Cpt. Hak
Everything began so nicely. I got the allowance to use the "254" to fly an soaking attack today, and I also managed to have 200kg special soap/alumina powder delivered to me. So I loaded up the water tanks at Tim's, and mixed 1/3rd of the powder into the tank fillings. I was warned that the mixture might react a bit unusual at this altitude, but initial flight checks showed there was no real problem. Ok, the mixture seemd to be evaporated a bit faster than desired, and the tanks seem to leak more than I had hoped, but beside some bubble exhaust, the engines ran fine. So, I took off, fully loaded , for one more round of wet revenge.
For the first pass (of planned thre passes), I was approaching them from over the mountain ridge, diving through the clouds, so they cannot see me comming too soon. It was almost too silent up there, but I couldn't go back, so I prepared for the drop. One second before crashing into the tent, I pulled the stick and threw my load - it was a full hit.
After the first drop, I suddenly lost the visuals totally, but I was clearly below the clouds. Panic! What have they done to me? After a second of despair, I noticed that it was only the foam that the engine turbulences produced. Maybe I was a bit too low...
Anyway. the engines kept running fine, and I preapred for landing and water refuelling down at Hektor lake. That way, I flew two more rounds, one very successfull, the other not really...
This is a pic of the better drops:
Here, the soap load has missed the target for about 50% of the cargo. But the pic is nice since it shows clearly the soap keeping the alumina powder in the air long enough to disperse well.
After three passes, the engines began to sound more and more funny, so I decided to end that run and head for Tim's. Passing the C-130 and a couple of army vehicles, I flew low altitude VFR, all the way back to Tim's.
Two minutes before touch down, the landing checks were done, and it took all my concentration - being new on this aircraft. So I didn't had uch time looking out the window, and when I was on final, speed down to 80 kts, flaps set, I looked straight out - and what did my eyes see? Incredible. But it was too late to go missed - and the valley is not very forgivingly when you try to go around... so I had no chance but to land - park the aircraft and run, run, run for the FBO. Please go out and look yourself, I cannot speak of what I've seen!
Clear sky!
Hak