John & Anne Wiley

2016/08/05

Casitas to Coast

Coming back from a look at the Pine Fire burn area we enjoyed this first look at Lake Casitas in the distance made hazy by the cool coastal humidity.

9961 Cool Coast

9961 Cool Coast

One of the things that made it especially inviting was the much hotter air over the burn area. Another thing I like about this pic is how it shows the relative shoreline size. The full lake outline goes from the bottom-left off the right end. Closer in we could begin to get an idea of how much the vertical lake level has dropped from the drought.

9971 Drain & Plane

9971 Drain & Plane

I also saw again the tiny airstrip just above the dark pond at bottom-left that we’ve seen there on prior flights. Here’s the closer look I’ve been meaning to get for several years now, because we descended just to check it out and snap this.

9976 Plane Truth

9976 Plane Truth

I’d seen the “X” marks at the runway ends before, and thought maybe it was some rancher’s private airport for a “short field” plane. But in fact, it’s home to the Ventura County Comets Radio Control Flying Club, that used to launch “seaplanes” right next to the runway at lake level. For their planes, that airstrip is enormous! We went on for a look at the first of many marina slips next to the concrete boat launch ramp that now ends well above water level.

9966 Low Water

9966 Low Water

I like the different shapes, textures and colors in that pic. Next we came across the hills above Rincon, where I noticed these rows of buildings.

9997 Trees & Buildings

9997 Trees & Buildings

Among the wild trees, geometric orchards and patches of bare earth, the neat rows of long buildings tickled our curiosity. So we snapped this maximum zoom shot, and I’m reminded of a childhood memory.

9989 Little Chicken

9989 Little Chicken

My first look at a chicken ranch years ago makes me think that’s what this is, only this one looks much more humane and smaller.

2016/07/24

Chilling

We’re having a heat wave, but so far have eluded local wildfires though there’s smoke both East and West of us. Today we again took off headed for a beach day at Oceano, and Campus Point was crowded with people chillin’ and surfing.

9293 UCSB Campus Point

9293 UCSB Campus Point

High over Solvang we could see that people were beating the triple-digit heat in the valley by taking advantage of cool water released from Cachuma Lake.

9345 Solvang Swimmers

9345 Solvang Swimmers

By then we could see that the western smoke plume from the fire near Monterey had shifted on shore at Oceano so we decided to follow the Santa Ynez River toward Lompoc. Along the way we saw a few more people enjoying the river.

9351 Water for a Thirsty Land

9351 Water for a Thirsty Land

This release helps preserve the water table downstream, where many people depend on well water. It also provides a cooling alternative to facing traffic to and from a beach. Before long, among the famous vineyards of Santa Rita Valley we came to the point where the last ponds disappear down into the parched sand.

9364 Last Drop

9364 Last Drop

Turning back toward home we reached the cooler air over Gaviota State Beach where many people from North and East converged to splash and relax.

9389 Cool Gaviota

9389 Cool Gaviota

Water activities were also popular at Refugio State Beach, where few visible traces of the recent pipeline oil spill remain.

9467 Refugio Rehabilitated

9467 Refugio Rehabilitated

Even El Capitan, mostly closed still due to water system damage by the Sherpa Fire, had crowds of day use beach goers.

9497 El Capitan Day Users

9497 El Capitan Day Users

Approaching downtown Santa Barbara we saw small kids wearing themselves out with delight under the watchful eye of parents and lifeguards at the Oak Park wading pool. Beneath the grand trees nearby, colorful parties and picnics huddled in the shade.

9548 Sun, Shade & Wade at Oak Park

9548 Sun, Shade & Wade at Oak Park

The popular playground was deserted, but when the pool closes and afternoon cooling begins some of the small fry will relocate and burn more calories chasing memories.

2016/07/15

El Cap Spared

Going through more pix from our recent flights I came across this view down El Capitan Canyon to the State Park.

8530 El Cap Spared

8530 El Cap Spared

Not only were some of the trees and shrubs in and near the creek saved from the fire, but all of the buildings in the private canyon retreat center and campground and the State Beach Park beyond the freeway. Though the fire did briefly jump the freeway, the private canyon was spared and the only damage to the State park was to the water supply pump station. Once that pump is repaired the State park will reopen with no sign of the fire other than this scorched hillside to detract from the delight of Summer campers.

2016/07/07

Sherpa Northside

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 23:19

Here are a few more pix of the Sherpa (aka Scherpa, etc.) Fire burn area, along the North side. I’ve sent more and different pix to Edhat, that you can find using the “John On Edhat” link in the right column here. The first pic is looking along the ridge toward the East.

8558 Sherpa NW Corner

8558 Sherpa NW Corner

At the Northwest corner of the burned area is reportedly where the fire started, to the left of the swimming pool at the base of the hill. In this next pic, that area is far in the distance toward the Northwest below the low point in the ridge. You can see that they painted multiple lines of PhosCheck as the fire progressed. Higher up was probably both a secondary defense and extra protection for the ridge where there’s expensive telecomm equipment. They’d also want to prevent the fire cresting the ridge and moving down into the valley beyond.

8529 Along North Edge

8529 Along North Edge

Last is this view from near the Northeast edge, looking toward the South, looking down El Capitan and Las Flores Canyons to the beaches far into the distance.

8530 Down to the Sea

8530 Down to the Sea

2016/06/23

Sherpa Fire Aircraft

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 12:52

Even snapping the fire from high above the fray, some of our pix included aircraft. For those who are curious how aerial fire attack looks from above, or my fellow aviation buffs, here are a few pix. First the biggest and baddest: the DC-10.

7900 Tanker 910 DC-10 N612AX

7900 Tanker 910 DC-10 N612AX

Going by the catchy name “Tanker 910” this flying fire extinguisher can lay a track like this 300′ wide and a mile long. At the other end of the spectrum is this trusty all-purpose helicopter (possibly a Sheriff UH-1N “Huey”) dropping water while a ground crew takes a break to enjoy the show.

7774 Instant Rain

7774 Instant Rain

This bigger helicopter I think is a Sky Crane, and it can deliver a larger load of water.

7890 Flying Fire Hose

7890 Flying Fire Hose

Managing all this were two “spotter” lead planes, mostly taking turns over the fire but while we were there they both made appearances. This King Air N463DF was higher, so we got a better look at it.

7886 "Sky" King Air N463DF

7886 “Sky” King Air N463DF

Down closer to the action during our time over the fire was this Cessna 525 N10R looking really cool.

7844 Cessna 525 N10R

7844 Cessna 525 N10R

This sleek jet we normally see whisking the well to do into SBA greeted by a waiting limo, was instead directing both the DC-10 and this smaller 4-engine jet that I think is one of Neptune Aviation’s BAe 146 tankers very precisely painting a red line of PhosChek fire retardant.

7876 BAe 146 PhosChek Drop

7876 BAe 146 PhosChek Drop

Last, another look at the tanker we saw far in the smoky distance, that I think is a Grumman S-2 Tracker.

7706 Grumman S-2 Tracker?

7706 Grumman S-2 Tracker?

There were more aircraft working the fire, but few were close enough to positively identify. Several times we could see nine or more inside the fire restricted area (red box) at once, using the Avare and HIZ apps on an S4 phone in our living room. Each of the blue dots in this cropped screen capture is an aircraft, the direction of the line shows their heading and the length of the line approximates their speed (so the short lines tend to be helicopters, and the long one approaching the box was the Cessna).

Avare ADSB Capture

Avare ADSB Capture

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