If anybody is looking to come out to the Frank Church Wilderness.... the smoke is pretty bad. I'm looking across Lake Cascade and can barely see the opposite shore..... probably 2 mile vis. Personally, I'd delay or cancel a "bucketlist" trip and wait for better conditions in the Fall or next year.

Bummer to hear this Mike. Amy's been reporting the same. Was hoping to be back out by Sept 1 but am keeping my eyes on it and hoping...

On Saturday (Jul 28) I flew from West Yellowstone to Johnson Creek. It was extremely smokey for most of the flight. Johnson Creek was tolerable, but anything east was awful. It was just an overnight stop for us so we managed, but I agree that I’d stay clear for now.

I was planning on going to the Skywagon fly-in at 3U2. It is really that bad right now..

Dog is my Copilot wrote:I was planning on going to the Skywagon fly-in at 3U2. It is really that bad right now..

Right now it's fine. This morning it was low IFR and in two hours it'll be low IFR again. Might be fine two hours after that, or it might be IFR for the next seven weeks.

There's a lot of fires and a lot of smoke moving around, and that's only going to get worse as the hours tick by. Whether it'll affect airstrip X on day's Y and Z is anybody's guess.

If you haven't read "Boiling a Frog" in the knowledge base you might look at it. It takes VERY little smoke to make those canyon bottom airstrips death traps, and the low sun angle of morning flying just makes it worse.

Don't land at Johnson Creek if you aren't willing to hitchhike out and leave your airplane there until the next big rain, which will probably be October.

I was thinking of Garden Valley in two weeks. Camping with 14 year grandson and his friend. Option two is the Oregon Coast for some crabbing and digging clams

Tim

Boy that'll be tough to do. We're getting hammered from all directions, good luck!

qmdv wrote:I was thinking of Garden Valley in two weeks. Camping with 14 year grandson and his friend. Option two is the Oregon Coast for some crabbing and digging clams

Tim

Garden Valley in August can be brutally hot, and the river next to the airstrip doesn't offer much in the way of swimming access.

Hammer wrote:

qmdv wrote:I was thinking of Garden Valley in two weeks. Camping with 14 year grandson and his friend. Option two is the Oregon Coast for some crabbing and digging clams

Tim

Garden Valley in August can be brutally hot, and the river next to the airstrip doesn't offer much in the way of swimming access.

Then add the smoke. I have a place at Bandon Oregon. No smoke, high of 73 degrees, week of the 13th has a good low tide for clamming.
Hmm. Oh and the flight from ranch to Bandon is 1 hr 10 minuts

Tim

I had to turn back to Boise on Tuesday morning from Smiley Creek. I was over Alturas and couldn't even see the strip, pop up to get back... Stay safe out there.

I came across this site: http://idsmoke.blogspot.com/

It has some useful information and satellite images that may make going or not going on a particular trip useful.
Visibility looks a little better today. I am hoping to make it out to McCall tonight and then out to 3U2 in the morning.

Nice site. You can see that much of the smoke is coming from Oregon and NorCal.
Visibility is a lot better this morning so you should be good. I can see all the way to the mountain at Johnson creek from our house on the west side of lake cascade. Yesterday, I could not proceed any further downstream than Thomas creek.
Smoke to get worse after today. High winds this afternoon.

I may be going to 3u2 today. I’ll look for you.

Damn. Hope it doesn't spread too badly and goes out soon. Have vacation approved and was planning on taking a 9 day tour out and back at the end of the month. Might have to start working on a plan B.....

Good thoughts sent for rain to help put out the fires.

Visibility really good the last few days. The Cessna 180/185 fly in looks good at Johnson creek.

Skywagon Fly-in was incredible. The winds kicked up on Friday afternoon and blew away almost all of the smoke for Saturday. It started to blow back in in the evening yesterday but overall the visibility was great for the event. 68 planes on the ground including a Kodiak Quest. Interesting talk from the Idaho Aviation Association and the Boise FSDO last night on safety and some of the recent accidents in the Idaho backcountry. Also got to meet Idaho Mike this morning.

I've been checking a few cameras and it looks like the smoke isn't too bad right now. Anybody willing to give a quick update as to how it looks out the window? I'm planning to fly to Idaho Falls in the morning and up to Lewiston in the after noon tomorrow (Monday).

Thanks,

CW

IDA is good.



Hopefully we’ll be moving the fuselage into the hangar tomorrow.

that is great to hear Jon...!
and for what its worth, i was on lower loon last wednesday...wasnt too bad...wasnt too great.....

Thanks Whee and Jomac! That's very helpful. And congratulations whee! I wish I could stick around to check out your project in person and help with the move but it will be a stop and go for me. Is your hangar at IDA?

CW

Yeah, old t-hangar on the east side.