Grumman Tracker

Writing about the Conair's Firecats recently got me thinking about their military use. If I'm not mistaken, prior to their service as Firecats for Conair, these airplanes, known as DeHavilland Grumman S-2 Trackers, flew with the Canadian Military doing anti-submarine work. I believe that Grumman had an arrangement with DeHavilland to make the S-2 Tracker for the Canadian military.

I wanted to try to find some videos that I could embed for you showing a DeHavilland Grumman S-2 Tracker in her military configuration in active military service. I was not successful.

I did however, find a couple of videos of their cousins, the  Grumman S-2 Tracker while in service for the U.S. Navy. I believe that some of the Grumman S-2 Trackers were later rebuilt for use by CAL FIRE as tankers, see this CAL FIRE aviation program webpage for more information. 

direct link to video

direct link to video

direct link to slideshow video

Conair Firecat T-564 to Canadian Museum of Flight

direct link to video

I'd like to thank a good friend who sent me a link to this video of the final flight of Firecat T-564 from Abbostford Tanker Base at Kamloops BC to the Canadian Museum of Flight in Langley, BC. The video is a little over 17 minutes. 

As I understand it, the first of Conair's Firecats saw service as a tanker flying fires in 1978. Conair retired the last two Firecats in August 2012. Shortly thereafter, T-564 flew to her new nome at the Canadian Museum of Flight,

I know that T-564 will be loved by many at her new home. Perhaps one day I'll visit British Columbia and get to meet her in person. 

Kamloops Daily News bids farewell to Firecats

Langley Times on the arrival of T-564 with video 

In celebration of their 100th anniversary, Gord Bell (spent 35 years with the BC Forest Service, 25 years in aviation programs) wrote a 3 part History of Aviation in the BC Forest Service, Links to this three part series may be found here. You can read more about Mr. Bell in the appendix of any the three documents. Part 2 of the History of Aviation in the BC Forest Service covers Air Tanker Operations and may be found here, you can read about Conair's Firecats on pp. 16 to 19 of that document.

Conair Firecats in action

Conair in Abbotsford British Columbia (BC), Canada retired their last two Firecats in August 2012, I'll be writing about that in my post on January 16. In the meantime, I wanted to you to see the Firecats in action.

Takeoff 

direct link to video

Firecats in action

direct link to video

Firecat Tankdoor cockpit controls

direct link to video

Firecats reloading (retardant) at Kamloops Airtanker Base (Abbotsford BC)

direct link to video