Large Scale Central

Fun in the Okanagan

General Discussion
#1

As if the fire on May 29th wasn’t enough, we had a much larger one on Aug 3rd about 600m from our house in the Park. Luckily the Forest Service and the firefighters were right on their toes. Water bombers in action.
Oh yeah, cause of fire? Most likely some smoking yahoo or some people doing some furious sparking in the high and super dry vegetation.

Last Saturday was to be the inaugural run on our layout! No go, too much rain for the previous two days! Can’t have people tramping through the soggy lawn. That was enough to give me the stomach flu, too! :frowning: :frowning:

#2

Yikes! Keep your head down.

#3

HJ,

Interesting to watch the video. I’m sure there is a lot of anxiety watching it in person. However, there has got to be some comfort in watching how those pilots work. I agree, that it might be a shock to have that much water coming down on you at once.

#4

Ric,

It was absolutely amazing how quickly the bombers showed up. The first on the scene was a chopper with the large bucket, the bombers followed about 15-20 minutes later. Probably hat a lot to do with the large Terrace Mountain fire which was still burning.

Fires in the interface certainly are treated as the most urgent - closest houses: 300m! BTW the bombers can load (and unload) 3000 litres at a time.

PS about that anxiety: Elisabeth was wetting down the perimeter with two hoses while I was video filming, Some people were very busy watering the cedar-shake roofs, we had our’s replaced with something less flammable.

#5

I’ve had the experience of watching Sea Planes break surface adhesion with water, without the extra 3000 litres of weight. That would be about a ton of water, right? I’m sure that is impressive.

#6

It is impresive. Working for the state parks and forest here I get to fight many forest fires. Its not fun getting water dumped on ya but sometimes you cant get out of the away in time. Hope you guys get some good rains up that way so the fire dangers go down.

#7
Ric Golding said:
I've had the experience of watching Sea Planes break surface adhesion with water, without the extra 3000 litres of weight. That would be about a ton of water, right? I'm sure that is impressive.
3000l = 3000Kg = 6600 pounds = 2.946 long tons/3 tonnes/3.3 Short tons.

Hope that helps.

You didn’t help fill up the Gimli Glider, dijja Ric?

tac
www.ovgrs.org

#8
Shawn said:
It is impresive. Working for the state parks and forest here I get to fight many forest fires. Its not fun getting water dumped on ya but sometimes you cant get out of the away in time. Hope you guys get some good rains up that way so the fire dangers go down.
Shawn,

We got about 2+ inches last week, soggy, soggy, soggy! Of course it started at exactly the same time as our meeting with the people from BC Parks and BC Forest Service.
Was one of the “information meetings” where it’s best to ask very precise questions in order to get reasonably precise answers. :wink: :slight_smile:

Ric,

The bombers drop the load and then head back to the lake for more, they scoop up the water while they skim the lake at 60kph und up they go with an extra 3 tons. If it wouldn’t have been so smoky - from the other fire in the valley - perhaps I could have filmed them while loading.

tac

Ric probably hasn’t heard of the Gimli glider. :wink:

#9

I didn’t do it, I wasn’t working that day, nobody ever told me, you can’t prove it was me.

Now, what’s a “Gimli Glider”? I’ll your story Terry, before I look it up. :wink:

#10
Ric Golding said:
I didn't do it, I wasn't working that day, nobody ever told me, you can't prove it was me.

Now, what’s a “Gimli Glider”? I’ll your story Terry, before I look it up. :wink:


I know, I know! Pick me, pick me!

#11

Oh yes, “The Gimli Glider”…there once was an old aerodrome, that sat at Gimli Manitoba. It was originaly a training field for pilots during WW2. Long out of service back in the 70’s, it’s one paved runway was used for drag racing.
Well, one day an Air Canada jet, and it’s crew were on a flight across part of Canada. The aeroplane had been fueled before the flight, but the crew made the mistake of not realising that the fuel contents on this new jet were measured in metric. They misjudged, and when cruising along, ran out of fuel.
The pilot, using his skills, managed to “Glide” the jet to the only field close by, which just happened to be “Gimli”. The pilot in later years was a member of the “Ottawa Valley Associated Railroaders” (OVAR). I forget his name…
The dead engine landing was very rough, and there were some injuries, but all lived to see another day. The aeroplane was repaired and flown out from the field.
My only connection with the flight and Gimli, was that a woman I knew at the time, had her mother on the flight. She suffered multi back injuries, but lived on.
In later years, Gimli became a centre for Canadian National Railroad’s running trades training simulators. I believe it still is.

There you go…the condensed story of “The Gimli Glider”
Maybe Terry can add to the tale…