Firefighting Aircraft in Action

During a forest fire yesterday the firefighting aircraft arrived in just 10 minutes. After the two pilots of the planes had first determined the main source of the fire they came quickly to the point.

At a distance of some 400 meter the pilots lowered their machines into quite slow flight pace of 200-300 being maximal 50 above the fire. Imagine the risk: Often, the smoke is so thick that the pilots flew almost blind. Then becomes another proof of their exceptional professionalism evident, when one imagines what effect it has when the extinguishing liquid is being discharged: Within seconds the plane is loosing several tons of weight so its shooting quickly upwards.

The dropping of the extinguishing agent should be unerringly dropped shortly before the fire to land directly on the main source of the fire.

It's "Fire Retardant"is a water-based, thick and slippery liquid. This liquid consists of different chemicals. This composition is dependent, inter alia, of fire intensity and burning material. The Retardant is composed for cooling and reducing the fire intensity and to reduce flammability. The rust-red colour is added to the Retardant to indicated the respective discharge points (especially from the air) . Fertilizer to revitalize the burned vegetation areas can be added to the Retardant.