You're saying we have the exact same AC as Canada? Ones that can land on water and refill their tanks? I'm familiar with C-130s. Jumped out of those. They are much easier to exit than jets. Thx for the reply.
It’s a tough time, thinking of you guys from a hot Sydney down under. Summer season is here, but so far been ok. Hoping for a quick recovery for our US friends
They are freaking amazing. The precision is astounding. We have a fill station at the bottom of the hill coming up into Woolsey Canyon. Watching them is incredible.
Thank your father, all the other fighter pilots, firemen from California, Oregon, Washington, other states, Canada and Mexico!
This is mobilizing professionals to get this horrible event taken care without becoming political.
#HumansHelpingHumans 💚
Are these ex military? Definitely skilled enough and accurate enough to drop bombs. What do they say? Close only counts in horseshoes and bomb dropping?
These guys live for action. The opportunity to do it in-country has got to make their chests swell. They are heroes that will go unrecognized. Blessings to them.
Please stop spreading misinformation, the same thing happened in North Carolina and it was nothing but lies and it caused a lot of problems for people on the ground, especially FEMA workers.
Highly skilled and years of practice and willingness to face (calculated) risks...have been watching some of the agricultural and backcountry pilots who are similar - an example is here: https://www.youtube.com/c/JimboBurgess
and THAT is the difference between a fire hose and a fire plane in expert hands. did you see that little hose in the first clip? yup. doesnt matter if the hydrants went dry. they are no match for wind driven fire.
I have witnessed this up close when the fire was just one property over. Most amazing thing I've ever seen. They fly so incredibly low. When the jets drop phoschek, the pink is so bright. The engines so loud you feel it in your chest. I could do nothing but cheer from below.
I agree, as the son of an Army Air Force pilot who trained pilots for service in the Pacific Theater during WWII. He once flew his open cockpit Stearman under the Golden Gate bridge.
I was driving across a long causeway over a reservoir in either Greece or Croatia years ago and watched those Super Scoopers load parallel to me not 200' away. They'd put the hull <1/4 in the water at full speed and in seconds they had a full load blowing out the vents on top and up they'd go👍👍👍
These drone pilots are imperilling rescue pilots and discouraging relief aircraft from entering the airspace to DO THE WORK YOU’RE LAUDING THEM FOR DOING!
Drones in LA: GET OUT OF THE WAY YOU CRIMINAL TRASH!
I wonder if we need new laws for "private" drones with mandatory transponders/ID so they can be identified and perhaps even select frequencies that could be jammed by First responders in a disaster area?
Some of them are just nuts.
When I fought forest fires up here in Canada, I saw them load the predecessor (Canadair CL-215) off a straight stretch of river, with us just looking to see if there were any signs of logs poking out. No idea if there was anything below the surface.
Yea. And we here in Australia respect and honour their memories.
They died doing difficult work, for people they’d never known, in a country not theirs.
Respect
Oh no I didn’t take it that way at all. It was a note of genuine gratitude for the support Canadian (and other countries’) crews have shown Australia, and our crews have returned.
It’s scary that our fire “seasons” now overlap to the extent sharing “off-season” resources is difficult.
I worked on aircraft of pilots that flew in vietnam. Some came back with no airframe cowling at their rudder pedals, they were incredible, but these pilots and crew are on it! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Son of a fire fighter / EMT & a helicopter pilot: absolutely blown away by the work I'm seeing online from frozen New England. Hope you guys get quenched ASAP 💚
Amazing skills. And that is without a spotter craft assisting.
Helped to design a water supply pond for aerial firefighting once - incredible skills in all of those pilots.
Covkwomble: Learned a new word (and LOVE synonyms) A person, usually male, prone to making outrageously stupid statements and/or inappropriate behaviour while generally having a very high opinion of their own wisdom and importance.
Dangerous job and exposure to chemicals as well. I realize the retardants are needed for fire suppression but what are they doing to the crops and waterways in CA? I ask this as I'm drinking a glass of California wine.☹️
Most of the drops in this video are straight water (salt water, might affect the fertility of the soil, but no Evil Chemicals.) Retardant drops are pink.
