Warbird Information Exchange

Following on from Jim MacDonald's Mark Allen M thread, are all of our N. California WIX'ers accounted for?

T J

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Make my day, punk!

I'm still here. My place nearly burnt to the ground, but didn't. Fire came within 100 feet of my driveway, but went around my place. When I packed up and ran, the fire was 200 yards from my place, but the wind kept it going straight down Atlas Peak Rd, and not to the west.

Will

Excellent news! We've been waiting to hear from you.

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remember the Oogahonk!
old school enthusiast of Civiltary Warbirds and Air Racers

Despite the fact that the place has been on fire for the last week, the camera wasn't put away.

This is the Atlas Peak fire descending down the mountain Sunday night (the night that it started). This is the William Hill Vineyard just to the north of my place.


Firestorm Sunset Monday evening.


Birds in the air around the valley...






The guy flying this Skycrane was a badass. In this shot he is actually hovering over a vineyard pond. I shot this at 1/30 sec. He was perfectly still while he refilled his tank.




I've got more pics, just haven't processed them yet.

Will

Spectacular photos. I've been close to operating Skycranes pulling water out of small rivers in narrow canyons -- those guys are truly awesome. Kind of scary how close that Chinook is to power lines. That is all a densely populated area, with power lines, cell towers etc. all over the place. It's got to be challenging to operate in such an environment in heavy smoke and winds...

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Neal Nurmi

---Wingman Photo---

I especially like the Skycrane shots.

Best of luck all.

The chinook was loading out of the same pond as the Skycrane. It wasn't that close to the power lines. They look closer than they actually were. These guys were really good. The area that was on fire when I shot the pics was just to the west of Rutherford, and about half way to St Helena. I couldn't see any power lines in the area other than those in the pictures. The smoke was at times really bad, but a light breeze would pick up and move it out of the way. What was pretty spectacular was when the fire crested the ridgeline above where these guys had been fighting all day. I have pics, but still need to process them. These were really the picks of the bunch however. There could be a couple more surprises, but for the most part everything else is noisy, high ISO stuff (because I left the shoe for my tripod on my desk at home when I evacuated.) The tripod was in the car so it was safe, but it didn't do me much good without the shoe.

Will

Have they said what started the fire? Sorry, I have been on the road...

Have they said what started the fire? Sorry, I have been on the road...

Not yet Lynn, but they are seriously looking at high winds causing drought stressed vegetation coming in contact with power lines and transformers. Apparently early in the fire event there were calls about downed power lines or blown transformers in that area.

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DBF

I know the wind was howling down Atlas Peak when the fires started. I counted 5 different fires spread across the southwest flank of the mountain. All at the same time, starting about the same height on the mountain.

This is an interesting read about the fires and what could have caused them. https://cliffmass.blogspot.ca/2017/10/t ... ornia.html

Will

Thank you...

I finally finished my pics of the Napa valley firestorm. No, they aren't all airplane pics, but they are pics that I shot over the week starting the night the fire started behind my house, to the following saturday or Sunday (I can't remember) where I was able to venture up valley to shoot the helicopters fighting the Nuns Fire, and some of the Air tankers attacking the Tubbs fire north of Calistoga. No, not all the pics are fantastic, shooting through that much smoke, and from the distances I was shooting from was a bit of a challenge, but they were the best I could get with the conditions.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/47309961@ ... 1096946966

Will

Amazing photography work. Sad that so many died or were injured and that so many structures and memories were lost.

Please make sure you don't put yourself in harm's way for the sake of a photo!

I especially enjoyed seeing the Kaman in action.

Thank you. Yes, its sad that so many people were hurt or killed, and that so many homes and structures were lost.

I always shoot from a safe location. Many of these shots are heavily cropped and were shot with a 500mm lens. The closeup shots of the HTS Skycrane and the Columbia CH47 were taken from a safe location as well. ( I wanted to get closer, but didn't want to cause the pilots to have to operate from a different pond because I was too close.) The whole week was kind of a surreal experience. I hope I won't have to go through that again, however I'd really like to find a way to get clearance for some better shots of the tankers in action in the future

Will