Grass Valley air attack base

Daveroo

Daveroo

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Grass Vally Air Attack Base,7-9-11,,was an open house airfest at the airport.later in the day the aircraft were involved in a failrly large fire,around 6:30 last night,and T89 suffered an engine malfunction...went to McClellan last night..back on base this morning and in service.
 
Hey, another Cal Fire / air tanker affecianado! Check out Simulated Air Tanker Operations on Facebook, I'm part of that group and we fight simulated fires in FSX multiplayer. Anyone that's a tanker nut should check it out. I've been building tanker base sceneries for the group to use.


Last season Patty Wagstaff was the newbie Bronco pilot at Grass Valley. I believe this year she's at Sonoma.
 
airattackimages said:
Hey, another Cal Fire / air tanker affecianado! Check out Simulated Air Tanker Operations on Facebook, I'm part of that group and we fight simulated fires in FSX multiplayer. Anyone that's a tanker nut should check it out. I've been building tanker base sceneries for the group to use.


Last season Patty Wagstaff was the newbie Bronco pilot at Grass Valley. I believe this year she's at Sonoma.
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wow...i didnt know that...interresting to know...i listen to all of norcal and most of northops on my scanner set up
 
Daveroo said:
wow...i didnt know that...interresting to know...i listen to all of norcal and most of northops on my scanner set up
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Good deal! I listen to Southops! :D


Yeah it was interesting to hear Patty Wagstaff wanted to fly with Dyncorp/Cal Fire. I was wondering how much Cal Fire was going to use her for good PR, but since I've never seen them put her on display yet I gotta say it seems like it was purely because she wanted to do it, and nothing more. :) Pretty neat. I imagine she would be great once she goes to the S-2, obviously she knows how to handle an aircraft.

I just hope she doesn't skip some of the others in line to go to the Tracker just because of who she is. Doesn't seem like that's the case so far, and I'm excited that she is bringing attention to the industry and the pilots. I know two of the guys that are S-2 trained but stuck in Broncos. Not that the OV-10 isn't a sexy plane to fly itself, but most of these guys didn't get into firefighting so they could turn left all day like NASCAR. Haha.
 
I thought it was funny that Patty posted a cockpit photo she took in the Bronco yesterday/today on Facebook. Her nomex gloves sat on top of the dash and you could see her feet in flip-flops on the rudder pedals. Sort of opposites.

The Bronco does look like a fun airplane.
 
That turboprop conversion on the S-2 is pretty clean. Looks like it came from Grumman that way. A lot of conversions don't look near that good. Although I still think they look better with the original radial engines.
 
Patty is not a dumper. She is a spotter. (Heck, that doesnn't sound very nice-hehe). She is like airborne traffic control, kinda of. And yeah, they don't mind the publicity she gets for them. Flip-Flops? She is really a cool Lady.
Chuck B
Napamule
Ha. I said 'T2'. It's probably due to my confusion over 'Tracker' / 'Trader' terminology. Of course it Turbo Tracker S-2. Always fly it (and OV-10) occassionally since 2008. Here is dumping in FS9 pic.
 
Railrunner130 said:
I thought it was funny that Patty posted a cockpit photo she took in the Bronco yesterday/today on Facebook. Her nomex gloves sat on top of the dash and you could see her feet in flip-flops on the rudder pedals. Sort of opposites.

The Bronco does look like a fun airplane.
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Haha yep, saw that too.


Ya know, I was talking so much about PWAS I forgot to mention the guy that flies T-89. "Hoser" is an ex-Tomcat bubba with a great history in the -14. I've never gotten the chance to talk to him yet but from what I hear he's got some great stories, and obviously is a good stick that can apply a lot of that aggressive flying to the firefight. :salute:
 
airattackimages said:
Haha yep, saw that too.


Ya know, I was talking so much about PWAS I forgot to mention the guy that flies T-89. "Hoser" is an ex-Tomcat bubba with a great history in the -14. I've never gotten the chance to talk to him yet but from what I hear he's got some great stories, and obviously is a good stick that can apply a lot of that aggressive flying to the firefight. :salute:
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he wasnt at the base saturday when i was there darn it...i really wanted to talk to him,but none of the pilots went on duty until 10:00am and i was there arounf 9:30...
 
Daveroo said:
he wasnt at the base saturday when i was there darn it...i really wanted to talk to him,but none of the pilots went on duty until 10:00am and i was there arounf 9:30...
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Ahhh thats a bummer.

On a related note: funny that since we had just been talking about it, Smithsonian's Air & Space magazine just released an article about Patty's new career move. Anyone that is a Facebook fan of her page will have seen her post the link today.

http://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today/Patty-Wagstaffs-Second-Act.html
 
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