VLAT

"PG; the scalpel wielder" (pgr34) 01/02/2020 at 15:56 • Filed to: None

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I live between the Richmond airforce base where the aerial firefighters are being based and the bushfires in South s of s ydney. this plane is now a regular above my house...

Its sad that we only have 1 of these dc10 firefighters being borrowed from USA and I think 1 737 and 1 c130. Almost none based here. Poor country is burning, and I still have heaps of family on the south coast defending their houses , where I was for Christmas last week. People can still escape and run, but the wildlife has no chance. A few weeks ago the estimate was er have lost 30% of our koala population...

Pictures from 2017 fires behind our house:

Edit, below is a list of what we actually have:

Source:

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TorqueToYield > PG; the scalpel wielder 01/02/2020 at 16:15

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“ Air tanker drops in wildfires are often just for show”

https://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-wildfires29-2008jul29-story.html

No idea how valid or not that article is, but I read it awhile ago and it’s stuck with me.

PG; the scalpel wielder > TorqueToYield 01/02/2020 at 16:25

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I would hope that’s not the case, aussie fires are a different beast to LA fires though. There is unfortunately a lot of fake articles and political agenda based opinions going around, real division in the community. Its appalling in this Trump world we are all being forced to live in

ttyymmnn > PG; the scalpel wielder 01/02/2020 at 17:00

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There was a gigantic wildfire near Austin back in 2011, and the DC-10 came to help. It ended up sitting at the airport for a couple of weeks because there wasn’t any way it could be used on that particular fire. I don’t know the specifics of how it is best used.

As for the VLAT itself, this is by far the most awesome video of it in action ever shot.

Here she is in action over NSW.

facw > PG; the scalpel wielder 01/02/2020 at 17:18

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Hope it does some good. I have read that there’s never been a study to show that aerial firefighting is actually effective. I don’t think there’s ever been a study to show that it’s not effective either. Apparently it’s just something we like to spend a bunch of money on without knowing how much of a difference it really makes. Regardless Australia clearly needs all the help it can get right now, but at some point it seems like it would be good to know if this is a cost effective way to fight fires, or just a showy way “do something”.

Either way, a DC-10 can carry a lot more than these choppers: