EDR wrote:
In article ,
Frank Stutzman
wrote:

In about '94 I stopped by Watts-Woodland airport
in Northern California to
visit the Beech dealership. They had 3 or
4 OV-10s in the hangar that they
were under contract to modify for the Forest
Service. Apparently the
Forest Service was going to use them as spotting
planes for fire
suppression. Don't know if it ever came to
anything.

Given that the Forest Service has been using
Barons and T-28's for
lead/spotter aircraft, the OV-10 is ideal. Rugged,
twin turbine,
excellent visibility.
CDF (Calif. Division of Forestry) uses OV-10s as FACs for fire-bombers.
I had a fire on a mountain across from my home here in Central CA and the
first plane on the scene was an OV-10. The S-2s showed up from Fresno about
a half-hour later. They dropped a load right on a bulldozer cutting a line
on the mountain-I would have loved to hear the bulldozer guy's radio traffic.
Fire got contained after 2 hrs.-only 30+ acres.

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