Events: Doing the Dead Cow drag

STOL competition is highlight of desert fly-in

January 1, 2019 By Julie Summers Walker

Clouds of thick gray dust rolled across 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 pits 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 competed in the qualifying races. Just 16 aircraft advanced, racing in a single-elimination bracket on Saturday. The aircraft race one-on-one 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, owned and lovingly maintained by Utah entrepreneur Mike Patey, is a modified Wilga 2000 turboprop STOL that looks like a giant red grasshopper (below). And it hops off the ground like that grasshopper is on cocaine. Draco took the 2018 STOL Drag 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 airplane party in the desert since 2009. He is helped by Patey and his twin brother Mark, Cory Robin, Jason Sneed, Scott Palmer, Trent Palmer, Steve Henry, and many other enthusiastic 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.

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 tents.

More than 1,200 people and 397 aircraft attended the ninth annual High Sierra Fly-In. Plans are already under way for the 2019 event. “See you next year, same time, same place,” said Quinn.

Web: www.stoldrag.com

Julie Summers Walker

AOPA Senior Features Editor

AOPA Senior Features Editor Julie Summers Walker joined AOPA in 1998. She is a student pilot still working toward her solo.

Go to Julie Summers Walker's Profile

Events: Doing the Dead Cow drag

STOL competition is highlight of desert fly-in

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