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Posted on 07/22/2007 4:06:32 AM PDT by JohnA
Jul 22 2007 9:47AM
MOSCOW. July 22 (Interfax) - A Russian Ilyushin Il-76 TD water- bomber, urgently dispatched to Bulgaria's Staraya Zagora, began a fire- fighting mission at 8 a.m. on Sunday, Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov told Interfax.
"At the request of the Bulgarian government, the ministry has sent an Il-76 water bomber capable of carrying 42 tonnes of water to Bulgaria," Beltsov said.
Forest fires raging near Staraya Zagora are threatening to spread to populated areas, he said.
The ministry will dispatch helicopter water bombers to Greece on July 24 and 25 to battle forest fires outside Athens, Beltsov said. sd
That’s over 11,000 gallons of water or a weight of 92,594 lbs...
That’s hard to believe.
I’m not supposed to do any tubthumping on behalf of Global Emergency Response here but there is a legitimate grievance on behalf of the US victim community and the taxpayer which should be taken up further by your reporters.
The IL-76 in it’s different variants-can carry a payload from 40 to upto 60 tonnes.
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Look, I LIVE here in Stara Zagora. This stuff is normal. 3 yrs. ago there were wild fires on both sides of the city. No brush is ever cleared, the fire trucks are from the 1960s, & it is one VERY hot summer.
I just hope the guys flying this thing know what to do...
Cookin’in Stara Zagora
Looked Stara Zagora up in Google. Looks like Southern California. Been part of civilization for a very, very long time.
Yep. Not supposed to do any tubthumping for Global Emergency Response anymore. I wrote that.
Yes it has, but the people running Bulgaria have NO clue what to do. An example from last week... A certain newspaper was running photos of huge potholes in Sofia. It embarrassed the mayor to do something. So, he sends in pothole fillers. One neighborhood had a very bad road that said “workers” started filling the holes in. There were several Mafia lords living on the street & they send out their goons to run the pothole guys away, flashing their pistols. And, what did the gov’t do about it? NOTHING! Not ONE thing moves in this country w/o consent of the Mafia. Sad but true.
My other gripe is the way they urinate away foreign aid. One example. A few years ago they decided to repave a walking street in town called Czar Simeon Veliki. They did so, but then dug up the street, a few weeks later to install some new pipes. Happened 3x! Hey, as long as they are using EU money, they could care less.
Nice quiet city though. Just wish that they could manage to keep the water on 24/7 though. The fires? No big deal. Happens every few summers.
Most people here have even heard of the Ruskies sending in said water bomber. And most don’t really care either...
Look on your google at Hristo Botev Street, northeast of the train station, & here we are at 130 Hristo Botev.
Missionaries working w/ International Teams
A couple of dozen of these in formation could be a lot of help in a major fire.
What was the IL76 orginially designed for?
Yes, the worst thing about the fires is the smoke & all of the lines of people trying to BBQ mushrooms (a BG tradition...) in ‘em.
Besides IF any homes do burn (there are few houses here, mostly ugly gray apartments made from Russian crayons (or concrete), since they are on the outskirts of the city, they are mostly Mafia big shots places. Will be interesting to see the results Monday AM.
Outta here...
I couldn’t get GoogleMaps to respond to the city, let alone the address but I use it all the time here in Calgary....e.g. to find the local address of a Bulgarian gal I taught how to drive. She was exceptional, showing great presence of mind on Crowchild Trail in the middle of a snowstorm. Needless to say, she passed the driver ed course
Tell that to the US Forest Circus.
Nice!
Oh... heh hehehe!
Glad to hear it. Lots of a brain drain here as many college grads ditch the former Worker’s Paradise for a good capatalist swine nation.
You must have a winner in teaching her to drive. Most BGs here are terrible drivers. My wife has been hit once while walking on the sidewalk & has a friend that was hit 3x on a sidewalk & actually lived to tell.
Now, THAT is a miracle.
It's real.
She worked hard at it and she deserved it. We get some interesting cases and knowledge of driving practices in foreign parts. Based on those reports and what we see behind the wheel, we can’t be complaining too much about our own situation.
Why as a freighter for Aeroflot. of course
The Russians are such incompetents. They gave a civil freighter paradrop doors, ground mapping radar, abd a tail gunner's position
Abandoned (NPR).
