Firefighting Tankers and Bombers

[Midnight Mover]

Get them over to PV it's burning

[phantomphan1974]

Get them over to PV it's burning

WHAT!! RIGHT NOW!!  I heard a helo and sirens.  Will check the news.

[g0_command0]

i wonder if thats why Los Al was so active with heli stuff today.

[Midnight Mover]

The PV fire started around 8PM.

[phantomphan1974]

Maybe.  Homes were lost but not sure how many.  3-6  Heard sirens until I fell asleep and even now hear some in the distance.  75-100 acres

[Midnight Mover]

Maybe.  Homes were lost but not sure how many.  3-6  Heard sirens until I fell asleep and even now hear some in the distance.  75-100 acres

As of this morning, 100 acres and 6 homes damaged 

[kick Z tail out]

Very cool shots, Nate.   

Thanks Nando.


My buddy Nick and I decided we were going to see how close we could get to the Cottonwood Fire out here. We knew the air ops were scheduled to start at 8am, so at 6:45 we left town. The fire is only 8 miles east of me, but Highway 74 is closed, so we had to drive 50 miles around the mountain, head to Banning, and then climb Highway 243. I know this mountain range like the back of my hand because of all the trail riding I do with my quad, so I knew there was a series of trails coming down out of Pine Cove that would take me right to the back side of the fire. We were up in Pine Cove at 6700 feet elevation, got on the trail... and started the hour long decent down the mountain switchbacks. At about 4500 feet elevation, we rounded a ridge line and there was the fire, straight down a cliff about 1500 feet below us. 

Soon as we got there, Coulson's (Martin Mars) S-76 spotter aircraft was flying around us, surveying the area. A few times he passed by us at eye level and only 100 yards away from the cliff face... we thought we were gonna get yelled at and kicked out.  But nothing was ever said. 

20 minutes later, here comes the Mars... dropping very close to where we were. Unfortunately we had driven up the trail and missed our front row seats. We came right back after that.

About an hour later, three Cal Fire S-2s came flying in together and surprised us by dropping RIGHT where we were. We were at eye level with them, and many times ABOVE them, which made for some cool shots looking down on them! They returned 4 times to the same area.

[kick Z tail out]

Here is Cal Fire Tanker 71, diving in pure knife edge flight...

[kick Z tail out]

Another diving pass in knife edge flight by 71 (being flown today by a female pilot - don't know who). She sure can fly though.  



This one passed our position on the cliff face at less than 100 yards away. I couldn't even get the entire aircraft in frame in the first shot... that's how close we were.

[f4_phantom_fan]

From Fox Field this afternoon and evening........

[f4_phantom_fan]

An attempt at reposting the first one from above.........

[kick Z tail out]

I love dusk shots. Nice work Brian. I like the 2nd one that is in close. The head on shot.

In case anyone is interested... here is video of the show we got yesterday. Watch in HQ and crank your volume. My buddy Nick shot video as I was shooting with the Nikon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l7-KgOfDnM

By the way... listen to the turbines on Tanker 71 starting at 50 seconds into the video. Such an eerie, yet wickedly bad ass sound. Never heard an S-2T make that sound before. Her tanker was making that sound every time she came in for a drop. Don't know if it was her pitch selection or what it is.

[Dragonskiss]

Another diving pass in knife edge flight by 71 (being flown today by a female pilot - don't know who). She sure can fly though.  



This one passed our position on the cliff face at less than 100 yards away. I couldn't even get the entire aircraft in frame in the first shot... that's how close we were.

Looks like she zipped right by ya.  Great job keeping up with it.  Are those fires out in Hemet contained?

[kick Z tail out]

Looks like she zipped right by ya.  Great job keeping up with it.  Are those fires out in Hemet contained?

Thanks  

The Cottonwood Fire is only 30% contained in the last USFS update, which was 15 minutes ago. Even still, it's crapping out all on it's own. This morning it laid down and it hasn't gotten back up yet. I think it's going to die off tonight for sure.

Thursday and Friday were a different story. It was taking off like crazy (11 year old fuel) and kept on breaking through the retardant and dozer lines. The containment level actually was degraded because it kept racing up the canyons and leaving the containment area.

But yeah, I think it's as good as dead now. It's history. Station on the other hand... 20,000 acres?!?!   The first two days it only burned 20 acres. 20 acres in two days? It was a little wimp. Now it's a thousand times bigger (literally!) and it's actually burning homes. The most recent update is nearly 40 structures. Mandatory evacuations for parts of La Canada Flintridge, Altadena and Tujunga.

[kick Z tail out]

I was really enjoying the rare birds eye view