Smoke is no joke

1RTK1 said:
I doubt they will get all the fire out before fall.
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This morning the sunrise was a bit eery with the smoke pouring over the Cascades, Every thing kinda orange, now the sun is up and we can't see 10 miles. (odd for us) most of the airports are reporting IFR conditions in smoke.
Smoke is drifting down from BC fires and from east of the mountains.
 
Tom-D said:
(odd for us) most of the airports are reporting IFR conditions in smoke.
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Why do you post things like this, that are clearly and demonstrably false? NOBODY in the region was reporting IFR conditions in smoke this morning. Nobody.

2018-08-10 09:53 METAR KBLI 101653Z VRB06KT 10SM CLR 21/15 A2991 RMK AO2 SLP132 T02060150 =
2018-08-10 08:53 METAR KBLI 101553Z 19005KT 10SM CLR 20/16 A2990 RMK AO2 SLP131 T02000156 =
2018-08-10 07:53 METAR KBLI 101453Z 00000KT 10SM CLR 18/15 A2989 RMK AO2 SLP125 T01780150 58003 =
2018-08-10 06:53 METAR KBLI 101353Z 00000KT 10SM CLR 15/13 A2990 RMK AO2 SLP130 T01500128 =
2018-08-10 05:53 METAR KBLI 101253Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM CLR 15/13 A2990 RMK AO2 SLP129 T01500128 =
2018-08-10 04:53 METAR KBLI 101153Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM CLR 14/12 A2990 RMK AO2 SLP128 T01390122 10194 20139 51007 =

2018-08-10 09:56 METAR KNUW 101656Z 13007KT 10SM FEW250 23/13 A2996 RMK AO2 SLP145 T02330128 $ =
2018-08-10 08:56 METAR KNUW 101556Z 17003KT 10SM SCT060 19/13 A2995 RMK AO2 SLP143 FU SCT060 T01940128 $ =
2018-08-10 07:56 METAR KNUW 101456Z 00000KT 10SM SCT060 16/12 A2995 RMK AO2 SLP141 FU SCT060 T01560122 53003 $ =
2018-08-10 06:56 METAR KNUW 101356Z 00000KT 9SM BCFG SCT060 14/11 A2994 RMK AO2 SLP138 FU SCT060 T01390111 $ =
2018-08-10 05:56 METAR KNUW 101256Z 13004KT 10SM SCT060 12/10 A2994 RMK AO2 SLP138 FU SCT060 T01220100 $ =
2018-08-10 04:56 METAR KNUW 101156Z 01003KT 10SM FEW040 13/11 A2994 RMK SLP138 T01330106 10167 20122 53005 =

2018-08-10 09:53 METAR KPAE 101653Z 14006KT 10SM CLR 24/12 A2996 RMK AO2 SLP142 T02390117 =
2018-08-10 08:53 METAR KPAE 101553Z 11004KT 10SM CLR 22/12 A2995 RMK AO2 SLP138 T02170122 =
2018-08-10 07:53 METAR KPAE 101453Z 18004KT 10SM CLR 20/12 A2993 RMK AO2 SLP132 T02000122 53003 =
2018-08-10 06:53 METAR KPAE 101353Z 00000KT 10SM CLR 16/13 A2993 RMK AO2 SLP130 T01610128 =
2018-08-10 05:53 METAR KPAE 101253Z AUTO 33004KT 10SM CLR 17/12 A2991 RMK AO2 SLP125 T01720117 =
2018-08-10 04:53 METAR KPAE 101153Z AUTO 08003KT 10SM CLR 19/12 A2992 RMK AO2 SLP129 T01940117 10211 20178 53005 =

