Alaska Pilots

Mt Redoubt has finally erupted. The ash plum reached an elevation of 50,000 feet and is now drifting up the Susitna valley west of Anchorage for the time being. Avoid flying through this ash if you value your engines. Alaska Airlines has canceled 19 flights since midnight. Here is a link to the story in the Anchorage Daile News: http://www.adn.com/volcano/story/732796.html

Below is the seismograph of the eruption.

Nizina

You beat me to it this morning, Nizina!

Zane

It will be interesting to see what that picture looks like now that the eruption as occurred. It is getting light enough to see the mountain with the web cams, but its a bit of a cloudy day over there right now.

Here is the Redoubt web site where the web cam is located: http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Redoubt.php

Nizina

Seems to be a very fine trace of ash on vehicles here in McKinley Park, as of midday today

No ash, this morning, sulpher smell though before the wind picked up. Wind here appears to be NE, but with the plume so high we will all probably get a cup.

I thought I saw a steam plume yesterday evening when I flew to PA, but thought it was just the weather coming in from the inlet.

I just returned from cleaning a fine trace of ash off the windshield of the plane and installing the canopy cover. Go figure- first night of the entire winter that I thought I could get away with leaving the covers off, and a volcano erupts! Sorry about that, everybody

-DP

I'm wondering about cleaning precautions following ashfall.

I found some cleanup-related threads through the Alaska Volcano Observatory page, including this one. If you search around there is a page specific to cleaning up airports, but it does not have much on GA aircraft specifically.

Some suggestions include not blowing anything with compressed air at greater than 30 psi, using copious water, changing air, oil, and water filters often, using electronics at a bare minimum, and keeping everything under cover as much as possible. If you are cleaning up ash, it's best to dab, not wipe- with a damp cloth. If deposition gets to be very heavy, then structural tolerances come into play also.

We have only had trace amounts of ash so far in Denali, but it sounds like it could be headed our way, and it sounds like others of you are already into it. On the day that I first noticed it here, I cleaned my plexiglass windshield with copious amounts of warm/ hot water (it was a little below freezing). I did not use soap, although later when I was cleaning the car I noticed that a little soap seemed to help in getting the ash off- it was really sticky stuff- static electricity, maybe?

I installed my canopy cover and cinched it down tight. I left the wing covers off on purpose because I have mesh covers, and I figured getting ash under the mesh would be an invitation to serious abrasion. I also tightened down the cowl cover. Hangaring is unfortunately not an option.

Yesterday it snowed 6", and I attempted to leave a thin layer of snow on the wings and fuselage so that if more ash falls, it might act as a buffer, and I might be able to sweep the ash off without it directly contacting the skin of the airplane.

Curious what others are doing or have heard. Good luck to all those who are in the path,

Denalipilot

DP

Sounds like you are doing all the right things. I have had my Husky hangared in Wasilla this winter, but my lease runs out at the end of March. So, I've upped for the month of April and will then relocate it out to the Wrangell Mountains for the rest of the summer. Hopefully by the end of the summer I will have my hangar built out there and won't have to put up with these Cook Inlet Volcanoes any more -- just Mt.Wrangell.

With past airplanes here in the Palmer area, where it is very windy, I have generally not installed wing, cowl, or canopy covers when events have occurred in the past. I have been through about six of these events over the years. I also have the mesh covers, but this wind just forces the ash under all coves and then abrades all the surfaces. (it is gusting to 36kts today) You might not have much wind in the Denali area and would not have this problem. At any rate, short of a hangar, sounds like you are taking all the right precautions. We haven't had much ash here in Palmer yet, but if this thing goes on for months, I'm sure we will be blessed. Luckily I should be able to avoid the fallout once I relocate to the Wrangells for the summer.

You may want to be careful about allowing the snow and ash to melt onto your surfaces as I understand that the ash is very acidic.

Nizina

The beauty of nature's violence. Here is a video cam shot of Mt Redoubt Volcano in this morning's sun rise. The ash plume was reported to rise 50,000 feet msl and ash is projected to fall on the Kenai. A lahar has formed in the Drift River valley and you can see it flowing down the mountain in the lower center of the picture.

Nizina

Great capture Nizina.
That really is an incredible sight.

The ash plume went right over Homer and dumped,if you loop the satellite images you can see it go off. Right now everything looks like it is covered in cement and the air smell like sulfur. Cancelled all my flights for today. We need a really big rain to clean this stuff up. However, everyone says the blueberries will be outstanding this year.