No autopilot indeed! It must take a lot of training to deal with the shifting weight of all that water - is it a lot more difficult than regular flying?

Fire fighting is indeed an extremely hazardous vocation, especially in the mountains.

The flying is all at low altitude in nasty turbulence (often caused by the fire itself) in poor visibility in smoke. Those factors combined with picking up water over glassy water (no depth perception) & operating in constricted areas in mountainous terrain makes it very challenging requiring outstanding manual piloting skills. Furthermore, rapidly dropping tons of water dramatically upsets the aircraft's flying characteristics that must be immediately corrected.

The Canadair machine is purpose built for this role & it therefore very manoeuverable. The most amazing aircraft to watch are the large ones that have been retired from their normal role & modified for the job - Martin Mars, P3s, Hercules, DC6s, DC10s, B747s, etc. They are not known for their agility & require a amazing skills to safely do their job. Locally here in BC, ConAir in Abbotsford has been modifying & flying these type of machines for decades. I have a couple of ex-military friends who fly for them as they didn't want to do the often boring airline type of job. I really admire these crews.

All you wanted to know about these machines:

http://www.conair.ca/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_firefighting

TAM

Wow, the photo gallery on the Conair site is great. Thanks for sharing that link.

I can't find John Malkovich anywhere.

That's 'cause he got smashed with a piledriver, baby!

- yowza! Lots of interesting info - thanks!

(And I loved that the Wikipedia article debunked the diver-scooped-up-and-dropped-on-a-fire urban legend!)

Below is a vid that again was sent by another pilot friend of the now infamous B787 Dream Liner.

As you can see, it is totally automated - great as long as you don't get BSOD, ha! Flying this beast is the polar opposite of the forest fire fighting type of flying where almost everything is manual control.

Once they get the Lithium Battery problem fixed, it'll be quite a machine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s9ynMnPdCQ

TAM