ATC on the Chips

I'm not talking about some kind of salsa on top of potato chips...

 

The Chips forest fire is/was located in N. California. It is unknown what caused the start of the fire, which grew to over 74,000 acres, threatened numerous communities, destroyed many buildings, burned up alot of trees, electric transmission lines. At one time, there were over 1,500 people working on the fire in various capacities, including Tower Tech, Inc.

Tower Tech is a private firm that provides air traffic control for helicopters and air tankers that are used in fighting the forest fires. I was one of the controllers (retired from FAA) to work on the Chips fire. We set up Tower Tech's portable tower, originally, at the Quincy, CA airport, then was relocated to Chester, CA airport then moved back again to Quincy...all due to the needs of the fire support and reduced visiblity from the smoke. Here is a website that can access information for the Chips fire, as well as others...pretty neat site to see what's happening!

 

 

http://www.inciweb.org/incident/3052/

 

 (the Chips fire site will probably be dropped from inciweb by end of Oct.)
 

One of Tower Tech's portable ATC towers, with Titus "Stretch" Gall,
owner, standing next to one of the F450 tow trucks

One of the helicopters used on the fire...Bell Cobra. It is used to
observe areas of the fire, direct air tankers and helicopters in
dropping retardant and water, and for mapping the fire area for
hotspots using an infrared camera system

Boeing CH-46 Vertol, with a long line and water bucket,
used to dip into lakes and streams and then hauled
to fire and dropped near the fire fighters on the
ground.

Bell Jet Ranger, used to observe fire areas that need to be worked
by the other helicopters. This one has an apparatus used to shoot
ping-pong sized balls with fire making chemicals in them. See this
website for more:   http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=129513&page=1

The Quincy Airport flightline with 7 helicopters

Another CH46 Vertol, outbound to the fire

Bell UH1, and long line with bucket, outbound to the fire

You might be wondering what my lovely, patient Karen was doing while I was working all day, slaving at the "office"....SHE WAS PLAYING!!!

 

My dear, feeding the deer!

 

   Karen spent most of her days relaxing, reading, shopping, riding her bike, cooking my meals and just plain enjoying Northern California in our new rv!