Bush Air LLC is withdrawing the Bush Air Cessna C170X airplane from the show due to costs, logistics, policies, lack of funding and sponsorship. The "Black Rock City Air Force" decals and logos have been removed and the airplane has been restored to its original Bush Air branding. One of the rules of Burningman is "decommodification" so therefore sponsorship is not viable.

I would enjoy bringing the show back in 2025, however, the org has only offered an opportunity to purchase a ticket for me and the crew. This simply does not make any sence to me. I have volunteered the past two years building the airport. I spent a lot of last year getting the plane ready to be the Pyro Laser Plane. It took a lot of time, effort and money. The least they could do is offer us a ticket. Since they have not, we are cancelling the show. It has been too much work, liability, paperwork, and beuracracy - which also caused us a lot of risk.

Last year we hardly had any time between volunteering and doing our show to relax and and enjoy the event and in addition almost every day more unreasonable demands were placed on us resulting in even more stress. We almost canceled the show completely at the 11th hour due to a BLM "rule" that no one saw coming.

If I have to buy a ticket to the event I will not do a show or volunteer. I will rather fly my plane there and camp out like everyone else and enjoy the event, party and maybe offer some free plane rides.

We failed to raise external funding to cover the costs of this project which includes the operating costs of the airplane, the laser equipment, costly debri-free expendable pyrotechnics, the many months and hundreds of hours spent modifying and flight testing the airplane.

I am glad we had the opportunity to have been able to produce the 1st ever Laser show from an aircraft in the US. The FAA decided that Burningman was a suitable venue to do this for the first time due to its remote location and that there were already other high power laser installations on art cars and stages on the ground during the event. Dealing with the FAA was a pleasure compared the BMORG.

Bush Air may consider sponsoring another show if the the BM organisation gave a us fair deal. The majority of people that attend Burningman are not interested in aviation and apparently the aviation media are not very interested in Burningman therefore it is not in Bush Air's interest to sponsor the show again without some exposure.

The good news is that we have been invited to bring our show to various other events including airshows. Plans are currently underway to take the Bush Air Pyro-Laser-Plane show to the High Sierra Fly-In scheduled for October 3-5, 2025. HSF is a well known aviation event held on the Dead Cow Lake bed out in the Nevada desert, 8 miles West of Pyramid Lake.

CC Pocock.

This first ever show took take place at Burningman in August 2024 and consisted of laser and lighting effects projection and fireworks launched from the aircraft North of the Black Rock City over the deep playa. The show was controlled in the aircraft by pilots CC Pocock and Christ Masi. Making all this possible was mainly due to CC's many years of experience in laser, lighting, sound and pyrotechnic special effects as well as being a DJ for many years too.

During the day CC and Tumbleweed offered scenic rides around the city in the airplane. Then after sunset on two nights during the event the rockets and missiles were removed and replaced with lasers, lighting and pyrotechnics. The airplane operated out of the Black Rock City Airport (88NV). Rechargeable LED flares were used for runway lights.

The aircraft and the modifications: The mounting brackets under the wings are genuine L-19 Bird Dog rocket pylons. During the day, the pylons carry rockets and missiles. For the night pyro-laser show, they carry lasers, lighting and pyrotechnics. Lasers and lights are controled by Christi on a laptop mounted to the instrument panel. CC flys the plane and controls the pyrotechnics from a custom built controler installed on the instrument panel. Power is supplied from a 3.5kw inverter in the rear of the plane. Many more modifications are planned for future shows including special higher power lasers and propane (poofer) flame effects.

The idea for the project started in December 2022 and since then many hundreds of hours and thousands of $ has been spent on modifications, flight testing and rehearsals and approvals.

We would like to bring the plane and a much bigger and better show back to Burningman in 2025. However we need funding to do so. Be a part of Black Rock City Air Force! Please contribute to our project: http://spot.fund/d8kg6zsc

Join our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/brcaf/

More photos, videos and info will be posted here as this project progresses.

More about the modifications to this Cessna C170-X Bushplane