Originally Posted by
Sunfish
What are the turnaround resources like for big aircraft? You would need the mother of all pumps and sufficient water to reload quickly and a sealed long runway.
Helos with a bucket just need a dam or a swimming pool.
They have portable GSE assets that they bring if needed. Obviously something like a 737 or DC-10 needs a decent sized airfield to operate from - that would be a major limitation in some areas.
Several years ago I was in Colorado working on the old family house when they had the Royal Gorge fire. The Pueblo airport is about 5 miles due east of the house, while the Royal Gorge fire was about 50 miles due west of the airport, and the main runway runs east/west (8R/26L). They brought in a DC-10 along with the needed GSE and operated out of the Pueblo airport to fight the fire. They'd take off to the west and head directly to the fire - without bothering to climb much - overflying the house at very low altitude, then return to land and do it again. When I was a kid in the 1960s, United did 727 flight training out of that airport - I'd often sit out on a big dirt pile behind our house and watch them (back then we could see the airport out our back window) - but I never saw a big jet go over our house anywhere near as low as that DC-10 was. The guy doing some tile work for me had his tile saw set up in the backyard - at one point he came in and said he knew how many rivets there were on the bottom of a DC-10 wing because he'd counted them during the last pass
.
Anyway, I don't know their ideal turn time, but it couldn't be very long - the DC-10 was going over the house at about a 40 minute interval
.