Wow lookout, fly high in Eastern Oregon. Most TFR tops are in the 9500 to 10.5 range here locally around the ILR/VOR.

Air Attack and SEATs everywhere. Heard today 2nd hand that some Heavys were working West of ILR.

Looking at the Incident map seems to be fires everywhere in the west.
WA,OR,ID,UT,NV have a bunch.

See where Low&Slow has been at it hot and heavy in McCall.

Cripes it's only mid July with August and September to come.

Be safe, fly smart, Bub

I think it's going to be a long season. Stuff is going to burn for 3 months or more. I just got back from a fire recon mission where we flew over 5 major fires, all considered wild fire use, meaning the USFS will just let them burn. So we're looking at another season of IFR backcountry flying, hope you GPS works.

But as Bub says, check your TFRs. I think I posted a thread about this last summer. They're a pain in the ass, but from the guy in the middle sometimes, we need the space.

I don't chase guys down, just a verbal warning, but I've seen it and heard it done before. A guy in a commander busted a friend of mine, pulled up on him and got his N number. So the best thing to do is give smoke a good radius.

Fly safe,

John

Another reason to get a Garmin 396/496 with the XM weather is it shows all current and future scheduled TFR's on the screen.

-Todd Giencke

tgiencke wrote:Another reason to get a Garmin 396/496 with the XM weather is it shows all current and future scheduled TFR's on the screen.

-Todd Giencke

I second that one..... now who wants to buy one or both of my kids so I can get a 496???

Hottshot wrote:I second that one..... now who wants to buy one or both of my kids so I can get a 496???

Buy a used 396 they are just as good.

-Todd Giencke

So a 396/496 has the xm weather? What does the subscription run a year for that service?

Just curious, I'm with Hotshot there, if he gets a good price for his kids, then we can know what fair market value would be, then I could fatten mine up. Suppose they will go by the pound? Hey I would save money as my Freshman son eats like a horse, nothings safe!

HAve fun, Bub

I belive that the 496 has better graphics and shows towers and private strips that are not on the charts as well, I amsure I'm wrong but that is the way I understand it haveing not been able to get anyone to give me a for sure explaination.

as for the kids the older they are the harder it is to get a good price as they are able to remember where you live!!!!

subscription data is here http://www.xmradio.com/pdf/existing/wea ... on_pkg.pdf
There are other options other than garmin to get wx in the cockpit. I fly with a tablet PC running chartcase pro software. It gives me all ELA's, approaches, sectionals,WAC's. flight planning software from hades, W&B etc. etc. for about the same price as a 496. Everything is Geo-referenced, so you are the little blue airplane flying on the map, approach plate etc.
Oh and you get a DVD every month that updates all of your charts, maps etc.

How is the air quality in the backcountry? Between current fires and drift smoke from around the state, is it already deteriorating? Man, I was hoping for a better season, but past experience told me this was going to be a bad fire season. Between the birth of our new baby and dealing with a root canal, I've had to cancel two backcountry trips in the last two weeks. I feel the crunch is on to get up there before the backcountry turns IFR for the rest of the summer. Next attempt, this coming Monday and I'm crossing my fingers.

As for aircraft being tracked down...I fought fires on the ground for 7 years, and at least a couple of times a year, we'd have somebody come wandering through our TFR. Usually, if our lead plane was overhead, he'd go pay them a visit and get their digits. If not him, then possibly the whirly bird or anyone on the ground. Like said above, give smoke a wide berth and check those TFRs.

For checking TFRs, the FAA site will show them as well as AOPA's RTFP. There are more but these are the ones I use...followed by a call to FSS just to CYA.

Hottshot wrote:I belive that the 496 has better graphics and shows towers and private strips that are not on the charts as well, I amsure I'm wrong but that is the way I understand it haveing not been able to get anyone to give me a for sure explaination.

The 396 & 496 screens have the same resolution/screens. The terrain data resolution is better on the 496. But how detailed do you need? The 396 is perfectly good.

As for obstacles aka towers; All of the Garmin _96 series have obstacle databases. Even the "cheep" 96 which makes a nice backup.

Only the 496 shows private strips. I just manually input them into my 396. Not worth the $$$ to upgrade.

