Pelicans always on the look-out for extinguishing fires during the summer are also visible during the scooping exercises carried out throughout the year. The occasion to present you some images realized towards Beaulieu and towards the lake of Saint-Cassien at the limit of the Var and Alpes-Maritimes.
Firefighters from the sky in training
The canadair pilots take advantage of the fire-free season to maintain their skills and make real circuits between Marseille and Menton where they carry out scoopings in several sea basins generally used during real fires.
The training consists in a first pass to check the water and in particular its employability: absence of any obstacle of human or natural origin. The CL 415 then performs a landing to load about 6 tons of water at a speed of 140 km / h which takes a dozen seconds. A drop is then carried out, always above the water, in a large bright white plume projected at high speed into the air. The twin-engine turbine then rises all at once much more easily in the sky to join the next water. When the sea is unleashed by the thrusts of the mistral, the fresh water planes then avoid too strong swells. The water of Saint-Cassien between Grasse and Fréjus then sees a noria of yellow and red Canadairs coming to flirt a few meters from the bridge as evidenced by the images on this page.
