There's so much smoke here in California!

[fatsportpilot]

And right when the smoke was starting to clear up, someone does a gender reveal with fireworks in dry grass during fire season.

I even had to close the vents during my run-up because it was blowing ash in my eyes.

At least I got to practice in MVFR again. I did that last week and it was worse than this (but still legal though). I even had to return when visibility looked like it was going to start dropping below 3SM. At least this time it stayed around 5 ahead of me.

smoky 1.jpg (153.19 KiB) Viewed 2460 times

smoky 2.jpg (144.68 KiB) Viewed 2460 times

[Scooper]

Yesterday in the San Francisco Bay Area the sky was orange and mid-day looked more like sunset; visibility was maybe a mile. Ash from the fires covered my car so it looked like a ghost. I had parked in my driveway instead of my garage because of a planned 32 hour long power outage by Pacific Gas & Electric, the utility company, due to the risk of forecast high winds over the mountains causing downed high voltage lines resulting in more wildfires.

In my seventy-eight years I've never seen anything like this.

[drseti]

In my seventy-eight years I've never seen anything like this.

My daughter (considerably younger than we) lives in Berkekey, and keeps me updated. She travels all over the world, and she's never seen anything like this anywhere.

Here is the San Francisco Bay Bridge yesterday:

20200910_085142.jpg (91.24 KiB) Viewed 2438 times

[Warmi]

Yesterday in the San Francisco Bay Area the sky was orange and mid-day looked more like sunset; visibility was maybe a mile. Ash from the fires covered my car so it looked like a ghost. I had parked in my driveway instead of my garage because of a planned 32 hour long power outage by Pacific Gas & Electric, the utility company, due to the risk of forecast high winds over the mountains causing downed high voltage lines resulting in more wildfires.

In my seventy-eight years I've never seen anything like this.

Well , both high winds and power lines have been there for many, many decades - how come this problem now requires rolling blackouts ?

[Scooper]

Well , both high winds and power lines have been there for many, many decades - how come this problem now requires rolling blackouts ?

Politics are verboten here, so I won't get into what I believe are all the reasons, but one reason that's not too political is the blatant negligence of PG&E to properly maintain its infrastructure over many decades, choosing to spend monies allocated by the public utilities commission to infrastructure maintenance and upgrades on salary raises and bonuses of executives instead.

The most recent fires were started by a rare weather phenomenon that caused thousands of dry lightning strikes that hit tinder-dry forests which were the result of very high temperatures and lack of rain.

The rolling blackouts are different. The high temperatures cause higher consumption of energy and the utilities don't don't have the generating capacity to cope with the demand. They schedule rolling blackouts to spread the pain, and they usually only last a couple of hours.

I will say that I believe in the science of climate change due to human activity.

[Warmi]

BTW these pictures remind me of sand storms you tend to get in the Middle East - with a creepy, bloody color tint - pretty freaky.

[Warmi]

Well , both high winds and power lines have been there for many, many decades - how come this problem now requires rolling blackouts ?

Politics are verboten here, so I won't get into what I believe are all the reasons, but one reason that's not too political is the blatant negligence of PG&E to properly maintain its infrastructure over many decades, choosing to spend monies allocated by the public utilities commission to infrastructure maintenance and upgrades on salary raises and bonuses of executives instead.

The most recent fires were started by a rare weather phenomenon that caused thousands of dry lightning strikes that hit tinder-dry forests which were the result of very high temperatures and lack of rain.

The rolling blackouts are different. The high temperatures cause higher consumption of energy and the utilities don't don't have the generating capacity to cope with the demand. They schedule rolling blackouts to spread the pain, and they usually only last a couple of hours.

I will say that I believe in the science of climate change due to human activity.

The reason I asked about blackouts is because I grew up behind the Iron Curtain ( not much of a curtain by then since it was about to fall down ) and I remember, as a kid, rolling blackouts being normal occurrence and more a symptom of systemic failure rather than result of some kind of disaster - hope you guys are not heading in the same direction in terms of this being "a new normal" - as opposed to decrepit and ruined late-stage commie state I came from , this should not be happening in one of the richest and most advanced states in the world - but as you said, that's another topic not for this forum.

[Wm.Ince]

Arson arrests have been made in Oregon and Washington.
Investigations are underway. More will be revealed.

[drseti]

I grew up behind the Iron Curtain ( not much of a curtain by then since it was about to fall down )

Although I'm a first-generation American, my family all came from the corner where Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine all touch. I've been spending a good deal of time in Eastern Europe since the curtain crumbled (or is that rusted?). I am astounded at the extent and pace of the changes. Do you ever get back?

My oldest son is a permanent resident of Kreutzberg (used to be East Berlin), and holds both a US passport and an EU identity card. As a onetime sabre-rattling Cold Warrior, I could never have anticipated that one day I would be walking down Freidrichstrassen, looking at the front side of the Brandenburg Gate, and not be in handcuffs and leg irons!

