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Here are some that you don't see every day. AH-1F Fire Helos. These are converted from the military version stripped of the armament and have an operational weight of 5000 lbs which is 50% of the military configuration. The original Cobra had provisions for a cargo hook and that is now being rediscovered. These would make great looking models.

Floyd

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Wow ! Great pics, guys ! A few of my faves there......Trackers and Neptunes ! How sweet that would be ( other than the fact that stuff was burning.....) to be under that pattern !

It was like this:

1. Sitting outside watching the fire.

2. "Oh crap! Look at that!!!!"

3. Run in, get camera.

4. Get back outside, but it's too late :cheers:.

5. "Sure hope it comes back again :banana:"

6. "Ooohh!!! Here comes another one."

7. Snap pic.

8. "That was cool" :banana:!

9. Repeat steps 6-8

Edited by TomcatFanatic123
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Here's a C-54G of TBM, Inc. at Sequoia Field, CA.

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This Black Widow was destroyed, killing the pilot, fighting a fire on the Tule Indian reservation in the foothills East of Porterville, CA.

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An F7F-3 at Sequoia Field, CA.

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A Martin Mars water drop. The stats on these bombers are mind boggeling!

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A couple of head on water drops. First one is a Canadair CL-415 and the next is a PBY-5A Catalina.

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Here's a Beech C90 King Air leading a DC-6B in to a water drop.

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Fantastic pictures! My favorite is the King Air leading the C-54. I really wish someone would put out resin and decals for all of these aircarft........in 1/48th of course.... <_< I love the Cobras and Turine Stoofs.

Chappie

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A bunch of tanker pics I took at McGhee-Tyson ANG Base, Knoxville, TN in April, 2001. We used to call it "Spot Zero" where they parked and the Forrest Service called it the Southern Appalachian Air Attack Base but I googled it and it looks like they are moving to Chattanooga soon. Scans are pretty bad but these are some cool old Fire Birds!

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Love the Privateer pictures! I'm goning to have to buy an extra KAE PB4Y-2 converison and build a Privateer tanker.

Chappie

Thanks! Somewhere I have a close-up of the nose of 126. They had a teddy bear/Smokey the Bear up there! We're still unpacking at our new home in Abilene and I just found these pics today! I'll keep my eyes open for the close-up shot!

Mark

Edited by Mark O. Williams
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Early 2007 Fire season . LA County Fire Dept. Contract 'Tanker 732" ...LA City Fire Contract "tanker 742" ... both S-64Es. Van Nuys Airport , Calif.

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LA County Fire Dept. S-70A Firehawk hovers at 4200ft in the Angeles Forest. Sept. 2007

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LACFD Copter 10 ( Helco) and S-70A Firehawk Copter 19 wait for a fire at Camp 9 in the Hills of LA County.2007

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Ok here's a few pics of the "Evergreen Supertanker." N470EV B747-200 "tanker 947" converted from a cargo bird to a fire tanker and back to cargo config for the winter season. Since I am not assigned to the supertanker, I do not have too many details as to why she is not flying in that capacity; but I do know that she will probably be returned back to the supertanker program sometime next year. All of the tanker equipment is designed to be palletized and hence the aircraft can switch from cargo to tanker and back with just a few hours worth of work. Other equipment that cannot be changed out is kept on board and deactivated until its needed, (ie: radios, AOA gauges etc etc..)

Tanker 947 on the ramp in cargo config at Travis AFB.

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Tanker 947 at KSEA prior to our departure to Japan.

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A closeup of the tail.

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Here's an example of the FM radios used by the forestry service for communications. They are located on the center pedestal adjacent to the radar controls just underneath the normal VHF comm units. They have deactivated until needed. If you look at the cockpit pic of the Bronco, you can see that they are similar.

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Thanks for looking.

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A few more pics from the collection...All are copyrighted and taken by myself....please respect this.

ERICKSON S-64E hydra-mulches Griffith Park last month.

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ERICKSON S-64E drops a load.

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US FOREST SERVICE 212 lifts off with a camp crew during the DAY FIRE in 2006.

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HTS TANKER 716 CH-54B lifts off to continue the fight .

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Nice in-flight shot of a LACFD FIREHAWK.

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Just 3 of 11 firefighting Blackhawks used during the recent fires in San Diego. The front one 26 is from

the Nevada National Guard

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California National Guard UH-60 prepares for lift-off during the recent fires.

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A Nevada National Guard hover-checks before liftoff with a group of UH-60s early in the morning.

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N217AC LA Citys Final contract helicopter for the 2007 season hovers befiore lifting off for a training-check flight.

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;) Fantastic pictures!! I want to build everything shown here!!! :D You guys out west have kind of a double edged sword.....the upside is you get to shoot a wide variety of colorful, unusual fire fighting aircraft----the downside is that these aircraft are needed so frequently.

Chappie

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well i cant post pics due to copyright issues, but here is a link to some great photos of some cl-415's when the were at Vintage Wings of Canada back in Sept. they are quite the aircraft to watch. they tazied onto the tarmac, then backed into place. everybody jsut stopped what they were doing and watched them come in.

http://rides.webshots.com/album/550224472CQmEXS?start=504

there are 6 pictures near the bpttom of the group.

sean

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Im not to into the fixed wing but i shoot them when they are in front of me......for others. Ive got more than this but on film ,i will have to scan later.

Its hard not to LOVE the DC-7....THE WINGS DON`T MOVE BUT ITS STILL AN AWESOME MACHINE. 2003

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An LACFD Contract CL-415 , More show and politics than effective in the terrain of LA County. 2 more S-64Ewould be MUCH more useful. Lots of color and photo ops ,but in the windy conditions very little water hits the fire. 2007

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  • 2 months later...

CHEYENNE:

I must agree wholeheartedly with you on your opinion of the CL-415s........Bombardier's PR with the press in L.A. is amazing - they have news crews at the airport when they fly in from Canada.

MAybe Erickson should hire Bombardier's PR manager?

Im not to into the fixed wing but i shoot them when they are in front of me......for others. Ive got more than this but on film ,i will have to scan later.

Its hard not to LOVE the DC-7....THE WINGS DON`T MOVE BUT ITS STILL AN AWESOME MACHINE. 2003

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An LACFD Contract CL-415 , More show and politics than effective in the terrain of LA County. 2 more S-64Ewould be MUCH more useful. Lots of color and photo ops ,but in the windy conditions very little water hits the fire. 2007

5377Large.jpg

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