SplitS

I have linked 2 articles that support my position. No one has linked anything from experienced firefighters in support of water bombers. Water bombers only work in very mild conditions when they are not needed anyway. I have fought well over 50 fires both grass and forest the only time the water bombers have done anything useful is when they where not really needed anyway. When the chips are down and we are simply doing asset protection they are grounded or unable to drop because they would destroy the assets with their water bomb. When you have a fire running at 40kmhr and spotting over 5km what do you think a couple of over priced planes are going to do? In these situations they cannot do asset protection because the "protection" is worse than letting it burn they also expose the real fire fighters to increased risk's. There are way better ways to spend thousands of dollars and hour than on an airshow. Having spoken to "professional firefighters" last week they hate the waste of money and want it spent on fire mitigation. A lot of people posting in support of fire bombers have zero idea about what is involved in fighting fires. The water bombers may as well drop $20 dollar bills for all the good they do and at least everyone would see the real cost.

No it is NOT a great asset. It's a huge waste of money but makes for good tv. In anything other than very mild fire conditions it is completely useless. On hot windy days it evaporates before it even reaches the fire, it also creates a large risk for the guy's on the ground. One day someone will be killed by a water bomber then there will be an inquiry and "usefulness" of the bombers will be exposed. Water bombing is a joke and used to cover up the fact the money should have been spend on fire mitigation measures long before the season started.

I made the post in jest. But Forrest W.A. should be on every pilot's bucket list it's an amazing place. Only the managers cars and the train track everything else come's by plane.

Forrest W.A. ?

If you want to hear yourself you should be able to also put your mic output to one of the spare channels on the mx400 then you can mix in the amount of you into your headset. Your mic output may not be hot enough to drive the line mixer so then you would have to add the ma 400 from my first post to boost the mic output so you can feed it into the line mixer. This would be a lite setup and all run off 12v

Sorry this is a better solution. get one of these https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MX400--behringer-micromix-mx400-line-mixer You could connect up to 4 radio's ? Just put a 2 way switch in line with the press to talk button so you can select which radio is triggered when you push the press to talk. You can send your mic input to both radios just tie them together (your headset mic output).

Its easy to do with off the shelf parts as long as you don't care if its not TSOed. Get something like a https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MA400--behringer-micromon-ma400-monitor-headphone-amplifier Then you can plug one radio output into the mic input (on the mixer) and the other radio output to the monitor input. Be careful with the output to the microphone input you may have to add something like a https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SAMD2PRO--samson-md2-pro-2-channel-passive-instrument-direct-box to attenuate the outputs and turn your unbalanced output to balanced for the mixer. Just put a selector switch inline with the press to talk button so you can select which radio is being selected to transmit. There maybe something more elegant but I only spent a couple of minutes looking it up. I would just try the first mixer and see if it works ok before worrying about the passive box if it is overloading the input you will have to add the second unit. Hope that makes sense.

Just north of the home of the Kelpie. Western Vic, Private vehicles are a very important resource. When a fire front is spotting over the trucks the private units can support and suppress the spotting. Around here private units make up over half the resources at most fires and they get zero recognition. Utes can get into places the trucks cannot. Harvested blue gum plantations are a good example the ruts are spaced wrong for the trucks they bottomed out. The utes on the other hand have a rough ride but they don't get stuck. OH&s on the newer taller trucks is an issue for sure especially with the age and fitness of most of the volunteers. They do have some nice features like electric hose winders, while they do add weight when blacking out they make life so much easier. None of the trucks carry chain saws they should but once again OH&s has infiltrated and infected everything.

The trucks are not all new. I was doing a required proficiency course last night 2 of the 4 trucks where over 25 years old 1 truck was 10 plus and 1 truck was brand new. The older truck carried more water 3000L Brand new 1800L It had better crew protection, and also a lot more useless stuff that weighs it down. The older trucks do a better job because of their water carrying capacity. Most of the truck's carry quick fill pumps and we also have a quick fill trailer. Trucks are not wasted being used as pumpers. The chain saw issue is because of training and OH&S getting in the way. I have cut thousands of tonnes of fire wood (for sale) but don't have the "tickets" to use a CFA chain saw If I turn up in my private ute there is no problem go figure.