[Warmi]

I grew up behind the Iron Curtain ( not much of a curtain by then since it was about to fall down )

Although I'm a first-generation American, my family all came from the corner where Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine all touch. I've been spending a good deal of time in Eastern Europe since the curtain crumbled (or is that rusted?). I am astounded at the extent and pace of the changes. Do you ever get back?

My oldest son is a permanent resident of Kreutzberg (used to be East Berlin), and holds both a US passport and an EU identity card. As a onetime sabre-rattling Cold Warrior, I could never have anticipated that one day I would be walking down Freidrichstrassen, looking at the front side of the Brandenburg Gate, and not be in handcuffs and leg irons!

I am from around what used to be called East Prussia before the last war - I actually grew up about 20 miles west from Wolf's Lair (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf%27s_Lair) and , since this was a mixed area, have both Polish and German roots.

Been there a few times since early 90s (when I left ) and , yeah, you can't really tell much difference going between Germany, Poland , Czech Republic etc these days - a far cry from drab days of communist rule. I remember when I was a kid (in the 80s) my mother was making about $30 a month ,which was about average back then, and now their average salary is somewhere around $1000-1500 which , while still not exactly on par with US/Western Europe salaries , it is huge difference.

It is amazing how just 20+ years of peaceful liberal democracy can change so much ...

[drseti]

I am from around what used to be called East Prussia before the last war

I agree that the differences between Poland, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia,, Estonia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Belarus, and Ukraine are becoming indistinguishable. And the EuroZone has helped a lot.

My father was Polish. One of my grandfathers was East Prussian. The other was Russian. And, they were all from the same village! Your nationality depended on who the occupying army was, the year that you were born. I'd guess you had a similar situation in your family.

What I love about this country is that we're all immigrants, and we're all Americans.

[Warmi]

I am from around what used to be called East Prussia before the last war

I agree that the differences between Poland, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia,, Estonia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Belarus, and Ukraine are becoming indistinguishable. And the EuroZone has helped a lot.

My father was Polish. One of my grandfathers was East Prussian. The other was Russian. And, they were all from the same village! Your nationality depended on who the occupying army was, the year that you were born. I'd guess you had a similar situation in your family.

What I love about this country is that we're all immigrants, and we're all Americans.

There seem to be difference between eastern block countries that went fully democratic ( Poland,Lithuania,Latvia, Estonia , Czech Republic etc ) and countries that are still stuck in that semi-democratic/strongman leader type of system like Belarus, Russia and Ukraine - I keep hearing that a lot of seasonal workers in Poland and Czech republic come from these countries due to growing economic gap between them ( even though they started out from the same bottomed out eastern-block level ) - it further shows that it liberal democracies are not just about freedom but also about prosperity.

Anyway, to stay on the forum topic - my plane ( and lots of other LSA planes ) comes from that region as well which again shows the progress they have made so far.

[fatsportpilot]

I didn't expect a thread about a smoky flight to turn into a discussion about communism!

[fatsportpilot]

Yesterday in the San Francisco Bay Area the sky was orange and mid-day looked more like sunset; visibility was maybe a mile. Ash from the fires covered my car so it looked like a ghost. I had parked in my driveway instead of my garage because of a planned 32 hour long power outage by Pacific Gas & Electric, the utility company, due to the risk of forecast high winds over the mountains causing downed high voltage lines resulting in more wildfires.

In my seventy-eight years I've never seen anything like this.

Well , both high winds and power lines have been there for many, many decades - how come this problem now requires rolling blackouts ?

The big blackouts in California a year ago were because PG&E was afraid of getting sued if they started another fire so they just shut things down, but that's not why these latest blackouts are happening. They are happening because too many people are using A/C and it's overloading the grid.

There are three types of power plants called base load, load following, and peaking. Base load power plants operate at mostly constant power output and don't really change a lot, and they produce the most power. Load following plants (sometimes they are in the same building as the base load) turn on or off at the times of day when power is needed the most such as in the heat of the day. But in extremely hot days when everyone is using A/C then the power requirements are even higher and that's when peaking power plants turn on but they only have limited power and can't run for very long. Our electric infrastructure can supply only so much power.

If the grid is using more power than all three plants can provide then the frequency of the grid will drop and after that the voltage will drop which is bad for the grid and for plugged in devices. So if a grid is ever using more than the three power plants can provide then either there will be drops in power which can cause property damage or there will be blackouts and rolling blackouts are the least invasive form.

I got solar panels and a home battery and it's so nice that I can use the A/C all I want when everyone else has no power!

[JJay]

I got solar panels and a home battery and it's so nice that I can use the A/C all I want when everyone else has no power!

Do you mind sharing what the source of you solar/battery system is? e.g. Home made or purchased as a system, manufacturer, whatever.