jjconstant
Well Known Member
I just got back from a more-eventful-than-expected trip to attend the Vans Homecoming and witness the eclipse. My annual trip to Sun Valley ID for the Sun Valley Summer Symphony had just concluded and I just had time to fly back to Livermore CA, get a change of clothes and launch for Independence the following day. On the flight from Sun Valley to Livermore, as I approached California I noticed a lot of smoke at altitude and even reported a brand-new fire that had sprung up just east of Reno. I was unsure whether this was something air traffic control would want to be bothered with, so when I keyed the mic and asked whether this sort of report was something they take, they said standby, and it was clear they were getting appropriate materials to take the report. They were very interested in the exact location and it appeared they welcomed the opportunity to convey this info to the various firefighting agencies.
The next day when checking weather for the trip to Oregon I saw numerous TFRs that had popped up around firefighting activities around the border between California and Oregon. I soon realized that my big problem was that what the TFRs don?t show is the extent of the smoke and areas where you need to be instrument rated and your airplane needs to have the proper equipment. You can find out which airports are IFR but it is a much bigger challenge to find out where the smoke is at altitude.
I equipped Stella with IFR instrumentation with the intention of getting my instrument rating in her. It has been on my list of life goals for a long time but I know what sort of commitment it takes in terms of both money and especially time. I had planned to start my IFR training after the end of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony season but the procrastination caught up to me.
The trip up to Oregon was a real eye opener with the amount of smoke in the air and I almost turned back. I was still legal but it was very questionable as to whether it was entirely safe but having just done an upgrade to the instrumentation which included ADSB traffic, weather and 3 sources of synthetic vision, I was willing to push my comfort zone, knowing that I trend towards overly cautious. I was talking to air traffic control on flight following, I had oxygen and climbed to 14,500 ft and was just above the smoke where I was, but to my left and right it continued above me. It cleared as I went north.
I made it through and I had a tremendous time at the fly in. I was hosted by a very generous couple on the airpark and attended forums given by such luminaries as Paul Dye. Everyone here knows about Paul. If you don?t, he?s Ironflight in the forums. I have been in touch over the years with Paul and his wife Louise but this was the first time I got to meet Louise and visit with Paul a bit. It was wonderful to visit and the eclipse was stunning icing on the cake. It was clear weather in Independence and beautiful for the eclipse.
After the eclipse, I said my thanks to my hosts and my goodbyes and prepared to head back home. I had checked the weather again and it looked like a similarly challenging trip back, with similar problems determining the extent of the smoke. I remember a concept Paul mentioned in his talk the day before: you can always park it and take Southwest! I talked over strategies with some of the local, more experienced pilots and they suggested that if the trip directly over the mountains looked bad I could try the ?coast route? which simply followed the coast. It looked like it would be foggy but it might burn off by the time I got there. Again, while it is legal to fly above an undercast, if anything goes wrong and you have to get down, you are dependent on there being an airport, beach or clearing that you can see and if you can?t you?re basically turning on the auto pilot in a decent and praying. Not exactly a plan for success.
I launched out of Independence in the clear and went south for about 20 minutes before the smoke got bad. I had topped up my oxygen the night before so I could go as high as I wanted and kept climbing up to 13,500 feet to find a clear path. I could still barely see the ground through the smoke. Straight ahead and to both sides the sky appeared as variations of light and dark. The darker areas could have been sky or thicker smoke. As it turned out it was thicker smoke. After several uncomfortable minutes I had had enough.
On autopilot I turned back north. When I was in the clear I made my way to the coast. The smoke was still thick to the south and seemed to extend far out into the Pacific. Nope, not interested in a forced landing and a shipwreck in the same event should I run into a problem. I looked at my traffic display on my new equipment and saw 2 distinct streams of traffic heading south at various altitudes. Momentarily I wondered if all these people had found a route that maybe I should follow. Then I realized that much of the flow was following airways and was very likely IFR traffic with IFR-rated pilots. Nope. I turned East and took a tentative look at how far into Nevada I would have to venture to get around the smoke.
...(continued next post)
The next day when checking weather for the trip to Oregon I saw numerous TFRs that had popped up around firefighting activities around the border between California and Oregon. I soon realized that my big problem was that what the TFRs don?t show is the extent of the smoke and areas where you need to be instrument rated and your airplane needs to have the proper equipment. You can find out which airports are IFR but it is a much bigger challenge to find out where the smoke is at altitude.
I equipped Stella with IFR instrumentation with the intention of getting my instrument rating in her. It has been on my list of life goals for a long time but I know what sort of commitment it takes in terms of both money and especially time. I had planned to start my IFR training after the end of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony season but the procrastination caught up to me.
The trip up to Oregon was a real eye opener with the amount of smoke in the air and I almost turned back. I was still legal but it was very questionable as to whether it was entirely safe but having just done an upgrade to the instrumentation which included ADSB traffic, weather and 3 sources of synthetic vision, I was willing to push my comfort zone, knowing that I trend towards overly cautious. I was talking to air traffic control on flight following, I had oxygen and climbed to 14,500 ft and was just above the smoke where I was, but to my left and right it continued above me. It cleared as I went north.
I made it through and I had a tremendous time at the fly in. I was hosted by a very generous couple on the airpark and attended forums given by such luminaries as Paul Dye. Everyone here knows about Paul. If you don?t, he?s Ironflight in the forums. I have been in touch over the years with Paul and his wife Louise but this was the first time I got to meet Louise and visit with Paul a bit. It was wonderful to visit and the eclipse was stunning icing on the cake. It was clear weather in Independence and beautiful for the eclipse.
After the eclipse, I said my thanks to my hosts and my goodbyes and prepared to head back home. I had checked the weather again and it looked like a similarly challenging trip back, with similar problems determining the extent of the smoke. I remember a concept Paul mentioned in his talk the day before: you can always park it and take Southwest! I talked over strategies with some of the local, more experienced pilots and they suggested that if the trip directly over the mountains looked bad I could try the ?coast route? which simply followed the coast. It looked like it would be foggy but it might burn off by the time I got there. Again, while it is legal to fly above an undercast, if anything goes wrong and you have to get down, you are dependent on there being an airport, beach or clearing that you can see and if you can?t you?re basically turning on the auto pilot in a decent and praying. Not exactly a plan for success.
I launched out of Independence in the clear and went south for about 20 minutes before the smoke got bad. I had topped up my oxygen the night before so I could go as high as I wanted and kept climbing up to 13,500 feet to find a clear path. I could still barely see the ground through the smoke. Straight ahead and to both sides the sky appeared as variations of light and dark. The darker areas could have been sky or thicker smoke. As it turned out it was thicker smoke. After several uncomfortable minutes I had had enough.
On autopilot I turned back north. When I was in the clear I made my way to the coast. The smoke was still thick to the south and seemed to extend far out into the Pacific. Nope, not interested in a forced landing and a shipwreck in the same event should I run into a problem. I looked at my traffic display on my new equipment and saw 2 distinct streams of traffic heading south at various altitudes. Momentarily I wondered if all these people had found a route that maybe I should follow. Then I realized that much of the flow was following airways and was very likely IFR traffic with IFR-rated pilots. Nope. I turned East and took a tentative look at how far into Nevada I would have to venture to get around the smoke.
...(continued next post)