Diary of Disaster

Rob McKenzie is an ultralight instructor at the Andy Jackson Airpark. It based several ultralights as well as the Crestline Soaring Society -- all of which were destroyed in the wildfires. Here's Rob's online diary of the past few days:

Thursday Oct 30th: No flying. Sad news in the mountains regarding the fire. No news yet on pilots's homes other than that John Samul's was lost. On the water front there is some good news. After an extensive 4 day run of work with probably 140 man (and woman) hours we have a system of water delivery completed with 5 gpm flowing as measured at sunset last night. We need a minimum of 4 gpm so we should be covered for a while. Total cost was under $1,000, which is far below the estimated $5K in materials first given. The reason is that although the fire vaporized our 4500' line it also opened up additional flow very close to our reservoir near the LZ. The option to keep it simple and stay close to home was the direction followed. The CSS has decided to make an effort to explore options for a permanent water source. YEAY!

Wednesday Oct 29th: TFR still in effect. No flying. Access to the LZ is available now. A local PG pilot that lives in the mountains lost his home and business last night. John Samul of Rim Forest is safe with his wife and son but everything they own is gone. To those that may not know him by the name he is also affectionately called "Big John" and his business is Unique Woodworking.. Our hearts are out to you John. As soon as they let us uphill, Di and I are coming up to help with cleanup. Now let's hope the rest of our mountain pilots fare better.

 
Tuesday Oct 28th: TFR still in effect. No flying and also access to the LZ is restricted. Best not to visit the LZ. Stay tuned each morning for news at it comes.

Monday Oct 27th: For the most part, skies are clearing somewhat of the smoke. Winds over the back plus the TFR is in effect. Each one making it non flyable today. Emergency club meeting Wed evening at Jerseys. The info is through the following page... www.crestlinesoaring.org/temp/CSS_Emergency_mtg.htm. You may email your thoughts and vote as explained on the page but the email must be sent by 6PM that evening. Helene will gather the emails and bring them to the meeting.

Sunday Oct 26th: Non flyable conditions plus a TFR making no flying today and my guess is the TFR will be in effect for at least several days AFTER the fire is out. It may be a week or more so consider other areas in the mean time. I toured the LZ this morning amidst 50 knot blowing dust and ashes. It was so sad to see all the cooked animals along the way. The water project has been decimated. Basically in a nutshell, the 1 acre grass that includes the spots have a value of $25,000. At present the damage is about $10,000 and that is counting the grass as being alive. If we allow the grass to have no water then after about 5 to 10 days it will be something like an extra $8,000 to rebuild. I will ask the CSS board if they might want to have a meeting to decide if we want to rebuild or go back to dirt. When I walked out onto the grass for a potential goodbye I couldn't decide if I was hearing "if you build it they will come" or if I was hearing, "if you love something let it go". Beside me sitting on the grass was a bunny rabbit slowly nibbling on the grass. I used to not want the bunnies to eat our grass. This time it was different, you see, the bunny had all his fur burnt off and was blind in both eyes. Don't ask me how I knew. If you were there you might have done what I then did. I had to slowly walk away and trust that there will be better days ahead. My thoughts now are with all the folks that have lost much more than a front lawn. And of those that still are to go through the fire. It's creeping it's way around the top of Crestline right now. Please pray for the mountain folk. And a huge round of applause for everyone fighting the blaze.

Saturday Oct. 25 7PM Update: I just got a call from Tim Curtis at the LZ. He had to park 2 miles from the LZ and walk in because of the road blocks. The toilet is melted, 3 hang gliders that were stored at the LZ are melted. But the shade structure is still there and the electricity (12V) is still active and the motion sensors are working. The water supply is gone :( Unknown where the trouble is. When we get some light we'll start working on that problem tomorrow.