2018-08-10 09:56 METAR KAWO 101656Z AUTO 16006KT 10SM CLR 22/14 A2995 RMK AO2 SLP144 T02220139 =
2018-08-10 08:56 METAR KAWO 101556Z AUTO 15005KT 10SM CLR 19/14 A2993 RMK AO2 SLP140 T01940139 =
2018-08-10 07:56 METAR KAWO 101456Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM CLR 16/13 A2992 RMK AO2 SLP136 T01610128 53004 =
2018-08-10 06:56 METAR KAWO 101356Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM CLR 14/13 A2991 RMK AO2 SLP131 T01390128 =
2018-08-10 05:56 METAR KAWO 101256Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM CLR 14/12 A2991 RMK AO2 SLP131 T01390117 =
2018-08-10 04:56 METAR KAWO 101156Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM CLR 14/12 A2991 RMK AO2 SLP132 T01440122 10194 20139 53004
 
Also, screenshot from my 7:30 AM briefing. On the flight, actual conditions were approx 30 miles visibility below 2000 feet. There was a layer of smoke from 2000ft to 3500 feet. Visiblity in the layer was generally 10 miles, with occaional areas dropping to 5 miles. Above 3500, there was a clear layer, looked like another smoke layer above it but much higher.

C17E9EBD-2D0B-4C9A-803F-9DF7DCA3F3CA.png
 
Tom-D said:
This morning the sunrise was a bit eery with the smoke pouring over the Cascades, Every thing kinda orange, now the sun is up and we can't see 10 miles. (odd for us) most of the airports are reporting IFR conditions in smoke.
Smoke is drifting down from BC fires and from east of the mountains.
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I feel for everyone, especially those with lung/breathing issues.
 
I learned to fly in 3 mi vis in New England. Yes, it's tough, but it is very different than flying in 3 mi vis in smoke near hills/mountains. I've been into Columbia, and that is a tricky pattern to fly in good visibility due to surrounding terrain. If you aren't familiar with it, in 3 miles vis it is dangerous.

Ash from the Holy Fire has been drifting into Fullerton since yesterday, and is still falling now. Glad to be in a hangar.
 
Tried to fly to Fallbrook from Cable this afternoon, but did a 180 over Colton and flew back...I was starting to lose the horizon in the smoke. The whole basin is choked up with the stuff, and it's especially bad when backlit by the setting sun. I'll wait until the Holy Fire is in its final containment stages before I fly again.

This, despite airports along the way reporting good visibility. Sometimes you have to see it for yourself and make the call.

I don't want to be the next JFK Jr.
 
The guy did have a good sense of humor. Someone asked him why he named his political magazine "George," and he said, "because 'Stephanopoulis' wouldn't fit on the cover." ;)
 
arnoha said:
I'm not familiar with flying around there (and now I'm not even sure where the where we're talking about is)...where and why does that haze show up? Around here that haze is generally caused by inversions trapping smog in valleys. Is that also what's going on over there? Curious.
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Well there is this thing called a Bermuda High (goggle it). It’s a semi-permenant high the sits off the coast and pumps moisture up the coast all spring and summer. For the most part the only clear CAVU days are after a front pushes through. Then if we’re lucky we get two or three days before it’s back. As I type this at 11:48 pm the humidity is 94%... sucks...:mad2:
 
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denverpilot said:
On the other hand he knows said pilot is on the ground safely tapitty-tapping into a post here.

So the razzing mostly serves to remind the newbies that lots of people don’t have much choice but to fly in midwestern visibility numbers like @steingar does or get an instrument ticket.

But yes. 3 miles in haze, smoke, rain, snow, whatever — will freak anyone from “normal day is 50 miles vis land” Colorado, too. Ha. Totally freak them out.
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My rule - if I can't see Pikes Peak, I'm not flying (*snorfle*) [ That's 70+ nm from my house. ] Actually, right now (or earlier today) I couldn't see any of the mountains, including Pikes Peak, the ski areas, Rocky Mtn National Forest, etc. H*ll, I couldn't even see the tall buildings downtown, and that's only 15 nm away.

I was really hoping to watch the meteor shower tonight - no such luck.
 
arnoha said:
No, not a lawyer. And it wasn't a lot of effort. Screen cap one, screen cap two, upload. Took about 5 minutes.

