Lessons learned from an air tanker pilot during 40-year career

This excellent video is described like this:

Lessons Learned from Air Tanker Pilot Bill Waldman

For 40 eventful years, chief pilot Bill Waldman supported wildland fire suppression activities by making more than 13,000 retardant drops on fires in practically every state in this country, including Alaska, Canada, and Mexico. In this interview, Captain Waldman shares valuable insights gained from his extensive career—and provides priceless advice to pilots just beginning theirs’.

We appreciate Mr. Waldman sharing some of the things he has learned. Many of them can be translated to fire suppression on the ground as well as in the air.

(THE VIDEO IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE)

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Author: Bill Gabbert

After working full time in wildland fire for 33 years, he continues to learn, and strives to be a Student of Fire.

5 thoughts on “Lessons learned from an air tanker pilot during 40-year career”

  1. I had the honor of flying on numerous fires with Bill over the years, he was always a true pro. I have integrated this video into our companies SEAT pilot training program. No problems viewing it on Vista

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  2. As far as watching the video of Waldman above, I found that if you right click on the video screen AFTER the video starts, choose ZOOM and click on FULL SCREEN, if looks way better. I don’t know if this works on all computer programs, but I had good luck with it. It is a very good video and I wish that more tanker pilots would think about taking the time to do the same as Bill. I know it would have made a difference when I came up through the ranks of tanker flying. In the early days, as Bill stated, you were on your own and often had to push your limits and prove yourself or you were removed from the program pronto. Operators had no time or money to train crews. It is a different business now and a much safer one too, thanks to the hard work by pilots like Bill Waldman.

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  3. Bill, thanks for posting a link to this wonderful video. I use a Mac. I had trouble calling up the video using firefox, this happens sometimes. I want bore you with the technical details. However, I was able to view the video with Safari. No distortion.

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  4. Hmmmm. I just viewed the video in three different browsers and did not notice any distortion. Anyone else see the problem that Kelly observed?UPDATE: I used a PC running Vista, and viewed the video with no detected distortion on the following browsers: Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Chrome.

    Update November 24, 2012; Over the last three years the video disappeared twice and I replaced it with versions from other sites. This last version from YouTube appears to be stable and of good quality.

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  5. Goodlordamighty, DO ALL THE VIDEOS ON THEIR SITE LOOK THIS ICKY???????cripes. Waldman is a helluva pilot and an awesome human being, but why is the video so distorted and stretched out like that? (sorry, but the last time I saw Waldman and one of the AeroUnion tankers, neither of them were 300 yards long!!!) The last time I looked at a P-3 or Bill Waldman’s face, they weren’t stretched like play-doh. Does the govt (lessons learned) website do this for some kind of "artistic" effect? oyyy. I know you’re just embedding the video on your site, but still ….OUCH.

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