Fire Spotter
Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2004 4:23 pmAhhh yes. A nifty repaint, and probably one of my favorites now of the Pilatus Porter.
The call came in around 11 am. Some campers in the mountains called in that they had seen smoke coming up from the northeast. Being that the weather has been dry for what seemed ages, we figured it best to not consider this a false alarm. Take all reports seriously. Besides, if I found nothing, it was a great day to fly and the Porter had about half a load of fuel. Enough to search.
I was up within ten minutes, scouring the countryside looking for smoke plumes, around the GPS coordinations the campers provided.
Circling around the area, I spotted nothing out of the ordinary, except one campfire, which I alerted the local Forestry division about on the radio. There is a temporary ban right now thanks to the dry brush. One spark and the mountains could become charred remains
I decided to fly lower in the area looking for anything suspicious. This land is notorious for campers and hikers that don't follow the advice of Smokey the Bear.
After a couple of hours, the fuel was running low so I headed to the local airstrip for a refuelling
and a maintenance inspection. Good thing I was there, as another call came in from some hikers that had an emergency. Unfortunately I was the closest one being an hour away. I could atleast fly over and drop a first aid package down to them. Nice thing about the Porter, I can keep it in the air at a very slow speed. I love this bird!
Time to go help those in need.
The call came in around 11 am. Some campers in the mountains called in that they had seen smoke coming up from the northeast. Being that the weather has been dry for what seemed ages, we figured it best to not consider this a false alarm. Take all reports seriously. Besides, if I found nothing, it was a great day to fly and the Porter had about half a load of fuel. Enough to search.
I was up within ten minutes, scouring the countryside looking for smoke plumes, around the GPS coordinations the campers provided.
Circling around the area, I spotted nothing out of the ordinary, except one campfire, which I alerted the local Forestry division about on the radio. There is a temporary ban right now thanks to the dry brush. One spark and the mountains could become charred remains
I decided to fly lower in the area looking for anything suspicious. This land is notorious for campers and hikers that don't follow the advice of Smokey the Bear.
After a couple of hours, the fuel was running low so I headed to the local airstrip for a refuelling
and a maintenance inspection. Good thing I was there, as another call came in from some hikers that had an emergency. Unfortunately I was the closest one being an hour away. I could atleast fly over and drop a first aid package down to them. Nice thing about the Porter, I can keep it in the air at a very slow speed. I love this bird!
Time to go help those in need.
I like the missing gauges too.
