There was an item on the morning news here about a shortage of pilots for
the fire bomber outfits. They showed a short video of an Aero Union C-130A
making a drop run. Two decades ago I seriously pursued doing that as there
were a number of outfits that had acquired C-130As from the Davis-Monthan
depot. But then, a fellow by the name Roy Reagan rose to the surface and made
a real mess of things.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Forest_Service_airtanker_scandal
Seems that Evergreen Air (Mingus, OR) took offense to T&G Aviation using
theirs to haul oil rig equioment in Kuwait after the first Persian Gulf war. I
remember one of those returning to Chandler Memorial Airpark covered in oil
residue from the oilwell fires over there. Took them two days to scrub it down
and remove it.
The basis of the problem was that the C-130As were only supposed to be
used for fire suppression, but Aero Union had designed the refit with a
removable tank so that you could haul cargo in the off-season. That was a boon
to the operators as it improved their profit margin, which they couldn't do
with the DC-6, DC-7, P-2, P-3, and other aircraft as the slurry tank was fixed
and took up the cargo space.
As you can see from the Wikipedia article, this whole episode was a real
mess, and overall I'm glad that it simply passed me by. I was on a first-name
basis with Woody Grantham of T&G aviation, and I was going out there 2-3 times
a week to go over the differences in the A model. But then everything came
crashing down and that opportunity ended.
>
>It's been like Juneau and Ketchikan around here the past two weeks.
>Not complaining, just observing. ;)
>
>BTW, there are more wildfires burning in Alaska right now than in any
>other state. The difference is that not a single one is "manned" and
>none are threatening anything, so we're just letting nature do its
>thing. Fires can be good. They take care of parasites, both flying and
>two-legged.
>
Chris
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro
- Hunter S. Thompson
-----Original Message-----
>From: Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Aug 16, 2018 11:19 AM
>To: Olympus Camera Discussion <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: [OM] Sunshine
>
>I'm sure it's fleeting, but the sun is shining!!!
>AK Schnozz
>--
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