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Originally Posted by iceman
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Yeah, I saw that clip this morning after I watched the first. I knew they were trialling the plane, just wasn't aware that they had purchased it...if in fact they did. Perhaps, as in the case of the second clip, it's still only a trial.
In the case of a 'crown fire' I think the job would be to dump the retardant ahead of the fire's path, denying the fire fuel rather than to put-out the fire; using plain old water to put-out small fires directly. (see bottom of page 3;
http://www.dpc.vic.gov.au/Bushfires/1-ind-Ward,Fred.pdf)
I don't think it's possible to fly any aircraft above a really bad fire, 1. because of the visibility and, 2. the thermal updraft would be intense (100kph) and would carry the retardant away...with the plane perhaps as well (see;
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=1971538).