As a Fireman with the Langford Volunteer fire Dept. we were fighting a mountain top forest fire in Glen Lake . Having spent a couple of days fighting the fire, word came down that the BC Forrest service had authorized the water tankers to assist us. We were ordered to leave the site and shortly the “ Bird Dog was scouting the fire. It then left and came back with its sirens blazing, and then this red monster of the Mars swooped in over the top of the mountain and dropped this WALL of water directly over the hot spot. There was nothing more to do but roll up the hoses and head back to the hall and clean up.
When was this? I remember when I was a kid in Sooke being woken up by this thing flying overhead. Instead of sending me back to bed, my father took me to the Sooke Basin to watch it scoop. Really fond memory, makes me wonder if this was the same fire you fought.
My Father was the flight engineer on that plane when it was Navy commissioned. I also flew on this plane between Hawaii and Alameda Naval Air Station when I was 2 years old.
Thanks for sharing this historic aircraft with us! Also, thank you for NOT covering up the sound of those great radial engines with cheesy or beautiful music.
Four eighteen radial cylinder Wright Cyclones, two thousand five hundred horsepower each. There is not an orchestra in the world that can make music to match them. They don't make them like that anymore and never will again.
I worked fires with both Martin Mars and Canso (CDN Catalina PBY) waterbombers on them in the late 60's and spent many hours watching the Mars working fires on Southern Vancouver Island in the early '70's.Just remembering the sound of a Mars passing overhead coming into drop on a fire still raises goosebumps!!
Thanks so much for posting this video; the sound of those radial engines is simply awesome! One of the best I have heard. The 1080p HD is the icing on the cake.
What an incredible video and as has been said before thank you for not having some stupid noise covering up the music from these engines!! Great Job on the Vid
I got to fly on this plane the sunday before this was filmed! They were doing a test flight before leaving for vancouver. Was one of the best moments of my life being as Ive lived on Sproat all my life and been wanting to fly in one forever!!
As a 16 year old I was able to go under the Mars Water bomber in 1977 while they were based on Sprout Lake in Port Alberni in British Cpolumbia Canada. It was a great memory.
Thanks for posting this video. I have loved that Mars for many years, and hope that it flies forever, since it can drop more water than anything else: 60,000#. That can have quite a salubrious effect on a fire and the Mars has, on more than one occasion, put out a forest fire with one drop. With only one craft left, though, a suitable replacement is necessary, perhaps composite and even more streamlined, with piston engines (better fuel economy) or turboprops (more power) & powered controls.
There are still 2 left. As of now they're both on the bomber base on Sproat Lake. The Hawaii Marsnis airworthy and was up flying yesterday. The Phillipines Mars would need a refit to fly, but the airframe is entirely sound and capable.
I sat in the left chair in this wonderful aircraft back in the summer of 2008. She was on the shore for maintenance at her home base in Port Alberni. I will never forget that. Fantastic footage!
I love watching this beauty scoop up water from in front of my house to fight fires in my province. Thank god that bonehead premier reinstated it earlier today.
Grew up in Port. Love these planes. When they flew overhead, which they did often as a child, everyone stopped to look up and admire them. They roar! They're so impressive. And they put out many fires. Got to watch them many times, working and on maintainance runs. Had a tour once, very cool. Somewhere theres a picture of me in the pilots seat. Theres a huge sense of pride with the people of Port Alberni regarding these flying boats. I hope you can keep her going for some time Wayne. And when you do retire her, I beg that you keep her in town. Broke a lot of hearts to watch one go. Please please please lets keep one. You know you want to. Wayne likes the toys, and this is the baddest ass toy ever.
What a great airplane! Brings back memories of the old passenger flying boats. Excellent engine sound, and looks like a pretty good load of water for a forest fire. Great video, thanks.
There is also the DC-10 which carries a large load of Fire-Retardant. It has to land after it drops it's full-load,but the Martin Mars does not have to land and come to a full stop to reload. After it drops it's load,it just skims the water surface to pick up another 30-ton load of water(which covers over 4-acres),to which it can add chemicals it can store on board in other tanks, and since it has around a 4,000-mile-range,it can stay in the air for around 5-1/2-hours at a time without refueling. The maintenance-crew also refuels,and works on the flying-boat overnight,so it is ready to go the next day. It costs a lot of money to operate,but it is very efficient in the way it operates.There is a very good 2-part DVD set on these Flying Boats,with on-board-operating-footage.
Water bombers are so cool! It was also the most unnerving thing having them fly low over my house as a kid! The size and sound of these planes are awesome yet intimidating!!
It was an amazing flight. Saturday our flight was cancelled because engine 4 was burning too rich. They have an amazing mechanic crew though so by Sunday afternoon it was ready to go. It was surprising how smooth this plane is. Even during pickups and landing you can hardly tell when the plane has touched water. Also I was allowed to walk around inside where ever I wanted. I got some good footy and pics from inside, maybe ill post them when I get the time.
They lease these planes during fire season in so cal (lake elsinore) and its docked pretty close to my work. Its awesome to watch this thing land and take off, it never gets old.
posted on different aviation forums and olympic websites....it did a drop in vancouver too for the olympics and stayed here in richmond over night. there were lots of people here filming and taking photos.
She's a Beauty! I read recently that this old gal is soon to be retired and will come to Pensacola naval Aviation museum. Anyone else heard if it's true and when is she coming....I want to be there when she arrives!
Is there any aircraft with a similar water bombing capacity able to replace it? The need will remain: forest fires around the globe sure ain't gonna retire anytime soon!
Ah: 45,000 litres of water (or fire-retardant chemicals) on the DC-10, vs 27,000 litres of water on the JRM-3 Mars. DC-10 is faster in the air and has larger capacity but can only reload on land. The Mars is slower has less capacity but can reload quickly from scooping up water while taxiing - thanks for answering! :)
My son took a picture of the mars and a picture of my dad, Capt. Winsor, in the bridge taken from Time magazine 1944 to the Pensacola Air museum and they indicated they are thinking of bringing one to the museum.
This airplane is a huge beast and it's too bad that in southern CA,we don't have this airplane in our CDF base. The helos are fine but are sorely limited. This beast will shut up the most harshest critics of old planes. Hey SAN DIEGO.! aRE YOU LISTENING AND REASDING ABOUT THIS NOW...
The Mars was featured in Seversky's book, "Victory Through Air Power" as the future of maritime-based heavy bombers. Few were built and I'm surprised this one was still flying.
Awesome plane. Strange, people dislike anything and everything. Why would 59 people dislike or even bother down thumbing this video! Thx for posting I liked seeing it.
Such an amazing aircraft! Massive! I WANT TO FLY ONE OF THESE! It's like a giant firefighting yacht with wings. Imagine a privately owned one? Customized, luxury living space inside, retractable water slide off the back...it'd be a flying houseboat.
One of my favorite aircraft of all time. The only thing sadder than their being only two airworthy examples of the Mars, is it's little brother, the Martin Mariner, only has one intact example (that I know of) and it's a museum piece that will never fly again.
To be honest we needed like 10 of these to help with fort mickmery. and the one was not good enough and the delay was taxing to civilians and it cost lives.
