Fighting Fires with a DC-10 Tanker....

[Chief]

The devastating fires in SoCal are being fought in part with a massive arial tanker that is built from a converted DC-10 passenger liner. This beast is a flying monsoon...here is a vid of one doing a fire retardant drop on a fire last year...pretty impressive to see one this low and slow, and it takes some big hairy ones to fly a plane this big and heavy like this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpi0oTDYG8I

This one is even better....turn it up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW2s3XQ2njc

Sure beats dipping a dinky bucket in a lake, dangling from under a helicopter...that tanker laid down at least a mile long stick of retardant in one drop...

:o

Impressive...

;D

[Chief]

Here is another airborne asset, and I understand that four of them may be on the scene in San Diego tomorrow...

this is the Mobile Airborne Fire Fighting (MAFF) system being loaded into a North Carolina National Guard C-130. Those nozzles swing down and out the back of the cargo door, and when initiated, dumps some 3,000 gallons of fire retardant.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/102307-NC_airguard-full.jpg

I have been told that it's tricky as hell to fly a plane that suddenly loses that much weight so quickly, especially when the aircraft is already low and slow.

Takes a special kind of pilot...

[Waterbuffalo]

<b>"Takes a special kind of pilot..."</b>

A nose dive confessional specialist? You have to be right on this one, no ones wants to fly a boat that drop as much weight as a the DC-10 or this C-130..

They guys have to be fully insane enough to enter the brain charts on the Western State Hospital for full qualification for permanent residence or paid quite well to do that job.

Do wish the pilots the best when they are working protecting California's assets.

If you add a fires own ability to create its own wind and weather events, you have to be crazy to do this job.

[Chief]

I have no doubt these pilots are paid well. I also have no doubt that it is the ultimate rush to fly that low and make a run like that...it's not at all unlike a low level ordnance delivery in a combat zone...

The stresses that the updrafts from the fire put on the aircraft structure is incredible too. there was a C-130 a couple of years ago in Claifornia, that was making a drop, pulled up a bit too hard, and pulled the entire wing assembly right off the plane at about 100'. I doubt the pilot had time to say "Oh Shi...

We probably don't pay them enough.

[Waterbuffalo]

There have been several plane crashes of Tankers in a similar way you described. Its one of the hazzards of being in the profession.

Add to it the past questionable nature of the mechanicals and age of these planes, one might say I wouldn't want to be one of those.

[Chief]

yep...the biggest foe most of those older tankers face is ongoing corrosion. Along with wear, tear, vibration, and G-loads that often exceed the design specs, many of these old planes are simply too worn out to continue. It's horribly expensive to build dedicated airframes, so the DC-10 conversion made sense.

There is also a 747 based thanker conversion out there as well, if you can believe that. If you think the DC-10 makes a spectacular air drop, you should see that converted 747 make one! thank about creating your own local weather...

I need to look around and find an old link, it was to the Canadian manufacturer who is still building modern "flying boats" that scoop up water on a high-speed water taxi. That's some serious bush flying, and those guys are Blue Angels quality precision stunt flyers in many cases...

[Waterbuffalo]

Is it bombardier that created the flying boat?