Related to the following posts:
>>3915066
Last update on U-2S flight this afternoon.
Flight Duration: ~6h
Avg. Altitude: 60,000’
Current Status: On the ground
Initially, the bird flew over Sequoia National Forest, headed SW over LA, veered NW and then did a NW bound zig zag pattern up through Bakersfield, CA. Afterwards it headed SE and seems to be retracing the lower portion of the zig zag pattern in a counter clockwise direction extending from the SW corner of the Naval Air Warfare Center China Lake to Ventura, CA. (See Photo 3 for full flight trail). It did this loop between China Lake and Ventura, CA 2-3 times.
I know other anons had called out that it may be related to the fires, but looking at a map of the fires (source: https://projects.sfchronicle.com/2018/fire-tracker/) I don’t see much of a correlation. For more info look at the attached photo labeled “Fire_Map” for the general location that the bird looped 2-3 times.
I am a novice planefagger and have no knowledge of how CA fires behave (and based on some recent reports if I did have any knowledge I would probably toss it out the window based on some crazy things happening out there.
Any anons have any other thoughts or ideas on what this bird may have been doing or is the best theory that it was somehow linked to the CA fires?