DC10 (air tanker) flying below Half Dome

Something that will hopefully happen only very rarely: a DC10 air tanker flies below Half Dome after dropping fire retardant on the "Tenaya Fire" that started in Indian Canyon above Yosemite Valley.

Here's a link to the Facebook video clip of this rare sight: https://www.facebook.com/360259017389942/posts/884539008295271



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2015 03:39PM by plawrence.

Air drops over fires have got to be one of the scariest types of flying I can imagine. Large aircraft need a lot of safety space working down low, slow, and heavy. The erratic thermals updrafts coming from below have got to be hair raising. Some aircraft flying this low also have an annoying and distracting automatic PA announcement repeatively reminding the pilot to deploy landing gear because the aircraft is programmed to do so when that close to the ground.
Jim

There is also "Pull up! Pull up! Contact with ground imminent!"

---

Old Dude