I happen to know Jedinein, and she hasn't made a thing up. Nor is she a hazard or unsafe. Antinein, learn of whence you speak before you yak off.
As for one of those "rats" moments...I'd been told by several Dromader drivers about punching off the whole load and getting stuck standing on their tail. I always thought it was just bad airmanship. After all, only a dingbat lets the airplane do that, right? So I thought.
I came downwind at the back of a ridge this last summer on the Dynamite fire, getting set up for a high angle run down the lee side to put a load in a swail that was smoking a lot. It was in a depression, and I couldn't run down the hill steep enough to see it. A large panel marker was set along the uphill side of the dip but I couldn't see it until it was too late to line up.
It was really rough in there; I was getting retardant on the windscreen; it was coming out the top of the tank. For those that don't know the drom, that's really rough. I made four passes on the ridge, trying to get slowed down on the downwind run, and got some serious rotors and shear. Each time turning final, I'd get a rapid airsped increase of about 30 mph (airspeed marked in miles). I'd come back almost to flight idle, and approaching the ridge it would shear off by 20 mph on the other side...a 50 mph shear. Even with adequate approach speed, the airframe was getting a hard stall buffet and kept trying to roll off.
On the run-in, I lost sight of the target, but didn't want to fly through it on the way out again. It was getting too rough. I decided to push over and guestimate. I found a smoking swail, sans panel marker. I had set the doors for a full coverage in order to penetrate the load into the swail. It seemed a good tactical choice, though I knew that it would take a big trim force change.
The problem came when I punched off the load. I was fast, above flap speed, and going down hill. I lost the load fairly quickly, and there really wasn't any time between pointed downhill 35 degrees, and straight up and out of airspeed. The pitchup occured at 50' AGL going into the smoke, and even with both hands on the stick and straightarmed, I couldn't hold the nose down. Airspeed fell off, full rudder for torque and still not enough, and I got the buffet.
It was mostly the extra airspeed that did it; it makes a hugh difference on the drop, but it was also due in part to the rotors. I was fortunate to be stupid in the right place, because just past the swail I had a free extra 2,000' where the hill dropped away. I rolled over and recovered, and went back for one last load. I didn't get it; they shut us down due to rough conditions.
I do recall thinking right at the top of the pitch-up, "Oh, so this is what they were talking about." I wouldn't have believed it could have taken off like that, so fast. Now I believe.
