Splash just sent me this video...pretty darn cool...at the 1 minute mark you can see another plane in front of him. Its getting dark and looks like a war...crazy

http://vimeo.com/28621812

AKT

What kind of plane is he flying? Thanks for sharing.
~Travis

I think its an OV-10

Is that the Canyon fire near Tehachapi?

The tubes on the nose make it look like the view from the cockpit of an S2-T.

Yes that is the Tehachapi "canyon fire".

Sunday morning, I flew in to the Tehachapi gliderport for a fantastic meeting of ESA (the best and brightest of the experimental glider/electric/ultralight glider/alternate aircraft power source guys). Around lunchtime, we came out of the meeting hangar to see a single smoke plume in the hills 2 miles south of the airport. The fire accelerated rapidly and took out the whole mountainside, literally within walking distance of where our event was being held.

The various fire attack air assets showed up pretty fast. The P2V tankers from WJF airport in Lancaster, then UH-1 and 212 helicopters, with their S2F FAC spotters, a Baron, and even an OV-10. The fire attack crews set up at our gliderport, brought out the water trucks, etc. because this airport has an 8 inch water main onsite. The Bambi buckets were being filled in a dip tank on the airport.

So essentially, we were all sitting right at ground zero, a major mountain forest fire within a couple of miles, and all of the helicopter operations based 500 feet from our meeting hangar. LA County eventually showed up with the only two civilian Blackhawk helicopters in existence ("Fire-Hawk").


Everyone was totally impressed with the effort and rapid response, and the absolute intensity of the ground and air fire crews. Splash Pilot if you are one of those air crews, THANK YOU for your incredible effort. Watching you guys dive into a canyon full of smoke and heat is awe-inspiring.

The big show came when the DC-10 tanker showed up... twice. Seeing that monster dive into a burning canyon, from a front row seat a mile away, is quite a sight. We watched "Tanker Ten" put out an entire row of burning trees at the crest of a ridge in one pass, single handedly stopping the fire from heading downhill towards our airport and the town of Tehachapi.

So "The Flap-Mobile" sits there at Tehachapi Mountain Valley Gliderport L94, along with several other airplanes, waiting until I can go back and fly it out without interfering with or pissing off the fire attack crews.

The "word on the street" from the locals is that a property owner in the canyon (Chimpanzee #1) had their mobile home burn up in LAST year's canyon fire. So last week they had finally just got the NEW replacement trailer set up, on it's pads, all hooked up and ready for beer call. So to inaugurate the new mobile mansion, his friend Chimpanzee #2 decides he's gonna come by and say hi in his 210, which he just filled up at Tehachapi Municipal airport. Reports from one of the glider tow pilots or glider guys at our gliderport came back that they saw the Cessna making passes back and forth down deep in the canyon, and it looked kinda spooky.

Your correct EZ! Thats Splashpilot doing his thing! Pretty cool I must say!!!

AKT

For the first time, I agree with EZ! The whole operation was VERY impressive. It seemed like in a matter of a few hours they had a couple hundred guys on the ground and a more than a dozen aircraft in the air! By the next day they had moved in a small city. Sadly, I did not hear Patty Wagstaff on the radio.

Wow... first time for everything I guess

Were you at the ESA event? Did we meet?

How is Patty Wagstaff involved with this fire?

No, EZ we have never met. I just know you through this forum. Although I may not always agree with you I do respect your opinion and the good natured way you take ribbing.

Patty Wagstaff flies the Bronco for Cal Fire. There was a story about her in one of the last Air & Space magazines. I don't know if she is involved with this fire or not, but I was listening for her on the radio. http://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today/Patty-Wagstaffs-Second-Act.html

Awesome vid Rich! Nice to get to see what you do in the S-2 when you aren't teaching marginal pilots how not to wreck their 180's

I usually fly the desert route to San Diego to avoid the LA bullcrap, but had to suck it up and file IFR through downtown LA yesterday to divert around the TFR on the way back north. At least I hit one of those nice monsoon rain cells over Orange County on the way back and got the plane washed. Here's a pic of the city center and Dodger Stadium, from directly overhead.





We did get to catch the DC-10 out on a fire near Cajon Pass Friday evening on the way down. It's a pretty awesome sight seeing a big bird like that swing in underneath you for final on the fire line, then leave what looked like a half mile of retardant in a curtain in front of the flame wall. On the way down the camera was in the baggage, naturally.

Flynengr

Oh Yea ,,,,,,,I stand corrected Splash is flying one of the S2s.......#80

yeah, I was going to say I think Chimpanzee #2 started the fire.

Yes, that is what several of the locals there said. The Cessna 210 was either buzzing, showing off, or circling (whatever...) in the canyon, and managed to crash and light everything on fire.

I have almost no time in the 210, but my 25+ year distant memory of one or two dual instruction flights is that it is absolutely not the right airplane for canyon maneuvering or flat-hatting while flying slow in the mountains.

I can vouch for the fact that it was a pretty high density altitude that day. Tehachapi valley is over 4000' MSL, that canyon was certainly higher than that, and it was somewhere well over 80 degrees up there