Thanks to JP for a great pic of an old P-3A still serving…
Aero Union P-3A pictured in Colorado, probably in the last week. Appears this is one of 6 still certified..
These are still being flown by my shipmates, and trust me they KNOW how to get down low and get the job done! The company is not being run by real smart folks, but the grunts doing the work as still putting missions out…
3000 gallons of retardant 180kts, approach flaps and get er done!!!
I can’t help but wonder how surprised the two guys on that balcony were 🙂
Fly safe my friends, fly safe!!!
Some planes… and ships… and cars… really do seem to come alive over the years. They carry with them a little piece of every man and woman who worked on them and commanded them.
Marvelous!
Mark On Top…Now…NOw…NOW! FIRE RETARDENT AWAY!!!
Wow! I bet that did cause some surprise!
I did a four year hitch with VP-48 from ’87 to ’91. My first CO left the navy to fly one of the firefighting P-3s. I love those birds something fierce! It always does me good to see one in the air!
BTW love the blog!
Mark
Those folks on the balcony are relatives (of sorts – marriage links). That photo is in Estes Park. Talked to these folks on 7/30. They were so appreciative of all the fire fighters. Their home was saved.
Used to enjoy watching the P-3s from Brunswick Naval Air patrolling over the coast when I was on vacation in New Harbor, Maine. Large, slow and very impressive. This is a terrific photograph.
Those old girls still have a wonderful frame!
Back in a former life I was a sector boss on a wild fire that had air support. One of the drops was off line and dumped about 300 gallons of water (thankfully it wasn’t a slurry mix which would have made it really heavy) right on me. I don’t ever want to get hammered into the ground that way again!
Sort of like ‘rigging’ a Soviet Spy Trawler, isn’t it?
A P-3C picked me up from a tight place once when there was no other way out. Just landed on a hostile runway without permission and I ran out of the brush at the end of the strip while they sat there at full power with the brakes on – rolling a bit. The crew horsed me on and away we went.
I was always fond of crazy P-3 drivers…
And I didn’t know there were any of the A models still flying.
Carteach- That they do…
Joe- Yep, except no TACCOs, the bus drivers get to do it themselves…LOL
PH- 🙂 They may be old and slow, but they can STILL be sneaky…
ark- Thanks! Depending on what you did, we ‘may’ have crossed paths at Moffett… I was with CPWP SP.
WSF- Glad to hear that!
Anne- They ARE good birds, best is the world at ASW, and not too bad at fire bombing either! 🙂
ADM- that they do!
Gaffer- Yep, THAT would have left a mark! Glad you were okay!
LL- 🙂 Yep, 50 years old and still gettin it…
No finer use for an aircraft than dropping something on something or someone below. Calling down the thunder on the two-dimensional world…that’s why aircraft exist. 🙂
Now if I can only engineer a couple of hardpoints, a release mechanism and an aiming system onto my Cessna. Heh.
I sure am glad that we sold our “allies” the Pakistanis ten of those wonderful P-3s though. I’m sure that, like our sale of F-14s to Iran, we’ll never regret it.
Murph- True 🙂 And back in the ‘day’ the Paki’s used a 172 for “ASW”… Guess they weren’t real successful!!!