The next drop was brown (firefighting plane close call)

Close indeed. When the plane and the shadow almost meet it is not good.

My very little knowledge of aerial drops is don't fly downhill towards rising terrain.
 
When your wingtip vortices stir up the dust, reconsider your flight path.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
When your wingtip vortices stir up the dust, reconsider your flight path.
Click to expand...
Indeed! I wasn't sure looking at the shadow and from the somewhat grainy video if they actually were that close or if there was some kind of focus length illusion there, but the vortices stirring up the dust was a clear sign that those guys barely missed that ridgeline!

I can imagine if there had been some kind of issue with the retardant release mechanism and they were just a hair heavier if they could have climbed away from there..

It must be fun flying a firefighting AC
 
Over water, I hear you can generate an impressive rooster tail with a certain utilitarian, military, four engine turboprop named after a constellation. And try explaining the wet belly to the DO afterwards. . .but the water is at least freaking level on a nice day . . .
 
I had to watch several times before I finally saw any smoke from a fire.
 
Pilots posted somewhere about this. It was a very educational post and brought to light how skilled those pilots are and how a slight distraction almost cost them their lives.
 
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