I was just unhappy that @steingar was calling someone out for being a coward with multiple giant, screen-filling stickers without understanding the situation. Mocking new pilots gets to me, especially ones making good, safe choices.
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I was flying with a newer CFII in Virginia this April, and he was pointing out their "Mountians". I thought to myself that in the West, real mountains start above 7,000'... those things were just hills. Either way, controlled flight into terrain at any altitude is rarely survivable.
 
30 miles viz, or as you folks out west call it "IMC". :)
 
jsstevens said:
30 miles viz, or as you folks out west call it "IMC". :)
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No joke..... When the visibility here drops from 99+ to only 30 miles, people start complaining...:lol::lol:

But at least we have been smoke free for the last two days. Nice little breeze from the northeast helped us out.
 
I learned to fly at Fullerton CA in the mid-1960s, when photochemical smog was worse than it is now. "-X2HK" on the teletype sequence report was almost a given. Many of my primary flying lessons started with a Special VFR departure, and pattern work was often delayed until the tower finally turned off the beacon and called visibility "3 miles" (wink-wink-nudge-nudge). As a solo student I recall many times being told to extend downwind for runway 24 to St. Jude Hospital. That's three miles from the airport, and when you turn final into the hazy setting sun you can't see three miles even when visibility is "three miles". So pattern flying was largely a matter of faith and local knowledge. And don't forget the radio tower, two miles west of the airport, and 23 feet above pattern altitude. :eek:

But you just had to climb two or three thousand feet (usually) and you'd break out on top of the haze into the clear blue. It's different with the smoke layers from the fires out west. When you're still climbing through 14,000' feet with no discernible horizon, and you can't see the ground except straight down, it matters little whether "visibility" is ten miles, five miles or one mile.

Zeldman said:
When the visibility here drops from 99+ to only 30 miles, people start complaining...:lol::lol:
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Sure -- we have terrain worth looking at out here! :p
 
Smoke really is no joke. Fighting that home for 6+ hours on the way home from KUAO to KPAO. Finding that the airports are solid IFR due to smoke only. Airports NOTAM'ed for use only by firefighters. Watching Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, and Plan D all go by the wayside, coming up with more on the fly. Some of the sketchiest legal VFR flying I've ever done. Made for some nice pictures, I guess? (First pic...that's smoke above, not clouds. Second picture is before the visibility suddenly plummeted.)

IMG_20180816_185516.jpg IMG_20180816_161104.jpg
 
Pilawt said:
What airport is that in the second photo?
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KMFR - Medford.

It's right in the Rogue Valley. I had intended to land at Gold Beach (4S1) on the coast, hopefully away from the smoke with the offshore breeze pushing the smoke away. No dice. Smoke over the ocean, marine layer beneath me. No approaches in to Gold Beach. Forecast was for clear...doesn't always work out. When it apparent I wasn't going to be able to land at any of the coastal airports, I climbed, swung inland, and braved the smoke. I threaded between the TFRs and the hills. There were a couple airports under me that might have worked out, but they were in narrow valleys or on hills and I wasn't keen on getting lost in the smoke at low altitude, so I picked Medford due to the large runway, giant valley with nothing to hit, and a myriad of approaches. I was VFR, but I asked for and did a practice ILS 14 circle 32 just to keep tabs on where I am.

If I had looked a little further east, Klamath Falls (KLMT) was reporting 10 miles vis instead of 3. That was so far off my intended track that I hadn't even looked there when I landed. Medford was Basic VFR, open, and legal for me to land. I saw it was available, I took it. Happy to get out of the sky at that point. That's 2-3 miles vis in the picture. After taking the picture, there was soot on the phone. Unfortunately, it got worse. In the middle of having lunch at the airport, visibility suddenly dropped to 1 mile. I ended up leaving SVFR after having a hearty discussion on go, no-go. The flight out was definitely stressful.

I was out there in Oregon getting a new panel. The GTN-750/G5 HSI with GPSS/GTX-345 (In and Out) made a huge difference in making this flight possible and safe. The old panel would have probably tipped it to a no-go. As it was, with all the diversions and powering back to slow down in the mess, a 4 hour flight was well over 6 hours. I was just a bit tired at the end.
 
