Waterbomber fighting fires near Ulladulla, NSW has crashed. - Polidicks

[QUOTE][QUOTE][IMG]http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2013/10/24/1226745/884204-b4c3cec6-3c44-11e3-a826-323d4d841c99.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]A RURAL Fire Service aircraft has crashed while fighting fires this morning and a fire has broken out as a result of the crash near Charlie's Forest Road near Braidwood. Waterbombing helicopters are attempting to douse the flames. A rescue helicopter is on site and has reported seeing a body lying motionless beside the wreckage. Source: [URL]http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/rfs-confirms-that-a-waterbomber-fighting-fires-near-ulladulla-has-crashed-and-caused-new-blaze/story-fni0cx12-1226745842189[/URL][/QUOTE]

These fires are horrible, I hope no one in the crew died :(

Hope that guy laying motionless is alright :c Is this a common problem in firefighting planes? Seems like the weight lost when they drop the water makes the wings go "SCREW THIS I'M OUT" [video=youtube;4bDNCac2N1o]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bDNCac2N1o[/video]

basically your correct, those planes are dumping something like half their weight in less than 20 seconds, the airframe could break from the sudden stress, or the nose could pitch up and put it into a stall, you don't want weight shifting in a plane let alone dumping tons of weight suddenly. coupled with this, the air over these forest fires is often filled with unpredictable air currents because of the fire, so its a very dangerous job

Not only is the crash awful in itself, but it started ANOTHER fire, Australians just cant catch a break can they

It can be dangerous, but it's not as dangerous as you would think. The real dangers come from the smoke completely blocking visibility, and having to get real low. Here's some pretty kick ass footage from the cockpit on a run to drop fire retardant [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_eGiGG1B-Q[/media]

Confirmed pilot is dead. RIP.

[video=youtube;JaUDs48h2ns]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaUDs48h2ns[/video]

Man, that's horrible. Tragedy after tragedy with this bushfire :(

I know any death is terrible and this one is no exception but honestly, a mega bushfire and the deathtoll is currently 2, I think that's incredible but again this is still ongoing and no deaths are better but yeah, the fire crews are handling this really well with getting their message through

They learnt a lot from Victoria in 2009. You either say, you stay and fight, or get the fuck outta there early.

[QUOTE=Sableye;42627451]basically your correct, those planes are dumping something like half their weight in less than 20 seconds, the airframe could break from the sudden stress, or the nose could pitch up and put it into a stall, you don't want weight shifting in a plane let alone dumping tons of weight suddenly. coupled with this, the air over these forest fires is often filled with unpredictable air currents because of the fire, so its a very dangerous job[/QUOTE] The reason the wings snapped off that C130 is not because the wings were suddenly stressed, it was because the wing loading went from being very high to very low in a matter of seconds. This caused the wing spars that were being pulled upward to drop down rapidly and cause extreme metal fatigue, which resulted in wing failure. You might be able to get away with doing that a number of times, but just think of the wing spars as paper clips, if you bend them back and forth enough, they're going to weaken and eventually break. Basically it boils down to water bombers are made out of aircraft that were never designed for such a purpose, and it's far out of their specification. Other big contributors to accidents like these are that water bombers are almost always made out of old aircraft with tons of hours on them and have been through many owners. The modifications to turn the planes into water bombers are also usually made by 3rd parties, or the owners themselves without any regards to structural soundness of the airframe.

[QUOTE=TheTalon;42628384]It can be dangerous, but it's not as dangerous as you would think. The real dangers come from the smoke completely blocking visibility, and having to get real low. Here's some pretty kick ass footage from the cockpit on a run to drop fire retardant [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_eGiGG1B-Q[/media][/QUOTE] Landing gear Landing gear Landing gear Landing gear Landing gear Landing gear Landing gear Landing gear

[QUOTE=GiGaBiTe;42629483]The reason the wings snapped off that C130 is not because the wings were suddenly stressed, it was because the wing loading went from being very high to very low in a matter of seconds. This caused the wing spars that were being pulled upward to drop down rapidly and cause extreme metal fatigue, which resulted in wing failure. You might be able to get away with doing that a number of times, but just think of the wing spars as paper clips, if you bend them back and forth enough, they're going to weaken and eventually break. Basically it boils down to water bombers are made out of aircraft that were never designed for such a purpose, and it's far out of their specification. Other big contributors to accidents like these are that water bombers are almost always made out of old aircraft with tons of hours on them and have been through many owners. The modifications to turn the planes into water bombers are also usually made by 3rd parties, or the owners themselves without any regards to structural soundness of the airframe.[/QUOTE] So the spars were put under extreme stress

[QUOTE=viperfan7;42631973]So the spars were put under extreme stress[/QUOTE] Like radial tires only liking to be turned one direction, wing spars only like to be loaded one direction (generally upwards.) They're designed to take tons of stress from lift pulling them upwards, not go from extreme upward load to no load and negative load in just a few seconds, and be repeated frequently.