I went flying yesterday to test out a new camera I bought for Christmas. It’s been a while since I’ve shared any photos here so thought I would post a few of my favorites from yesterday.
We flew from the Bay Area to a small town near Tahoe called Quincy. After lunch in Quincy we decided to fly over the town of Paradise, California which was completely destroyed from the wildfires a couple months ago. Keep in mind Paradise had over 25,000 people living there and nearly every house and building was burned down from the so called “Campfire”. Paradise is also about 200 miles away from where I live, but the smoke travelled so far that it forced my school and others in the area to cancel classes. Air quality here was constantly over 100 and close to 200 at times over the span of 2 weeks, and was 300+ in Paradise during the fires. I did a similar aerial photography flight in 2017 over the Santa Rosa/Napa wildfires which I thought was bad, but the Paradise flight was at least 10 times worse. The images speak for themselves.
Taken near Tahoe
Mountain flying from Quincy to Paradise
The first photo I got of the wildfire damage. This was taken a few miles away from the town of Paradise. Note everything is burned, for miles.
An entire neighborhood of Paradise is destroyed.
This road is the only way in/out of Paradise. It’s pretty clear why so many people were trapped in town with traffic congestion during the time of the fires.
Overflying Oroville Dam
One of my favorite (and luckiest) shots from the flight. Taken overhead Beale AFB with a Lockheed U-2 on downwind practicing pattern work.
Flying over the Altamont Pass back to San Jose.
