Socal fires ...

[oldschoolcamaro]

got another really bad fire burning up in the Mnt Baldy Wilderness area near the ski resort community of Wrightwood . I have had the Cal Fire #910 DC-10 flying right over my place as i'm under the flight path from San Bernardino airport to the fire on Mnt Baldy .The sound of a DC-10 at 2k foot elev and at level flight with it's engines screaming is something you'll never forget

how these pilots of these DC-10's can fly these (2) tankers almost flying them like a smaller aircraft down to under 200' then pull up hard or bank quickly is just wild to watch

[Barry Donovan]

they are big ones..
the military has kc10, same plane but holding enough fuel to burn So Cal.

When I was crew chief, they'd come in, refuel forever and take off at a weight that took up all of bangors giant runway.
Those planes hold enough that they cannot fill em at most airports.. won't take off.
747 is actually like that too..they can't go everywhere if they are the million pounders.

the dc10 was good for near half million.

[Scott Liggett]

got another really bad fire burning up in the Mnt Baldy Wilderness area near the ski resort community of Wrightwood . I have had the Cal Fire #910 DC-10 flying right over my place as i'm under the flight path from San Bernardino airport to the fire on Mnt Baldy .The sound of a DC-10 at 2k foot elev and at level flight with it's engines screaming is something you'll never forget

how these pilots of these DC-10's can fly these (2) tankers almost flying them like a smaller aircraft down to under 200' then pull up hard or bank quickly is just wild to watch

Those planes are capable of far more than any commercial pilot is allowed to do with them. I am sure any military KC-10 pilot could tell you. My uncle who flew TWA for 30 years flew DC-10's. He said they handle well. Not as well as 727's, especially at low speed. The monstrous flaps allowed to 727's to fly nearly like biplanes.

I saw those big DC-10's at work on a Malibu fire a few years ago. Impressive to watch. There tons of videos of them on Youtube.

[oldschoolcamaro]

those abrupt maneuvers that these DC-10 Cal Fire tankers are doing has got to be placing alot of stress of the wing spars and sooner or later it's going to end in a serious crash . These DC-10's are performing maneuvers designed for a much smaller aircraft

[bearphoto]

I saw that fire near Wrightwood yesterday afternoon from the Victorville area. I thought, "great, another fire". There has got to be a firebug running around starting these things as there was not a cloud in the sky! I have heard nothing about how these things are starting. Arson should be a death penalty crime. So far from the Big Bear area we have not been hit with any of the smoke unlike a few fires back. The smoke from those fires was terrible in the big bear valley area. This weekend is the big car show up in big bear so we hope for clear skies and of course safety for all the fire personnel fighting these fires.

[oldschoolcamaro]

I saw that fire near Wrightwood yesterday afternoon from the Victorville area. I thought, "great, another fire". There has got to be a firebug running around starting these things as there was not a cloud in the sky! I have heard nothing about how these things are starting. Arson should be a death penalty crime. So far from the Big Bear area we have not been hit with any of the smoke unlike a few fires back. The smoke from those fires was terrible in the big bear valley area. This weekend is the big car show up in big bear so we hope for clear skies and of course safety for all the fire personnel fighting these fires.

a windy day and low humidity always is a recipe for arson and hoping that the Wrightwood fire was not caused by Arson . I remember all to well the 2003 firestorms and the destruction it caused in the San Bernardino Mtns especially running springs

[Admirall2]

DC-10 internal wing structure is similar to the DC-9/MD-80. It was overdesigned from the start. One of the reasons why they can pull the manuvers they do. Also the reason why one crashed shortly after introduction to service. They had engine pylon damage and on takeoff the port engine sepeated from the airframe, taking some hydraulic lines with it because they were routed the same as the DC-9, causing retraction of slats and flaps and stalling the port wing. Company modified their maintenance procedures and caused the damage that led to the crash. Here is a link from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America...nes_Flight_191

[pdub]

Gosh what a nightmare, though - fire. Thoughts and prayers aimed at the Left Coast. That's just another thing - over here we have hurricanes and tornadoes.

I saw something in the media quite a few years ago that suggested that Smokey the Bear cause all of the terrible fires out west in the long run, starting in the 60's or whenever he was born as a campaign. Like, fire - PUT IT OUT! Fire is bad, put it out.

So, according to whatever I ingested, the story was, that approach led to no controlled burns for decades to alleviate the fuel. So everything got overgrown. But that's just the media, then and now. So I sure don't know. Just what we're fed.

[oldschoolcamaro]

right now Socal has over 102k acres burned since jan 1rst of this year and last years total was maybe half that and we still have until Novemember