Fires!

My buddy Robin and I actually had a training flight in the retractable gear plane yesterday, because while the wind was gusting 30-40 mph at Van Nuys and higher up in Ventura County, it wasn't bad at Hawthorne and Torrance airports.


But it looked better from the ground - aloft at about 1,750 ft. or so the about 1,000' thick layer of brown smoke and particulates existed. It was almost but not quite instrument conditions.

We could not see any of the fires from that spot at about 4,500 aloft, but again, this flat basin area is pretty protected with the sea breezes pushing back at the Santa Anas.

The myriad microclimates in SoCal are endlessly fascinating! Unfortunately they are sometimes dangerous, too.

This is NOT from yesterday, but from July's fire north of SBA (from inside Bruce's Cirrus backseat).