Community Chat

[rockygems123]

We've had several aircraft brought in from out of state to help with our Colorado wildfires.  They're called "Super Scoopers", they're across the street at the lake skimming the water and within 10 seconds have a belly full of water to drop on our local wildfire.

The Quarry Fire as it is known which is a few miles from here is now 20% contained and has been kept to around 472 acres.

Over 200 fire fighters working in this heat, today is 100 degrees.  So much respect and gratitude.

[Kachina624]

@rockygems123.  I bet you're not getting a thing done, just watching the airplanes scoop up water.  That would be fascinating to watch.

We've had fires where the tankers with suppressant flew over my house constantly after filling up in Albuquerque.   They have stained red bellies.  Watching the scoopers would be more entertaining.

[wagirl]

Here in WA state, we are dealing with fires in the eastern part of the state. We are  also affected by the ones from Canada , Oregon and CA as well. So far the western part of the state hasn't been subjected to the smoke from those areas much , at least near ground level yet.  My question/wondering is--why hasn't someone in the aero industry built  aircraft with the specific capabilities of dealing with the fires--like dumping huge amounts of water or repellent on the flames--we need many, many fleets of these types of planes because wild fires are now normal and will be getting worse. Seems to me, the very few aircraft available, some that have been retro fitted for this are kind of far and few between. We need hundreds of them in each region if not each state. Just a thought

[rockygems123]

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@Kachina624 wrote:

@rockygems123.  I bet you're not getting a thing done, just watching the airplanes scoop up water.  That would be fascinating to watch.

We've had fires where the tankers with suppressant flew over my house constantly after filling up in Albuquerque.   They have stained red bellies.  Watching the scoopers would be more entertaining.

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@Kachina624 

I'm actually behaving today and getting lots of jewelry listed. Can't see too many planes from my 2nd story home office here is today's  view:

When driving along side the lake the other day hardly could keep my eyes off one of those scoopers. Unbelievable, it really was seconds to fill up the belly!  Glad for that, any longer I'd be on the side of the road haha. 

[rockygems123]

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@wagirl wrote:

Here in WA state, we are dealing with fires in the eastern part of the state. We are  also affected by the ones from Canada , Oregon and CA as well. So far the western part of the state hasn't been subjected to the smoke from those areas much , at least near ground level yet.  My question/wondering is--why hasn't someone in the aero industry built  aircraft with the specific capabilities of dealing with the fires--like dumping huge amounts of water or repellent on the flames--we need many, many fleets of these types of planes because wild fires are now normal and will be getting worse. Seems to me, the very few aircraft available, some that have been retro fitted for this are kind of far and few between. We need hundreds of them in each region if not each state. Just a thought

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@wagirl 

Agree, we need lots more of the fire fighting aircraft.  Just read that aircraft needs to be tailored to the specific weather conditions of each state.

One of the pilots says "Colorado is challenging to use the Scoopers because the weather changes at an instant - the winds change, there's high density altitude and other complications.  But luckily the designers of the aircraft took that all into account and so it's very safe for this environment."

I can vouch for that, we've seen on one occasion the temp drop 40 degrees in 20 minutes.  

[wagirl]

@rockygems123 --oh I am sure weather and atmosphereic stuff has alot to do with it all-----same with us here in WA state-----and probably in every state---it's a daunting, dangerous time of year for everyone!1