AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2019 - 38

PILOT BRIEFING
EVENTS

Doing the Dead Cow drag
High Sierra Fly-In attracts thousands; Draco wins STOL race
B Y J U L I E S U M M E R S WA L K E R
CLOUDS OF THICK GRAY DUST rolled
across the Dead Cow lakebed, swirling
and twisting and blinding spectators
as they cheered on the winners of the
2018 High Sierra Fly-In STOL Drag
Race. Situated somewhere in the middle of nowhere Nevada, the STOL drag
races pit tailwheel aircraft against one
another in a race for speed and precision on a makeshift 3,000-foot runway.
The surface hardened by the desert sun,
this dry piece of nothingness becomes
an oasis (sans water anywhere-BYOB)
for four days each October as an intrepid
group of friends who call themselves the
"Flying Cowboys" put on a party. A party
that puts aircraft and aviation prowess
and skill on display.
Although nearly 400 aircraft
dropped in for the party, only about 70 compete to qualify in
the drag race, and 16 advance for the Saturday showdown. It
takes flying skills and a certain type of aircraft to get to this
remote spot yet its challenges and promise of camaraderie,
fellowship, and airplane sightings bring pilots in from all
over the country and Canada. On the lakebed are Cirruses,
Pipers, Cessnas-even a Grumman Mallard. Sixteen aircraft
qualify for the drag race; qualifying on Friday, racing in a single elimination bracket on Saturday. The aircraft race down
a three-quarter-mile straightaway, come to a full stop, turn,
and race back down, often only a couple of feet agl-and sometimes as fast as one minute, 17 seconds.
Crowd favorite Draco (below), owned and lovingly
maintained by Utah entrepreneur Mike Patey, is a modified Wilga 2000 turboprop STOL aircraft that looks like a
giant red grasshopper. And it hops off the ground like that

grasshopper is on cocaine. Draco took the 2018 STOL race in
first place this year, followed by Trent Palmer in his KitFox,
and Toby Ashley in his Carbon Cub.
The Dead Cow lakebed is owned by Flying Cowboy Kevin
Quinn, who has put on this party in the desert for the past nine
years. He is assisted by his friends Mike Patey and his twin
brother Mark, Cory Robin, Jason Sneed, Scott Palmer, Steve
Henry, and Trent Palmer, and many other backcountry pilots.
Although it's not for the faint of heart or the driver who cares
about his transmission, many people do drive into the site,
which is about an hour and a half north of Reno. And "drive"
means following mysterious directions, following other's
tracks, rattling over bone-numbing washboard "roads"-and
kicking up a lot of dust. A lot. You can tell if someone else is
attempting the trek by the dust plume a mile away. Do not
attempt this at night. Trust us on this.
People arrive in RVs, pickup trucks, SUVs, and jeeps
loaded with provisions, tents, bikes, motorcycles, and ATVs.
You cook for yourself Thursday through Saturday but a steak
dinner and bonfire (fireworks, too) reward you on Saturday
night. There's a catered breakfast Sunday morning. The $100
admission fee takes care of all that as well as contributes to the
infrastructure-port-a-potties, loudspeakers, and shade-making tents. More than 1,200 people and 397 aircraft attended
the ninth annual High Sierra Fly-In.
EMAIL julie.walker@aopa.org

38 | AOPA PILOT January 2019

AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2019

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