Fire fighting aerial bombers

[papermodelfan]

Hello all. I have been in a mountain village (Idyllwild, 6,000 feet) in Southern California for the last two days watching Cal Fire fight a mountain forest fire. The fire started yesterday afternoon, and is now over 8000- acres, and is not contained more than 10%. The fire is two miles south of where we were staying, and the flight path of the aerial tankers was right over our heads - Neptunes and Grumman ST2s all yesterday afternoon, joined by a DC10 this morning. 24 aircraft in all so far, according to the local newpaper (Town Crier). I enjoyed watching the drama, though the actual drops were occurring behind a ridge out of sight. When the road was closed 100 yards south of the cabin we were staying in, we thought it was time to leave.

These are certainly worthy liveries for models. Cal Fire has a catalogue of the air assets they can draw on - some of them their own, and some via contracts. Even the Martin Mars. See it here: CAL FIRE - Air Program
and click on Aviation Recognition Guide.

Cheers,

[Burning Beard]

This goes way back. The first aerial bomber used up here in Northern California was a Stearman Biplane carrying barrels filled with water. That was before my time, but as a kid I saw numerous B17's, B25's, TBM's, Grumman Guardians, and they even flew F7F's out of Yreka. This is area ripe with possibilities.

Beard

[willygoat]

Bob has made a bunch of fire bombers. His site has models of a DC-6, Martin Mars, S-2 Tracker, Dash-8, CL-215, CL-415. All of them look quite nice.

http://www.bobscardmodels.net76.net/

[Hathaway Veteran]

Great memories from "richer" days. One of the Guardians is at the Pima Air Museum on Tucson - in colors from Santa Rosa.

[Kevin WS]

Rob - sounds interesting!

Did you manage any pics of the aircraft?

[murphyaa]

I've always had a special spot for firebombers, and I try to include a firebomber version if available with every model I design. There aren't that many though. I do have the CalFire OV-10, and the DC-10 though.

[papermodelfan]

Glad to see more models in water bomber livery.

I tried some photography, but they were distant spects. The Neptunes fooled me at first - I thought they were B-26s. The big tails gave them away. Here are some pictures in local papers, taken by intrepid souls who got up close in the hills.
BREAKING: Mountain Fire updates - Idyllwild Town Crier

MOUNTAIN FIRE: Blaze grows to 14,200 acres; Highway 243 reopens | Hemet and San Jacinto News | PE.com - Press-Enterprise

The smaller planes are retanking at Hemet Ryan airport which is where the command center is. The DC-10 has to go to Victorville, several hundred miles away.

[Ashrunner]

Since there is a Fire Bomber Base located at the airport here in Redmond, Oregon, I get the opportunity photograph the aircraft every year. This year is no exception, although I haven't gone to the airport to capture any images, I do have at them moment, a DC-6 flying above my house, with the big Wright engines growling away.

Butler Aviation which operated the DC-6 fleet of fire bombers here, recently sold that portion of their business to, I believe, Aero Union out of California. They operate Neptune and Orion fire bombers.

Although I don't have them separated from other aircraft, my fire bomber photos can be found at the following link.

Aircraft - a set on Flickr

The blue and yellow DC-6, "66" in flight, is probably the best aircraft image I have ever shot. A 16x20 inch copy of the photo hangs in the office of the owner of Butler Aviation.

[Kevin WS]

Thanks for the picture links Rob.

I see the water they are dropping is coloured. Why? Or is it not water but some form of chemical?

[Kevin WS]

Posts crossed Ash. Thanks also for the link - will browse just now. Some excellent pics there.