airtankers

[Humty72]

Man the firefighters on the ground and these tankers are amazing at their dangerous/difficult job ... there is a lot of footage on the news showing their drops.


http://www.azcentral.com/slideshows/gifs/prescottfire3.jpg

There is a pretty bad fire here and those tankers are flying like crazy out of the airport (KPRC). It's approaching downtown from the south, and most of you know the summers here and the gusty SW winds.

http://www.arizonarepublic.com/news/articles/0516fire16.html

 

[Humty72]

car dealership

I guess one of the tankers had an engine failure on upwind yesterday and had to dump its slurry. It covered one of the car dealerships in town....

 

[avbug]

The shocking part isn't the engine failure. It's that a tanker crew would take the time to fly an upwind.

If all four are turning then something is wrong.

We stopped calling it "slurry" in the late 70's.

 

[414Flyer]

I just got finished flying "air attack" over the fire near Santa fe. I was flying C-340 over the fire, with a forest service guy with me, and he does the ordering of tankers, etc.

Was really interesting, orbiting over the fire, and watching the tankers come in under me and drop retardant. Saw P-3, P-2, C-130, DC-4. There were plenty of free tankers, so they just boxed that fire in and took care of it quickly.

 

[bobbysamd]

PRC fire

Anyone know if the Neptune, Tanker 51, I believe, is working that fire?

That Neptune used to be based at PRC. Some of us Riddle instructors would watch in awe when it would depart.

 

[Humty72]

a/c

Today I've seen the following making runs on the fire: P-3, P-2 (may be the one you are asking about), B-24, DC-4, and the skycrane is draining Willow Lake for water...

 

[Humty72]

whiskey row will survive..

Well the fire's pretty much contained. I think they really had it under controll midday yesterday. Man, those folks do amazing work.....

 

[avbug]

That's no B-24. It's a PB4Y-2 Super Privateer (CVP4Y).

Bobby, You're probably thinking of T55, which is Minden's P2V. I don't know if it was working out of PRC this time, but it's regular assignment now is Albuquerque and Kalispell. There isn't a T51 presently.

There's a T151, and that's a DC-4 based in Lancaster, CA.

The assignments go up for bid every three years, and 2002 marked the change year.

 

[Dan CFI/CFII]

The P-2V's I've seen are Minden Air's #99, and one of the H&P P-2Vs (I think I might have seen 140 on it). I haven't noticed any Neptune airplanes here this season.

But then again, this is just me watching from my house outside Albuquerque, and on my occasional jaunts into town when I sometimes get a better look (can't go into the city too often, it's expensive with no job to be a city folk )

They do do excellent work, first time in a while that I haven't been able to see something burning from the house...

Dan

PS-99 has been here (other than jaunts to the southern part of the state) since early April...

 

[bobbysamd]

Tanker 55 and Prescott

Avbug, you are correct. That P2V is exactly the one I was thinking of. Somehow, 51 was sticking in my mind. Memories from eleven years do fade sometimes.

I remember well how that aicraft was based in Prescott from the spring through August. I never made it over to talk to the crews, though.

I vaguely recall a C-130 come in one time during the early 90s; was it yours? I also remember the big four-engine recips, but I don't think they were DC-4s. Maybe DC-6s or 7s.

Glad to hear Whiskey Row survived. I never once made it to the Palace. There was this more upscale place we used to go to. I don't remember the name, but it was around the block from the movie theater and down the same block from the camping and outdoor sports shop. It served great pitchers of beer. I don't remember the street, but the cross street was Sheldon, I think.

 

[skyslug]

Murphy's maybe? I remember enjoying "Crazy Ed's Chili Beer" there along with other assorted adult beverages.

Thanks again to all the firefighters and pilots in the INdian fire. I've got a house in one of the subdivisions that was evacuated (lucky for me nothing and no one was hurt or destroyed in our subdivision). Although I don't live there now (I'm in kentucky where we it hasn't stopped raining since last month!) I miss Prescott and will one day return!

 

[bobbysamd]

No, it wasn't Murphy's. Murphy's was hard to beat in that city for fine dining, though.

I don't remember the name of the street, but I do remember that it was on an incline and intersected with Sheldon. Could be Cortez Street.

I second your thanks to the firefighters, who always do a great job and face grave danger in doing it.

 

[gsrcrsx68]

I got a real good look at one of those

tankers flying out of PRC one day laying at the pool at Riddle. The darn thing came over top of us at what seemed like 20ft agl ( + or - 20 ft). For those who aren't familiar the pool is a few miles from the runway.

Pretty cool. There was a rumor later of incorrect flap setting.

 

[avbug]

I don't know about incorrect flap setting but I've had a lot of days when getting one hundred feet per minute climb with a full load is happines. I've had a lot of departures when even being able to maintain runway elevation after brining the flaps up would have been great...but it didn't happen. Sounds more like normal performance. That depends on the aircraft, too. Nor normal for a P-3, definitely normal for a 4Y or a DC4.

 

[gsrcrsx68]

I'm gonna have to say I think it might have been the P-2. I seem to remember it having the extra ram air jets? I could be wrong, it has been 15 years and I haven't spent much time around planes since.

I do remember the incident being all the talk for a day or so until everyone went back to watching the 24 hour a day "Top Gun" channel that we had back then.

Does anyone remember the name of the restaurant where you got to throw peanuts all over the place. Can't remember how good the food was, but is was always fun throwing stuff around in there.

 

[Humty72]

Does anyone remember the name of the restaurant where you got to throw peanuts all over the place. Can't remember how good the food was, but is was always fun throwing stuff around in there.

I think you are talking about Mario's.... They had really cheap wings there on Mondays I think. It is closed, however, and is now a little bingo/casino type place.

 

[bobbysamd]

Mario's

I agree. It was part of the casino the Yavapai Indians operated. It had good Italian in the early '90s.