foresterab

greetings from the northern but not crispy part of the province :). Not sure which hobby shops you have local or if you're relying upon the internet for purchases but it's amazing what you can find at places like Dollar store for supplies (clothes pins, nail files for sanding, sponges for masking etc...) foresterab

Greetings Rob, Here's hoping Winterpeg is treating you well and the Hudson Bay winds haven't visited too much. Always been a nice drive through your neck of the woods when passing through. Oh yeah...greetings from Alberta foresterab

Martin, Well done. What I do want to know is where you got the elves for Christmas with the tiny fingers to put it all together for you as my hands do not do anywhere near that level of detail. Build it to whatever makes you happy and enjoy the process. foresterab

I've only seen the plywood floors on a couple of Bell 212 models usually near the sling storage/fuel gear for transport. But the overall effect looks quite good. Usually I seen plastic liners put in the back as trays to protect the helicopter floor due to folks wearing caulk boots (spikes on the bottom) and reinforced/additional skid points for climbing in but that's usually on Bell 206/Eurocopter AS 350's. Some very nice progress and enjoying hearing the background stories on the machine. I've only ever seen 2 of them and only one of those was flying. foresterab

An interesting start and background. I only the S-61 from fire fighting roles here in Canada where it has occasionally be contracted for use including this summer's fire in Fort Mac Murray. Shame it's not a complete kit but you seem to know what to toss and what to keep so it's a great start. Looking forward to seeing the completed build. foresterab

Thanks for this....it's a class on how to build models in a completely different way and yet might be of use for me in a future build. foresterab

Jessica...you just had to rub it in that you don't have winter on the left coast :(. That's a nice set up of the CF-104 at the museum though as you can peer into the cockpit on the machine due to stairs placed beside it. Much better than us out right of you under a winter storm advisory. foresterab

Of the three planes I've seen only one had a reference to center stores...but it was a photo recon pod. Mind you these were museum display pieces so not quite the same loaded for bear... Let me know if you want me to email you the photo? foresteab

I've had no issues with the kit landing gear...it's fairly solid once glued in as long as you have enough weight in the nose. Mines more of a tail sitter since I didn't get the balance quiet right but overall it's good. I did receive recommendations to use the white metal aftermarket options but had passed. foresterab

Leon, I look at your build...and then look over the shoulder at mine. All I can say is I'm pretty humbled by the amazing work you've done here and the constant high level of detail. This is going to be an amazing end product. foresterab

I have to ask...who did you order the decal sheet from? foresterab

Nice start on the 205...the cargo rings look just about perfect. Usually see the side areas (where you've added your milliput seats) covered with cargo covered with netting but that's for fire crews so different than your build. Definitely coming along smooth with many of the initial small touches in progress. Cheers, foresterab

I believe NFLD has -415's now. Alberta and Saskatchewan are the only two provinces with the -215T's I know of while most of the other provinces switched their -215's to -415's over the years. If you're trying to visit the tankers flying out of the bay it might be worth calling the local fire center and asking about visitation and hours....often an engineer will give a walkaround before the pilots show up for the core duty day and sometimes you can get a tour of the full base (tankers + birddog + setup) depending on the jurisdiction and fire situation.

Newfoundland still wears a similar scheme with their CL-415's. Also the same scheme as they used to use on the PBY Canso's. There are a few PBY's that went to the North West Territories flown by Buffalo Airways that have a similar scheme but the Buffalo CL-215's are definitely different from NFLD. Most of the provinces here in Canada use Yellow based paint schemes for their tankers - NFLD is green and Saskatchewan is White (with green trim). Hope it helps...and great job on the paint Leon. Foresterab

Looking good... Really nice work on the trim lines/masking.

Now for the bigger decision.... Whose colors to paint the plane in? Looking forward to this one coming out.

Nice work man....happy to see a few of the RCAF trainers built foresterab

Nice job on that one...there's a poster of one of the firewatch Cobras up in the fire center at work but everyone ignores it. A great match to the real thing. foresterab

Looking nice and tight. Pretty sure you've done a better job than I did on the seams. Looking forward to the final product now

Remember my grandfather (rcaf flight engineer) talking about the day the cancellation was announced at marston where they were living at the time. You couldn't get Canadian radio stations due to the U.S. stations cranking up the power and drowning them out with a non-stop list of job opportunities Since then have met a few other folks who worked on the project. Very good scratch build engineers each who still design things for fun. If they represent the standard of the project it was very high quality indeed

Very nice work on the clean up and modifications on the front end. Despite the plastic issues in the first stages of the build it's looking really good. foresterab

and some helicopters: Bell 206 with front mount like the FireWatch and yes...he does control it with an X-box controller. or a different set up where the observer sits in the back (sans door) to spot the hotspots: Keep it up with the build Natter, really interested in seeing how the FireHawk turns out as it's on the "to build" list. Cheers for now, foresterab

basically the front cannon has been replaced by a FLIR unit that can be used in early morning flights to map heat signatures/hot spots. As each spot is tagged a set of GPS co-ordinates is recorded which in turn can be turned over to ground crews for mop-up on the ground. There are numerous systems out there with different set ups...some use a pintail style set up in the nose similar to military systems while others are manual spotting scopes and the pilot tags the site (much more error prone). A good scan with the right conditions has been known to pick up squirrels in the forest (which is also a failed marker point in a test). map co-ordinates are usually within about 10 feet of the point which makes vectoring crews into locations a huge costs savings on helicopter access only portions of the fire. Agencies will also use satellite (very coarse), high altitude scans from fixed wing machines (more precise and cost effective but not detailed enough to confirm perimeter containment) and the lower elevation scans from usually helicopters. Birddog aircraft which I guess contain what the USFS calls a Air Attack Group Supervisor (we know them as Air Attack Officers) may use the FLIR for initial detection follow-up if they are being vectored into a reported smoke. Lightning strikes especially may hit a tree, burn briefly sparking the fire call, and then smoulder in the ground for days before taking off in a forest fire. The HELCO role is basically organizing aircraft in the air...may be stacking bucket machines/transport ships in a controlled airspace; may be directing bucketing operations especially if heavy lift helicopters are being used etc. Role is also dependent upon jurisdiction and number/type of machine used. A few other examples from last year: Cessna 310 operated by Buffalo Airways AeroCommander 690 operated by Air Spray on behalf of Alberta

Will be watching this one...mean to pick up a couple of these kits once I clean one or two unbuilt kits off the shelf first. Good start on things though especially cleaning up the flash. foresterab

really nice work on the engines. If you don't mind me asking what did you use for the copper wire? 2 weeks till forest fire season starts here...hopefully don't see the -215's this year (as in no local forest fires) foresterab