Air Tankers & support aircraft Monument Fire LOTS OF PHOTOS

[bilwor]

Here are some photos of the aircraft fighting the Monument Fire, Sierra Vista AZ. They are flying out of Fort Huachuca's Libby Army Air Field.
bill word

General Atomics MQ-9 Predator B DHS-Homeland Security used to map the fire area and to help spot new outbreaks of fire.


Lockheed SP-2H Neptune N173TA Minden Air Corps 48


Lockheed SP-2H Neptune N355MA Minden Air Corps 55


Lockheed P2V-7 Neptune N443NA Neptune Aviation 43


Lockheed P2V-7 Neptune N14447 Neptune Aviation11


Lockheed P-3A Orion N917AU Aero Union 17


Lockheed P-3A Orion N923AU Aero Union 23


Sikorsky CH-54B Tarhe_Sky Crane N719HT Helicopter Transport Services 719


Sikorsky S-64E Skycrane N164AC Erickson Air-Crane 736


Sikorsky S-61B Sea King N1043T Croman


Sikorsky CH-54B Tarhe_Sky Crane N716HT Helicopter Transport Services 716


Bell AH-1G-BF Firewatch Cobra US Army 69-16422 cn 29854. Converted to AH-1F. To US Forest Service in 2003 as Bell 209 N109Z




General Atomics MQ-1C Gray Eagle US Army 70111 doing touch and goes on the first day I was photographing at Libby.

Last edited by bilwor on Thu Jun 23, 2011 4:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[The Inspector]

Nice stuff! Interesting to see a 'pred' in use on a fire, is this the first instance of that application?

[Warbird Kid]

Great to see so many aircraft doing so much necessary good. I really hope those Neptunes don't fall to the scrapper after they're retired from fire fighting.

[bilwor]

I Don't know if this is the first instance of using preds for fire duty. They are normally used by the Border Patrol along the US-Mexico border to see what it can see along with the Aerostats.
bill word

Last edited by bilwor on Thu Jun 23, 2011 4:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Randy Haskin]

I Don't know if this is the first instance of using the "Reaper" for fire duty. It is normally used by the Border Patrol along the US-Mexico border to see what it can see along with the Aerostats.
bill word

FWIW, in current military parlance 'pred' has become a nonspecific term for any UAV/RPA.

That being said, it's only the USAF MQ-9s that are called Reapers. DHS calls their MQ-9s "Predator B", which is what General Atomics named them, too.

[Xrayist]

This may be a dumb question (I have been known to ask more than a few!), or may have been answered before, but are the jet engines on the Neptunes functional? If not, why keep them on as it would seem the extra weight and possibly drag would cause a loss in performance. Thanks in advance to anyone who can answer this!

[JohnB]

It's great to see the old stuff still flying...and serving their country.

The Neptunes must be awfully old...a great plane.

[MX304]

This may be a dumb question (I have been known to ask more than a few!), or may have been answered before, but are the jet engines on the Neptunes functional? If not, why keep them on as it would seem the extra weight and possibly drag would cause a loss in performance. Thanks in advance to anyone who can answer this!

I would assume they are functional on all of them. I do know they are functional on Minden Tanker 55. It operated out of my home field in TX for several weeks and I could hear the jets as it blasted over my office a few times a day.

[K5DH]

This may be a dumb question (I have been known to ask more than a few!), or may have been answered before, but are the jet engines on the Neptunes functional? If not, why keep them on as it would seem the extra weight and possibly drag would cause a loss in performance. Thanks in advance to anyone who can answer this!

Yes, I believe the jet pods are still operational.

[skippyscage]

no assumptions - they use then on take-off and also when they perform a drop.

If you look closely you can see the inlet flaps open on the jets.

[bilwor]

Thanks Randy, I will make the corrections to all my photos and data.
bill word

[Chappie]

How long are the Neptunes expected to keep working? After they're retired it would be cool to see them flying in dark blue Navy colors again!

Chappie

[TimAPNY]

Great photos! Thanks for posting.

Tim

[Nathan]

Nice!

[bilwor]

A couple of more of Lockheed P2V-7 Neptune N14447 Neptune Aviation 11 you can see the jet engines are running.