A few pictures from Butler Aircraft

[Eric Presten]

Larry,

I know that you don’t know me, but I have a couple of questions for you. I am the author/photographer of the “Vintage Flyers” series of aviation books (search “Vintage Flyers II” on E-bay for information on my latest), and I am going to be in your area soon. While I have very good pictures of a DC-2, many DC-3/C-47s, a DC-3 on floats, several DC-4s, and a few DC-6s, the only DC-7 that I have had the opportunity to get a good shot of was the one that was in Minneapolis in derelict condition (the one that is now being restored in Florida). I really don’t like to use pictures of derelict airplanes, and I was wondering if it would be OK if I stopped by Redmond Airport the day before Thanksgiving. I will be on my way from the San Francisco area to the Portland area (family Thanksgiving trip) and I would like to take a few pictures of one of your DC-7s for Vintage Flyers III? Will you be around?

My second question is along the same line. On either Friday or Saturday (at your friends convenience) after Thanksgiving it’s my intention to go to Tillamook with faint hopes of getting a book usable picture of the Oscar. I noticed that you have a friend that flies the airplane, and as I can only use pictures of it outside of the hanger (in my books), I was hoping to get some contact information from you so as to to try to arrange getting the airplane out for a few minutes. A slim chance at best I’m sure, but nothing works if you don’t ask in the first place.

I know this time of year that weather is a huge factor in plans such as these, but it’s always worth the try.

Thanks for any help you can provide, and just disregard this post if you are to busy to get involved.

Eric Presten

[Larry Kraus]

Eric,
Sorry to be so long in responding to your message.Somehow,I missed it and a friend just sent me a note linking me to it.I'm currently in Florida and won't be returning to Redmond until March of 2010.I'm not sure who might be available at Butler on the day before Thanksgiving,but they are usually pretty good about allowing serious photographers access to the aircraft.Probably my co-pilot Ron Carpinella would be a good contact to begin with.He's currently working in the shop as a mechanic.Another possibility would be Peter Marshall,our mechanic that stays with Tanker 62 when we're on duty in Medford.He also works in the shop.As far as Tillimook,I can give you an e-mail for Bent Conner,who flew the Oscar,but he lives in Medford and flies a P-3 for Areo Union and might still be on contract somewhere.Send me an e-mail at tanker622001@yahoo.com and I'll give you some phone numbers and e-mails,assuming that I can find them.I'd send you a PM,but I' haven't figured out the new system....LK

[Eric Presten]

E-mail on the way.

[Larry Kraus]

A friend sent me this link to a video of Tanker 66 and Tanker 62 at work on a fire in Oregon last year.Brian Lash and his co-pilot Rick Langstrom are in Tanker 66 which has the blue trim and makes the first and the third drops.I'm flying Tanker 62 with my c/p Ron Carpinella in the DC-7 with the red trim making the second and fouth drops.Actually,I think that there was only one drop per airplane with the second pass for each being a different angle for the first pass.Speaking of angles,Tanker 62 isn't as close to the trees as the camera angle makes it seem.The lowest part of the drop run is between 150-200 feet above the tree tops,which is about 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 wingspans for the DC-7.Anyway,it's good video and the drops were effective and accurate.I'll have to work on figuring out exactly where and when this video was shot.

Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EATEdbQ3qXc

[Lt51506]

That's some good video there!

[K5DH]

I don't care what anybody says. . . there's nothing like the sound of four big-inch radials at full tilt to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up! Great stuff! Thanks for pointing out that video, Larry!

Cheers!

[the330thbg]

COOL!!!!

Can not wait for TOM 2010

[Larry Kraus]

I'm pretty sure that I've figured out where and when the You Tube video was shot.Here is the depiction of the TFR (Temporary Flight Restriction) for a cluster of small fires caused by dry lightning on September 12th last year.The initial fire was the Queen's Branch Fire and that was the name used for the TFR as the "Queen's Branch Complex".The fire in the video (I think) was the Dixie Gulch Fire that was right next to the Springbrook Airport a bit north of the town of Rouge River northwest of Medford,Oregon.



