Air Attack CA fires

...Nice....

What's the deal with the small tprops leading the drop planes?
 
Polar742 said:
...Nice....

What's the deal with the small tprops leading the drop planes?
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If the fire is a highly populated area, a lead plane is required for all drops. The thought being that a King Air is a hell of a lot more maneuverable than a P-3/C-130. However, all Air Force and the DC-10 require to have a lead on all drops because they are not Initial Attack qualified.
 
Awesome videos.

You said in a previous thread you like a mix of ag flying and multi engine/crm. Do the lead planes work for you and are they a first step to flying the P-3 and doing drops? Looks like an awesome job!
 
The lead planes are all USFS or BLM personnel. Many folks start off doing air attack (which is up high and directing), then move into the tankers or lead planes. The CALFIRE folks all have to start in the air attack role (OV-10s).
 
mjg407 said:
The lead planes are all USFS or BLM personnel. Many folks start off doing air attack (which is up high and directing), then move into the tankers or lead planes. The CALFIRE folks all have to start in the air attack role (OV-10s).
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Are CALFIRE's (I still call them CDF) S-2s still crewed by DynCorp?

I liked BLMs OV-10s when they still had them, with the green/white livery. CDF still running the O-2s also, or just Bronco's?
 
MikeD said:
Cool. You guys used to have a good fleet of DC-4s, even a few in the current livery IIRC, they still around?
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When the shutdown happened we got rid of all the round engines. We sold the DC-4s to airspray in Canada, and the P-2s were sold, but they are still sitting here collecting dust. We are strictly P-3s right now with a fleet of 8 looking for one or two more.
 
mjg407 said:
When the shutdown happened we got rid of all the round engines. We sold the DC-4s to airspray in Canada, and the P-2s were sold, but they are still sitting here collecting dust. We are strictly P-3s right now with a fleet of 8 looking for one or two more.
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One thing I was wondering is, why did your company operate all it's P-2s with the aux jets removed? As opposed to other P-2 operators?
 
You only gain about 250 gallons with the Jets, but burn well over twice the fuel. So no real benes.
 
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