arguing with a pilot is like wrestling with a pig in the mud: after a while you begin to think the pig likes it.
arguing with a pilot is like wrestling with a pig in the mud: after a while you begin to think the pig likes it.
ORNBAUM:
Sorry to see that he has passed on, I was just a kid, hanging around the airport, I just love to hear all the stories and tall tales ... all those guys were bigger than life. I am sure no one ever had to tell Ornbaum to "Man Up." He gave me a couple of rides in the B-17; he flew it like a J3 Cub.
John Woodmansee
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR .......... now who do ye suppose THIS might be? Perhaps a lil' granddarlin' spawn of the FIREPIRATES CAPTAIN maybe?
And if Cap'n Mikey ever once made you laugh or saved yer butt or showed you the path to a GOOD DROP .... or even if you just like his website ... consider sendin' him a nice FirePirates spawn shirt for his wee lil' granddarlin' for the Holiday Season. (The pink Nike stuff is just wrong.) And as we oldfarts know, they do grow up fast ...... get 'er in somethin' appropriate, quick!
CHECK OUT THE NEW TREASURE-CREAMER ON THE VIDEO PAGE !!! If you're old enough to remember Hemet .... And, by the way, there's a couple new items (rrrrrrrum mug and bumpersticker) on the BOOTY page.
There's a dandy new story from Mark Clifton on the STORIES page.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN from Cap'n CloudDancer:
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This is probably either Rusty Foster or Red Morrison. And a little a rough AVI clip - part of a roll of 8mm that I'm working on. It's a big sucker, but worth it. BOO!
FROM MAC:
I just stumbled across your site and it almost brought tears to my eyes, no, not from the smoke, but just a few of the photos here. I spent a lot of time flying with Al Adolph, Al Schwartz, and Joe McCoy when I was with IVS and USAID in Laos, 1966-1970; then I moved down to Vientiane ... not so much pax flying any more. Sure great guys!!! Time for me to have another home brew in remembrance.
Mac, IVS and USAID/Laos, '66-'75; retired in Thailand
"Give a man a beer and he wastes an hour; teach a man to brew and he wastes a lifetime."
MAC HAS A NEW PAGE OF PHOTOS HERE. Check it out!
Oh, now THIS is GOOD...... . Cap'n Kraus has been digging around in the storage unit, and has come up with a few photos. This is just a little piece of what he's found. Watch out what you wish for, and stay tuned for more.
First page of several from the Kraus Treasure Chest is now online: Photo Page 48
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| I was digging through my #2 storage unit (not the one with the buried photo albums) and ran across a pile of old pictures from 1983 when I briefly flew Evergreen's B-17. The cockpit shot is Chuck Ott (aka ODiM) in Tanker 22 (B-17G-95DL AF44-83785) N207EV, en route to the Chama Fire on the Santa Fe NF 28.May 1983. He will remember the non-retracting right main gear after our departure from Ft. Huachuca on a different occasion. He about had a heart attack trying to crank it up; I finally spelled him off for the last 100 turns or so. In the left photo above, he's trying to figure out how to make the junk work that "Dad" sent to Alamogordo from HQ at Marana ... | ||
Cap'n Kraus sent us this link: WATCH THIS.
TRUST THE WEBWENCH: Do not have any sort of food or beverage in your mouth when you watch this. And (warning), you will mandatorily have to watch this more than once. This is about the coolest aviation video we've seen for months. THANKS LARRY!
Phill Dupree, the San Bernardino County ECS Weather Support Coordinator and Skywarn Coordinator, says he figured out what started the recent Butler Fire. It was UFOs cleverly disguised as lenticular clouds.
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FROM the FIRE PIRATE ARTIST, Tom Stein, Jr.
AYE, MATEYS, here be me and me smelly crew in me studio ....
 You will TOO put red ochre on that brush! Do as you're told! |
 It's talk like a pirate day, I mean paint like a pirate day! |
| and ... some time later .... |  First in a series ... |
FROM CAP'N MIKEY:
"Been busy lately ... AAARRRGGHHH!
 We can find the fire cuz it's written on the left side |
 YIKES!!! I'm so SCARED |
FINALLY!! PHOTOS FROM GORDO!
After an interminable unforgivable and inexcusable delay, the webwench has finally got Gordo's collection of photos online.
