After the great September let-down of 2023, October does seem to be giving up the goods. Another really fun day of adventuring east. Mostly smooth strong conditions with a few patches of really rowdy stuff.

After a passer-by watched Jérôme land, he offered us all a ride back to AJX, so Ben and I made expeditious descents. Once we got in the car, we saw a hockey mask in the back, so either it’s spooky season, or we were in potentially mortal peril and the guy decided he couldn’t take us all. Worked out in the end.

22 miles on my Ion 6 (low B fun machine) and a good “breaking-in” of Jérôme’s new ride.

Track log of some of us here.

More glamor shots from the day – thanks to Ben for the second one.

Great video – thanks Tim.

I eagerly await all of the engineers (bonafide and the armchair variety) to weigh in.

At first glance, it would seem that if you stick to a reputable brand that you’re getting a bit more than what the printed rating shows (rather than much less as shown with the sketchy no-name stuff).

Wow – you could shave with the edge on that inversion :)

Sounds like you fared better than Dodger Stadium:

EDIT: Looks like the photo above turned out to be an illusion, combined with sloppy reporting. Just looks like it’s surrounded by water due to the wet parking lot reflecting light in just the right way. Nothing to see here!

Thanks for the link, Kirk. That was a great, detailed look at the system developing now. Time to batten down the hatches it looks like.

That guy talks FAST. High “information density” to his video :)

Unless it’s a temporary glitch, this TFR appears to be no longer active. SkyVector and the FAA site no longer show it.

If true, the only thing left to be avoided for the foreseeable future is melting. Forecast for the next 10 days:

Since we’ll likely have more this season (and every fire season), I’m going to put a simple tool together that we can punch in a TFR ID, and it will spit out a 3D map with the exclusion area on it. More to follow…