Smoke gets in your eyes
A visitor from up north
“This is an interesting TAF—we don’t often see FU [aviation meteorological abbreviation for smoke] in our area very often!”
“I went out for one flight. My eyes were burning.”
“Viz was terrible.”
The culprit was smoke from wildfires burning first in Quebec and then Ontario. A storm system off the coast of Nova Scotia forced the smoke south into the United States, then east. Canada may well experience its largest fire season on record, with more than 12.4 million acres involved.
West Coast pilots are familiar with the danger of wildfires and the havoc they can wreak on the environment. East Coast pilots know all too well that summertime brings humidity and hazy conditions along with reduced visibility, but this was the first time in nearly a decade that the East Coast had experienced the one-two punch of haze and smoke, which produced yellow-colored skies, poor air quality, and a haze layer exceeding 8,000 feet.
And it wasn’t just general aviation pilots feeling the discomfort. The FAA ordered a ground stop for flights into New York’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA). Flights into Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., were delayed as well. The reduced visibility prompted the FAA to slow traffic to and from the New York area airports. By June 16, the wildfire smoke had invaded Minnesota, causing air quality to degrade to Code Red levels—unhealthy conditions for the general public, according to The Washington Post.
VFR weather minimums require visibility of 3 statute miles below 10,000 feet msl in Class C,D,E, or B airspace. A VFR pilot might be tempted to launch into smokey, hazy conditions if the visibility was reported as 5 miles. But when making that go/no-go decision, ask yourself whether you really want to be flying in skies where visibility is 5 miles (or less!) and could deteriorate even further.
A better idea is to file and fly under instrument flight rules. The limited visibility of summertime haze has prompted more than one East Coast pilot to earn an instrument rating.
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