Hello all,
First I do not want to infer that we do not have a competent fire fighting system here in Australia. I am sure there are plenty of examples where helicopters were the most effective as the water source they were picking up from would not have supported other aircraft. I am also sure there is an equal amount of situations where the reverse is true.
My main focus is that there are tools that we do not have available to us that we should have. Mainly larger retardant tankers and scoopers. I think the DC10 and the 747 are not manuverable enough. I think the Convair 580 would be Ideal for this or if we have to go to new airframes the Q400 seems to be working well for the French securite civile.
We should not be putting the tankers (retardant carriers), and the water bombers (scoopers) into exactly the same category. These airplanes are two different parts of the whole picture. Tankers help contain and direct while the scoopers help decrease fire intensity.
While its true only 3 Provinces use the 415, Ontario, Quebec, and now Newfoundland they are not the only ones using scoopers. Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and the NWT use the previous model the 215. Alberta has the Rockies in it with lowests safes around 15000' as does the NWT. I have seen some of the swamps and puddles these guys have scooped out of and it is pretty amazing. One has to remember that these guys are scooping out of rivers that have active logging as well as reservoirs from hydro dams across Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Lets not forget to mention France, Spain, Italy, Turkey and Greece. All of whom have mountainous terrain and have a lot more restrictions on their internal waterways than Australia.
The trick is these aircraft do not work alone. They work as a pair at a minimum preferably more. These aircraft set up a circuit as close to the fire as possible and hammer it with as much water as they can. The guys who I talk to talk about 90 takeoffs plus for a four hour mission when the source is close. This makes a hell of a difference but it must be remembered that the boots on the ground put out the fire not the airplane.
DW
Last edited by Double Wasp; 9th Nov 2009 at 23:42.