It blew down at Kagel all day on Sunday, so I visited a couple local emergency LZs instead. Deukmejian Park is at the base of Mount Lukens, directly south of the summit. This is a Sediment Placement Site (SPS) operated by the LA Department of Public Works, and it's one of the places where they dump the dirt that they clean out of the local flood control basins. Many thousand truckloads of sediment have been placed here since the fires a year ago, and the park has been closed to the public for most of that time, so this was my first visit since it re-opened. This bail-out LZ is now much smaller than it was a year ago, and it wasn't wonderful even then.
The SPS consists of two man-made hills with relatively small flat tops and steep sides; let's call them East Hill and West Hill. East Hill is shown in the first photo below (looking south with the Verdugo Mountains in the background) with eight bulldozers parked on it. This was the best landing option a year ago when it was larger and lower. Now, I'm intimidated by the heavy equipment and the spectre of overshooting into the houses and trees and power lines below. Instead, one could land on the road in the foreground, which is reasonably steep and long. One would have to land to the northeast, which is downwind and uphill, with potential rotor behind East Hill.
The second photo shows West Hill, as viewed from the rim of East Hill. This is probably the better landing option, though it's not large, and I'd land to the west if given a choice.
Disclaimer: Photos can be misleading as to scale, and even the scariest terrain looks nearly flat from the air. Please walk the site yourself if there's any chance you might land here!
As for other sites, the emergency LZ above Almetz Street (between Barner and Leedy Streets, and just east of the Olive View Hospital LZ) is mostly unchanged. I would still be willing to land a LiteSpeed here (west to east), but the options are not obvious from the air and it sure helps to walk the site first. This is another Sediment Placement Site, so there's ongoing heavy equipment activity, and LADWP tells me that it will likely change dramatically in the next year.
The JPL wash has not changed since the rains nine months ago filled the entire thing with sand and made it look so nice. This is still a very landable LZ, though Pasadena city law may be against you. My favorite runway goes directly under a set of big power lines high overhead, and there are more power lines all around it, so once again, it would be silly not to walk this place before landing here.
Information on other local LZs is here: http://www.shga.com/dangeroussiteinfo.asp
