John & Anne Wiley

2016/08/15

On A Clear Day

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 07:24

Lately we’ve had many days in a row with hazy air from cool sea breezes, fires near and far, or more often both. So when Sunday looked clear we took off for a look at our favorite part of the world. The new kid’s museum being built downtown has wavy shapes on the roof, and when we spotted drains in the containers they form I wondered if they’d be aquariums but it turns out they’re planters.

1129 Kid's Museum Detail

1129 Kid’s Museum Detail

People passing in trains, automobiles, on bikes or feet can’t see this yet. We saw lots of residents and visitors enjoying the nice weather, including out on the water where we caught this moment in time on a local tour boat.

1213 Relaxing Moment

1213 Relaxing Moment

But on this “clear” day we could look East and see heavy smoke from distant fires, and looking West was whiter smoke blending in with offshore low clouds. Even in what had seemed like clear air looking down on our town, from offshore and above we could see that we’d been breathing the smoke down there before takeoff too.

1220 Above the Smoke

1220 Above the Smoke

Like when we saw planters on the new building, from just a little way up we could see smoke that’s all but invisible down there. Every time we fly it’s new.

2016/08/13

Ghost Mystery

Filed under: Flying,Has Photos,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 01:30

My article on a white “ash fall” at the Pine Fire burn area in today’s Edhat outlines the mystery. In essence, the phenomenon seemed to have been caused by some freak wind event that deposited heavy white ash down this cliff face.

9926 Ash Fall?

9926 Ash Fall?

Here’s a cropped look at the lower area, showing how it heavily coated the trees and cliff face yet didn’t seem to cause any fire.

9926 "Flocked" Trees

9926 “Flocked” Trees

Looking thru the rest of our pix from that flight I came across another area with white coating the trees next to some orange PhosChek fire retardant.

9812 Another Flocking

9812 Another Flocking

This pic of a similar effect on less of a slope along with the fact that the cliff face was also coated, got me thinking. For it to stick on the cliff face and so heavily coat the trees like that, it must have been something wet rather than a dry blown ash. What if it’s a white fire retardant? Maybe some PhosCheck that didn’t have the orange coloring? Perhaps dropped by helicopter, thus landing on a smaller area in the last pic and in a vertical line on the first two? Maybe a special mix designed to help protect firefighters? Hopefully someone familiar with the fire fighting efforts on the Pine Fire (or another wildfire with white retardant used) can post a clarifying comment on Edhat.

2016/08/05

Casitas to Coast

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 07:32

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

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 03:21

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

Battling Doom

Filed under: Aviation,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 08:42

This pic from 6/17 is striking to me. The sky is so overwhelmingly ominous with layers of smoke from the Sherpa Fire! Yet the DC-10 tanker is heading into the mouth of the dragon to drop fire retardant.

7533 Courage Over Fire

7533 Courage Over Fire

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Blog at WordPress.com.