Cool things in my front yard

[Michael Burke]

These images were taken of the fire fighting helicopters about 50 yards from my front door. The rotor downwash from this Sikorsky makes a mess of my yard. This airport has been the fire base for helicopter activities since the day after the Thomas fire ignited. The helos are in the air from early morning until sundown. It's interesting to watch them come and go. There are about 15 helicopters based here right now. Normal airport activities are on hold until the fire crews leave. These crews are from all over the US. The ground crews work about 16 hours per day during a fire like this one. After sunset there is still a lot of activity around the helicopters. I've seen them working until midnight a few times.

[ted johnson]

These images were taken of the fire fighting helicopters about 50 yards from my front door. The rotor downwash from this Sikorsky makes a mess of my yard. This airport has been the fire base for helicopter activities since the day after the Thomas fire ignited. The helos are in the air from early morning until sundown. It's interesting to watch them come and go. There are about 15 helicopters based here right now. Normal airport activities are on hold until the fire crews leave. These crews are from all over the US. The ground crews work about 16 hours per day during a fire like this one. After sunset there is still a lot of activity around the helicopters. I've seen them working until midnight a few times.

Holy crap, Michael! Looks like a hotbed of activity. Ted

[Michael Burke]

The sun has set and most of the flock has returned for the night. Very cool to watch it happen.  The fuel trucks have just started the task of getting them all refueled for the morning launch. I walked the flight line this evening and there are 20 helicopters currently flying from this location.

[Michael Burke]

photos for the previous reply

[doug tenney]

Hope they get those fires under control before they do more damage.

At the top of this thread, if you look carefully you can see that the orange/white helo has NO tail rotor, and TWO main rotors right next to each other. It's a Kaman's K-max, called a synchropter. I guess the main shafts are tilted outboard "just" enough that the rotors don't smack into each other.