Waterbombers

Post by **Always RX** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 6:42 pm

Bomber 605

Bomber 608

608`s Office

WPXZBP · Post by **WPXZBP** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 6:53 pm

Nice shots... well done!

JG-103 · Post by **JG-103** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 9:47 pm

Very Nice Always RX

Turbo · Post by **Turbo** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 2:35 am

Nice pics dude...

Post by **Always RX** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 8:56 pm

Post by **Tyranus** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 9:08 pm

Sweet!! lucky!

Jared · Post by **Jared** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 11:17 am

Wow, great shots! It would be so awesome to be in them while flying, shame their not a twin cockpit

rambler318 · Post by **rambler318** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 4:09 pm

Are the water bombers reloaded whilst running or do they shut them down?

Cheers

rambler318 · Post by **rambler318** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 4:10 pm

Are the water bombers reloaded whilst running or do they shut them down?

Cheers

Post by **gkoutlis** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 6:42 pm

rambler318 wrote:Are the water bombers reloaded whilst running or do they shut them down?

Cheers

They shutdown completley - refuel takes place (retardent) then start and take off within 5mins... and ATC usually gives these Birds priority to takeoff...

Jared · Post by **Jared** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 6:49 pm

How much water can they carry? Cause to have to land, stop, switch off and boot up and take off again every time, they must be able to carry a good load to be worth while?

Post by **Always RX** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 8:13 pm

The aircraft in the pics carry 3150 litres of water/retardant. VH-EDG is actually a two seat aircraft too , but normally the second seat is for training and ferry purposes only.

Fastlane · Post by **Fastlane** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 11:21 pm

You won't see them using retardant. Retardant has to be carefully pre-mixed into the water in a tanker - DEC only has one of these and it is based down south (Collie or Manjimup I believe). The stuff is mega expensive and mega messy. It was used earlier this year at Lake Carabooda and last year at Lake Neerabup, though these were both special cases.

What they do use, is BFFF (Bush Fire Fighting Foam) which is essentially a wetting agent. This can be injected/mixed in the air so the pilot can decide based on instructions whether to apply foam or not. They can also do a split load and dump 1/2 of the load in one spot and 1/2 in another.

Also, all of the bombers have callsigns starting with '6', as do the Helitac's and Police Aircraft... I was lead to believe this is used to denote an emergency aircraft and is supposed to give priority clearance .. can someone confirm this?

WPXZBP · Post by **WPXZBP** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 11:30 pm

Fastlane wrote:Also, all of the bombers have callsigns starting with '6', as do the Helitac's and Police Aircraft... I was lead to believe this is used to denote an emergency aircraft and is supposed to give priority clearance .. can someone confirm this?

Not sure on clearance but 6 means it's in W.A. (eg post code) The Helitacs change callsign to 4** when they go to Queensland, in SA the aircraft are 5** etc.

Fastlane · Post by **Fastlane** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 11:36 pm

WPXZBP wrote:
Fastlane wrote:Also, all of the bombers have callsigns starting with '6', as do the Helitac's and Police Aircraft... I was lead to believe this is used to denote an emergency aircraft and is supposed to give priority clearance .. can someone confirm this?
Not sure on clearance but 6 means it's in W.A. (eg post code) The Helitacs change callsign to 4** when they go to Queensland, in SA the aircraft are 5** etc.

Fair enough! Just know a few years ago they changed from calling themselves Bomber 1,2 etc to Bomber 601, 602... that was how one person explained the change.