If you don't have a 396 and plan on using it in the car the 496 has all of the ground navigation preinstalled. I already had the maps in my 396 so again not worth the upgrade. Even if you don't use it in the car having the ground nav databases are really nice. Much more detailed maps, better than a sectional. And if you land somewhere you can call up the nearest restaurant and taxi and go get something to eat and a place to sleep.

Again the 396 is the best money I have spent in aviation.

-Todd Giencke

Grassstrip;

I left Johnson Creek last Saturday AM and there were no fires in the immediate area, but there were T-storms that moved through Friday night and the forecast as for more of the same Sat. & Sunday.

The only fire I saw was between Council, ID and Joseph, OR. It was pretty small and two smaller planes were working the grass fire and letting the fire in the trees go.

It may have all changed within a week, however.

Tom

TomD wrote:Grassstrip;

It may have all changed within a week, however.

Tom

It did.

It's smokey. Inversions in the morning, and it improves throughout the day. And lately, thunderstorms in the evening. It's tough flying already. I was hoping for a lilttle bit longer before it went bad. I don't see any good wetting rains in the next couple weeks. I think it'll continue to be hot and still, and these fires will burn until it snows.

I remember last summer serveral days that were, or should have been, IFR. I think we might be looking at that again. McCall has a temporary tower sometimes in the summer, and I remember needing a special VFR to land due to smoke and vis. I landed several times last summer with the AWOS reporting 3 miles, and that was good compared to other areas.

Here we go again....


John

How is it down at Sulphur Creek now? We're heading there the week after next. I saw there's a TFR NE of Stanley. I'm crossing my fingers the whole middle fork won't be smoked out by then, but getting nervous . . . .

Thanks for the reports.


CAVU

Low&Slow,

Thanks for the report. Man, I hate to hear that it has already begun.

Could you give me a general summary of what areas are being most affected? I'm heading to Big Creek on Monday and am planning on bouncing in a few strips on the way. I'm just curious what areas will be affected. I remember last year if you could make it north of Indian Creek, it cleared up in the Big Creek area. Of course, that was early September and there were several fires that had been burning for weeks.

Anyway, I'm just curious how widespread it is.

Thanks.

Hey there. I've had a tough couple days, sorry I didn't get back to you sooner.

I haven't been east of McCall since Friday, but from my house yesterday, I could see a plume that I guessed was Zena Creek blowin' up. That's just north of the East Fork of the South Fork (to Yellow Pine and JC). I've also heard there's a TFR over Loon Lake, which is up the Sesech from Zena Cr. Between those two and two others further on down the South Fork of the Salmon, you can bet on some pretty good morning inverisions. Hot afternoons will lift the smoke, but they'll also keep all the fires going pretty good, so you'll have another inversion the next day. It's an ongoing cycle that's tough to beat until it snows.

Check your TFRs daily.

Enjoy your trip. I think it's still very doable, just not quite as nice as a couple weeks ago.

John

Thanks for the report. We made it up fine and Big Creek was the only place that was really smokey. We landed, checked it out, and decided that we'd go back to JC to spend the night. Too short of a trip, but with any luck I'll be back up in a couple of weeks...fire/smoke conditions providing.

Whoa, looks like the Skywagon folks are eating some smoke this morning at Johnson Creek .

Had a bit of rain around the BNO area last night, helped clean the air up fairly well.

All three of the SEAT planes here came in from the east last night, just before dark. Must have some good fires in South Western Idaho?

Fly Safe, Bub

I saw the same thing this morning. Most of those aircraft (six of them) are from Michigan. I think they said they are headed to OSH, so I'd imagine they'll be leaving soon.

Man, I'm glad that it wasn't smokey earlier this week. Hopefully it won't get too bad.

That cold front set off a major inversion this morning that made flying near impossible. Tried to go over it, but I couldn't climb that high, so I spent the morning wallowing around with about 4-6 miles of vis everywhere I was going. There was a cloud layer on top at about 8,500, and until that burned off by noon, it stayed pretty messy underneath.

John

Wow the JC web cam this am looks pretty smokey!

How about an update John?

Are you timing out?

Fly safe, Bub