My deepest respect to the pilots & ground crews, this is a dangerous job but essential. I'm deeply saddened of any loss! God bless you all 🙏

This is remarkable. Thankful for the invention of this stuff that is carried; the aircraft available and retrofitted to carry it; and to the brave airmen who carry it out. RIP 123 and the two pilots who made their final carry.

Love that P-3 Orion. Still in use all over the world, for air-sea rescue, submarine warfare, hurricane hunting, long range patrol, cargo operations, firefighting, etc.

It was fun to watch the PB4s and DCs fly out of Jeffco in Colorado. 5600 feet field elevation and 90+ degrees made takeoffs interesting. Roll until they could fly in ground effect, drop into the valley at the north end of the runway, gather enough airspeed to get some altitude, and turn before the Boulder Flatirons got in the way.

I lost my first flight instructor to the Scarface Fire. He was flying an AeroUnion C119. R.I.P. Charlie Waters.

Mr simmons thanks for the work that you done to get these videos i think that i have watch ever one of them and i in joy them alot.

Really impressive!!

Great shots of the Neptune tankers!!! I live in Missoula where they are based out of and its nice to see their recognition around the nation!

As a kid, living in Chico, California, I use to go out to the Airport to watch and film Areo Union's B-17s. What a sight they were.

The Neptune is so cool, running both those loud classic radials, along with those pylon mounted turbojets

An outstanding Video! Thanks so much for creating and posting it. I especially was surprised by, and enjoyed the footage of the venerable old P2 Neptunes. As a child, they were my first exposure to airplanes. My family had a summer home down river from Brunswick NAS. The first and last sounds I heard each day, other than seagulls was Neptunes taking off and landing I'm not sure if this was happening before my birth in '48 or came along in my toddler years. Ironically, I remember well the transition from the P2 to the P3 as sub chasers and in '80 I started a 13 stint testing, troubleshooting, limited reworking, and retesting the production Syncrophasers of the 54H60 propeller system which is shared by the P3 Orion and the C 130. sdh in CT

Cool! Esp. the Paso Robles footage. I was with Santa Margarita Fire that year. Man, was it a mess... did a lot of structure protection while CDF and you flyboys did the heavy lifting.

Love this. Thank you for your service. I love you guys.......

Beautiful video ! Thank you for share.

WOW, nice video. Shows how important and risky their job is. That DC10 puts lots of water/retardant on a fire that is for sure. I can remember back in the 60's the fire in Whittier Hills, B-17's were in use then. The P3 are classics and have lots of power. Nusna, to keep the center of gravity right, and most of the weight at or below wing level, the put the dump blister on the bottom. Saw a special on the Dc 10, and it does have tanks that extend above the floor into what used to be passenger compartment, but the large volume of water is below wing level.

I just hope they continue making scooper type flying boats as this is probably one of the best ways to quickly keep water on a large fire. I once watched a special on the very designing of CL-415 scoopers, & a lot of genius went into it!

Awesome video , thanks

Really killer video! Bless u guys out there

It's a dangerous job. Blessings on those who take on the task.

6:38 is the one that gives one goosebumps and a heartsore. Tanker ''123''.

Awesome video

Thanks for the info, didn't know 60's was still in the air.

78 was based at Chico years ago before the TPE331s were introduced. Pat Ross drove it.

Never Noticed those Neptune's look like beefed up A-26's..........probably the best craft ever !

It's like being a bomber pilot in combat (from the movies i've seen). Precise delivery of payload on target because of an FAC talking him on. Rad!

Thank you goes out to all of you pilots at the air attack units. Also for all of the smoke jumper units and any firefighting divisions you guys and gals are the heroes of the world. God be with you all always! 💕👏👏👏🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸💪💪💪💪💪💪🙏🙏😎

Very cool! I work on P-3 (military and BP recon birds) Orions and didn't know until watching this video that they are also used as aerial fire trucks.

