Friday, October 16, 2020

NINE Helicopters in 10 Minutes?

 Geez....I haven't seen this much air activity since I last went to an airshow.....

Two Sikorsky "Sky Cranes" 

Two "Hueys" 

A Blackhawk

Three Jet Ranger/Long Rangers

And two others of the "Medivac" type, that I've seen, but can never remember the name.

An hour or so ago I heard one in "hover mode", which might have been a news crew or the "Multi-Mission" helo they use for IR mapping of the fire.

Since they were all headed away from the Cameron peak fire area, and the NWS forecast is calling for "Blustery" winds, I'm guessing they're shutting down for the night.


The fire has now consumed over 167,000 acres.



20 comments:

  1. How close to the fire is your place?
    Family in Red Bluff, CA and Oregon have had high temps, high winds, and high fire danger for weeks. We have had three days of cool weather and rain here, so the fire danger is much lower than it was. Prayers up for all to be safe.

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  2. The closest active burn area is 10 miles as-the-crow-flies from here. We're almost exactly due East from the closest approach to the city. There's a large reservoir between us and the fire, and a lot of scrub land on the fire side of the reservoir, so it probably can't get too much closer.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsetooth_Reservoir

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    Replies
    1. You describe yourself as near a son of a friend of mine.
      We were talking to him on Skype last night and put himself in your general area. Interesting.

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    2. Is he in the city, or the outlying area?

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    3. That is good to hear; that you are safe.
      Praying for all concerned.

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    4. We're safe, Linda, but I know the firefighters would appreciate the prayers!

      Just let the dog out, and it stinks of smoke again, and the ash is like mist/light snow.

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    5. Except for the very annoying smoke, he should be safe in the city, Ed.

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  3. Getting too dark for drops now but a couple of spotters still up there at 1845/MT

    Very handy site to ID what's overhead....

    https://www.flightradar24.com/N711PB/25caf93e

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, I never knew of the site.

      I should set up one of my little SDR "dongles" and see if I can pick up any ADS-B transmissions.

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    2. I've looked in to that...and it makes my hair hurt...lots of dependent pkgs to sort out and get launched in the right order. You're in an area with enough traffic to keep it interesting though.

      Another crowdsourced sight with Pi cards is here - use it almost everyday - and yet can't bring myself to another project to build a card... You will see lots of sensors reporting from our area tho...

      https://www.lightningmaps.org/#y=38.8739;x=-99.1187;z=5;d=2;dl=7;dc=0;t=3;b=;o=0;m=oss;s=200;ts=0;tr=1;tc=0;

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    3. I built a lightning detector with an Arduino. I bough a kit from some place, and it worked, but only used a couple of functions on the actual lightning detector chip. I found a MUCH better design and software in the ARRL Arduino book. If I can figure out how to get it on my network, I'll connect it to one of the reporting sites like I did for my weather station.

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  4. The car wash lines in Greeley today were long. We had a hard frost last night so I was able to easily clean my windows. I'm reminded of the PNW when Mount Saint Helens blew.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, it got down to 23* here last night. SLW's plants on the porch croaked, and some of the trees have accelerated dropping their leaves.

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  5. The Medevac helicopters are most likely Eurocopter AS-350 "A-Star" helicopters, as that's the most commonly used model in the US. There's one on the roof top of MCR.

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    Replies
    1. Eurocopter! That's the name I couldn't remember. We went to the Rist Canyon Mountain Festival last year and one of them was on display. Had a glass cockpit, as I recall, and the pilots and crew were having a ball helping the little kids climb in and out.

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  6. Wish I could fly helicopters... but that in mind, stay safe!

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    Replies
    1. I've made hundreds of flights, but only as a passenger.

      The fire is now ~200,000 acres, 62% contained, and is now under 7 miles away.

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  7. The path is 'concerning' to put it mildly. It jumps Horsetooth, Fort Collins is in trouble!

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    Replies
    1. It's pretty much stopped going Eastward, and has headed South. We're OK, but Loveland might get clipped on it's far Western edge.

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Keep it civil, please....

Gloomy, Gritty, Grey Day

 At 1700 local it's as described in the headline; 30*F, 88% RH, completely overcast, snowing like crazy (small flakes, but lots of them)...