California on Fire

[Zipper]

Hi Iwan...

With these pictures you show us that even cicilian stuff (although ex-military) can be hightly interesting!

Grtz..
Zipper.

[Snipes]

Great set!

[Melchior Timmers]

Great collection of shots, Iwan!

[Rene Klok]

Nice pics Iwan! I've just returned from Canada and the northwest of the U.S. and have seen some firefighters there as well. Some of them unfortunately in smoky conditions (the P-2's of Neptune Aviation at their base in Missoula, Idaho). I hope to post a few pics in the coming days.

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[mazzel]

Great report, great shots, beautiful planes...

[Key]

Hi, I'm late to the party, but what a party it is. We see the golden combination of homework well done, knowing how to use situations when there and presenting the results in a very attractive way.
Kudos to you, mate!

Erik

[Spooky]

Great report Iwan. Now on to the next tour.................
Anno

[Thermal]

Amazing stuff!!! Nice light on #24.

[Erik_7Xi]

Totally awesome!! And thanks for letting us follow your trip day by day on Facebook, it was great to see the daily results! Looked like you had an incredible time overthere and you received some outstanding support during your visits!!

[Vink91]

Verry verry nice. I am happy that you shared a lot of pictures with us.

[LifelinerOne]

Very, very nice pictures!!

Cheers!

[Iwan Bogels]

Thanks for the great comments guys !

I had a really great time out there in Southern California. All together I visited 14 airbases in 7 x 24 hours. I had no pre determined route, as my targets depended on fire activity and heavy tanker movements. With the great help of a few good friends my schedule was sometimes adjusted from hour to hour. The best update was received on Sunday morning at 05.00 hrs, just half an hour before I had planned to leave from Hemet to Los Angeles. According to last minute info there was a new fire burning 19 km to the north-east of my hotel, so I decided to go and check it out. To my surprise the roads had not been blocked (yet) and I parked close to the fire line. Just as I got out of the car, the first helicopters and Trackers arrived at the scene. This resulted in some great shots with perfect lighting (sun just up).

Another great highlight was my encounter with Tanker 12, the P-2V-5 at Porterville, CA. The pilot of Tanker 12 invited me to join the crew for an engine test run. After climbing on board I was directed to the right hand pilot seat for start up. It was great to see, hear, feel and smell the old radial engines come to life, but the best had yet to come. When the engines had warmed up we taxied to the run up area for some engine trials, with me still in the right hand cockpit seat. When all engine run ups were over the astro window was opened for me (the glass top hatch just behind the cockpit) and I could stick out over the top of the aircraft for the taxi ride back to platform. The view over the aircraft, the sound of the engines and the squeaking of the brakes were just amazing. It had been over 30 years since the MLD had replaced the Neptunes with Orions, and I never thought I would ever get an opportunity to see a P-2 Neptune from the inside. Imagine my excitement when this chance came along….

During my visits to Hemet, Ramona and Porterville I got to see some S-2 Trackers up close too. One of the pilots asked me to join him on the pre flight inspection of Tanker 72. Again it was great to hear the stories that come up while walking about. It is just amazing how friendly, relaxed and cooperative all the pilots and crew are at all of the fire fighting airbases.

These were the placed I visited:

Palmdale (USAF C-130 MAFFS doing touch and goes)
Lancaster (FireWatch AH-1F Cobra, 1x Bell 205)
Fresno (P2V Tanker 48 and some F-16’s)
Porterville (2x S-2T, OV-10A and P-2V Tanker 12)
Keene (Bell 205 Kern County)
Rialto (all SBD helicopters out on deployment)
Hemet (2x S-2T, OV-10A and UH-1H Cal Fire, visited several times that week)
Fullerton (2x Bell 412, 2x Bell 205 OCFA)
Los Alamitos (no fire helicopters present)
San Diego – Montgomery Field (Bell 412, Bell 212 SDFD)
San Diego – Gillespie Field (2x Bell 205 ASTREA, 1x S-64F)
Ramona (2x S-2T, OV-10A Cal Fire and Bell 210)
Van Nuys (3x AW-139, 2x Bell 412 LAFD, 3x S-64, 2x CL-415)
Pacoima (3x S-70, 6x Bell 412 LA County)

Sander, the Martin Mars was still in Canada (unfortunately).
Richard, I saw (and felt) a CH-54B put out a fire (see photo of HT-715 dropping dirty water)
Pieter, yes, mission accomplished and full of new ideas again
Rob, the props were great and the helo’s were a very nice bonus
Johan, it was a great way to think back of old Valkenburg
Rene, show us some photos !
Erik, Erik et all, thanks for the positive comments

[wvanbel]

Wow, Iwan, what a trip and what a story! I had already the previlege to follow it on facebook, so again, a big "thank you" for sharing this with us. Your pictures are truely inspiring! Looking forward to see them on a bigger screen.
PS: that dirty water "dump" is really impressive. I sure hope you and the nearby firefighters did not suffer from that?

Best regards,

Walter

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[Rene Klok]

Rene, show us some photos !

I will In the next week Iwan. My previous message was sent from the arrivals hall at Schiphol so I haven't had time yet.

[Smoketrails]

...speechless...