Station fire DC-10 dropping fire retardant - YouTube)
Station Fire La Canada - YouTube)
Why the smaller plane in the lead?
Scout or lead plane to scout out the areas to drop on
Tanker 10 is the smaller of the jumbo tankers. This year we have a 747 too ($20,000 an hour). A second DC-10 is due tomorrow.
I flew over the Station Fire Sunday and posted pictures on my web site. Notice how the the fire is creating it’s own thunderstorms (see pic).
Frank Holbert
160knots.com
Shot of the day!
Oh shoot! Don’t tell me that’s another misguided photo op of Air Force One 
I can see yellowstone in the making again.
We wouldn’t be using aviation resources* if the Sierra Club and other environmental radicals would allow us to properly manage the forest (e.g. clearing out dead trees, thining the undergrowth, etc.
Instead, we know have the great possibility of the loss of transmitters for radio/TV stations in the LA area and the lost of the great Mt. Wilson Observatory.
*Wanted to keep this somewhat aviation related 
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/152429/tanker.jpg
it looked like he came real close to the peak in that ridge
I’m sure they had the TWAS silenced .
It’d suck if they didn’t
As I understand it, the first 40-60 years of forest mismanagement came from a genuine lack of understanding of the value of fire in forest and grassland ecology, in a sense epitomized by this guy,
coupled with a manifest destiny worldview re: humans living in the wilderness. Now I think the problem is mainly not having $ to pay for mitigation. I would think environmental activism is a minor restraint by comparison, but I don’t have any data on that.
Right click… Save.
Cool pic, thanks. One just like that featuring the 747 would complete the set.
Joe
Awesome stuff. Is that a 742?
Nope- 747-100. I’ve stood in the belly of that nasty beast
Awesome! Thanks.
I hope that they’ll bring one of these to Oshkosh and do a demo of a drop out on the runway. They had the “Elvis” Erickson Skycrane helicopter there this year doing the same thing. Small in comparison!
They rent at $10,000 an hour and Oshkosh is during fire season.