The House Is Still Standing

Karin and I ventured back to the house yesterday. There was smoke billowing from a mountaintop behind it (a few miles away) but our house was as we had left it. Outside the house there is a fair amount of ash. Inside the house there is the distinct smell of smoke. In fact, Karin was bothered enough by the smell to immediately order an air purifier (local stores are sold out). We decided to go back to Del Mar until the air is flushed out. That should be in a day or so, now that the Santa Ana's have abated. Typically we have on-shore winds that keep our air quite clean.

I had been toying with the idea of going flying in order to survey the area around San Diego. There are restrictions in effect, of course, as well as significant obscuration due to the smoke. I had emailed a few people that I fly with to see if anyone had been up. Most were waiting out the fires. I had also looked up the TFR's in effect and had spoken to an FAA briefer. Clearly it was legal to fly but most planes were staying on the ground. Then my flying buddy Mike called me. Mike is an Air Traffic Controller by day and knows the entire air traffic control system - from the controller side! It's great to fly with him. Mike told me that he had been flying daily since the fires started. He wanted us to head to the airport immediately. Karin and I were still at our house, assessing the situation there. I told Mike I'd call him when I knew what our plans were. A couple of hours later, I was taking Karin back to Del Mar and heading to the airport.

The airport was practically abandoned. MYF is one of the busiest general aviation fields in the USA. It generally has two active runways with nonstop landing and departing traffic. During our taxi to the active I saw no other plane.

We departed without delay. We flew up the coast to Del Mar and then headed east, toward the Witch Creek Fire area - and to our house. Our house is located just south of one of the Temporary Flight Restriction areas. We were given clearance to enter Miramar Marine Airbase Class Bravo airspace and surveyed the area around our house. There was no damage visible from the air.

There was significant smoke north of us and south of us. We decided to head to the south to survey the area around Mike's house (we both had been evacuated from our respective houses). As we approached Mike's neighborhood, the sky became dark with smoke. We decided to climb to 7,500, above the TFR. Because all fire-fighting operations are conducted from a much lower altitude, we are able to fly over any of the fire fighting areas, as long as we remain above 7,000 MSL.

The scene from above the fire was quite unbelievable. Multiple lines of fire along mountainsides with smoke billowing up for miles. You've probably seen the satellite images that have been broadcast on television. Those are impressive. But flying above a massive fire and seeing a line of flames from 7,500 feet is really dramatic. I will post a couple of photos shortly.

GWB will be visiting San Diego today so our airspace will be shut down. The president now gets his own TFR wherever he travels. I probably will fly with Nicolas tomorrow. By then the fires will likely be extinguished for the most part and we will be able to survey the damage.

I apologize for putting a flying story here but people are asking what we are doing. Once the situation normalizes here, I promise not to post such off-topic items.