Airborne Fire Fighting

[pax anglia]

Having seen TV news reports about the forest fires in Colorado it occurred to me that fighting these fires from the air must be a particularly tricky job for fixed wing aircraft.One piece of footage showed a twin engined aircraft (I don't know the type,forgive me)
on a water bombing run whilst in a fairly steep right turn.Now,if memory serves correctly,the stalling speed increases the steeper the turn becomes.What additional problems are presented when a substantial volume of water is released in these circumstances
eg:shifting C of G and management of same ?

If you are reading this in CO I hope that these disastrous fires are soon extinguished.You have a beautiful state.

[411A]

Was offered a job many years ago on a DC-7, so while I was on vacation, went along on a Forest Service certification ride. As I recall, flaps 10, 150 feet above the trees, drop the retardant (not to much trim change as I recall), METO power, pull up and maneuver as necessary.
Now, I liked flying the DC-6, and the DC-7 was a nice machine also, but did NOT like the view from 150 feet. Also was told that over a fire, it was really rough.
Politely declined the offer, altho these guys do make rather big bucks. Think they earn it.

[big pistons forever]

Its like any other kind of flying, its as safe or dangerous as you want to make it. Before the bomber makes a run the lead plane or birddog as we call it in Canada makes the run first to check for visibility , rising ground and obstacles. We have very mature SOP's and if it looks unsafe we go home. Also if you get into trouble down low you can get rid of 30-40 % of the aircrafts weight in 2 seconds. The best part from my POV is forest fires generally occur on nice sunny afternoons. Other than smoke ( usually only a problem on large fires ) the wx is mighty fine. All the really frightning moments in my flying career have involved really bad weather and/or darkness, almost never a factor for fire bombers.

[411A]

Yes, BPF, and the word from Boise just a few short years ago was the pistons' days were numbered...turbines in the future, for sure. Yet I still see DC-4's and DC-7's, not to mention PV-2's still at it.
Believe Hawkins & Powers still have a C-97....superb:D

[madman1145]

What happens on a glider (soaring), when you load water in the wingtanks and then make the plain more heavy, is that the plains glideratio remains the same, but at a higher speed - glideratio tells you the longest distance the plain (or glider) can fly before it falls a certain distance, for example 20 meter flying before it falls 1 meter. The higher glideratio, the better glider.
And then you have to add even more speed (or be aware that the stallspeed is increased some), when you make a turn with more weight onboard.

But I suppose, that when the firefighter dump the water in a turn, the substantial decrease of weight that happens that quickly in a few seconds, as BPF tells, and then the following decrease of stallspeed, equalise quite good the increase of stallspeed due to the steep turn they make (please correct me if I am wrong) :)

And BPF, I am sending you an email. Hope you will answer it :p

[Hagbard the Amateur]

Condolences to the relatives of the three crew of the US C130 that went down yesterday whilst trying to fight forest fires.

here's a link to the video report via Mil Aircrew:(

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56881