Tom-D said:
This morning the sunrise was a bit eery with the smoke pouring over the Cascades, Every thing kinda orange, now the sun is up and we can't see 10 miles. (odd for us) most of the airports are reporting IFR conditions in smoke.
Smoke is drifting down from BC fires and from east of the mountains.
Click to expand...

A couple days ago Portland had the worst air quality in the Nation. I’m sure it was stats from just big cities. There was a small fire nearby but other fires were the big cause. Wind patterns were bringing stuff in from the Canada and California fires. Or so the Weather dude on TV said.
 
arnoha said:
KMFR - Medford.

It's right in the Rogue Valley. I had intended to land at Gold Beach (4S1) on the coast, hopefully away from the smoke with the offshore breeze pushing the smoke away. No dice. Smoke over the ocean, marine layer beneath me. No approaches in to Gold Beach. Forecast was for clear...doesn't always work out. When it apparent I wasn't going to be able to land at any of the coastal airports, I climbed, swung inland, and braved the smoke. I threaded between the TFRs and the hills. There were a couple airports under me that might have worked out, but they were in narrow valleys or on hills and I wasn't keen on getting lost in the smoke at low altitude, so I picked Medford due to the large runway, giant valley with nothing to hit, and a myriad of approaches. I was VFR, but I asked for and did a practice ILS 14 circle 32 just to keep tabs on where I am.

If I had looked a little further east, Klamath Falls (KLMT) was reporting 10 miles vis instead of 3. That was so far off my intended track that I hadn't even looked there when I landed. Medford was Basic VFR, open, and legal for me to land. I saw it was available, I took it. Happy to get out of the sky at that point. That's 2-3 miles vis in the picture. After taking the picture, there was soot on the phone. Unfortunately, it got worse. In the middle of having lunch at the airport, visibility suddenly dropped to 1 mile. I ended up leaving SVFR after having a hearty discussion on go, no-go. The flight out was definitely stressful.

I was out there in Oregon getting a new panel. The GTN-750/G5 HSI with GPSS/GTX-345 (In and Out) made a huge difference in making this flight possible and safe. The old panel would have probably tipped it to a no-go. As it was, with all the diversions and powering back to slow down in the mess, a 4 hour flight was well over 6 hours. I was just a bit tired at the end.
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So did the savings from going up there to get the panel pay for the trip?
 
luvflyin said:
So did the savings from going up there to get the panel pay for the trip?
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Probably? It's hard to say. I think I saved around $2000-3000. So, some, but probably less than 10%. The trip up was combined with dropping the family off to see my wife's family in Idaho. The commercial flight home from PDX was less than $100. I got a couple days in Portland to myself to just wander around, which was a rare treat post-kids. The flight to KUAO from home was courtesy a friend and his Cessna 340A. (If you factor in his costs, there's no way it paid for itself, but if I had gone commercial, it would have been under $100 again. He offered, I didn't ask, but it was hard to turn down going at FL200 and 240 knots when you're used to being at 7500' and 110 knots!)

It was probably mostly a wash. What I did get out of it was the excuse to make the trip. The experience of the trip. A bunch of hours in my logbook. I few new airports in my logbook. Having a very professional shop hand me a snag-free airplane right when they said they would for the cost they said it would be. (How often does that happen? I have to admit being happy with having chosen Pacific Coast Avionics. They knew their stuff and the work has been flawless so far.)

So, was it worth it? Yeah, I think so. Still a little bummed I wasn't able to throw the work at a local shop (reasons: cost, backlog, and capability) but this worked out nicely. Did it actually numerically pay for itself? Probably not, or not by enough for it to matter. But I would do it again. I have a plane to fly and I love to fly. I'll take most any excuse.
 
Zeldman said:
Here in the southwest, visibility falls below 30 miles and people complain.

