Warbird Information Exchange

This is a bit off topic...but relevant as we are talking about Warbirds...

It seems that the Feds and Aero Union have gotten crossways again with both pointing the finger at each other....and the P-3 fleet has been shutdown. Also in airtanker news the Evergreen 747, some MAFFS C-130's and possibly a DC-10 tanker are helping to fight fires in Mexico.

All this while wildfire burns homes in Texas and New Mexico.

http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/201 ... s-continue


Some other forum chatter....
http://www.smokeshowin.com/topic/116-ae ... shut-down/

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Zane Adams
There I was at 20,000 ft, upside down and out of ammunition.
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MAFFS and DC-10 are being based in Midland Texas.

So they're part of HQ Squadron now? (Ducking......)

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Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives, and I decline......

There are a few pics of the C-130s and a P-2 in action at:

http://www.gosanangelo.com

..and this afternoon I saw a red S-64 Sky Crane (Erickson?) headed from the airport to the fire.

..Over 130,000 acres burned so far...

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Bob

Last week on line I saw a photo of a P-3 fighting a fire near Abilene (where one of their P-3s came from...bought in circa 2000 from a local community college aviation program. it was still in Spanish markings. It was reurned to the US when Spain retired their P-3Bs) .

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Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.
Note political free signature.
I figure if you wanted my opinion on items unrelated to this forum, you'd ask for it.

I just saw some aerial footage on TV of the enormous Possum Kingdom fire (west of Fort Worth) showing a C-130 with MAFFS and a SEAT making Fire-Trol drops, and a UH-60 Blackhawk making a water drop. They also showed a lead-ship making a pass (looked like maybe a Baron?). No vintage propliner or warbird footage so far. Last year, Texas had two P2V's from Neptune on charge, based out of the Wichita Falls area. Any idea if they're here this year?

Darn. . . a lot of homes being destroyed out there, over 1400 mostly volunteer firefighters from 40 states on the ground, the fire's only 15 percent contained, the winds continue to howl, and there's no rain in the forecast. This ain't looking good.

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Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Port Charlotte, Florida

For now.....

Neptune Inc has three P2V's based in Abilene plus the aforementioned P-3's that are grounded due to paper work(more gummit B.S. than anything )
There is also one known Erickson Skyycrane based in Abilene but I believe I have heard of three being in the state. One made a couple runs to the P.K. fire today as did all the P2V's.(several trips)
We've had a SIKORSKY S-61 come in and out the last few days too.

DC-10 arrived this morning. Not sure which fire they will go after first, but I would assume San Angelo area.

No. It's airworthy, and there is not a tramp stamp or for sale sign on it.

A lot of the problem with the tankers is caused by the cities themselves. There were 2 superscoopers sat on the ground at VNY for the first 3 or 4 days of the Station Fire in LA 2 years ago. They were under contract to the City & the City refused to allow them to be used by the County (at first) while the biggest fire in LA history burned 250+sq miles. The Canadian crews were pissed about not being allowed to take part.

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Those who possess real knowledge are rare.

Those who can set that knowledge into motion in the physical world are rarer still.

The few who possess real knowledge and can set it into motion of their own hands are the rarest of all.

I don't think San Angelo can handle it runway length/weight-wise...and I don't now about Abilene Regional.
How about Dyess....what kind of griound facilities do they need to refill the beast?

_________________
Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.
Note political free signature.
I figure if you wanted my opinion on items unrelated to this forum, you'd ask for it.

I meant it would be flown out of Midland to go drop in San Angelo, the return to Midland. They have a pretty large batching plant setup up here to mix the aggregate. Midland has the best facilities to operate it from, and it puts it almost in the middle of the fires in NM and the fires a little further south and east in TX. Actually it looks they are headed out somewhere now, I just saw it taxi past my window.

It's too bad that so many people are out of there homes. 130,000 acres is not a huge fire in the scheme of things. I worked on one when I was a young nipper of 17 in Northern Ontario, Canada that was 1,384,000 acres. I remember flying across the burned out part sitting with my legs dangling out of a helicopter at 6000 ft in awe of how much forest had burned. Next year I was up there you almost could not tell as everything had already started to grow back in.

They changed the method for dealing with forest fires back in the mid to late 80s in Canada from complete prevention to only preventing housing and villages from getting destroyed. I remember being in the bush once and was stunned on how dense it was but there was a lot of burnable debris packed in there. Apparently the occasional burns "clean house" naturally.

It is amazing to me how rapidly "they" can move at times. My original post was based on Sunday night's reporting by the Texas Forest Service and a few other sources. There seemed to be very little movement towards fighting wild fires across our fair state as of Sunday. Then by Monday there were MAFFS and DC-10's in play.

I am glad some US resources have been turned back towards the US...

The Aero Union P-3 thing seems a bit nuts to me. It Looks like it is indeed a paperwork SNAFU...but...it may have been brewing since 2007.
I am flabbergasted as to why it takes 4 years to come to light and then right at the beginning of the fire season and not over the winter when not much was going on.

Gotta love bureaucracy...

_________________
Zane Adams
There I was at 20,000 ft, upside down and out of ammunition.
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