I decided on Wednesday to drive up towards Mt. St. Helens and see what I could see. Turns out, not much! If anything air quality was even worse than in the lowlands. Hiking was absolutely out of the question, so I spent the afternoon flying my drone along Spirit Lake Highway to document the downright creepy atmosphere. I sure payed for it later when I returned home reeking of smoke, my throat and lungs aching despite wearing a mask. Fortunately, air quality is better today, though still poor compared to pre-fire days.
I also captured some aerial panoramas, which I've posted in a photo gallery on my blog: https://illuminationsfromtheattic.blogspot.com/2020/09/bridges-in-smoke-mt-st-helens-aerial.html
Great video and creepy music goes with it perfectly. Any issues flying the drone in the smoke? Love those panos too. I love taking panos with my drone.
Great video and creepy music goes with it perfectly. Any issues flying the drone in the smoke? Love those panos too. I love taking panos with my drone.
Thanks! The drone itself didn't have any issues with the smoke, though I should probably clean it out as much as possible with some compressed air. The main problem I had was with video transmission - any more than 400 feet away and the signal started to degrade due to the interference of all the particle in the air.
Hiker Mama wrote:
There's a big fire burning near there, so it doesn't surprise me the air quality was worse than here. I think it's called the Big Hollow Fire?
Yep, Trapper Creek/Siouxan area, but I think most of the smoke is actually from Oregon. Big Hollow would be a big fire any other year, but it's nothing compared to what's happened down South.
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