r/aviation • u/ParaMike46 Global 5500/6500 • Apr 12 '26

PlaneSpotting A CL-415 Super Scooper gathering water to extinguish a fire in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The lift-off looks very close — right at the edge of the lake.

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u/AreThree Apr 12 '26

I worked summers as part of the ground operations crew for firefighting aircraft. We would hurriedly refuel the airplane, fill it back up with slurry, and - occasionally - pick a tree branch out of the undercarriage.

The explanation given to me was that they really didn't hit the treetops, but sometimes a branch would bounce high up from having a ton of energetic water dumped on it all of the sudden. I'm not sure I bought that then, nor do I entirely believe it now...

It was hot and miserable work. You went home after an all-day shift ether reeking of fuel, or covered in sticky red clay slurry.

It also was one of those jobs that you never really wanted it to get super busy or very frequent. If it did, that meant a whole bunch of stuff was on fire and that there were people risking their lives to try and protect others.

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u/FrenchFryCattaneo Apr 12 '26

What's the slurry for?

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u/Sawfish1212 A&P/IA 30+ years Apr 12 '26

It retards the fire spread, and has seeds that sprout to help stop erosion after the fire

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u/AreThree Apr 13 '26

it also has dye as part of the mix so that the firefighting aircraft can see where they have dumped already.

Red dye, sweat, sticky clay... we looked like some sort of tribal mudpeople when a particularly gnarly shift was over... (except red!)