made an instagram account for the turtle car. I have yet to post anything to #turtleeclipse doe.

 

Why is their logo iron?

 

to **** you off

 

TIL that Nico Hamilton was the driving consultant for Project Cars.

 

 

Here's one...

 

Here's the VLAT flying overhead just before making a pass. Sorry it is shaky (it was windy) and I was having trouble seeing the screen in the sun. It sucks the camera loses focus for a bit

 

For PWC or for all events?

I may need to come back out there for the IMSA race next year...

 

Who's been to Laguna Seca? I'm thinking about calling in sick and going there for PWC. Maybe Krumme can get me passes too in exchange for photos. I think Shea Holbrook will be there.

I've never been to Laguna Seca so any travel/camping/locations to shoot tips will be appreciated.

 

Is that smaller plane acting like an observer for the VLAT?

 

Been there twice, AMA.

Try to get the camping spot overlooking turn 6. This would be your view:

 

This was by California Speedway during the 2012 IndyCar race.

 

Yeah, the small plane gives the VLAT the target.

Here's the VLAT making a retardant drop on the fire that broke out on base. Watch for the lead plane to put out a white streamer to show the VLAT pilot where to drop the retardant.


There are only 3 of the DC-10 VLATs in service and we had all of them on this fire.

 

That view looks good. Is that Campground A? From their site Campground A is the only one where you can pitch a tent. How much did you pay for a camping spot? Prices aren't listed and I want to get an idea before I call their ticket office.

 

Which fire were you at? The Soberanes?

 

I was not at a camp ground. When I said camp I meant where the Incident Command Post was setup.

These pictures are from when I was working the Canyon Fire, at Vandenberg AFB.

 

Yeah, that's campground A pretty close to that turnaround on the map. I've never camped there but I've watched some racing from that area and it's pretty good.

 

LOL I missed that Outrun was talkin to you.

Disregard my post about the camp...

 

serious skills flying those birds

 

A former Turkey (F-14 Tomcat) pilot went on to fly S-2 Tracker firefighting planes. His call sign even before fighting fires was "Hoser".

 

Those pilots are unbelievable. The air show we saw last week was amazing. I wish there was some way I could have gotten video to describe it all.

There is one helicopter whose job it is to play air traffic control. We had 3 VLATs 4 other fixed wing aircraft, 3 air cranes, 3 medium helicopters and 3 light helicopters with buckets all working that fire. It was amazing to see. I have more vids I'll have to post up.

 

This isn't my pic. I got it from one of the firefighters. This was 9/19. Fire chewed up over 6k acres in a few hours. I was stuck over on the right side of the pic, where the ring of smoke is. My view of everything was obscured. All I saw was smoke and a red sun.



It just doesn't look real to me lol.

Interestingly this fire was in a ridge/canyon called Honda Ridge/Honda Canyon. In 1977 4 firefighters were killed in this same canyon during a fire that blew up. Much the way this one did.

 

Smattering of the aircraft from that day...

 

how much fluid are they carrying in those buckets?

 

It depends on the bucket and the capability of the rotor wing craft. Can be anywhere from 70 to 2600 gallons. These were on the smaller end of the range, a couple hundred gallons. At one point they were dipping out of the air force swimming pool lol