Firefighters!

[Quantum State]

Very cool just had 2 Bombardier CL-415’s fly right by must have been around 200ft or less !

Never seen one in the flesh so that’s off the bucket list.

[Quantum State]

Got ‘em on the way back

[Simpo Two]

Whereabouts are you?

[hidetheelephants]

Spain by the looks of it.

[Quantum State]

Tenerife

[Simpo Two]

Forest fires in March?

I thought maybe they were tackling oil fires in the Middle East...!

[hidetheelephants]

Do they scoop in the sea or go back to the airport? I'd have thought dumping sea water would wreak terrible environmental damage on a fairly fragile landscape, but then having to land and fill with freshwater would be pretty slow compared to scooping and there's no fresh water to be scooped.

[Quantum State]

Not sure any videos I’ve seen have been freshwater it’s a bit choppy out there today bet it would be interesting scooping that !

[Simpo Two]

hidetheelephants said:

Do they scoop in the sea or go back to the airport? I'd have thought dumping sea water would wreak terrible environmental damage on a fairly fragile landscape

But not as bad as being burned to a crisp...!

If they're refilled back at base with a hose they wont be back for hours - see 'burned to a crisp' above...

[Quantum State]

Simpo Two said:

hidetheelephants said:

Do they scoop in the sea or go back to the airport? I'd have thought dumping sea water would wreak terrible environmental damage on a fairly fragile landscape

But not as bad as being burned to a crisp...!

If they're refilled back at base with a hose they wont be back for hours - see 'burned to a crisp' above...

[7mike]

If anyone's interested; look up "BGR Solutions" on FB. They've put up quite a good video clip of one of them descending over the town and down to skim across the water! Says they were doing testing runs.

[hidetheelephants]

Simpo Two said:

hidetheelephants said:

Do they scoop in the sea or go back to the airport? I'd have thought dumping sea water would wreak terrible environmental damage on a fairly fragile landscape

But not as bad as being burned to a crisp...!

If they're refilled back at base with a hose they wont be back for hours - see 'burned to a crisp' above...

Not quite hours, a round trip for most of Tenerife would be an hour at most, but no doubt the fire chiefs know what they're doing.

[Quantum State]

hidetheelephants said:

Simpo Two said:

hidetheelephants said:

Do they scoop in the sea or go back to the airport? I'd have thought dumping sea water would wreak terrible environmental damage on a fairly fragile landscape

But not as bad as being burned to a crisp...!

If they're refilled back at base with a hose they wont be back for hours - see 'burned to a crisp' above...

Not quite hours, a round trip for most of Tenerife would be an hour at most, but no doubt the fire chiefs know what they're doing.

Think of it this way you fly back to the airport. Land. Taxi. Shutdown. Fill up hopefully with something bigger than a garden hose. Startup. Taxi. Take off.

Alternative - Fly low over sea to fill up a few seconds. Fly back to fire.

[hidetheelephants]

A fill from a hydrant should be about 5 minutes unless the water pressure is off, but frequency may be judged more important.

[Metric Max]

I took this in 2015 at St Tropez. The plane has just scooped up the water and gaining altitude

[Simpo Two]

Anyway, I win. Martin Mars over Sproat Lake, 2015

[rodericb]

hidetheelephants said:

Do they scoop in the sea or go back to the airport? I'd have thought dumping sea water would wreak terrible environmental damage on a fairly fragile landscape, but then having to land and fill with freshwater would be pretty slow compared to scooping and there's no fresh water to be scooped.

It's not so much salt that it would "salt the earth" like in the Bible. A one-off dousing has negligible impact. Even this article by the Smithsonian can't scrape enough evidence to say it damages the environment: https://www.si.edu/stories/impact-seawater-land#:~...

[Simpo Two]

rodericb said:

hidetheelephants said:

Do they scoop in the sea or go back to the airport? I'd have thought dumping sea water would wreak terrible environmental damage on a fairly fragile landscape, but then having to land and fill with freshwater would be pretty slow compared to scooping and there's no fresh water to be scooped.

It's not so much salt that it would "salt the earth" like in the Bible. A one-off dousing has negligible impact. Even this article by the Smithsonian can't scrape enough evidence to say it damages the environment: https://www.si.edu/stories/impact-seawater-land#:~...

Which is all jolly well except there's a forest fire burning...

'Hello, I see your house is about to be consumed by a forest fire. Would you like me to put the fire out before it burns down?'
'What is the salinity of the water you intend to use?'
'It's sea water. I don't know the exact salt content in grams per litre'.
'Sea water is far to salty to be safe to use on fires. I wrote an article for The Smithsonian you know. For the sake of the environment my house must burn down'.
'Righty dokey'.

[Quantum State]

Simpo Two said:

rodericb said:

hidetheelephants said:

Do they scoop in the sea or go back to the airport? I'd have thought dumping sea water would wreak terrible environmental damage on a fairly fragile landscape, but then having to land and fill with freshwater would be pretty slow compared to scooping and there's no fresh water to be scooped.

It's not so much salt that it would "salt the earth" like in the Bible. A one-off dousing has negligible impact. Even this article by the Smithsonian can't scrape enough evidence to say it damages the environment: https://www.si.edu/stories/impact-seawater-land#:~...

Which is all jolly well except there's a forest fire burning...

'Hello, I see your house is about to be consumed by a forest fire. Would you like me to put the fire out before it burns down?'
'What is the salinity of the water you intend to use?'
'It's sea water. I don't know the exact salt content in grams per litre'.
'Sea water is far to salty to be safe to use on fires. I wrote an article for The Smithsonian you know. For the sake of the environment my house must burn down'.
'Righty dokey'.

[rodericb]

Quantum State said:

Simpo Two said:

rodericb said:

hidetheelephants said:

Do they scoop in the sea or go back to the airport? I'd have thought dumping sea water would wreak terrible environmental damage on a fairly fragile landscape, but then having to land and fill with freshwater would be pretty slow compared to scooping and there's no fresh water to be scooped.

It's not so much salt that it would "salt the earth" like in the Bible. A one-off dousing has negligible impact. Even this article by the Smithsonian can't scrape enough evidence to say it damages the environment: https://www.si.edu/stories/impact-seawater-land#:~...

Which is all jolly well except there's a forest fire burning...

'Hello, I see your house is about to be consumed by a forest fire. Would you like me to put the fire out before it burns down?'
'What is the salinity of the water you intend to use?'
'It's sea water. I don't know the exact salt content in grams per litre'.
'Sea water is far to salty to be safe to use on fires. I wrote an article for The Smithsonian you know. For the sake of the environment my house must burn down'.
'Righty dokey'.

ha ha you could imagine the angst of some moneyed up hippy in post-wildfire disaster California, desperate for penance as their house was saved from total oblivion by a few hundred litres of sea water. Even the Smithsonian won't allow them closure!