100% the whole fire bombing thing is a bad joke. What's even worse is the tendering corruption. The air tractor tender is for $3000 an hour plus standby rates. BUT you cannot go and buy a air tractor and submit a tender for say $2500 an hour noooo! You have to be part of the cub. If you are in the "allowed to tender club" you can employ a 120 hour pilot to fly your air tractor. The whole thing stinks.

Still happens. My local council has a 10,000l truck which is dispatched when needed. The armed forces don't even secure their own bases anymore its contracted out. Expecting them to do anything useful other than blow stuff up is a big stretch.

If your friends son wants to do something useful volunteer to be on the trucks. Using Military helicopters would have about as much effective as dropping 100 dollar bills on the fire only the $100 bills would be cheaper.

Narromine was a great event. Your numbered plane was not out of place at all. We just need way more RAA/GA planes to make this event the premier Australian recreational aviation fly in.

This is sad but also a chance to get the band back together and make Ausfly 2020 the place to be. Make Ausfly Great Again or MAGA for short I have some red caps printed up.... Wait what ?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-03/veteran-fire-researcher-labels-water-bombers-a-waste-of-money/7134574 Water bombing a house can cause as much damage as letting it burn there are very few "saves" and if you inspect a house after a water bomb you would not regard it as saved. Bomb is the key word here. Fire's smaller than 1km are not put out by the fire bombers they are just suppressed it's the ground crews that finish the job and they may as well do the whole job the water bombers are a huge waste of resources. Off topic on the fire truck's. The CFA has a one size fits no one strategy. The type of fires I fight are grass/cropland fire's what we need is lots of water, large pump and minimum fire protection. What the guy's in the forests need is way more protection. There are truck available that can safety drive into a forest fire. I would rather we had cheaper trucks with less fire protection for our grass lands and the guy's that need more protection have the better trucks. But no instead we have trucks that suit no one. The trucks do not even have run flat tires its so stupid all the flame over protection ( which is over kill for grass lands and marginal for forest fires) and other gear means we can only carry 2000 liters of water. Then you see the fire authority spending $3000 to $14,000 an hour per plane that make zero difference when the chips are down but make for great TV when the weather is fine and the fire is already contained. Insane.

Black Saturday Once the wind died down, fire intensity and the temp fell the aircraft appeared "Golf clap". No amount of resources where going to stop the fire's on black Saturday however we did save home's more would have been saved if we had more equipment when it was needed not later. "aircraft were used to work with ground crews containing fire edges. " Without the ground crews the fire's are not contained the aircraft are simply wasting money. "That article you quote is American, a totally different perspective when it comes to resources." So what you are saying is US fires are different to Australian fires? "What would you suggest to do with wildfires in remote country with scattered populations? Leave them burn?" Wasting money on Arial fire bombers is letting them burn the money would be way better spent else where. Like more controlled burns, more trucks, cars and Dozers. If you have not been on the ground fighting out of control blazes you have no idea, watching from the sidelines in mild conditions is not a good example.

As a long time CFA firefighter having fought many fires including fighting the Black Saturday fire's here's my take. Arial firefighting is a huge waste of money it make's for good tv but the reality on the ground is they only put out fire's which we can manage with the trucks and car's and in conditions which make's for easy fire fighting. On the days like Black Saturday they are grounded anyway. The money would be way better spent on bulldozers, trucks and cars. https://priceonomics.com/does-using-airplanes-to-put-out-forest-fires/ "Using aircraft on fire's is like spitting on a camp fire" Aircraft should only be used as spotter's anything else is just a stupid waste of money.

RAA cannot even run a Chook raffle. Sorry i mean aircraft raffle, the really scary thing. They have exclusive right to manage LSA in Oz. It would be funny if it was not true.