Australia is burning:Update. - Page 2
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Thread: Australia is burning:Update.

  1. #26
    It is truly sad. I was alerted to the incident not long after the initial report had gone out in Australia. The airtanker community was buzzing nearly immediately everyone silently knew who and what aircraft it was. Truly a sad day. I've been checking off and on on our various platforms as the news has gone more public. It's a dangerous profession, one of the most dangerous arguably I'd say. This just adds to the tragedy that is this Bush Fire Season in Australia. Back here in the states, our own aerial firefighting community is in high gear supporting the crew's family as well as Coulson in the wake of this. T-134 (N134CG), the aircraft lost was their latest EC-130Q converted airtanker. T-134 was on it's second fire fighting season in Australia. 3 of Coulson's large airtankers are still in Australia. T-131 (T-390) their other EC-130Q, and T-137 and 138, their 737-300s. Personally, I'm close to the airtanker community without being a pilot or firefighter, being an enthusiast (grew up around it) and fire aviation photographer for years. It's gut wrenching when this happens. I can only imagine how horrible it is for those actually in it. Blue skies and fair winds.

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  2. #27
    This really is a sad tragedy, and my heart goes out to all those left behind, and indeed to the crew that perished. It's just another devastating side effect of the horrible fire season Australia is currently suffering. These guys were doing all they could to help our country and they have paid the ultimate price. They will not be forgotten.
    "Try to stay in the middle of the air. Do not go near the edges of it. The edges of the air can be recognized by the appearance of ground, buildings, sea, trees and interstellar space. It is much more difficult to fly there".

  3. #28
    terrible news,here is a link to an article on fire aviation

    https://fireaviation.com/2020/01/22/...#comment-41151

    pretty much same info posted above,but has a photo of the plane from before,it was a pretty one,and has maps and such

  4. #29
    Researching the fire attack community as a possible career ,knowing how dangerous it is and this accident brings that point front and center. Condolences to the Coulson team and their families.
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  5. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by Victory103 View Post
    Researching the fire attack community as a possible career ,knowing how dangerous it is and this accident brings that point front and center. Condolences to the Coulson team and their families.
    More damned funerals to go to. The hell of it is, this gig does not have to be dangerous. I did 20 years with a large fire aviation outfit that had not a single fatal or hull loss in that period. Securite Civil, in the same period, on the same equipment, was piling up six fatal's a year.
    Culture. The French boys were 'cowboys', and it showed.
    Sadly, I could see the handwriting on the wall as the corporate culture changed from 'safety first', to 'safety first, right after profit'.
    It was cheaper, apparently, to relax standards, and just collect insurance.
    Pen whip endorsements, cut training for pilots and maintainers, switch to 'cheap' single engine tankers and outsource maintenance and spares.
    I went out the door. A year latter, they started punching smoking abrasions on mountain sides. The infuriating thing of it is the regulatory body is become a byword for dishonesty, regulatory hijack and pusillanimous cowardice. The Max 8 certification is a stunning example of how badly the regulators are falling down, and it's all to do with the revolving door and smoke filled room. Nobody want's to fkcu their chances of a nice, cushy, senior government job.
    These things don't often just 'fall out of the sky'. There is a long chain of events preceding the smoking hole, and the chain can be broken at any time along the way, usually by somebody with an iota of intestinal fortitude saying 'Hold it. No. This is wrong'.

  6. #31
    Quote Originally Posted by lazarus View Post
    More damned funerals to go to. The hell of it is, this gig does not have to be dangerous. I did 20 years with a large fire aviation outfit that had not a single fatal or hull loss in that period. Securite Civil, in the same period, on the same equipment, was piling up six fatal's a year.
    Culture. The French boys were 'cowboys', and it showed.
    Sadly, I could see the handwriting on the wall as the corporate culture changed from 'safety first', to 'safety first, right after profit'.
    It was cheaper, apparently, to relax standards, and just collect insurance.
    Pen whip endorsements, cut training for pilots and maintainers, switch to 'cheap' single engine tankers and outsource maintenance and spares.
    I went out the door. A year latter, they started punching smoking abrasions on mountain sides. The infuriating thing of it is the regulatory body is become a byword for dishonesty, regulatory hijack and pusillanimous cowardice. The Max 8 certification is a stunning example of how badly the regulators are falling down, and it's all to do with the revolving door and smoke filled room. Nobody want's to fkcu their chances of a nice, cushy, senior government job.
    These things don't often just 'fall out of the sky'. There is a long chain of events preceding the smoking hole, and the chain can be broken at any time along the way, usually by somebody with an iota of intestinal fortitude saying 'Hold it. No. This is wrong'.
    Sounds a lot like the live deer capture operations in New Zealand in the wild and woolly 70's.....when money comes in the door, standards go out the window.....

