I'll start:

few years ago I was copilot in hawk and saw a 61 come out of the dip with bucket and proceed to smash every single tree on the way out. At the end it looked like you shot the bucket with 100 rounds of buckshot with all the punctures they put in it. Skill level was very high obviously. What's even better is they continued flying the cycle and on the 15 min out and back they probably lost 3/4 of the water. About 1/2 way thru A/A told them to go back. Was quite the sight for me being just a sandbag.

Dumbed a bucket full on a burning roof top air conditioning unit and the whole roof collapsed.

Oh where to begin, one day throwing a DC10 load on 5 acre fire and next day sit assets to "let the fire do it's thing" only to have it get out of hand and now Voila we got ourselves a Project fire for the next month. Let's face it, Fire has become such a huge business that "managing" the fire is more important than anything else.

USFS requiring skilled vertical reference pilots for the job only to one day decide to make them use horizontal reference for rappel. 

no one uses horizontal reference, if they do then that is an incredible feat. If you can't hold your spot you're going to be run off very quickly from any rap program. I think it would be nearly impossible to stay over your spot at 300' without being in the bubble using VR.

I'd say thats actually impressive if people are pulling that off somehow. No way I could.

there's a reason for horizontal reference in rappel. you're missing the point.

The United States forest service overhead is without a doubt the dumbest thing on a fire.

Exactly what he said! 

Guvmint over anything is the height of absurd.

Watched a S-58T drop a bucket of water on his mechanic who was taking a nap, face down. Water smashed his face in the dirt. Mechanic waited till the pilot was climbing out of the cockpit and began beating the heck out of him until he was finally restrained.  Both were kicked out of the camp not long after. Pilot left a couple hours later without the mechanic. We left the next day so I dont know how it all turned out but it was pretty dumb.

Had a Jetranger go to idle in flight, and found a loose PC line. Changed fuel control to make FS happy, and they wanted me to take apart the removed fuel control apart on the landing to show them what failed...

Sat 3 days in Raton, NM while Colorado Springs lost 300 houses  in 2014. 4th day at 3pm got assigned a fire in Mariposa, CA.  Of course,  barely made Ceder City Utah the first day. Sat in Fresno for 2 days since our manager, mechanics at fuel trucks had a 1000 mile drive.

 Could have made Colorado Srpings in an hour.

About on par for how the circus runs.

About on par for how the circus runs.

was last in line at the dip ( semi treated waste water ) when the poor 58 pilot pulled out with bucket only to have the hook release and send the bucket into the turd pool. No one said a thing for a few seconds then the pilot said" I cant believe that just happened"

 The ships in front of me all started wobbling around as we were all in stitches .

Dont get cocky , could of been any one

Saw a tanked S61 dropping on about a 1-2 acre fire which could easily have been put out from the ground as it was adjacent to a highway and surrounded by a dirt road...pine plantation...little undergrowth...easy access. Anyway, the 61 made a few drops parallel to the road but kept dropping late, missing half the fire. After a few attempts, comes on the radio to say he was going to try a different direction...assumed that meant from opposite direction so a similar late drop would get what had been missed...but NOOOO...came at it perpendicular to the road...dropped late again, got half the load on the fire and the rest on some poor unsuspecting woman driving down the highway. Should have just let me handle it with the type 3 but USFS was justifying the type 1's presence.

Was in a daisy chain with 4 cranes and a chinook with a fairly close water source, A/A told us to hold for a VLAT that took almost 25 min to make his drop. We could have done more damage to the fire if they would have let us keep working. Sadly, this happened a lot. Good thing we got paid by the hour and not loads.

One day I was dispatched to a project fire, showed up at the helibase, parked lined up with all the other helicopters that were assigned to the project, without giving ANY thought to where the sun angle was going to be in the afternoon, so I did not have shade for my C401100 reclining camp chair the rest of the day. Had to hide in the trees that afternoon with the bugs, that was dumb...

You just showed your inexperience 

Back in the day.. way back when the IC was still called the Fire Boss, I was pretty sure that I should be running things. I even had the words "fire boss "on my helmet. I was a jerk!

Years later, I finally figured it out..It is their fire, and we are all there to make money. That's all there is to it. Relax and enjoy the flying and the folks. Years later you can look back and recall how much it all was, I sure do.

Thanks

Another Old Guy

how reflection reveals the plus and minus of experience.  Too bad young pilots are still behaving like we did.  Poor culture it is.

Back in the day USFS ordered boxes of additional ignition balls for backfires.  Apparently one of the overhead ordered "ping pong balls" and that's exactly what he got -- numerous boxes of actual ping pong balls.  Imagine what the guys in the wharehouse thought of this order!!  And no paddles or net!

This thread proves its you... the "drivers"

hose the new ip guy on a fire. top that.