Hey SoCal pilots

[Flatbutt1]

Just wondering if you guys are all OK with the fires this year. From this side it looks kinda bad.

[Rapid Dog]

Sucks to ride thru smoke and ash...but I'm still 10 miles away...up wind...

[acook]

last year I had to get out of town because of smoke and ash 11am looked like midnight with a ash storm. took a week to finally get the smoke smell out of house. Good o'le SO CAL heat, fire and wind is our weather.

[arbik]

So far so good.
I'm on this side of the hill.
Hope they get a handle on it soon, its starting to upset me.

-arbi

[Flatbutt1]

Well here's hoping you all stay safe.

[Rapid Dog]

Dang! It was a close one, about 1 mile from my property.

We lost the bridge at Aliso Canyon, one of my favorite roads up to The Crest. Thank gosh it appears the fire was out this morning as it was headed to the Angeles Forest last night.

Kudos to the air bomers, those guys are awesome accurate and saved everyone's arse. The ground crews are bloody heros too.

We had friends and animals evacuated right across the valley...we also had our trailer hooked and ready.

I had a ringside seat from my front porch...






]





The Crown Fire burned out of control across more than 8,000 acres after erupting Tuesday, even as California firefighters gained the upper hand on two other large wildfires. It destroyed a mobile home, an abandoned house and a bridge, county fire Inspector Mike McCormick said.

No injuries were reported.

Winds gusting up to 25 mph pushed flames past ranch homes in Acton but the blaze crept overnight toward houses in the Little Rock, Bell Springs and Juniper Hills areas, he said.

"See all the smoke? My home is right up there," said Cristal Herron, 42, who fled her home Tuesday and waited nervously with her 13-year-old daughter.

Three Angeles National Forest roads were closed indefinitely, including a popular commuter route from the growing Antelope Valley to Los Angeles.

Temperatures reaching into high 90s and brush left dry after years of drought helped fuel a series of Southern California fires in the past week. Threatened communities have so far avoided the large-scale losses of homes that occurred in the region's wildfires last fall but officials warned that the fire season is young.

"A lot of us are looking at each other and saying 'Wait a minute, it's mid-July and this is happening,"' Angeles National Forest spokesman Stanton Florea said. "The multiple large fires with this behavior, we usually only see after Aug. 1, and mostly in October when the Santa Ana winds are blowing."

About 1500 firefighters were on the lines for the Crown Fire, which burned through grass, brush and pinon, juniper and Joshua trees. It was headed deeper into national forest lands full of densely packed, dead conifers.

[Rapid Dog]

why are these pics so blurry? what size should I use? crapola...

[Rapid Dog]

at 600 pixels...

[motoyoyo]

I was thinking about your situation last night Rapid. When I heard the fire was in Acton I was hoping you all would get through it ok. Looks like the fire crews and air drops did an awesome job this morning especially. Could have been a bad scene for sure.

[flynbmw]

My thoughts go out to you and your neighbors... I did the same "thing" about 2 years in Nor Cal...

The firefighters are the real heros and do not get enough credit...

Harold

[JustAnotherSquid]

Dayam ... you coulda said that was an AC-130 circling a hot-spot in Afghanistan and I woulda believed it.

[Rapid Dog]

Upper desert, we got the brush, the sand, and the heat...

[repoe3]

our trip to california, for laguna seca, was a first for me. as far as geography and climate goes, i can see why people like california. but driving from town to town along 101 was like no man's land, then civilisation, no man's land, repeat.

i could envision myself riding a GS through the country side trying to dodge people running across the border

repoe3

[Moybin]

repoe3

That's what I find so odd about people who have never been to California. All they know, and can know, is what they see on TV, and that's LA, some San Diego, San Fran and a glimpse of a couple of national parks.

Very few people from the east side of the Rocky Mountains understand just how much fertile farmland and timbered forest there is in California. I don't know where they think lettuce and parsley and carrots and tomatoes and all manner of produce comes from, if not from miles and miles of farm land.

Yet around here in Iowa and western Illinois people are knee-jerk instant quick to slam California, and they've NEVER BEEN THERE. It amazes me how narrow minded and ignorant Americans can be, INSIDE their own country.

Jay Leno said it best when he said EVERYTHING on Earth is available within a 100 mile drive of LA. For those who have never been there, don't knock it 'til you try it.

ps: I've lived on both coasts, and in between. You can keep that crammed-together hectic life outside DC and NYC and Boston. Not enough elbow room.

[Rapid Dog]

This an E-mail from a shortwave nut I know...

"It might go all the way to Juniper Hills.

Sikorski 453 Echo just called into Fox field, (a National Guard volunteer Chinook) inbound from LittleRock for fuel...so......it's really running Northeast far and hard.

Tanker 452 (A PhosCheck Bomber) has been running back and fourth all morning, and said, "No Fuel Stop, just re-load PhosCheck, we have to get up there, right away".

and then...


"I just heard 5 new Fox field contacts, what I ain't heard before.......so, there is a new bunch of new Heeloh's and PhosCheck bombers arriving......and one of the fixed wing bombers is comming in with one engine out......but they sound cool, like it's no big deal.....just routine. (I guess when you beat-up an aircraft engine, in heavy smoke, sometimes they quit running.)

Right now, the Fox Tower is trying to land a Chinook, November 731, Launch a tanker "Tanker 731", and land a tanker with one engine out, and the Tower just told the "Tanker 20" that there is no more room at the Tanker Base.....to orbit until "Tanker 185" lands with the bad engine.

The little Cessna aircraft what you saw, are called "Path Finders", they steer the heavy bombers through the smoke......as near as I can tell, there are three of them, working with "Area Air Command", up in the forrest.

They are comming in from all over the place, not just Acton."

[repoe3]

Originally posted by Moybin
repoe3

That's what I find so odd about people who have never been to California. All they know, and can know, is what they see on TV, and that's LA, some San Diego, San Fran and a glimpse of a couple of national parks.

Very few people from the east side of the Rocky Mountains understand just how much fertile farmland and timbered forest there is in California. I don't know where they think lettuce and parsley and carrots and tomatoes and all manner of produce comes from, if not from miles and miles of farm land.

Yet around here in Iowa and western Illinois people are knee-jerk instant quick to slam California, and they've NEVER BEEN THERE. It amazes me how narrow minded and ignorant Americans can be, INSIDE their own country.

Jay Leno said it best when he said EVERYTHING on Earth is available within a 100 mile drive of LA. For those who have never been there, don't knock it 'til you try it.

ps: I've lived on both coasts, and in between. You can keep that crammed-together hectic life outside DC and NYC and Boston. Not enough elbow room.

i agree with you on lack of elbow room...for me it is a means to an end. sadly, among my possessions, i would be a criminal if i lived in cali due to their over the top politics and laws. the state has fallen prey to the same thing that happened to NY and what is happening to the rest of VA (outside of the northern VA/metro DC area)...the larger cities populace is dictating state law and EVERYONE in the state, especially less populated areas, suffer from laws that don't make sense outside of a metro area.

repoe3

[Rapid Dog]

Pete and me did a run yesterday thru the Lake Hughes fire zone (Pine Canyon). Amazing how much foliage and homes where still standing...another tribute to our fabulous firefighters.

These pics on the turn-off at Three Corners off Pine Cyn.

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