To Spain! – part 1
Work in Spain for a few months? OK! In summer of 2006 myself and fellow co-workers headed all over Spain to perform many upgrades and system checks to some 50 Air Tractor 802 fire fighting aircraft. As a company we were there some 4 months driving all around performing upgrades, I was there about 2 months. Working mainly at night so the aircraft could be on call during the day.
These are some shots taken while working (mostly) at various air bases around spain.
20060628-2788-worketc.jpg Air Tractor Fireboss 802. 800 gallons of fire fighting goodness. A company in Wisconsin modifies them to take floats. They can land on water and scoop while flying. Neato.
20060629-2797-worketc.jpg The competition; Canada Air CL215, 1400 gallons, no precision control of water flow and something like 6 million dollars new; and Air Tractor is closer to 1 mill.
20060629-2800-worketc.jpg Big lumbering giant
20060629-2801-worketc.jpg The Air Tractor is no small plane, but compaird to the CL215... its tiny.
20060629-2802-worketc.jpg Caught with its pants down. These shots on the tarmac were taken at Cegisa, a fire fighting outfit in Salamanca, nice folks.
20060629-2803-worketc.jpg Front shot.
20060705-3440-worketc.jpg AT-802F, the more common, non amphibious version. This was taken at a late emergency repair in the mountains between Valencia and Madrid. This air strip was literally on top of a plateau in Siete Agua.
20060709-3743-worketc.jpg Too young to legally drive a rent car in Spain, I spent a lot of time riding shotgun.
20060709-3797-worketc.jpg Looking up at an out door park in downtown Valencia, hours after the pope rolled through. I didn't see the pope, but I did see a lot of trash left behind by pope viewers.
20060709-3823-worketc.jpg Just across the street from the previous shot. This was the area the European Grand Prix was held in 2008.
20060718-3967-worketc.jpg Flying tandem in a AT-802 in route for a test dump near Barcelona.
20060722-4059-worketc.jpg AT-802 late at night in a hanger built by the Luftwaffe during WW2. Son Bonet Aerodrome, on the island of Palma Malorca.
20060801-4343-worketc.jpg A quick nap in the early AM again on Palma Malorca.
Thursday, June 1st, 2006 at 10:00 am in category Images