Just awesome stuff!!!!!

Great video! It'll make a very good movie. RIP to the pilots of the YP Yulee.

Very skilled pilots, take my hat off to them all.

Thanks, I agree.

Incredible !!! A good old B-24.

The best video ever of fires fithing

Waow that Neptune sideslip was brutal

really informative and interesting

Very Nice

I look at this and know what I should have done with my life.

top video thanks from italy

choppers are great for the little stuff and spots, 215s got range loiter and load, and when you take a look at turn around they are pretty handy. Good in the guety stuff too.

This is why they are called the “Air Attack” squadrons. 👍

The Neptunes are beautiful. I suppose that the engines were difficult to maintain, but the airplane supposably was nice to fly

As a kid I remember seeing TBM Avengers flying out of Twin Falls, Idaho on desert brush fires.

Thank you for your generous comment. Alan Simmons

Nice video great footage, great planes too, you should add the Beriev Be-200 its to this collection

When I was growing up, the S-2 Trackers were green and had radials.

You're right that converting a conventional bomber to this task makes sense. Better use it for this task than crapping it. But it must land to refill its tanks. Bombardier's CL-415 does'nt have to land. It fills it tanks by skimming any water surface big enough (it doesn't have to be too big). In about 10 seconds, it takes 6000 liters of water (about 3 tons).

Super videos 👍 subscribed

RIP 123

it is a very sticky material called foschek. It is sticky and wet to stay a fire retardant for hours after being dropped. It is also red so the pilots not only can see it from the air but see where they have already dropped it. You will hear them referring to painting. They are awesome and of great use on a fire but not surgical like a helicopter.

we need these for the UK

Man , I wish I could fly a plane are helicopter. I would fight the chance to help with the fires . Where ever they are. That is so cool to watch these guys give it there all to fight the fires. Save safe! 😀👍

A good tribute to tanker 123

The water + fire retardant has a red dye so the area that it's been applied to can be seen from the air.

When the P-8 gets into production...there will be about 100 P-3 available for tanker conversion...with 15k+hours left on them.

nice video and a intresting wideo

It was scary cause there was a fire really close to us

Excelente trabajo

(read my comments of today in reverse order, this one being the last) Then again, the CL-415 was designed for use in Québec. Take a look on our territory on Google Earth and you'll understand. Our water surface is a little more than half the size of Texas (51% to be precise).

un video genial, impresionantes maquinas, me imagino ahora que es una mala epoca para el airbus 380 que modificaran este fantastico aparato para lucha contra los incendios a nivel mundial y que los paises estubiera obligados atener mas aviones antiincendios de los necesarios para atravesar fronteras con o sin permiso de los paises

Oh they were doing a great job but their only draw back is they have to have a lake with enough space to touch down fto scoop up the water. Here in East Texas we have a lot of lakes but you can't go 1 mile without seeing a large pond. This is what gave the helicopters a huge advantage. They could find water within a mile or two of the fire which made their turn around super fast. I realize it's not the same in all states though.

@ThePolyweave Actually they are already coming up with replacement aircraft for the next generation of tankers, Neptune Aviation is testing a BAE 146-200 Regional jet that has been making test water drops around Missoula, along with looking at the Dash 8 Turbo Prop for a possible replacement for their P-2 fleet. The french have beaten us to the punch with Several Dash 8 tankers {Q-400 models}. with airlines trimming routes and regional planes, airframes are not hard to come by nor are parts

I wonder if multiple passes are made one behind the other over hot spots. Surprised with all the air power these fires grow so fast.

The best profession in the world

Chilling to see 123 in here, considering the fate of her and her crew. Blue Skies boys…

Can anyone tell me the type of WW2 and post war aircraft these were.? I recognize the pb4y privateer.

