chuck2shaw
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- Joined
- Sep 15, 2006
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For the third Friday in a row, I drove an hour west to Front Royal, VA, rather than my usual 50 miles north to Baltimore where I work, and enjoyed the quietness of a sleepy airport in the morning, and the rattly calmness of an old Cub when it is not asked to do much except go up.
I thought the haze was the same as last Friday, 3 to 5 miles visibility, but there was a difference today. In all the research flying I did in smokestack plumes a few years ago, and in 40 years of flying around Northern Virginia and in the Shenandoah Valley, I have never seen an effect quite like today.
As soon as we (me and '818) met our goal of getting all three wheels off the ground, it was clear something was amiss. If the Cub could talk, she (he?) would have asked "Is that me burning?"
The air was lightly scented with the smell of wood smoke. Not heavy, overpowering smoke like when I flew past a Big Sur forest fire in California. Just a trace. Just enough to say this isn't the clean Virgina air we are used to. Just enough to make the haze a strange darker color at the lower levels. Just enough to prevail up and down the valley between the beautiful South Fork of the Shenandoah River and the mountains of Skyline Drive for at least 60 miles that I flew.
Just enough to make this one more memorable day in the air, and make me so thankfull for being able to continue flying because of this little yellow airplane.
No question, no opinion, just my story for today.
Blue side up.
Chuck Shaw
Epilogue: The airport manager said the glider folks spotted and reported the brush fire yesterday at the north end of a ridge they soar on, and the forest service has not gone to put it out yet.
I could not see the Skyline Drive mountains in this picture from this distance today, but I knew they were there!
I thought the haze was the same as last Friday, 3 to 5 miles visibility, but there was a difference today. In all the research flying I did in smokestack plumes a few years ago, and in 40 years of flying around Northern Virginia and in the Shenandoah Valley, I have never seen an effect quite like today.
As soon as we (me and '818) met our goal of getting all three wheels off the ground, it was clear something was amiss. If the Cub could talk, she (he?) would have asked "Is that me burning?"
The air was lightly scented with the smell of wood smoke. Not heavy, overpowering smoke like when I flew past a Big Sur forest fire in California. Just a trace. Just enough to say this isn't the clean Virgina air we are used to. Just enough to make the haze a strange darker color at the lower levels. Just enough to prevail up and down the valley between the beautiful South Fork of the Shenandoah River and the mountains of Skyline Drive for at least 60 miles that I flew.
Just enough to make this one more memorable day in the air, and make me so thankfull for being able to continue flying because of this little yellow airplane.
No question, no opinion, just my story for today.
Blue side up.
Chuck Shaw
Epilogue: The airport manager said the glider folks spotted and reported the brush fire yesterday at the north end of a ridge they soar on, and the forest service has not gone to put it out yet.
I could not see the Skyline Drive mountains in this picture from this distance today, but I knew they were there!