Saturday Oct. 25 3PM Update: Somber news. The fire that started at 9:30 AM near Hwy 18 just east of the east end of Marshall moved downwind to the base of the mt then split into 2 fires. The west fire crept in a wall of flame that ran from the top of the Marshall ridge to the base of the mt. It slowly creeped crosswind and westward. At 2:20 PM it had travelled crosswind 3 miles and arrived at the water tanks that feed the LZ (that are just behind the VASI). At that time it was a line of flame from about the tip of Cloud Peak down through the VASI and into the center of the University. Everything west is clear and windy and everything east is dark and smoke filled. Wind is 50 knots or better on average.

My thoughts are of the mile long pipeline that feeds our grass. Then of our tanks that are probably full of water engulfed in flames hundreds of feet tall. Will the water protect them? I was parked with my ever running motorcycle (to allow an escape). I am at the concrete Andy Jackson sign at the SW corner of our LZ. With me is Charlie Gage and Tim Curtis. It's hard to talk due to 50 knot winds. Tim's back hoe and engine-out van are now parked in the middle of overshoot area. I should have cleared that area better I'm thinking. I don't think they'll survive even there. Mel's house is now disappearing behind flames and smoke. A round robin of several helicopters with water hoses hanging are flying upwind directly over the LZ at 100' AGL trying to fight the flame wall but all they can do is spit into a bonfire so to speak. I hear over the radio of the choppers doing 100 knots and going 10 mph ground speed. Wow, even windier than I thought.

A coyote, then a deer come running across the overshoot area toward us. The coyote keeps going and stops to look back after going 200' past us. The deer stops 50' away on the dirt road. Stares at us as if to ask for help. I raise my arms and run at him to get him to run. Away he bolts toward the clear direction. I wonder about the rest of his deer family. A bird lands on Tim Curtis and holds on in the wind. Tim delicately holds him and places the bird in his vehicle later to release him to freedom well away from the fire.

Then the house west from Mel's is burning. (Dan's place) It's directly upwind of us where we are standing by the Andy Jackson concrete sign. I pull the small sign saying "Airpark 300'" out of the ground and lay it face down on the downwind side of the concrete sign to save at least something from the approaching inferno. I hear over the radio of a lady in her back yard desperately trying to save her home using her garden hose. The copter pilot tells the rest of the choppers of a wet T-shirt contest as he douses her and her house. They are at least keeping a sense of humor while risking their lives in this wind. I remember the drop demo at Kagel earlier in the year at the anniversary party and the rain shower it creates. She's loving this rain no doubt. Many people are making lifetime memories.

I wonder about whether we'll have grass a month from now. Well folks, we've had 1300 days of grass. It's cost us nearly 20K in cash plus some 1300 hours of work by a host of volunteers. Was it worth it? That comes to $15 a day plus 1 hour volunteer work per day. Given the dozens of users every day the value can't be underestimated.

Could we rebuild? Is it really gone? To answer the last question, I will try to access the immediate area before sunset although darkness will probably arrive before access. As it was I ran several police barricades to get to the LZ the first time at 2 PM. First we find out the damage. We might have to rebuild the shade structure too. It would be a miracle if it's not all just a ground level pile of blackened concrete. Just one of those choppers unloading a water drop at the right time might have saved it. But as Tim Curtis sat at our house and thought of a response to my saying that his employment (cutting the grass) might be gone he simply said, "well at least we won't have any poison oak in our way when we lay a new pipeline". I love this kind of optimism. And for me, I wish I could be so optimistic. I've put in many hundreds of hours bringing water to the LZ. How it's done is now known. Whether it should be rebuilt is debatable. If we decide to go for it, we will have to scramble since the grass itself will die inside of 3 weeks without water. The good news is that dirt is not flammable. We STILL HAVE AN LZ. And we still have all the pilots that love to fly!

And if you are into praying, now's the time to pray for all the residents in the mountains. Tim Nelson and Michelle. Dan Deweese. Marcus. Steve, Kenny, Meg, Sally, Ken, Ursula, John Curran, Averill. And all the other thousands of residents. The fire is creeping upwind toward their tinder box bark beetle backyards. Hang in there everyone. Save structures and property where possible but above all don't get personally caught in the fire. We want to see everyone alive to tell their tales and to fly another day!

FMI: www.flytandem.com