A question for the spray pilots:

What is the reddish/brown material in the picture? Thank you.

On his organic soybeans, Kiman uses a really smelly and ugly like that fish oil mixture. No it is not toxic, just ugly.

Since that is a Fire plane without spray booms, I'm going to guess it is a containment area for fire mud, or borate, or what ever the stuff is called that is dropped out of fire bombers. Just a guess.

mattingly95969 wrote:Since that is a Fire plane without spray booms, I'm going to guess it is a containment area for fire mud, or borate, or what ever the stuff is called that is dropped out of fire bombers. Just a guess.

This x2.

contactflying wrote:On his organic soybeans, Kiman uses a really smelly and ugly like that fish oil mixture. No it is not toxic, just ugly.

I thought it maybe fire retardant? Are you sure it’s an agricultural mixture? Thank you for the information.

Since that looks to be a fire fighter, I bet it is something to do with retardant.

Fire retardants consist of detergent chemicals made from a combination of wetting agents and foaming chemicals, fertilisers (ammonium and diammonium sulfate and ammonium phosphate) mixed with thickeners (guar gum) and corrosion inhibitors (for aircraft safety). They are mixed with water to form a foam or slurry

A1Skinner wrote:

mattingly95969 wrote:Since that is a Fire plane without spray booms, I'm going to guess it is a containment area for fire mud, or borate, or what ever the stuff is called that is dropped out of fire bombers. Just a guess.

This x2.

Mahalo for the guidance.

180Marty wrote:Since that looks to be a fire fighter, I bet it is something to do with retardant.

Fire retardants consist of detergent chemicals made from a combination of wetting agents and foaming chemicals, fertilisers (ammonium and diammonium sulfate and ammonium phosphate) mixed with thickeners (guar gum) and corrosion inhibitors (for aircraft safety). They are mixed with water to form a foam or slurry

It seems like every airport, where I fly, has the mixture. I just started to wonder if it could be dangerous to humans?

I guess I’m getting more paranoid with age.

Thank you for the details!

That is retardant. Chemicals as stated above. we've been dropping that on wildland firefighters for decades!

Yes, it is retardant. It is not toxic, at least not by simple exposure. It stains everything it touches, and makes a mess, including the ground, which IMHO is far less problematic than not having it when you need it. About the only way to get hurt by it is to be on the ground when it drops, unlike airplanes set up to spray, fire planes have no agitation, and that stuff can clump up and be like flying mud balls.

FWIW, even the states that don't require closed mix systems for chemical mixing / loading, would not go for a 'pond of poison' in today's day and age.

Take care, Rob

whoops.. sorry man, you were quicker on the draw...
Tango is definitely the resident expert here on both the chemical in that pond, and the airplane sitting next to it

Take care, Rob

Interesting that the big planes don’t have agitation, didn’t realize that. A 3” Banjo pump and 20 ft of hose would provide a fair amount of circulation in a compact setup, be better than nothing.

Some of the Scoopers have onboard agitation, but the government is going away from onboard mixing of gels and foam, so we are taking the pumps off to save weight.

I don't haul much mud (retardant), been years actually. As wheeled seats, we almost always jettison the load at designated site near the airport. So retardant doesn't sit in the plane for long after being loaded from the ground.

The heavy tankers at times do come back and land with a partial load. They may sit for a day or two, but will eventually be offloaded if not used due to settling.