Firefighting in the U.S.

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FD2
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Firefighting in the U.S.

#1 Post by FD2 » Thu Sep 06, 2018 4:14 am

A friend sent me this Facebook link to a water drop in the States - very impressive! I'm not on Facebook but it plays anyway.


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Re: Firefighting in the U.S.

#2 Post by Alisoncc » Thu Sep 06, 2018 4:47 am

Very impressive. Isn't that Elvis who comes to visit Oz at regular intervals?
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Re: Firefighting in the U.S.

#3 Post by Cacophonix » Thu Sep 06, 2018 6:52 am

I wonder if they use some sort of water aiming mechanism or is that impressive accuracy born from feel, skill and a judicious assessment of helicopter speed and wind direction?

You get to see a lot of WOF helicopters (working on fire, not the world's best name for a fire fighting agency) on the Cape Peninsular where they use Huey's and some Russian helicopter types equipped with Bambi Buckets. I have never seen a water bombing effort like that shown in the video above. Very impressive.

Caco

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Re: Firefighting in the U.S.

#4 Post by FD2 » Thu Sep 06, 2018 6:59 am

As far as I can make out, Elvis is registered N179AC. Looking online, Tanker 744 is N247AC. Apparently it's named Elvis as it spent much of its service life with the US National Guard in Memphis. There's quite an impressive fleet of them:
https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=Sikor ... 20&bih=943

They carry 2,500 gallons of water and it's probably a bit easier to drop water from accurately, than the Boeing 747 water bombers which look a bit like carpet bombing! Still, big fires need big solutions.

Caco - I have a feeling it's down to seat of the pants expertise and experience, though it's not something I have even a smidgen of experience with!

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Re: Firefighting in the U.S.

#5 Post by CharlieOneSix » Thu Sep 06, 2018 12:51 pm

Wow - that's brilliant! It would be good if G~Man (Gordy) enlightened us about firefighting with helicopters. I see he popped in for a look at the forum yesterday....
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Re: Firefighting in the U.S.

#6 Post by G~Man » Thu Sep 06, 2018 5:25 pm

Yep, that is not Elvis.

I am on mandatory days off, we are only allowed to work 12 on then 2 off. I have been non stop 12/2 on the County fire, then Klamathon, then Carr fire--see pics in article then the Hirz. I am headed to the Mendocino complex in the morning. There is a bad fire broke out yesterday just North of me--the Delta fire:
40868959_10157636690570828_8033147246633549824_o.jpg
40868959_10157636690570828_8033147246633549824_o.jpg (28.89 KiB) Viewed 420 times

Here is the Carr fire article, take a look at the 89 pictures, pretty devastating.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nat ... topstories
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Re: Firefighting in the U.S.

#7 Post by G~Man » Thu Sep 06, 2018 5:36 pm

To give you an idea of how large these fires are, take a look at the last ops map which shows the Carr fire and Hirz fire. Each "square" is a "section" which is one square mile..... Incidentlly, if you zoom in to right between the two fires at drop point "87" on the map, right on the freeway is where the Delta fire started last night and where the picture I posted above was taken. We believe there is an arsonist who is starting many of the fires right now.

https://ftp.nifc.gov/public/incident_sp ... 007808.pdf
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Re: Firefighting in the U.S.

#8 Post by FD2 » Thu Sep 06, 2018 7:36 pm

Thanks Gordy - good luck when you're back on duty.

If there is arson behind this fires (it seems there are too many for them to be spontaneous), I hope the person is caught and gets lashed up to one of those spectacularly long sentences - say 200 or 300 years - or a lifetime in a secure funny farm.

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Re: Firefighting in the U.S.

#9 Post by Karearea » Thu Sep 06, 2018 9:54 pm

Re #1 - Oh, good shot! :-bd
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