The Oregon Department of Forestry uses a Pilatus PC-7 and crew from the State of Alaska as a combination Leadplane and Air Attack platform known as an Aerial Supervisory Module (ASM).On this occasion,it was ASM A4.The A is for Alaska and 4 is the pilot number assigned to Doug Burts.He had Bruce Smith in the back seat as Air Attack and part time cameraman.They try to videotape as many tanker drops as possible.I'm always amazed that Bruce can get the shots that he does,especially without making himself sick.



Here is a sequence of pictures of what I believe to be the drop by Tanker 62 in the video as seen from the ASM.I used a capture program to get the stills.











These pictures show what I think is the drop by Tanker 66 shown in the video.If that's the case,then Gene Teske,our relief pilot was flying T66 on Brian Lash's day off.The retardant carried longer than the ASM had expected.This was probably because Gene most likely had Coverage Level 6 set up instead of Coverage Level 8 for the drop.That easy enough to do,even if you don't have to switch airplanes and switch between flying as pilot and co-pilot for two crews.







Here are 3 pictures of the fire area following T66's drop shown above.You can see part of the runway at the Springbrook Airport in two of the pictures.







Here are some Google Earth pictures of the area with the last picture rotated to align the runway orientation with the pictures above and the area of where I believe the fire to be located marked with a blue circle.







I also captured a couple of pictures of T66 dropping a couple of doors as part of a previous load of retardant to this fire.In the first shot, in the middle of the ball of retardant,you can see the smoke that the ASM left as a starting point using an onboard smoke generator.My notes show that both T62 and T66 dropped two loads each on the Dixie Gulch Fire on September 13th.Tanker 62 had a total flight time of 45 minutes for the day.





These last pictures will give an idea of the Air Attack's view in the PC-7 in the Leadplane mode.These runs are on the Dixie Gulch Fire and the airplane is headed more or less toward the east.In the last picture,you can see the Queen's Branch Fire to the south.

[Larry Kraus]

I managed to get a few pictures of Tanker 62 getting a gear swing in Butler's hangar last Thursday.I had to get my headset out of T62 to fly Tanker 60 on a maintenance test flight,so I didn't have enough time to get good pictures of the gear in transit.The last picture shows the right main retracting.The nose gear was already up and locked at that point.The mechanic standing on the front baggage compartment door had just come out of the hydraulic compartment where he located the source of a small hydraulic leak,which was in the 'gear up' line.

[CAPFlyer]

When you hear someone say "hangar flying", this is what they really mean, especially if you're in the cockpit while doing the swings.

Sorry, I may be more than willing to fly planes like that, but you'll never get me in the cockpit again while doing gear swings. Last time I did it in a Convair 580, the whole plane moved 2 feet aft when the did the emergency extension test. That scared the "cool" of the event out of me for good.

[Larry Kraus]

CAPFlyer,

Butler's mechanics were running the gear up and down on Tanker 62 with the aux (electric) hydraulic pump in this case and it takes quite a while to cycle up or down.Years ago,though,I had an alarming experience with a Twin Beech landing gear swing on jacks.Running the gear up and down using the gear selector worked fine.However,things got a bit too exciting when we tried a free fall check.The mechanics hadn't put enough shot bags and lead bars on the tail so the jack adapter that rested on the jack under the tail jumped about a foot in the air when the gear dropped.Very fortunately for all of us, it fell right back onto the jack.I always managed to be somewhere else when gear swings were done on the Beeches after that.

[CAPFlyer]

Yeah, normal swings aren't too bad. With the 240 and 580 we did the normal swings the same way using a cart hooked up to provide power for the electric pump. But doing the emergency (free fall) check (which was required to be done during a C-check) was what scared the crap out of me. We had 6 or 8 jacks on the plane during the swings, but that still didn't stop it from sliding when all that mass hit bottom.

[Malo83]

Larry, noticed over on the Fire Aviation&News Tanker 66 has some new colors
http://fireaviation.com/wp-content/uplo ... rippin.jpg