It's been a while since I've flown down to our local active volcano, and I needed to give the Arrow some excercise to keep the insurance company happy (we're required to log at least 3 hours every 180 days or get signed off by a CFI again), so with flight visibilities exceeding 100 miles and the damaging winds from this week subsiding, away I went. Judy, it's still there.
Great pics! Looks like its calmed down quite a bit now. I was kind of hoping for a cool scientific eruption by now.
Nice shots, Ghery. I see two resurgent domes and one is venting smoke. Interesting to see the melting snow around that dome form a rivulet flowing down to a stream cutting through the slope in the foreground. It looks like there is a good sized waterfall too.
NOTAMS current as of this evening: !FDC 5/9066 ZSE WA.. FLIGHT RESTRICTIONS MT. ST. HELENS VOLCANO. EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY AND UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. PURSUANT TO 14 CFR SECTION 91.137(A)(2) TEMPORARY FLIGHT RESTRICTIONS ARE IN EFFECT WITHIN A 1.5 NAUTICAL MILE RADIUS OF 461151N/1221118W OR THE BATTLE GROUND /BTG/ VORTAC 11 DEGREE RADIAL AT 31.8 NAUTICAL MILES AT AND BELOW 9000 FEET MSL TO PROVIDE A SAFE ENVIRONMENT FOR VOLCANIC ACTIVITY. U.S.F.S., TELEPHONE 360-891-5140 OR FREQ 132.125, IS IN CHARGE OF THE OPERATION. SEATTLE /SEA/ THE SYSTEM OPERATIOINS SUPPORT CENTER/SOSC, PHONE 202-267-3333, IS THE FAA COORDINATION FACILITY. !FDC 4/3131 ZSE WA.. VOLCANIC ACTIVITY FOR MT. SAINT HELENS VOLCANO, WA 461200N/1221048W OR THE BATTLE GROUND /BTG/ VORTAC 011 DEGREE RADIAL 032 NAUTUCAL MILES. CONTINUED VOLCANIC ACTIVITY REPORTED FOR MT. SAINT HELENS VOLCANO, WA. USGS /ALERT LEVEL 2/ AVIATION ALERT COLOR ORANGE IN EFFECT. AIRCRAFT REQUEST TO EXERCISE CAUTION UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE AND MAINTAIN WATCH FOR TEMPORARY FLIGHT RESTRICTIONS NOTAM/SIGMET FOR AREA. UPDATES TO ST. HELENS VOLCANO ALERTS ARE AVAILABLE FROM THE USGS ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB AT HTTP://VULCAN.WR.USGS.GOV. CONTACT SEATTLE ARTCC 253-351-3529 FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION. "... to provide a safe environment for volcanic activity ..." Doncha love it? -- Pilawt
And that 1.5 nm radius is real easy to observe. No way am I going to fly that close to the mountain. Can't zoom back far enough with the camera if I get that close. Safe environment for volcanic activity. Yeah, right. I don't think that volcano cares if we're around or not. It just does its thing. Now, the geowizards in their helicopters do like to have the airspace to themselves. Didn't hear anyone on 122.75 while I made my orbit, however.
2000ish lbs of thin hollow aluminum vs a cubic mile of vaporized high velocity boiling solid rock. That's all I need to know.
Nice pics. We flew around the mountain 2 weekends ago. Noticed the waterfall then, too. Didn't hear anyone else on the CTAF. - Richard
