Firefighting Tankers and Bombers

[kick Z tail out]

I'm jealous of any and all Aero Union action. That was a nice shot.

As some of you know (I know Damon knew because I got the email this morning) there was a freak brush fire yesterday... that actually managed to get 5 tankers flying out of Hemet. I was down there right as the sun was going down and they flew right up until the cutoff (civil twilight). Here's some of the stuff... which included 83 out of Columbia and 88 out of Grass Valley (sister ship of Hoser's 89).

I also went back out there to get some night shots a few hours later.

[Realbigtaco]

Nate, you and those nighttime shots....They are awesome!  How long of an exposure are you shooting?

[phantomphan1974]

Yeah great shots and the greenish too them is cool.

[kick Z tail out]

Thanks guys  I like to go low as I can on the ISO and still get the exposure right. Shutter was at 25 seconds on most of them... and there is actually a greenish florescent light on the tower that casts that hue across whichever aircraft is closest to the tower.

[Midnight Mover]

Thanks guys  I like to go low as I can on the ISO and still get the exposure right. Shutter was at 25 seconds on most of them... and there is actually a greenish florescent light on the tower that casts that hue across whichever aircraft is closest to the tower.

very cool

[tstbell]

Here's some pictures taken on Nov 3, 2009 of Super Scoopers getting water at Puddingstone Reservoir (Bonelli Park) to fight brush fires that started along the 60 Freeway in Diamond Bar.

[Raaver]

Yosemity NP aug 2009;

Robert

[NikonGuy]

Great shots guys! 

[tstbell]

Thanks Fernando.

[snapperbaz]

Heres two Erickson S64E's taken at Henderson Airport, Vegas over New Years Eve. Nothing special but looked really cool against the mountains and also the strip behind them...my first decent shots of anything fire-fighting and look forward to getting some action shots at some point in the future.

[Venom1]

Me and Nate (Kick Z) were out at Hemet today watching 6 Cal Fire Tankers do some spring training today. He got a lot more and a lot better pics than I did. I film most of the time. (video will be up soon hopefully of the night training)

[kick Z tail out]

Cool screens Nick  can't wait to see the video.

Had some fun watching yesterday's training ops, which included a night operations hop. At one point we had 6 in the pattern doing touch and goes around 9pm... for a second I almost thought I was at El Centro. 

It was fun, and very cool to have a bunch of tankers here in late march. Cal Fire decided Hemet would be a good environment for their new pilot training this year, instead of McClellan. Got a chance to shoot the tankers in almost total darkness, which is not something I get a chance to do too often unless someone is returning from a long range mission. We had other cool photo ops as well... including two different engine-out on takeoff drills. Instructor surprises the trainee in the middle of the takeoff roll by pulling an engine to simulate losing it. Trainee has to jettison the load and get off the deck by the end of the runway on one engine.

[kick Z tail out]

The first engine out drill of the afternoon...

[Realbigtaco]

nice shots guys.  Nate, did they actually dump there loads during the training?  Or is that just protocol?  Can't wait to see the video nick.

[kick Z tail out]

Thanks Chris... Yep they dumped the load as part of the drill. The instructor actually pulls the prop pitch to neutral I believe, which mimics the loss of the engine since it no longer is pulling. They aren't loaded with Phoschek though, just water.

It was rough shooting in darkness, particularly things that were passing by within 100 feet of us at 110 kts. I'm really looking forward to Nick's video. It was cool. We had a tanker passing us every 30 seconds or so when all 6 were in the pattern.