A VFR B412 pilot I once knew went inadvertent IMC in low cloud/smoke whilst going from the water to the fire. He climbed up through it IMC, with some strange attitudes being seen on the AH/AI. Eventually opened up the belly tank to help his climb rate. Fire control officers below were in high spirits because they thought it had started raining!!
I was doing clean up in a B212 with long line and ground crew were pointing to my target, a burning log. No matter how many times I asked on the radio and waved out the window, the pointer would not move more than 6 ft from the log across slope. After several minutes I eventually let the full bucket go, washed the log and the pointer down slope. Approaching for the next drops, as soon as I had reported the target in sight, there was a flash of yellow in the forest as the pointer made like Carl Lewis in truly frenzied attempts to get away from the logs!!
Always a good giggle when the opposition drops the water into the fire whilst still enclosed in the bucket!! (And tears when you do it yourself...)
Captain Sousa: Did you find the turtles acted like fire retardant, or were they of little effect?
