Looking for Smoke: Adventures of an Aerial Observer: Adventures of an Aerial Observer

By JB Poet

Looking for Smoke
Adventures of an Aerial Observer
Description




After working almost 20 summers for the US Forest Service, mostly as a wildland firefighter, Bob became an Aerial Observer on the Willamette National Forest in Oregon. This is like a book of short stories. Each story is an account of an incident that happened during the years he was an Observer.

Using almost 100 photographs Bob illustrates some of his memories from a job in which he looked for wildfire smoke during the late 1980s.

There are photographs of lookouts, small fires, and aircraft. There are photographs of large fires with awesome flame lengths. There are beautiful pictures of mountains, lakes and forest. Fire lookout structures are captured from many angles. One could enjoy this book by only looking at pictures.

Bob’s oldest son, John, joined him as an Aerial Observer in 1987. Two years later John, who worked year around for the USFS, became the Lead Observer. Bob was transferred to Eugene to be a radio dispatcher during the summer months.

The scenery they flew over is spectacular, from majestic peaks like 10,495 foot Mt. Jefferson in the north to the Calapooya Mountains over 100 miles to the south. In between are the Three Sisters and many smaller but appealing peaks.

There are almost 400 lakes, including spectacular Waldo Lake. Waldo is the second deepest natural lake in Oregon at 410 feet, behind Crater Lake. It is one of the most pure lakes in the world, with water sometimes compared to that which is distilled. The clarity of the water is renowned. Waldo Lake covers almost ten square miles.

Included on the Willamette are almost two million acres of forestland, thousands of which are untouched by man, not visible to most folks because there are no roads and few trails at the higher elevations. Flying over this forest is an optical pleasure.

The Willamette has over 1,500 miles of streams and rivers, including the headwaters of the Willamette, Santiam and McKenzie. It has a diverse variety of more than a dozen conifer tree species, including large stands of Douglas Fir, which is Oregon’s official State tree. One can find giants of this species as big as eight feet in diameter.

The Willamette is rich in fish and wildlife, including Steelhead, bass, Chinook and Kokanee salmon and many kinds of trout. Blacktail deer are common and one may also spot Roosevelt Elk, cougar, black bear and even Mule deer near the crest. The wolverine is believed to be making a comeback after disappearing from the Cascade Range for many years.

Even though the scenery is spectacular, the Detection flights often consisted of long periods of no action. Mixed in were frantic times of lightning started fires all around. A few times Bob was a close-up witness to awe-inspiring demonstrations of Mother Nature’s power in lightning storms and fires that had gone beyond the point of big.

Bob and his pilots often used their flight route to bring newspapers and C.A.R.E. packages to lookouts far from civilization and creature comforts.

Bob had the privilege of teaching in an outstanding school, Pleasant Hill Junior High. The Administration was superior, the Staff spectacular, the students striking and the parents especially supportive.

Bob’s summer job was the same; wonderful people for whom and with whom to work. Not many men are so fortunate!

Bob retired after 28 years of teaching and from dispatching at the end of the 1997 season. At that time he began a wonderful period of about six years raising two little boys, unrelated to him. Squeek and Boca were with Papa 24/7. He loves them as if they were his own. He is also very proud of them. This book is dedicated to Jacob and Andrew Thompson.

His first book is dedicated to his four sons, John, Tim, Mark and Dan. The next book will be dedicated to his grandchildren, Jordan, Kaley, Andrew, Jeremy, Stephen and Annika. (So far.) They are all people for which their parents and grandparents can

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 22, 2006
• ISBN: 9781477174807

JB Poet

After working almost 20 summers for the US Forest Service, Bob became an Aerial Observer on the Willamette NF near the middle of the Oregon Cascades. He rode in a small plane with a pilot and flew a prescribed route over the forest looking for smokes. His oldest son, John, joined him as an Aerial Observer in 1987. Two years later John, who worked year around for the USFS, became the Lead Observer. Bob was transferred to Eugene to be a radio dispatcher during the summer months. Bob retired after 28 years of teaching and from dispatching at the end of the 1997 season. At that time he began a wonderful period of about six years raising two little boys, unrelated to him. Squeek and Boca were with Papa 24/7.