We saw a lot of P2V's, CL-215's, Black Hawks and Chinook's during the wild fires here in East Texas last year. Even saw Neptune's newest plane, the BAE-146, makes it's first apperance on an actual fire. The CL-215's didn't stay to long but the Helicopters stayed busy scooping water from local ponds and lakes. Someone mentioned the CL-215 as being great? The helicopters had a huge advantage because the CL had to touch down to scoop water when the Helicopters just hovered and scooped it up.

So why do the larger tankers like the Orion and the DC-10 use gondolas instead of internal retardent carriage? Too costly to modify the internal structure?

I wish we could see the effect the drops had on the fire in addition to the drop plume. The plume is pretty but what it does to a fire is the goal..... Whish there were a few you could follow all the way down to see the flames die.

I guess my question is, let say we never have another fire -- what happens to the tinder? It would seem that the fires are natural - if there's a tree or a bush - there will be tinder? So if we never have another fire - does the tinder just mount up ad infinitum?

Does anyone know what music was used in the video?

DC-10 is my favorite!

when the planes are going that fast is it really doing anything the phoschek looks like a fine mist by the time it hits the ground

The Aero Union P-3's seen in this video have not flown for the past two fire seasons. Their contract was not negotiated again I believe due to maintenance issues.

RIP 123, I hope to change these planes up to date asap.

i have a question, why the red water, is it to mark where water has been dropped before?

Que coraje!! , si no se abre la descarga se va a la chachu.

@HerkMeck : how do you get this kind of info?

Unfortunately we live in a state known for fires and the years of both 2003/2007 are reminders of what hell these fine men have to go through.

To the folks that fly, Put the wet stuff, on the Red stuff!! Fly safe Kids!!!

10 years ago this July.

RIP 213

Perhaps you guys could de-interlace your videos that go up on to KZfaq?

does anyone know if the Aero Union P3's were bought and placed in service, it's gonna be a long summer without those P3's supporting us on the ground.

👏👏👏👏

What the last few planes that didnt have their name put up?

I thought that nose familiar same type nose as the OV-1Mohawk! Have many hours in one.

Other land-based airplanes must go back to base, land, taxi to the refilling area, connect hoses, wait for the tanks to fill, disconnect hoses, taxi back to the runway, take-off again and fly back to the fire. If there's a lake, river or ocean near the fire, a CL-415 can do this in less than 5 minutes.

when i lived in phoenix az there was a p 3 orien statined there with the tail number 00 dont know if this could have been the same one or the forrest service based there out side of cutter aviation bldg at sky harbor international airport this was back in 1980s till 1992 before i mpoved when i last seen the p3 00 was there two with same number but different companies also in phx az they had an 0v10 bronco spotter and a p2 neptune

👍

Why don't they convert a kc-10 to pass water/retardant to these aircrafts? Less landings more air time.

RIP B-24 Crew.

wait..... How the McDonnel Douglas get the water??? ( 4:39 )

Too bad they are big but I think the C-141 Starlifter would make a mean air attack plane.

I like the p3 orion

I wonder if that B 25 is the one I saw at the Port Hardy airport over 40 yrs ago back in the mid to late 70's. The 4 engines were off and standing on their noses. I heard that it had been bought by Americans.

Sadly , the Orions have been sold for scrap and Aero Union is mo more. I believe the MAFFS system was made by them and I don't think anyone has assumed production. Correct me if I'm wrong.

anybody else notice the length is 7:57

I tried to call these aircraft/airplanes once when I was Eight(8) Years Old in the Summer Of 2002. However,The Police came to my house instead. The reason being,I did it via 911.

I missing the Supertanker Boeing 747, in this video..

@HerkMeck Anyone on a boat near a forest fire is NUTS. "water body that is not protected" ?? What harm does it do to a lake to pick up a few thousand gallons of water ? Fire retardant MAY be more effective (per weight) than water (that remains to be prooven), but you can put a lot more water per hour on a fire with a CL-415 filling up at a nearby lake than with a big land-based plane that has to go back to base to refill its tanks.