The primary components of the retardant most commonly used in California are water, ammonium phosphate, and iron oxide (aka rust)(and that’s why it’s pink.) The biggest issue with it is it causes huge algae blooms if it gets into waterways, the phosphate being a very potent fertilizer.
Date of study is 2019 and what they use now is not the same. Contains heavy metals and other toxic ingredients. Kills salmon on direct contact so not used near streams. Probably not good for wildlife, pets or humans. Stick to water.
Typical of an American article as it only talks about American pilots. The yellow waterbombers are from Quebec and the helicopters are from British Columbia.
Thank you Canada!! I used to live in California and I know we got crews and planes from all over. Thank you for being awesome neighbors and I'm sorry we are SUCK F@ckups.
SOOOO they moved to Canada and got work in that time because the Californian Water Bombers can't handle Salt Water and the article said "these pilots". The Pilots in the video are from BC and Qubec.
I used to live on top of a hill in San Mateo. Once I was driving home with my daughter and we saw what appeared to be a helicopter falling out of the sky behind our house, only to have it zoom back up a second later. It was dumping water on a brush fire that could have destroyed our home.
Conspiracy theorists: "The government can control the weather and create rain".
Not conspiracy theorists: "The government can control the weather and create rain over Los Angeles".
I love to see these clips showing the great skill and heroic efforts these wonderful pilots and fire fighters put out 24/7 during disasters like this!
Wonderful clip Shauna and god bless the pilot in your family!
🛩️
And quite a few of those daredevil water bomber pilots lose their lives due to flying old planes that have been stressed and stressed until the finally just come apart while being used to fight those fires. Carrying those heavy loads in really windy conditions strains those airframes a lot!
I will never forget this image, a fire in Northern California, a plane about to make a drop, BOTH wings simultaneously folded up and broke off the plane. That image haunted me for months, still a painful memory.
That was the very one I was thinking of when I wrote that. An onlooker was videoing them coming in for their drop & got the entire thing on video. Horrific! The old aircraft had stress fractures in the wing spar that hadn't been found during inspections & just gave way as they came in for a drop.
1/2
I can’t speak for all models, but I can assure you that the 2 Canadair aka Super Scooper on loan from Quebec are kept pristine - those planes are produced in small quantities and the countries that have them in their arsenal take great care of them. Additionally given the inestimable value
2/2
of the specialized trained crew, they wouldn’t send them on these demanding missions if the planes were not cleared for flying. The danger is real but due to the mixed difficulties of flying conditions (smoke, fire, terrain, low altitude ) and the precised manoeuvring required.
Sorry but I will disagree with you here. The aircraft are built to last and can take blocking and keep on ticking! That said it is a very dangerous mission.
Built to last, sure, that’s the hope. But because of such high strain are very they’re expensive to operate because of the necessary inspections and maintenance.
Yes, I know nothing of the type but just from the video's I've watched of a couple of them making drops & then making loading passes off shore they look like they are almost the A-10's of the fire fighting roll. Able to take a heavy battering and still get their crew home safely.
However a lot of the older firefighting AC were converted over from regular cargo haulers. Today's purpose built firefighting AC are extremely tough & designed to take the stresses they're subjected to day in & day out..
True, I belive all the tanker a/c are like this. That said i do know of at least one that is relatively new aircraft, they also modified many to the a/c limitations use to the high loads and extreme flight profile.
Keep in mind Canadair designed the CL-415 from the rivets out to be a water bomber, with all the stresses in mind. (Plus decades of data from the CL-215) They withstand the stress a LOT better than a passenger aircraft that was retrofitted.
That is true, however a lot of the older water bombers were converted from regular cargo AC or in the case of the first one's from WWII seaplanes or cargo AC in some cases. I agree the purpose built fire fighting AC are designed with those stresses in mind.
Hopefully none of those shots were taken by an unauthorised drone!
The skills of these pilots is amazing. Unfortunately they have so much practice nowadays as they travel the world saving lives and homes from climate fires.
Australia, California, Canada, Greece all help each other and it’s great.
They have an incredibly dangerous job. Lost one of these guys on a fire in 2021. A 30 year A-10 pilot. Hit a massive down draft coming off the mountain and never had a chance. This picture was from his funeral procession on the highway as his buddies passed over us.
