Here Is an excellent video of water bombers in action....good stuff!

http://player.vimeo.com/video/48642618

Just think one option for CL scale could be a water drop, just make sure you don't soak the judges! The video also shows how the retracts work

Fred

Now THAT is some up close and personal service!

Down here at the bottom of Arizona, we have occasion to see slurry or water drop fire-fighter flying. Where I am, most forest fires are in mountain woodlands - the flatter desert areas don't support tall trees. Result, the P2Vs and Cessna monoplane duster craft dump from somewhat greater alt above the burning ravines and valleys. Also locally, ground is near 5000' above MSL - air is thinner, but the turbulence is as strong as at sea level. Requires further caution. A former neighbor, a multi-engine instructor, moved back to Iowa because even without fire-updraft turbulence, the air out here is too nasty to enjoy. And as a multi-engine instructor, he was often called on to fly the gauntlet, in non-liquid-dropper light twins, to give a PiRep to the tankers...

A P2V tossing pink in a bank a few hundred feet above a fireline is a memorable sight. I just wish we could treasure that sight in memory only, not frequently repeated in nearby skies... Years back, we had occasional B-17 commercial converts(!), and I think a few C-130As. Those tended to break up, as  it was the later marks that had the reinforced wings... and fewer flight cycles...

re: the film - I believe the flying was in Spain, by a Spanish Ejercita (Emergency) unit. The aircraft looked like a Canadair design about 20 years in service. Any info on actual mfr, designation and deployment?

While I was still in the aerospace industry I was lucky to have been involved with almost all the aircraft projects for about 25 years. This covers almost everything flying today.

The CL 215 and CL415 will always be close to my heart. I got to know the chief design engineer on the Challenger program very well. He had worked on the original CL 215 water bomber, and noted that the engine thrust line location was very critical. When the CL415 was being developed, he predicted problems with the higher location on the engines.

After the first flight, the test pilots said that the airplane was almost unflyable. Look at the additions to the tail plane and you will see the results. Slats, vertical additions to stabs, a bulbous nose at the vertical stabilizer leading edge. These fixes all worked well and the CL 415 has become a very good work horse.

With all the fires that we have, I could never understand why the U.S. has not purchased them instead using surplus ground based aircraft (transports, and even old DC4s and DC6s) that must land to load water and fire suppressants.