After probing a little deeper, it appears that leadership in the US Forest Service (USFS) and the FAA were not receptive to having an aircraft that would be used for both fighting fires and also hauling cargo (in the off-season). This was one of the key features of the Evergreen program because it allowed them to earn a profit between fire seasons (reportedly around $180,000 a day as a cargo transport). This seems strange because in years past, that was how other air-tanker companies made money – fighting fires during the fire season and hauling cargo during the rest of the year. Since many of the aircraft types employed by private contractors lent themselves well to this “double-duty” (principally because they were originally transport aircraft, bombers, and other aircraft with large holds), it made the business feasible, if not lucrative. The question that arises is: When did the FAA (and USFS, for that matter) turn a baleful eye towards this practice?Another point of interest surrounds both houses of Congress sending members in to grill the USFS about some matters of operation. What exactly are they looking for? Does the hasty cancellation of the 747 program have anything to do with this investigation? And how will the DC-10 come out in light of this startling turn of events? The situation becomes curiouser and curiouser! Comments? Contact me at marcher47@firebomberpublications.com.
So, considering that bureaucrats are involved, it may yet see service. Quite frankly, I see no reason why it couldn't be used as a freighter in the off season. Palletizing the system makes it a fairly simple operation to switch into fire fighter mode.
And no, I don't listen to NPR.
I hate to say it but the Fire Service has become a bureaucracy all about growing and sustaining their presence. We had three type 1 incidents in this part of world in the last month. The amount of $$$$ spent on fire management is staggering.
Yea, I know. They have a “real” retardant photo. I grabbed the other one from another website. But having seen the video test runs, I knew they had done it so I didn’t look for a “fake”.
That's what was so great about it. They saw a need (think those evil capitalist guys that run a company that calls itself "Evergreen" might actually like trees?), thought they could fill it, and developed a system at their own expense.
I guess our government has developed a NIH (Not Invented Here) attitude. Now I suppose, if they could have formed a committee and were able to fleece the taxpayers for a couple of billion, they might have been more receptive to the idea.
Several? The only one that shows up in a search is N450AX which was grounded after hitting those trees on 25 June 2007 but it's scheduled to be put back in service this week. However, if you know the registration numbers of the others please post them.
There was just a news article somewhere on jumbo jets being certified in the US to dump retardant. 11,000 gallons is about right, I think the article quoted over 20,000 gallons capacity for one jumbo jet.
So, in this case Evergreens aircraft, pilots and crew and capital are still being productively used, regardless of the Forestry Service.
I suspect that large tankers whomping small fires would threaten the entire status structure of Forestry Service fire fighter armies, their camps, the suppliers, the pay and money it brings to mountain towns.
There is a big money and personal fight and the FS doesn’t want it going to the aircraft guys. As taxpayers we will eventually get to pay for both systems. On a dark side I have a notion that Evergreens aircraft might have another, real reason. That is dumping special liquids on a dirty bombed city to suppress the dust. The fire fighting is just a cover story.
Rick Hatton, 63, a former Marine combat fighter pilot from Redwood City who runs a cargo plane conversion company, is a partner with Burnstein in the tanker project. He said they envision placing five tankers across the country so that one is within an hour's flying time of any large wildfire. During the winter months in Southern California, the planes could be stationed in Australia for that country's brush fire season.
I did see the story about clipping the trees. Very crazy flying in a plane that big.
A DC-10 carries about 11,000 gal. That might be the article you were thinking of.
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The IL-76 turbofan jet cargo aircraft is by far the world's most formidable, fastest, longest-range, air tanker. For fire fighting and ocean oil spill dispersal, as well as for dispersion on (e.g.) chemicals plants in upset conditions, it comes outfitted with a twin-tank system capable of carrying either 100,000 or 135,000 pounds of liquid and can be filled and ready for takeoff in 15 minutes. In its smaller 100,000 pound version, this patented system is capable of depositing more than 3,608-3,937 ft x 263-295 ft of liquid in one 8-10 second pass - water only - and one 15-20 second pass with foam additive. This is up to five (5) times greater than the volume deliverable by the largest-volume "water bomber" commonly used in the world today. (source: actual observed data from Australian test)
