Smoke in the Mountains

[rocketman]

This coming weekend, my wife and I want to fly to Panama City Beach, home of the Mooney Summit, for our little weekend get away. The smoke and fires in the mountains from where I live in Eastern Tennessee  recently has been terrible. A local flight a few days ago showed widespread MVR conditions across wide spread areas. Worse is expected until the next major rainfall which will not unfortunately happen soon enough. My question is what are the concerns to my engine from the smoke from surrounding forest fires. Would the Brackett filters need changing? Would the concentrated smoke seep its way into the oil and cylinders I am more concerned in this thread about the ill effects to the engine and not the dangers associated about unintended IFR flying, although that could be a subject of another MS topic.

Ron

[aaronk25]

Ron, I can't think of a scenario where smoke though the intake system could create any negative effects. The only thing that I would think that could damage the engine would be debris but that not what we're talking about here and the filter would stop that.

The byproducts of combustion in the engine are way higher than intake smoke you describing.

Fly my friend I see no issue.


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[Hank]

When I came through a week ago, the smoke was pretty bad north of Chattanooga, but it stopped below the top of the haze layer. Just another reason to fly high. Or deviate slightly west, as the smoke generally blows east.

[air cooled dad]

I flew up there on Sunday. Smoke is thick near and east of the tfr's.  Its vmc otherwise.    It's clear just south of the mountains. A line from Rome to Athens is clear southbound.  A line from Blue ridge to Asheville is pretty smoky.  Enjoy the flight.  Don't worry about hurting your plane.  You may smell like a camp fire if you hit the thick smoke.  Think of s'mores.    Yum!!!!

[thinwing]

Out west I try to get on top...the problem with forest fires (especially if the crown)is not only the combustion byproducts  but the ash and dust and dirt sucked up to 15000!Dont know about Tenn fires but Calif,Ore,Wash,ID and Montana sure do that!

[BradB]

I flew back from Ft Myers to Erie yesterday and took these photos of the smoke.  At 14,000 ft I was well over all of it, but it looked like significantly lower would have still been ok.  

[Hank]

I was in the clear Sun, 30 Oct, at 8500 msl. Visibility that way was pretty poor. There were no TFRs then other than around KRMG for Wings Over N. Georgia.

Deviate slightly west of Knoxville and come down the valley, you should stay in clear air.

[Browncbr1]

3 hours ago, Hank said:

I was in the clear Sun, 30 Oct, at 8500 msl. Visibility that way was pretty poor. There were no TFRs then other than around KRMG for Wings Over N. Georgia.

Deviate slightly west of Knoxville and come down the valley, you should stay in clear air.

flew today from TYS to BNA and back... IMC until west of HCH, but even west of there was poor.  haze top was around 6000.. TYS metars had been 6 and 5 miles vis, but when we arrived, it was more like 3 vis at localizer minimums... between 4000 and 6000, it was 0-0.  valley is better than north or south though.. for sure... 

[laytonl]

As I flew over Asheville this past weekend I heard several pilots request the ILS due to the reduced visibility from the smoke.  It's pretty bad.  Lee

[Jeff_S]

Cold front passed through today and brought the smoke out of the mountains and into Atlanta. Smells like a campfire in my neighborhood!

[Bravoman]

Was in Dalton yesterday to see Joey Cole and the guys. There are contractors who have been brought in from out west with Huey's and other choppers to fight the fire in the hills just east which I understand encompasses about 5000 acres. They are operating out of KDNN.  Watching those guys lift 800 gallon buckets by nylon cords was something else. Don't think it has rained at all in north and central ga for about three months. Very dry out there.

[Bob_Belville]

11 hours ago, Bravoman said:

Was in Dalton yesterday to see Joey Cole and the guys. There are contractors who have been brought in from out west with Huey's and other choppers to fight the fire in the hills just east which I understand encompasses about 5000 acres. They are operating out of KDNN.  Watching those guys lift 800 gallon buckets by nylon cords was something else. Don't think it has rained at all in north and central ga for about three months. Very dry out there.

KMRN has had firefighting planes here several days dealing with fires in South Mountains and Lake Lure area.

[Tony Armour]

This is probably the main culprit getting you guys in Atlanta, about 10 miles east of the Dalton airport. Picture from my bike ride today but I can see it from my house on the mountain 10 miles west of the airport.

Yea, that smoke is headed south :-)

[mike_elliott]

33 minutes ago, Tony Armour said:

This is probably the main culprit getting you guys in Atlanta, about 10 miles east of the Dalton airport. Picture from my bike ride today but I can see it from my house on the mountain 10 miles west of the airport.

Yea, that smoke is headed south :-)

Humm, I just thought it was the Viper doing a burn out...

[Tony Armour]

Shhhhh

 

[carusoam]

The smoke density is a perfect match! 

Best regards,

-a-

[Hank]

10 minutes ago, Tony Armour said:

Shhhhh

 

That cost a couple thousand miles . . . But was probably worth it!    My V-12 roadster is limited slip, won't do anything but a quick chirp. I've run with Vipers, though. Fun times!! But the Mooney has spoiled me, it's faster, gets better mileage, and I don't have to worry about farmers in front of me or police behind me (you can outrun the car, but not the police radio . . . ).

[bonal]

Hope you guys get that much needed rain soon they say imitation is the best flattery perhaps this is a rendition of our western fires. Seems like total acreage is still under 10000 for all them camp fires you've got going there. Out here we can go about 5000 an hour. But seriously I hope folks  out there remain safe and property damage is minimal. Best of luck everyone 

here is a shot from one of ours last season.

[Andy95W]

As of this morning around 1130, still burning pretty fiercely:

[Raptor05121]

Hector took me up today and even in North Florida visibility was only a few miles. It better clear up by Monday!

[Bob_Belville]

There are 6 Air Tractor(?) fire fighters operating out of KMRN on the Lake Lure fire. I understand another crew is working the South Mountain fire from KHKY. Aircraft are based in FL I'm told.