Neptune Aviation posted this photo on their Facebook page of two aircraft that are rarely captured in the same photo, a BAe-146 air tanker and an F-15E. They wrote:
Colin Moeser captured this jaw dropping shot of Neptune’s T-02 paralleling an F15E Strike Eagle from Mountain Home AFB landing in Boise in 2015. The story behind the story is that Neptune’s T-02 Captain Terry Cullen is the proud father of Ryan, a crew chief on an F15. Good genes run in the family!
Photo credit, Great Basin Smokejumpers
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Fixed wing2 Comments on A bagpiping tribute to the large air tankers at AvalonIt must have been a slow day at the air tanker base at the Avalon Airport (map) near Melbourne, New South Wales, Australia. Yes, in the screen grab above that is Phos-Chek loader Henry Ring playing a bagpipe while standing in the door of Conair’s RJ85.
Several large air tankers from North America have been on contract with the states of New South Wales and Victoria during their 2015/2016 summer bushfire season and have been staged at Avalon recently. In the video, uploaded to YouTube by Steve Forbes, you’ll see the inside and outside of the RJ85, one of 10 Tanker’s DC-10s, and at least one of the two Coulson C-130s, plus some bird dogs or lead planes.
The RJ-85 has a unique way of waving at the camera.
Mr. Forbes described the video:
In 2015/16 many air and ground personnel including aviation industry professionals, fire agency staff & volunteers and contract ground crews worked hard everyday of the Australian summer making sure the Large (and very large) Air tankers could be at the ready to protect the Australian communities. This is a tribute to these crews.
I hope you like the sound of a bagpipe.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Fixed wing, Helicopters2 Comments on Presentations from Night Aerial Firefighting Operations SummitPresentations from the recent Night Aerial Firefighting Operations Summit are now available. The conference was organized by the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control’s Center of Excellence for Advanced Technology Aerial Firefighting held January 27 and 28 at Colorado Mountain College in Rifle, Colorado.
The topics of the presentations posted include night flying helicopter operations in three agencies in southern California, and companies representing the optionally-manned K-Max and the 747 “Supertanker” that is currently being renovated. The Powerpoint about dispatching indicates that most of the dispatch centers involved in night flying operations in southern California were not organized to handle the increased workload in 2015.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Bean.
Above: Air tankers 131 and 132, both on contract in Victoria. Coulson photo.
Both of Coulson’s C-130 air tankers have been working in Australia during the 2015/2016 bushfire season; 131 has been with the state of New South Wales while 132 was in Victoria. When the NWS contract with 132 ended recently, Victoria hired it, affording a rare opportunity to photograph both of them together.
Both of the air tankers are variants of the C-130 platform. T-131 is a C-130Q which served as a strategic communications link for the U.S. Navy’s Ballistic Missile submarine force and as a backup communications link for the U. S. Air Force manned strategic bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile forces. It had the capability to deploy two trailing wire antennas with the longest being 17,000 to 20,000 feet depending on the VLF frequency being used. The aircraft still has remnants of the system — a vent in front of the landing gear that brought in air to cool the wire spooling mechanism. (More information, a Word document, about the “TACAMO” communications system.)
T-132 is an L-382G, also known as an L-100-30, a civilian version of the C-130 that has been stretched about 15 feet compared to the L-100.
We like posting photos of firefighting aircraft with their crews. Too often we see dramatic photos of aircraft fighting fires, but the crews don’t always get the recognition they deserve. If you have any recent or classic photos along these lines, let us know. A description with names, places, and dates would be helpful.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Fixed wing3 Comments on Tour of the USFS seaplane base at Ely, MinnesotaThis is a very interesting video about the only seaplane base operated by the U.S. Forest Service. It was uploaded to YouTube by David Quam and features USFS Pilot Dean Lee who does an excellent job of patiently describing the de Havilland Beaver DHC-2, three of which are seen at the base: N131Z, N132Z, and N133Z. Mr. Lee says in the video that the USFS purchased them new from de Havilland. FAA registration records shows that they were manufactured between 1956 and 1959.
Mr. Lee explained in the video that the Beavers can scoop water into a 125-gallon tank and drop it on fires. They are also used for wildlife radio tracking, search and rescue, recon, medivac, cargo, and “body hauling”.
While working on the Section 33 Fire in Voyageurs National Park north of Ely in August of 2004 we used one of the USFS Beavers for suppression and recon.
Float planes are very useful in the parts of Minnesota that have as much water as dry land.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Mathew.
After we published the story about the MV-22 Osprey being evaluated on February 11 for its ability to drop water on wildfires, we found more photos of the event that were taken by the Marines from Camp Pendleton, specifically Sgt. Laura Y. Raga. The personnel were with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 165, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.
The exercise was performed as part of an agreement between the Marine Corps, Navy, and California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Interagency Military Helicopter Firefighting Program, which is implemented through the Defense Support to Civilian Authorities process.
Bushfires that have been raging across northwest Tasmania for several weeks are still causing great concern in the island state south of Australia.
Three air tankers from North America that have been working in Australia during their summer bushfire season have been recently deployed to Tasmania, including a DC-10, Avro RJ85, and a C-130. This may be the first time large aerial firefighting assets have been used in the state. The Fire Service felt it was necessary to warn the residents to “not be alarmed” when they saw the air tankers “flying a bit low over the coast”.
In recent days some of the air tankers have departed from Avalon, near Melborne, and returned there after dropping retardant. Last month a portable retardant base was set up in northeast Tasmania at Launceston.
The video below shows the DC-10 dropping retardant out ahead of a fire in Tasmania. It is courtesy of Wayne Rigg of the Country Fire Authority.
Coulson’s Air Tanker 132, an L-382G, first began helping the Tasmanians January 26 and was reloading at the temporary fire retardant base installed in Launceston.
More information about the bushfires in Tasmania is at Wildfire Today.
