Air tanker assists firefighters on the Comet Fire near Ely, Nevada

Ride with Jim Watson, the pilot of Single Engine Air Tanker 871, as he sizes up and then drops retardant on the Comet Fire near Ely, Nevada, August 6, 2020. You won't actually see the retardant because it comes out of the bottom of the aircraft. The SEAT is owned by GB Aerial Applications.

[@blancolirio]

Thanks for keeping all the radio chatter, really helps explain what's going on. Juan

[@dennisboesiger1033]

Juan, thanks for pointing the algorithm this way for me. Happy Fourth to all.

[@donalddodson7365]

Thankful for all those fighting the heat and fire.

[@SimonButler]

Hearing the coordination between ground, air attack and the tanker is what really makes this video cool.

[@cruisevideo1]

And THANK YOU for not adding music!!!!

[@gtm624]

Incredible! I never knew that even when these guys are fighting fires. There’s a pattern. I heard the call outs. I didn’t know that. Super cool hearing the operations. Thanks for sharing.

[@Wildirishmanbiker]

These folks are experts on wind, fire, thermals all that good stuff. Thanks for doing a great job in very harsh conditions

[@ryanpotter4138]

Nice video, looks like Northern California into Oregon. I am a pilot who would loved to have done this but spent my time putting wet stuff on red stuff on the ground and running heavy equipment, oh and I guess Paramedic, so from the ground thanks for cooling it down and giving us time to get a line around it

[@Monts-zw3hi]

absolute heros !Thank You ALL from top to bottom for taking the risk for all of us...God Bless always,everyday.

[@AlexejSvirid]

The problem is Devil runs the world. He is lier and murderer. This is the reason why Hitler got the power, but Christ was executed as "blasphemer" and "rioter" by denunciation of clergy. This is the reason why the whole world is Sodom. That's why we've got the Gospel about the God's kingdom. Jehovah would put everything in order. The dead will be resurected and we'll meet our loved ones again! :-)

[@Eric-gi9kg]

Very Impressive We usually only get to see this from the ground. The radio chatter was great. Gives you the sense of the difficulties that goes into fighting these fires

[@seller559]

Incredible footage. Awesome video.

[@Daniel.Palmer183f]

Thanks for all the great work...and awesome video!

[@SeanPGribbons]

I bet that’s some fun flying glad these guys are there to help

[@johnmontgomery3174]

This has not been a very good year for the air-tanker community. I hope there are no more accidents before the end of the fire season.

[@freeman7079]

Hey! Those are one of the planes I build!

[@Daniel.Palmer183f]

Would love to have the opportunity to do this job...just very hard to get to that point as a pilot from my understanding

[@heistivo]

That mountain was a bitch to hike up everyday, I'm envious

[@scopex2749]

They need to start building the Martin Mars flying boats again! Best fire tankers in the world at one time👏🏻👏🏻 Seeing that all 747’s are not retired surely theres a MEGA SOURCE of airframes to convert as well?🤔 Well done to ALL fire fighters! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@themuffinman4044]

They were actually to big to really be effective, they would drop so much water that all the ground resources would have to be pulled back for safety, and by the time they could be put back on the line, all the time that was bought would be lost. They also couldn't carry fire retardant, and were very awkward in the air.

[@ABC-oo4vm]

I don’t know if many individuals have ever witnessed that 747 making drops, but that’s a sight to see. Although, I’ve always wondered. Why not use the c-5 galaxy. The c5 is like 10times the size of 747.

[@bufferbuffer7320]

Availability (and therefore also price). The C-5s are still in service with the US military. Also, there are only 130 C-5 total buld compared to over 1500 747s (in all configurations).

[@themuffinman4044]

Actually funny fact, they're just straight up to big to be effective in firefighting. Fires are won and lost on the ground, and having to pull back all your ground resources for safety made it so all the time the Martin bought was lost getting back on the lines. Also only 113 of all the water sources in Canada are big enough for them to scoop up from.

[@Monts-zw3hi]

any of em breathe oxygen around and in these fires when they fly through?

[@Embodiment_of_trash]

Beware of tricky while on your trip in Nevada!.......oh and fire to

[@richardjensen2769]

Hmmm. Sounds to ME, like the folks Herding Single Engine Air Takers understand "Program Compliance" pretty Well. (Left Turns are "Usual." Makes a "Righty-Tighty" kind of Special.)

[@therocinante3443]

Out heer, up ther, out ther, around heer. I love local speech types.

[@kenyackimec1651]

This seems rather sketchy and unsafe to me. It would be a whole lot safer and clearer to a pilot that has just shown up on a fire to have had a lead plane(bird dog) precheck the run and the drop they want rather than giving a pilot in a loaded airtanker a rather vague description and then asking him after the drop if it worked for him. Those safety critical and low level tactical aspects should be pre-run before he ever shows up and demonstrated with a lead in or described clearly to him as he comes into the stack over the fire. Also the airtanker pilot should not be the one selecting the type of load. That should be the job of the Airattack or leadplane as I assume they are the ones with the fire strategy and fire behavior training.

[@nickmaclachlan5178]

This might not his his first drop on this fire...... could be his multiple visit and he and the ground crew have an ongoing strategy. You can't have enough info just from this vid to make the assumptions you made........

[@kenyackimec1651]

@@nickmaclachlan5178 True. So we are both making assumptions then. Sounds like we need more background info on this particular mission.

[@nickmaclachlan5178]

@@kenyackimec1651 Agreed completely...... that was my point.

[@jaw3964]

You don't always have an air attack. If resources are spread thin or too far away. I've been out of the game a few years but if I remember correctly unless there's more than one aircraft on the incident you don't need air attack. I worked outside of Vegas for years and we had a seat plane close that came in himself and did way more than we ever could. Risky career but im sure they like it that way

[@kenyackimec1651]

@@jaw3964 I worked in Canada just so you know where i have my experience. There are quite a few differences in how we work as compared to what I have seen in the states. I guess whatever works in your area is what is needed but just for info, on any given airtanker fire in Alberta we may use any combination of the fleet of Firebosses, CL 215Ts, Electras, Convair 580s and wheeled 802s. They are set up in 7 groups, each with at least one tanker and a bird dog. On any fire where tankers are dispatched there will always be (usually only one) birddog to do a bunch of stuff: radio work to IC, groundcrews and HQs, on scene fire observations and status reports/pictures, making an attack plan and communicating the plan, the runs, and load types to the tankers, calling for other tanker resources if needed, doing inspection runs, doing lead ins if necessary, load assessments and reload instructions and controlling the airspace for all the aircraft as they come and go for reloads or crews etc. There are two of us in any bird dog, the pilot and the forestry Air Attack officer and any birddog can also act as either the lone birddog or as Air Attack if it we need to split the work if it gets too busy for one. It works pretty well for us but your area works differently I understand. It would be a dream if we could all work out the same system as much as possible so we could help each other out seamlessly when needs arise. Not sure that is possible as even in Canada all the provinces have different ways of approaching this but it sure would make for an interesting conversation.