(USA TODAY) -- The final days of August bring with them the construction of one of the world's least frequented airports. And just a week after its construction, it will be gone. Black Rock Municipal Airport, officially carrying the number 88NV, and unofficially known as BRC, Black Rock International, and even less officially as Not Here International, serves the citizens of Burning Man's ephemeral city each year, before disappearing back into the dust.
As with the rest of the week-long city, BRC must leave no trace of its existence upon the culmination of Burning Man. And so, 88NV is rebuilt each year from scratch. A hodgepodge of tents and rebar form the body of the airport, with tarps alone doing their best to imitate the protection of hangars.
Though planes were bravely flying into the festival nearly as soon as organizers made the switch from San Francisco's Baker Beach to the Black Rock Desert in 1990, the airport itself didn't begin taking shape until 1996. It was registered with the FAA for the first time the following year.
Operating an airport, even temporarily, in the middle of nowhere is not without its challenges.Chad Slattery writes for Air & Space:
"It sits nearly 4,000 feet above sea level; when triple-digit temperatures heat the thin air, lift diminishes as density altitude—the effective operating altitude, taking temperature and air pressure into account—increases. The featureless desert floor reduces pilots' depth perception during landings. Winds constantly batter the aircraft, injecting fine alkali dust into every unprotected vent and inlet."
The early days of the airport saw only a few dozen pilots attempt the tricky landing. But now in 2015, hundreds of aircraft are expected to make thousands of flights above the temporary city. Apart from a pair of unrelated crashes in 2013, resulting in a casualty, the airport has a pretty stellar safety record.
88NV sees all kinds of aircraft passing through now that the festival has matured into an annual pilgrimage for hip and moneyed Silicon Valley techies. A Yak-52, Antonov An-2, Cessna 525 CitationJet, and turbine powered helicopters are no longer out of the ordinary in the airport's "parking lot".
This year, a new airline called Burner Air is chartering private flights directly to the festival on its three planes, a Cessna, a Pilatus and a Beechking.
Like all of Burning Man, the airport is staffed by volunteers and operates by the ethos of a gift economy. Tales of city flyovers by generous pilots buzz around the festival as the week progresses. The general consensus on attaining one of these flights? Bike out to the airport at dawn in your best outfit and hope for the best.
Don't forget your goggles. It's dusty out there.