Book preview

Dedicated to:

Jacob Lee Thompson aka Squeek

Andrew Ray Thompson aka Boca

At one month, when I first saw him, Jacob seldom cried. But when he was hungry

his cry sounded like a mouse. He became Squeek.

A year and a half later Andrew came along. After he developed the habit of opening his mouth like a bird wanting food,

I asked a friend for the Spanish word for mouth. Andrew became Boca.

Both boys show enormous love for each other and for me! They are more like

identical twins than most identical twins.

Squeek and Boca lived with me for the first few years of their lives, 24/7.

They went everywhere with their Papa. I love them dearly!

I want to thank Dave Coplin for editing,

photographs and encouragement. A debt is also owed to Nate Meyer,

manager of the McKenzie Field Jerry’s Home Improvement Store,

for his help in editing and corrections. Don Allen

graciously contributed several fine photographs.

I am especially thankful for the help and encouragement of Glenda Tuttle,

Grandma of Squeek and Boca.

Copyright © 2006 by JB Poet 574516

Library of Congress Control Number:   2005911444

ISBN:   Softcover         978-1-4257-0633-3

             Hardcover       978-1-4257-0823-8

             EBook               978-1-4771-7480-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Cover Photo:

Circling Coffin Mountain Lookout in 85 Golf.

Don Allen Photo.

Rev. date: 07/25/2019

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Photo%20%23%2076.psd

Boca and Squeek liked to go with Papa to cut firewood.

This photo was taken in 2001

High Altitude Bombing

I only did it once. Don’t know why, but one day I plunked down enough quarters to buy six newspapers at the airport before our flight. Then as we approached Coffin Mountain Lookout I told my pilot, Jerry Pierce, Stay high. I want to do it from altitude.

My instructions were not clear. As we made our approach at about 7,500 feet I began to prepare the plastic bags. (Coffin’s elevation is 5,771 feet.) Jerry thought I wanted him to dive bomb. Suddenly I felt my stomach do a flip and looked out the windshield to see Coffin Mountain. I warned him just in time and we leveled off.

I held all of the papers, in plastic bags, out of the window. I had each one between two different fingers, so was using both hands. I began to release one paper at a time at intervals of one second or less.

Photo%20%23%209.psd

Not much wiggle room for hitting Coffin with a newspaper.

I couldn’t see the lookout. It was almost directly beneath the plane. I could only guess when the time was right and hope Jerry had put us on a direct line above.

The papers were gone. We didn’t even circle to watch the result. We just continued our route.

When we flew well above the mountain like this Don didn’t expect any C.A.R.E. packages at his remote retreat. This would especially be true when we went straight on. In that first year we didn’t say much on the radio. Don would send me a damage report when the next visitor took out his mail. This usually was about two weeks.

Don’s report: I thought you weren’t going to drop anything because you were so high. Then as I was watching you disappear to the north I heard a distant ‘plop.’ It came from over the edge to the south. Then there was a closer ‘plop,’ followed quickly by a loud one as a paper landed just beside the lookout. Before I could get on the catwalk to look there was another ‘plop’ just on the north side of the structure. Then I heard a faint ‘plop’ over the edge of the north cliff.

That was only five. I guess one landed too early or too late.

The experiment was a huge success. I was tickled that I surprised him, flying so far above. I was really surprised that we straddled the building! It’s true. Better to be lucky than good!

In the photo above the papers landed left to right. Turn pages to the first Go Ducks photograph. The papers landed

right to left.

Background

Detection is the first part of fighting wild fire. The point is to find (detect) the fire as early as possible so that suppression crews can put it out before it gets large and cannot be controlled without

massive resources.

There has been a debate about Forest Service efforts to prevent and control wildfire fire. One theory says this is responsible for fuel buildup that in recent years has resulted in catastrophic fires. Part of this may be true. But if that were the general case one would expect to find no huge destructive fires in the past. The opposite is true.

Consider the Tillamook Burn. In four major fires over18 years beginning in1933, the coast range of Oregon suffered a fire that changed the economy of an entire state