Watched a short doc about these guys. They literally have to put the plane into an airspeed stall when dropping retardant as it would disolve before landing if dropped at too high a speed. They push the aircraft beyond its limits everytime they fly. Steel balls.
I was airborne infantry, the exact same thing would happen on airborne drops in a c17, they are too low for the plane to generate any speed, so they fucking stall it and use the moment then kick it back on after the drop, you would feel the plane throttle hard then feel the engines die down, asshole pucker already because you’re about to jump out, but then also feeling the plane essentially just using momentum in the air was a double pucker
That's so awesome. Sometimes it's difficult to see the little chase plane in front guiding the air tanker and ejecting a puff of smoke to mark the spot where the dump should begin.
I live in Southern California very close to the foothills and several years ago, we had a fire. Several of the kids in the neighborhood were interested in the DC 10 so I loaded them up in my C3500 White Crew cab. As we watched what was a literary private air show, we were surprised by a Cal Fire Supervisor and the local police. To my surprise, not only does the Tanker use the smoke from the small plane to mark his drops but they also use a " WHITE TRUCK " as a backup. The DC10 had dropped 2 half loads on my mark !!! 😳 Good thing that we were in line with the fire. They explained to us and the kids how it worked and asked us to watch from a different spot. Super cool people and insane flight crews !! THANKS CAL FIRE and all that help every year.
Those are some "bad ass cats" flying a large aircraft like that! My first couple of times to Hawaii was on a DC-10. I never felt so comfortable, even though I wasn't the pilot in command.
Could you imagine how he had to compensate for that wind gust having to keep it on target at an angle into the wind.... Awesomeness caught on camera 💪🏽🙏🏽
Can u imagine watching a wall of flames approaching ur home as u desperately hose down ur roof with a garden hose and u hear the roar of jet engines as the plane banks to line up with ur home!! The cavalry has arrived
Thought he was going to stall it there, that was seriously low and slow. You'd have to be half mad to fly one of those things into that situation, with the wind, the smoke density and potential particulate risk to the jets engines. As well as the lack of oxygen in the air. And how much does the fire retardant even weigh, that's a lot to put on your mind before you even get off the ground.
That pilot looked like they were having a difficult time controlling it at that slow of a speed. Unless the wing wags were intentional for some reason. Does anyone know why they fly high alpha like that on dumping the payload?
