CFS Training Day.

[Ray]

I don't know how many of you noticed the extra activity at the airport today, but we had three visiting CFS aircraft visiting from Adelaide.

The purpose of the visit was to enable local and visiting brigades to undertake safety and other practical training that will allow them to service and support airborne firefighting activities should they ever need to be used in our area. To this end the CFS now has two large water tanks and a small permanent water supply to the commercial area at our airfield plus the necessary equipment to transfer water and foam into visiting water bombers.


The members were split into two groups and given a basic explanation of  the workings of the aircraft




A fine body of men,... and a lady.

[Ray]

All in all I took 73 shots,...  some of which were blurry shots of the back of someone's head, or a now empty patch of sky that had only a split second before been filled with a fast approaching aircraft. This might take a couple of days to get the all posted here, as it all takes time to set up, but I am on the job.

So that I don't send people's computers and Internet connections into overload, I will display most of those remaining photos that are suitable for publication as thumbnails. If you double click  the thumbnail you will be able to see a larger version of the photo and another click should take it out to 1000 pixels in width. This is less than 1/3rd of full size but quite adequate for 6 x 4 prints

If anyone would like copies of the photos at full size for printing or other personal use, either contact me in person, or via this site. Members of the Jamestown Brigade will be able to obtain copies from Graham Sims who will have digital copies come next Monday night.

       
Everybody got a chance to have a stickybeak and I just couldn't resist taking the shot of hard working Mel Kitschke taking photos for the local paper. Mel does all the hard work, and I hijack her good work (very poorly), by taking shots over her shoulder,... so I thought it might be nice to give the lady some well earned recognition. Thank you Mel.
  

More to follow,....

[Ray]

         
Here's a series taken about every two seconds showing an approaching slow release of the load.

         
Then we got to see it a little closer, from the side. At this altitude, the drop pattern is about 15 metres wide on the ground and 400 metres in length.

   
And everyone had a chance to have a go at all of the jobs,... Operating the pump, mixing the foam, and filling the aircraft tank.

     
The first two shots are taken standing in the middle of a "full salvo" pattern, looking firstly to the south and then to the north in the direction of the pass. This is when the full load of 3000 litres of foam are dumped as quickly as possible, generally to protect high value assets such as homes etc. The foam does not look all that effective in the short grass, so i added a shot to show what it looks like from above, it's actually a considerably heavier application than it appears and the foam assures maximum wetting of the target.  Perhaps a better idea may be had if you notice the much heavier application on the taxiway in the second photo,  where it is not hidden by the grass.