  7. #32
    "In the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), the national capital Canberra was blanketed by thick bushfire smoke on New Year's Day from bushfires burning nearby in New South Wales. That day the air quality in the capital was the worst of any city in the world, at around 23 times the threshold to be considered hazardous. Conditions continued the next day, and Australia Post stopped postal deliveries in the ACT to keep workers safe from smoke. The first death directly linked to the poor air quality was also recorded on 2 January. An elderly women had been traveling from Brisbane to Canberra by plane, when she exited the plane onto the smoke-flooded tarmac, she suffered respiratory distress and then died.On 2 January 2020, the ACT declared a state of alert;that was extended on 12 January as the merged Dunns Road fire burnt seven kilometres (four miles) from the Territory's south-west border.

    From at least 6 January a bushfire near Hospital Hill in the Namadgi National Park had started; it was extinguished on 9 January.

    On 22 January a bushfire started in Pialligo Redwood Forest; it reached emergency level threatening Beard and Oaks Estate. The next day a second bushfire started, the Kallaroo Fire, which later during the day merged with the Redwood Forest fire forming the Beard Fire; the fire jumped the Molonglo River and threatened the suburbs of Beard, Harman and Oaks Estate as it burnt 424 hectares (1,050 acres). Canberra Airport was closed for a day. The fire destroyed 1 facility, 4 outbuildings and 3 vehicles.

    On 27 January a bushfire in the Orroral Valley in the Namadgi National Park started. ACT Emergency Services Minister Mick Gentleman reported, on behalf of the Department of Defence, that the fire had been started by a landing light on an ADF helicopter, while it was conducting routine aerial reconnaissance and ground clearance work to support local firefighters. By the morning of 28 January the fire had grown to 2,575 hectares in size and was 9 kilometres from the town of Tharwa. An emergency warning was declared for Tharwa and the southern suburbs of Canberra just after 1:30pm AEST on 28 January. Chief Minister Andrew Barr described the fire as the biggest threat to Canberra since the 2003 Canberra bushfires. At midday on 31 January, Chief Minister Barr declared a state of emergency for the whole ACT, the first time this had occurred since the 2003 fires."

    The above sums up the perilous conditions in our National Capitol. When the 'Suburbs' are in the line of fire that is really close to urban Canberra, as we witnessed in 2003.
    Despite decent rainfalls fed by tropical cyclones the Fire Season is far from contained.

    "Illegitimum non carborundum".

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  8. #33
    As of 15:00+/- today (Saturday) the temperature in the ACT was 41C and predicted to remain around that figure for several hours.
    The current situation is fluid but extremely volatile and Canberra is under imminent threat.
    "Illegitimum non carborundum".

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    Corsair iCUE H100i ELITE CAPELLIX White Liquid CPU Cooler, 240mm Radiator, 2x ML120 RGB PWM Fans
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  9. #34
    Just a brief update:

    Fires remain burning but at a much lower danger level, quite a number have been contained or even extinguished thanks to extensive rainfall and the ongoing work of CFS and RFS.
    However..............the rainfall has brought large areas of flooding!
    Just to compound the felony the Tropical Cyclone season may well have been a late starter but it is now underway and hitting the North West hard.

    So in addition to fires we have floods and cyclones.

    "Illegitimum non carborundum".

    Phanteks Enthoo Evolv X D-RGB Tempered Glass ATX Galaxy Silver
    Intel Core i9 10980XE Extreme Edition X
    ASUS ROG Rampage VI Extreme Encore MB
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    Corsair iCUE H100i ELITE CAPELLIX White Liquid CPU Cooler, 240mm Radiator, 2x ML120 RGB PWM Fans
    Samsung 4TB SSD, 860 PRO Series, 2.5" SATA III x4
    Corsair 1600W Titanium Series AX1600i Power Supply, 80 PLUS Titanium,
    ASUS 43inch ROG Swift 4K UHD G-Sync VA Gaming Monitor, 3840x2160, HDR 1000, 1ms, 144Hz,

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