Firefighting Tankers and Bombers

[f4_phantom_fan]

Waiting to see if Brian or MD have a ton of Fox Field tanker action after the West Fire yesterday. 14 air tankers assigned. Half of Cal Fire's S-2 fleet was there with a handful of Fed tankers.

Sorry  Nate, I didn't know about the fire until this morning. Posted a few shots over in the Fox Tanker Ops thread.

Mike! Those shots from Tues are AWESOME!!!   

[robin990]

Mike
 That first S-2 is perfect......a talented photgrapher and wonderful lighting.

  Its a poster pic.

[sr-aeronut]

Thanx Brian and Skip!  really appreciate the feedback

[kick Z tail out]

Get ready Fox shooters, here we go again...

[nmcbride]

Waiting to see what the morning brings.   Crown fire is about a mile from my house.   Yikes.

Didn't make it home in time from Santa Clarita to catch anything flying in daylight.   2 hour plus drive to Palmdale. 

[sr-aeronut]

Man things got bad yesterday -- stuck on the 14 for two hours chasing 3 fires hoping across the frwy into palmdale caught up with Brian at sunset Fox field chasing the P-3 from each end of the runway!!











I was a mile an half away from actual drops in Aqua Dulce the Firehawks looked like Fireflys;

[phantomphan1974]

Wow, great shots yet again Michael.  I was LAFD 412 yesterday coming from Beverly Hills and heading back north.  Not sure if they were going to go help.  I did see ALOT of engine companuies heading north on the 405 from stations in the South Bay.

[nmcbride]

Stood out on Lake Elizabeth Rd last night watching and waiting to see where the flames were going (luckily not close to home yet).

There were engines and work crews from all over Southern California.  Too many cities to name them all, but there were dozens staging on Lake Elizabeth Road at 25th West.

I got some hand held and tripod high ISO pictures of some of the action near my house.

I'll post some up on Flickr since most are more of a "oh crap this is close" snap shot variety and not really worthy of the great shots you guys post up here. 

[f4_phantom_fan]

Got this Huey from Godde Pass before Johnny Law kicked us all out...........

[Midnight Mover]

Great shots

[kick Z tail out]

Gorgeous shots guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Whew, what a long drive from Hemet to Aqua Dulce. I was just on top Hauser Mountain and the repeater/communications tower site that they're defending. Had a Parks Dept and Santa Barbara Co Fire strike team up there with me and a bunch of LA Co Fire command vehicles. The tankers were dropping right on top of us up there, trying to save the repeaters. Pics to follow.

[kick Z tail out]

Action from the repeaters:

[f4_phantom_fan]

Evergreen's 747 was dropping just south of Rancho Vista in Palmdale today. Unfortunately the shots I got were full of smoke and power lines.  There are A LOT of happy homeowners there now, as the fire came right down to their backyards and fire personnel stopped it right there. It's not out, plenty of hot spots, but it's no longer the major threat to Palmdale and Quartz Hill that it was last night.

[kick Z tail out]

A few more.

[GTagami]

I saw the Evergreen Supertanker working the Crown fire. Is it stationed locally during the fire or does it fly back home?