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RE: Johnson Creek .. Garden Valley Info .. Smoke!!!

F

fstringham7a

Well Known Member
RE: Johnson Creek .. Garden Valley Info .. Smoke!!!

There is a group of adventueres that are planning a trip to Johnson Creek and to Garden Valley this coming Monday. This will probably be my last big trip in N74BZ as you all may know it is for sale!!!!

Preflight planning showes a forest fire west at New Meadows. Those that live in the area or have flown there recently what is the smoke situation at Johnson Creek and Garden Valley airports???
 
Don't know what the current conditions are, but....

A few years ago, about this time, I was up at Johnson Creek and my passengers woke me up to see thick smoke. When I got in the air, there was about 3 miles visibility up to 18,000 feet. At 18,000, while I could maintain ground contact, details were hidden and there was no horizon.

It was hard flying.

Got out of the hills and things started to improve.

Be careful up there!

Dave
 
fstringham7a said:
There is a group of adventueres that are planning a trip to Johnson Creek and to Garden Valley this coming Monday. This will probably be my last big trip in N74BZ as you all may know it is for sale!!!!

Preflight planning showes a forest fire west at New Meadows. Those that live in the area or have flown there recently what is the smoke situation at Johnson Creek and Garden Valley airports???
Click to expand...

Not a direct answer to your question, but perhaps relevant and similar to Dave's comment...
I was just up in the Selway-Bitteroot last week, a bit farther north of Johnson Creek, and closer to Moose Creek. I was backpacking/fly-fishing, not flying, but this is what I observed. Over the course of 3 days, same fire, the smoke moved in and out of the Selway River Valley at random, just depending on wind direction. Some parts of each day were clear blue sky, the others dense smoke that I would never attempt to fly through for takeoff or landing. Moral of the story: if there are fires anywhere near Johnson Creek (+/- 10 miles), I'd be very hesitant to fly in, even if it is clear at the moment. Might not be a couple hours later.
 
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Timely question - I just flew out of Johnson Creek this morning and am sitting in the pancake house in McCall! Spent two nights camping with my family at Garden Valley and two night at Johnson Creek. Yes, there are fires everywhere, three large ones in the region and numerous smaller fires. Vis. has been OK for flying though. It all depends on which way the wind is blowing. This morning we had 10 miles vis, with a bit of an inversion trapping smoke in the valley. I was worried, as it looked bad from the ground, and delayed our departure from yesterday evening to this morning so I would have the sun at my back. Turned out to be no problem. The flight up from Garden Valley we had great vis. In sum, conditions are variable in space and time, but generally flyable.

Johnson Creek was 23 degrees this morning, so pack your long underwear!

Andy
 
I was up in Sun Valley last month when the fires started and then grew in number. At first, when the fires were only to the north, visibility depended on wind direction. When we got them all around us the changing wind simply brought smoke from different fires. I decided to cancel our first trip to Yellowstone and it turned out that we wouldn't have been able to make it back due to IFR conditions due to smoke at Hailey, but there would have been no way of accurately predicting it. Generally better first thing in the morning, but quite variable. They were stating that they didn't expect the fires to be completely under control until first snow:eek: My return trip was a lot of work in bad visibility and has gotten me to start thinking more seriously about an IFR rating. One other consideration: it's not just visibility that could be a problem. At our last concert, the president of the Symphony said a few words to the audience. As she was talking, you could hear her tongue swelling in her mouth, due to an allergic reaction to something in the smoke. You never know what exactly is burning or what the smoke may be carrying. She didn't think she had allergies until then...
 
Webcam looks good

From the webcam it looks fine. I have been there when it looked worse on the webcam and it was fine there.
Check the winds before you go. I went to McCall last month and it was smokey on the way but the winds were blowing east and kept McCall perfect.

I would go for it!
 
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