Hopefully, a new thread that we all can learn from...I’m asking...

Using discretion, please post inflight pictures of forest fires so pilots that don’t fly out west can get an idea of the magnitude of these infernos. It’s really dangerous. Supporting photographs and commentary are absolutely welcome.

2018.11.09 Malibu, California Flight deck R44


The flight path returning back to Torrance because of massive smoke along the Channel Islands, Malibu and Santa Barbra. This was a ferry flight to Oregon with several delays due to an Armageddon of fires.



From satellite Malibu:

That's a really interesting photo looking straight down on the fire. I think the flames are gases that don't ignite until they are higher up in the smoke column where there is enough oxygen to support fire.

Remember, there's lots of aluminum in the sky around wild fires. Be careful out there.

tcj wrote:That's a really interesting photo looking straight down on the fire. I think the flames are gases that don't ignite until they are higher up in the smoke column where there is enough oxygen to support fire.

Remember, there's lots of aluminum in the sky around wild fires. Be careful out there.

Good to hear from you “TCJ” I know you have a lot of knowledge regarding wild fires.

Today in Western Oregon is unbelievable. My buddy in Lincoln County evacuated and his relatives lost homes! I would never have imagined it:

I'll post a few photos and hopefully satisfy some curiosity I'm sure a lot of people have. Everyone checks for TFRs before they fly over the forests in fire season, right? I'll leave that as a given.

I worked for the US Forest Service as a fire fighter for 31 years. About 3 years before I retired I decided to reduce my exposure to flying on fires as much as possible. It was three years after I retired that I took these photos. I continued to work fire seasons for another 11 years after that. Now, eight more years later I am glad to have had the opportunity to do and see the things I have but I don't miss it one bit now.

The safety poster in my post above isn't just for large fires. A small fire may have just started and not have any aircraft working on it yet. But initial attack aircraft maybe on the way. So as the poster says, don't be like a moth to a flame.


You wouldn't want to conflict with this guy, A sky crane.


I was riding in a Lama on a mission to map the perimeter with GPS. Any map on a active fire is just a snap shot in time. We wanted to get as close to possible to the fire's edge to get a usable product for the next shift.


We flew as low and close as we could.


Helicopters can really spread fire all over the place if they get too low and rotor wash it...especially a spot fire...oops...this fire was way to intense for crews to be near the edge so no harm no foul.


Looking back from the other end. We flew back around to look at the area we had just flown over at low level.


On thing I always told the kids working on fires is stay alert for sudden changes in fire behavior. This one blew up in a manner of minutes.


In another couple of minutes this is as close as we wanted to get.


Zoomed in to get a perspective of the height of the flames. For comparison, the trees are about 60 feet tall.


This one is taken from Bruce Meadows airstrip in Idaho. A couple of minutes after I took this photo we had to burn out from the edge of the airstrip. With the help of a sky Crane dropping water we were able to hold it. Notice the gasses igniting in the Smoke column.

I miss flying fires. The unbelievably small confined areas that become norm, the constant fuel calculation so you can always make it back to that last drum, the camaraderie of fellow pilots and engineers. The sun looking like a Tatooine moon.

Since 8GCBC is a helicopter guy, here’s a clip of staging out one morning. Yellow guy must have a good jag on and wants a run to clear the trees.

https://youtu.be/wKfCme_znGMYou

Here's a link to some excellent photos and a good description of Pyrocumulous clouds. I learned a new term too..."Cumulonimbus flammagenitus"
https://wildfiretoday.com/2020/09/12/st ... bear-fire/

These things are dangerous to fly near not only because they can produce lightning, they can also collapse and produce tremendous out flow winds just like a thunder cell.

On the Aspen Fire near Tucson in 2003 F-16s from Davis–Monthan Air Force Base were having fun flying through a Pyrocumulous. They would come out the other side inverted sometimes.

Excellent commentary and photographs.

