A few pictures from Butler Aircraft

[the330thbg]

Larry,

was that one of your CH-46's dropping water up near Paulina yesterday?
She just left Sunriver airport.

[Larry Kraus]

Gary Koch,

Thanks for the information on Cal Butler.I'll have to look up the Missing Aircrew Report.

For the330thbg,

I saw a Columbia Helicopters Vertol at Prineville Airport west of Redmond a couple of days ago.We were flying in Tanker 62 out of Redmond to the McGinnis Creek Fire in the John Day Fossil Beds just north of the Kimberly VOR.The Vertol appeared to be a CH-47,but Columbia also uses CH-46's.Butler has just the three DC-7's for fire fighting these days.Here's a link to the Columbia Helicopters website:

http://www.colheli.com/colheli.html

[the330thbg]

Thanks Larry,

That was definately the bird I saw. Came into SunRiver Airport, picked up a giant water bucket and headed up to Paulina.

Dry as all heck around you. Unfortunately, you may have a very busy time ahead of you!

I was looking and listening for the sounds of the DC-6's, but no luck!

[RNDMTRS4EVR]

Hey Mr. Kraus,
How are things going ? Will you be heading South to California after the ODF contract is up?

Scott.....................

[Larry Kraus]

Hi Scott,you just saved me from trying to find this thread as I have some pictures to post today.To answer your question,it's been a very slow fire season in Oregon with a few bursts of frenzied activity.Tanker 66 went on duty in Redmond on July 7th.His last day on contract was last Sunday,but he went back on Monday for the Deer Ridge Fire,just east of the Medford Airport and the Siskiou Blvd Fire on the same day near Ashland.T62 went on Duty in Medford on July 15th and today was supposed to be our last day.Both T66 and T62 have been extended through tomorrow (Sept 28th).They might keep us on longer,depending on the weather.A serious front is supposed to arrive tomorrow with anything from gusty winds to rain and/or snow.Right now,we're smoked in at Medford from a couple of large Fed fires near Crater Lake.

A friend of mine,Mike Bitney,gave me the Hi-Def versions of some pictures from the Deer Ridge Fire in Medford last week.I was in T62,but was working on the other side of the fire.Below is a spectacular sequence of pictures of Brian Lash and Rick Langston dropping near some high dollar homes on Deer Ridge.I have some additional pictures that I'll post later.

[retroaviation]

Wow! Great shots! Thanks for posting those Larry.

Gary

[Larry Kraus]

You're welcome,Gary.Here are some shots of Skip Alderson in Neptune Aviation's Tanker 05 dropping in the same area.

[ZRX61]

If you match up all of the tach indications the props sound like a squadron of Spitfires.

So, er, what exactly is the problem?

[Ztex]

Glad to hear form you Larry...you must have been busy...or playing a lot of cards...

Super set of photos! Thanks for posting them.

You take care out there.

[Larry Kraus]

ZRX61,

We tried everything in the book (literally) to troubleshoot and fix the mismatched tach reading problem in Tanker 62 over a 10 year period with no result.So,we just start with what the sych box gives us,punch the "resynch" button a few times,then finish by synching the pairs of props with the prop shadows.The final step is to synch the pairs by ear.It usually takes a couple of taps toward "decrease rpm" on #3 and 4 to get everything perfectly synchronized.When it comes down to it,having the props a bit out of synch is annoying,but it isn't bad enough to cause any physical damage to the airframe.

Zane,

It's been the usual fire-fighting routine of idling away at Dead Stop for a couple of weeks with an occasional couple of days of All Ahead Flank.I just found out that today is the last day of our contract extension (subject to change).So,the current plan is to try to get to Redmond this evening and beat the weather that's supposed to move through the area tonight and tomorrow.That's assuming that we don't get dispatched to a fire before quitting time.Then,it will be a couple of trips back to Medford to retrieve my trailer and my car.It's still possible to be called back by the ODF or called down to California by Cal Fire if things get busy again in the next month or two.

Here are a few more pictures from the Deer Ridge Fire.The first 5 were taken by Kathy Khoevet from Medford and some have a copywrite (in case someone wants to publish them).

This was Tanker 62 on take-off for the first load with the Deer Ridge Fire in the background



A series of pictures of the first drop.There's a house in a gully between the wires and the fire.I tried to start the drop just after crossing some power lines that were perpendicular to our line of flight and just short of the house.







This is the recovery from the same drop.It looks like we're a little high at the end of the drop.This is because of some drift smoke partially obscuring the terrain ahead.We also had to climb to enter the airport traffic pattern to land for a reload



While I'm posting on this fire,here's another of Mike Bitney's shots of Tanker 66



Here are a couple that are amost the same.They show Del Hunt in Aero Union's P-3 Tanker 22 following Ron Barret's King Air leadplane.These are also from Mike Bitney.

[the330thbg]

COOL SHOTS.., all we need is John Goodman sitting up there on his lawn chair!!!

HAH!!

Safe Season boys!!

[Roger Cain]

Thanks for posting these Larry, stay safe.

[Holedigger]

Great Shots! The first one really makes the dive angle look steep! I'd be worried if I saw an aircraft in that attitude and no airport in sight! Guess this is why they really do need good visibility and lower wind speeds!

[RNDMTRS4EVR]

Larry;
You guys done for the year? I thought Del was flying for Neptune?

Scott........

[Steve T]

Just saw these thrilling pix now...it reminds me of the idea I had for displaying a clapped-out A-26 airframe. (Was thinking specifically of the Mackies Van and Storage airframe here in Ontario at the time...not a potential flyer.) Mount the 26 atop a pylon, the structure of which would be encased in concrete then plastered into the shape of a "stack" of falling retardant and painted bright red! The 26, of course, would wear tanker livery.

Ought to do a model of it sometime.

S.