FROM A FIREPIRATE DOWN UNDER:
GDay from West Oz Down Under! Stumbled across this site whilst trying to get some updated information on the current wildfire situation there in the USof A. Great to see a site for aerial suppression operations. We have six fixed-wing aircraft (both radial and turbo) and five rotary that we utilise during the fire season for suppression, a fleet of Champion Scouts for detection and air attack platforms, and a small dedicated team of multi-skilled Aircrew. Given the nature of our business we use multiple small aircraft to do the job, in comparison with some of the fleet that you guys have over there. AWESOME! Great site, great content and I look forward to checking it out more often. Perhaps Firepirates could have an Aussie chapter? Anyway, keep up the good work and you never know, but there could even be some of our crew coming over to your part of the world this season! Take care, soft landings!
Damion Kuret
District Fire Operations Officer & Air Attack Supervisor
Dept. of Environment and Conservation
Albany, West Australia
Damion's photos are on page 46 of the photo gallery. THANKS, DAMION!
FROM PIRATE CAP'N DARRAN:
"New Year's Eve, a full moon, a bit north of Columbia ... AAARRRGGHHH!
We boarded a comely scow called FIRECAT, out of Chico, just north of Columbia, then hoisted our flags and claimed our booty! The wenches were fed a week earlier at Union, so they'll likely last another month or so ... "
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(Does he mean Columbia or Colombia? Or both?)
Walt, YOU SHIT, you've apparently achieved Nirvana. We're all happy [snarl] for your success, but you know about the code and there's no evidence yet about your sharing the booty. Don't push your luck!
FROM LARRY KRAUS: While trying to locate something else, I ran across a copy of the Wenatchee World newspaper for 08/14/2000, which had a front-page picture of me dropping near some houses not too far from Leavenworth on 08/12.
This is one of my favorite pictures of T-62. What it doesn't show is that I'm headed directly into the hillside and was just about to stand on the left wingtip to turn enough to miss hitting the hillside. It was the only way to make an effective drop, as it was too steep downhill and blind going the other direction -- and there were trucks and people everywhere. It was Initial Attack, naturally. Some fun!
GREAT SHOT, LARRY, THANKS! (click the little one to see the big one.) And here's another fine link from Kraus: micom.net/oops. This has been added to the links page. Thanks Larry!
Also, a couple of new photo pages have been added; check the links for the page numbers at the bottom of any page in the photo gallery ...
I, Juan Tzbaco, have been referred to this site by a firevixen and am telling yoos it is great! Thanks, it is a fun place to be and I might have some pictures to post later.
Thanks
JT
Here's another link from my favorite warbird site. This one has to do with touring around the country. Maybe the guys in the fed tankers will appreciate it.
Kraus
NOTE FROM THE WEBWENCH: Kraus is good for photos and background info, but he's gotta get some kinda award for this one!!!!
Cap'n Darran sent us a pile o'photos, and we liked 'em enough to put 'em up on page 41.
The one at right doesn't get any bigger, so we parked it here on this page; it's a shot of ex-SISQ T-26, FPL, June 1975.
Walt wrote:
Kenny, you got me going! "Phil" is Phil Wallick, producer of FIREBOMBER video, several books, etc.
wwd
Great to see you got your site back up, SLACKER! Looking at those pics brings back memories. Remember this? MAFFS 8: "Hey Mikey." Lead: "What Wade?" MAFFS 8: "I think my tank just exploded." Lead: "Well, will it still fly?" MAFFS 8: "I don't know, I'll tell you in a minute or two."
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Really glad to see you get your site back up! I'll dig through my slides and get some really old stuff for you to look at . . .
Took this photo on the Delatite base in Victoria early last week; the fire behind is the Whitfield complex. It was so big it had standing lenticulars clouds on top of the cumulus on top of the smoke.
Also, I got a photo of the cabin used in "The Man from Snowy River" movie -- surrounded by smoke from the fires.
Kenny
Avast ye lubbers! Me FireCat is en route to the Grenadines from the Med, by way of France and the Canaries. ETA La Paz mid-January. Rum-swilling conducted according to The Code will be the Plan of The Day 2-17 February. Applications for Corsair being accepted. Me hopes has been realized!
Well now if I ever live to be an old man
I’m gonna sail down to Martinique
I’m gonna buy me a sweat-stained Bogart suit
And an african parakeet
~ Jimmy Buffett, MIGRATION
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Above: FireCat lying Palermo, the Pirate Arms on Mahe, Seychelles, FireCat Coat of Arms, the BoatBitch recruiting on St. Barts, the Limey crew showing the Pirate Colors.
Capt. Billy Blood
I was gonna ask if there was any photos of Don, until I found the GOOD one. I could give you a few stories about our time together, but would have to tell you in person. It would take way too long here ... Great site. How about having some patches made up?
Still on here in Ramona.
Bob Forbes
Mikey, it's about time you got off your lazy ass and got your photo website back up!
High fives!
kellybob