Karmutzen: Thank you for the video: ETL definitely helps!

“TCJ” Thank you for the magazine URL! Definitely good learning material.

https://wildfiretoday.com/


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I got these pics a couple of weeks ago just south of Johnson Creek, Idaho. I stayed relatively low to keep an eye on the terrain. Not the most fun.



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As initial attack assets we don’t go to the big fires much but we do our best to put em our while they’re still small to avoid conflagrations.

Here’s some fires I put jumpers on this summer. And a sleeping smokejumper lol.

I flew my 182 amphib from Chester (O05) to Minden (KMEV). Chester viz was 0.5 and 300' all morning. Waited til 1430 and it improved some. Got on top of the smoke at 13,500 MSL.





Pierre

Kodiakmack wrote:As initial attack assets we don’t go to the big fires much but we do our best to put em our while they’re still small to avoid conflagrations.

Here’s some fires I put jumpers on this summer. And a sleeping smokejumper lol.

Jumpship a Twotter?

MTV

Exactly the kind of pictures and text I was looking for Super Big Mahalo everyone! And especially dudes who had boots on the ground and/or flying!

I think I may start smelling smoke in Honolulu. Smoke is covering the middle of the Pacific Ocean right now.

Yesterday’s image:

Yeah, I fly the Twotter. We have 2 300 series with -34's on em. We also have a Sherpa, but as of now I don't have to nurse that thing around the sky.

These photos were taken on board the Johnson Flying Service DC-2 in 1966 and '67, 1966 was my first year flying commercially. Even though this was a few years ago, the sights, sounds, smells, and camaraderie have not changed, I may have changed a little.

Getting ready for a early morning fire camp drop.


A little crowded on this eight man fire drop, the DC-2 could drop up to twelve smoke jumpers, the DC-3 16. The jumpers looking out the windows want to see the jump spot the spotter has picked for them.



The jump spot may be small, so to be as accurate as possible, only two jump on each pass over the spot.



When the jumpers are on the ground, then the fire packs which contain their fire fighting equipment are dropped. Cargo runs, depending on terrain are around 200' for best accuracy and to lessen drift. Good times, good job. My history lesson for the day.

Rober C, Thanks for sharing those great photos. The history of the brotherhood of smokejumping is one of my favorite parts of this job. I feel very lucky to do what I do. Boy how we wish we still had the Doug around! If you're ever in McCall give me a shout and we can get together and swap stories.

Kodiakmack wrote:Rober C, Thanks for sharing those great photos. The history of the brotherhood of smokejumping is one of my favorite parts of this job. I feel very lucky to do what I do. Boy how we wish we still had the Doug around! If you're ever in McCall give me a shout and we can get together and swap stories.

What happened to the Basler converted DC-3T the FS had for years?

MTV

There’s a lot about it I don’t know, but from what I understand they were sold because of their “excessive cost to maintain”. Meanwhile we just got old army sherpa’s to “replace” them. The Sherpa at our base carries the same number of jumpers as the otter. A little faster, slightly farther. But no way is it a replacement.

Here's a link to the story in "Fire Aviation" when the last USFS DC 3 went up for auction. I noticed they changed the N number before they sold it and still has N115Z reserved. https://fireaviation.com/2016/07/20/usf ... 2C%273T%27

Fire aviation is a pretty cool industry. I always enjoy reading stories and seeing pictures. Thanks to you guys sharing pics and stories.

I hoped to find a few videos from this fire season but it looks like they didn’t make it to the internet. There’s some pretty cool flying being done by everyone but the VLATs and Super Scoopers are always impressive to me.

Speaking of congested airspace, there is a sad article on the midair that happened in July but the comments from a guy in the industry make for an interesting read.

Not really related but kinda cool. Back in 1978, I think, a FS DC3 crashed on the Selway River after losing it’s engines. While I was floating the Selway this summer I found a piece of that DC on the bottom of the river.