We took a very dear 83 year young friend flying this evening before taking her to the Beachside near the airport for dinner. It involved some coaxing, but we got her to take the controls for a moment so we could snap her doing this new thing in her life. She found it comfortable, and did surprisingly well at quickly and intuitively getting the feel of a gentle turn. No matter how often we fly it’s always new. Today not just from having our friend along, but the soft coastline where the clouds were dispersing in the warming afternoon breeze.
0150 Soft Coast
In our half hour jaunt we flew up to the ridge for a look at where Sunday’s “Circle” wild fire was. It was a little hard to spot, though the wide clearings along the ridge road seemed new. That area wasn’t black though, so maybe it did burn and they’ve just cleared it to the dirt ensuring it can’t rekindle a blaze and to provide a wide fire break. That’s Cachuma Lake at the upper left.
0152 Fire Clearing
If you click to see the large version of 0152 above, you might make out the small area near the far end of the clearing that is black. As we flew past it heading for dinner, I snapped the closer view below. Looks like the reddish fire retardant dropped by an airplane (vertical line bottom-left) slowed the spread so that hand crews could contain the blaze at the blackened area. You’ll find other pix on the Edhat and Photo Page links in the right column here.
0157 Circle Fire End
John & Anne Wiley 
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