blues deville Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 Impressive video of DC-10's fighting California fires.http://fireaviation.com/tag/dc-10/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeker Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 Yeah, pretty cool but he missed the fire! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W5 Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 Of course retardant doesn't usually get put right on the fire. In California (and some other states) the lead plane will use coloured smoke to indicate where you should drop. Here are a series of DC-10 firefighting videos:http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/watching-this-dc-10-fire-retardant-drop-run-will-make-y-1634763423In Canada the birddog officer will ask for a specific placement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boestar Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 They are trying to prevent spread by surrounding the fire. In some cases the intensity of the fire prevents direct dropping on the fire because the water evaporates before hitting the intended target. Here they are using retardent to limit spread and contain the fire so it burns itself out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boestar Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 I still dont understany why the US does not buy the CL415 or at the very least build their own purpose built water bomber. The CL415 has an extremely short turnaroud time compared to the likes of the dc 10 and can drop far more water in the course of a day than a DC 10 can drop retardent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEFCON Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 Boestar I'm wondering; is there a difference between efficiency / efficacy of water versus retardant? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boestar Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 I would think they bot serve different purposes. Water has a tendency to evaporate in heat where the retardant does not. Typically water is used to "cool" a fire to the point there is insufficient heat to support combustion. Retardant provides a barrier between the heat and flame and the fuel to prevent combustion. While water can perform the same function it must be constantly applied due to evaporation.That is why the CL-415 is so effective. It can dump a load of water every few minutes where the likes of the DC-10 or other retardant carriers are in the order of an hour or more per load. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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