Dale will provide rides from the LZ up to the Pond in the Ranger.
Remember to bring your swim wear and a towel if you’d like to cool off in the Pond after flying.
Please keep in mind that you get go up the Pond in the Ranger or if you walk (and its a long walk), no personal vehicles are allowed to go up the Pond access road.
As a bonus, or a welcome change as it were, the BOD has chosen to allocate club funds to purchase food and soft drinks for the Fly-In BBQ and we will NOT be collecting cash from CSS Members.
If you bring guests that are not club members, please consider making a small donation to cover food costs. We also will have CSS T-shirts available for purchase. There will a QR code to scan for Zelle payments or bring cash.
Not at the moment, no. I the TFR for the Lake Fire has been reduced to 3 NM, so it no longer covers Crestline Launch. I was onsite most of the day Sunday and there was no CalFire aircraft activity on the Lake Fire, however the Cable Fire started in the early afternoon, but no one was flying anyway.
For right now we are clear unless there is any re-start of Air-Tanker or Helicopter activity.
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