Just like being there. Gasquet Fire Complex

[Jeff95531]

Warm dry air along with gusty winds are fanning the flames up a ridge near the South Fork of the Smith River. Karen and I were in the right place and right time and had ring side seats to this response to one of the six fires in our Del Norte County. The pilot had to navigate above a water line below him (blind), settle the hose in the water with gusty winds in close proximity to a bedrock bank to fill his 1000 gallon tank in 30 seconds so he can come back and do it again in two minutes. Except for the fact I was drooling over the dredge possibilities, this is serious and say a prayer for all those involved helping us keep what's left and safe.







Shi* sandwich is right John.

More to come. I also have a video I'm trying to upload which is pretty good, if 1045 minutes to upload a 4 min video is enuff.

 

[rodoconnor]

Amazing pilot ! Best of luck to him

 

[goldenIrishman]

Lots of respect for those guys. There was a fire attack base in the town I grew up in and I had them flying over the house from dawn till dusk during fire season. Everything from Tiger Cats to B-17s over the years. For a while they had a "Flying Boxcar" with a jet pod on top to help it pull up out of canyons. That one was awesome to watch.

 

[Jeff95531]

Here's the rest of the single shots I had...

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Karen's video is in HD (from the Nikon) and is much better than mine but 780 minutes to upload is a bit much. Here is my blurry one from my point and shoot.

 

[GoldpannerDave]

Lots of respect for those guys. There was a fire attack base in the town I grew up in and I had them flying over the house from dawn till dusk during fire season. Everything from Tiger Cats to B-17s over the years. For a while they had a "Flying Boxcar" with a jet pod on top to help it pull up out of canyons. That one was awesome to watch.

Tiger Cats? F7F like this? WOW!! I never saw one of these until an airshow, though as an Air Force brat, I saw all sorts of planes, P-51s, P-40s, F-100s, and bombers like the B17, B24, B29, B36, B47 and A-26.

Watch the follow-on video also which shows the Tiger Cat flying in Chino, CA.

I did not know Tiger Cats were used in fire-fighting.

 

[goldenIrishman]

Over the years I saw them use Avenger TBMs, Catalinas, B-17s, Tigercats and several others. During one particularly bad season one of the planes (an old Avenger) developed a leak in one of its tanks. Quite a few homes in the landing pattern got striped with ******ant because they couldn't afford the time to fix it. The also used Cessna SkyMasters as spotter planes until the replaced them with OV-10A Broncos. I' thinking that the Osprey tilt rotors would make for some great fire fighting planes. Hover like a helicopter for pin point drops and fly like a plane to get there quick.