I have been lost in smoke in Alaska. I was flying at tree top level, literally, while trying to find the runway at Tok. I think I was on a 2 mile final when someone calls wanting to depart straight towards me. I say I am hopefully on short final and the idiot calls, I'll take off and sidestep to my right. I tell him there is no forward visibility due to the smoke, but he decides to take off as I think I am on a 1 mile final. The tree tops disappeared telling me I am over the runway, so I drop down 30 feet to see the ground and discover I am over the gravel strip and land.

As soon as I shut down, the smoke got into my eyes causing them to shut. The only way I can see is by prying my eye lids open. The smoke was so thick that the village ordered a mandatory evacuation as the fire was coming towards us. I stayed because I lived on the airport. Fortunately the fire got close to town when the wind changed and a little rain started falling.
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On my flight in Alaska, for some reason, TOK was a very difficult airport to pick out from the surroundings even in good VFR. As usual, it’s easier when you’ve been living in the area and familiar like you.
 
At its peak we had viz less than 5 miles (significantly less) at our house overlooking Budd Inlet (southernmost extent of Puget Sound). On a typical day we can see Mt. Rainier (55 miles) to the SE and Gold Mountain (near KPWT, 30+ miles) to the N. Today the smoke is returning and I can see neither one. I can see significantly more than 5 miles to the N, but I'm not sure how much more. Very comfortable at the airport this morning for the annual clean-up day for the club. Should have taken my flight bag with me and gone flying after we cleaned up. Oh well...
 
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At KSPC (Pasco) it’s been LIFR for most of the day. Same with KGEG (Spokane). Yesterday, just the exact opposite. Richland (KRLD) had a great airshow/car show yesterday so we flew in from KCOE (Coeur d’Alene). Wind shifted to the NNE in the night bringing in the smoke from Canadian fires - over 500 in British Columbia! August is quickly becoming nearly a no-fly month in the PNW for VFR Pilots. And now we sit.
 
Flew my Bonanza from the Bay Area to Medford and much to my surprise, we were solid IMC from a few miles past Mount Shasta til seeing runway 14 on a mile and a half final. Coming home, we departed VFR with reported 5 mile visibility, but at 9500ft we may as well have been IMC because of all the smoke. I noticed my throat and sinuses were bothering me for hours after we landed.
 
Jumpmaster said:
At KSPC (Pasco) it’s been LIFR for most of the day. Same with KGEG (Spokane). Yesterday, just the exact opposite. Richland (KRLD) had a great airshow/car show yesterday so we flew in from KCOE (Coeur d’Alene). Wind shifted to the NNE in the night bringing in the smoke from Canadian fires - over 500 in British Columbia! August is quickly becoming nearly a no-fly month in the PNW for VFR Pilots. And now we sit.
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I was very surprised by my flight just how fast conditions changed. The smoke would roll in silently and unpredictably. We had huge visibility changes inside the hour we were at Medford. Never got good, though.
 
Maybe its in my head, smoke seems worse than haze. Maybe it changes faster or maybe its the time of day I've been up with the lower sun angles that make it different.
 
We're down to about 2 miles visibility at our house due to smoke. I can see across Budd Inlet and north to a point on our side, but Boston Harbor (5 miles) is gone, somewhere in the smoke. Any my eyes aren't happy, inside the house. Tomorrow isn't supposed to be any better.
 
We are down less than a mile, Anacortes is worse coming off Kingsway I couldn't see the marina. (6 blocks) Allan and Burrows Islands completely gone, couldn't be seen from marine drive.
 
On one my IR cameras the smoke and ash coming down looks like a heavy rain shower.

It’s quite impressive, in a disturbing kind of way.
 
MAG said:
I was flying with a newer CFII in Virginia this April, and he was pointing out their "Mountians". I thought to myself that in the West, real mountains start above 7,000'... those things were just hills. Either way, controlled flight into terrain at any altitude is rarely survivable.
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The mountains of the East are exposed to way more water than their western counterparts, and are often if not usually swathed in clouds and obscuration that can rise into the flight levels.
 
Take that, China!

upload_2018-8-22_12-23-2.png
 
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