Smokejumper videos - 2010

[Gordo]

Some of my videos from this year's fire season. Enjoy.

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[sharkey]

Are those the Sawtooth Mountains in Alaska not too far West of Fairbanks?

 

[Gordo]

Those are the Sawtooths in Idaho.

 

[sharkey]

Ah, do you know how many people operate those Canadair 215s? I got a few pictures of one dipping the float pond in Fairbanks this summer.

 

[Gordo]

I'm not sure exactly, they have quite a few spread out across Alaska during fire season though. They use them in Canada a lot and in Minnesota too. During the late summer they even come down to southern California for awhile.

 

[sharkey]

This is what I have, it's not as cool as video of the drops and people actually jumping out of the planes. What do you do for them that you're on the ground to take the videos?

 

[Gordo]

I'm a Redding jumper. I spent 3 weeks up in AK this summer. On one of the fires we jumped, we were told when we hit the ground that we had two "Ducks" enroute (Canadair 215). Our fire was about an hour flight out of Galena in a Dornier 228 (fairly fast) and when we almost had the fire hooked, we heard the Ducks in the distance, crawling along, but they got there and helped us wrap it all up. They come from out of nowhere and spend what seems like a long time getting there, but with the amount of water up there in AK, they have a fast turnaround from the lake/river to the fire.