Firefighters are so badass. Rescue aircraft operators are the absolute best of the best-- in pilots and people. These are the ones, in an actual meritocracy, who'd be earning multi-million dollar contracts. Rescue professionals should be scouted, paid, and put on collectible cards.
Sadly, climate change is only going to increase demand for pilots and equipment like this going forward. So it's good there are people wanting to learn and also be heroes.
They are amazing. I live in CA in an area often hit with fires. I watched a helo pull water from a neighbor’s pool to dump on a fast moving fire in an adjacent field. Saved our neighborhood.
I actually I’m used to work for the guy who invented the specialized “Bambi buckets” they use, as well as being able to scoop from very small bodies of water or pools, ground crews can deploy there own temporary pools on the ground - like a big kiddies pool, which can then be filled by tankers or
I was just thinking of watching those same kind of helicopters pulling water out of the ocean as they were going back and forth across the channel to put out a Catalina Island fire a few years ago.
Do they have some type of calculator that considers altitude, speed and water volume, or is this just straight up skill? It's amazing how accurate they are.
I'm sure they have instruments, but the conditions over a fire are so unpredictable, I'd imagine it's mostly a hell of a lot of practice and flying by feel as much as it is instrumentation.
Comments
https://www.fire.ca.gov/what-we-do/fire-protection/aviation-program
https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/fire/planes
Incredible.
This is mobilizing professionals to get this horrible event taken care without becoming political.
#HumansHelpingHumans 💚
Now watch Big Money swoop in to gobble up the land and turn it into commercial and residential cementscapes.
It’s coming.
More respect for him than any other neighbor I’ve ever had
Drones in LA: GET OUT OF THE WAY YOU CRIMINAL TRASH!
Canadian ‘Super Scooper’ plane grounded after hitting civilian drone over Los Angeles wildfires
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/10/us/super-scooper-drone-collision-la-fire-canada-hnk-intl/index.html
And I’m not denigrating the service. That is the current mission, and service members perform it bravely and selflessly.
They are worthy of better.
When I fought forest fires up here in Canada, I saw them load the predecessor (Canadair CL-215) off a straight stretch of river, with us just looking to see if there were any signs of logs poking out. No idea if there was anything below the surface.
They died doing difficult work, for people they’d never known, in a country not theirs.
Respect
It’s scary that our fire “seasons” now overlap to the extent sharing “off-season” resources is difficult.
What a specific skillset these pilots have…!
Helped to design a water supply pond for aerial firefighting once - incredible skills in all of those pilots.
synonyms: fuckwit, shit-for-brains
We pray for California 🙏❤️🇨🇦
I too would do that stuff for free. Looks like a blast.
I hope US remembers this when considering support and aid to other countries (esp in the next 4 years).
Thank you, All!!
Folks flying into fires - dangerous work.
We are grateful!
Stay out of their way! Let them do their jobs and salute them safely from the ground.
His name is Fred and he has a peculiar, but awesome, sense of humor.
Not conspiracy theorists: "The government can control the weather and create rain over Los Angeles".
Wonderful clip Shauna and god bless the pilot in your family!
🛩️
I can’t speak for all models, but I can assure you that the 2 Canadair aka Super Scooper on loan from Quebec are kept pristine - those planes are produced in small quantities and the countries that have them in their arsenal take great care of them. Additionally given the inestimable value
of the specialized trained crew, they wouldn’t send them on these demanding missions if the planes were not cleared for flying. The danger is real but due to the mixed difficulties of flying conditions (smoke, fire, terrain, low altitude ) and the precised manoeuvring required.
#NorthernProblems
#NorthernBenefits
The skills of these pilots is amazing. Unfortunately they have so much practice nowadays as they travel the world saving lives and homes from climate fires.
Australia, California, Canada, Greece all help each other and it’s great.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/luke-peelgrane_these-pilots-are-built-different-activity-7283828015963222016-tXeW?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096794/
I just added you to my vetted KOTF SP-61
I hope it helps! 💙👍
Very cool
Amazing, balletic work on display. ❤️🫡