The Hawaii Mars circled the skies above Lake Elsinore after a 7-hour flight from Canada on Sunday. The retired U.S. Navy cargo plane reported for duty at around 4:15 p.m. ready to fight fires and fulfill its exclusive contract with the U.S. Forest Service.

"It was ugly around Seattle, there were thunderstorms going through, so we had to go way into Washington," said John DeBourcier, one of two pilots for the Hawaii Mars.

Earlier in the day, the Canadian based Coulson Flying Tankers crew, including a Sikorsky helicopter set up camp on the shores of Lake Elsinore to await its arrival. The flying boat created plenty of wind and waves as it bellied down smoothly on the lake among personal watercrafts and small boats.

The water bomber scoops up a load of water in 3-seconds, it mixes it with a concentrated fire retardant gel and has infrared capabilities to make precision drops that cover 4-square miles. It would take approximately 15 fire engines to carry the same amount of water to a fire incident and even then it is often difficult to do in many parts of California’s steep, hilly, overgrown terrain.

"The aircraft drops its water at 2600 gallons per second, that gets us excellent penetration through the canopies and forests and on to the ground," explained owner Wayne Coulson.

Bob and Barbara Noble, residents of Wildomar, were among the spectators.

"I hope we don’t have big fires like we had last year, but if we do, it just gives you peace of mind to know that this sea plane can pick up 7,200 gallons of water, and that’s a lot of water,’ said Bob.

Barbara summed up her husbands thoughts by saying, "It’s a blessing in disguise."

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LAKE ELSINORE - One of the last two "flying boats" from World War II -- a giant seaplane converted for firefighting -- is expected to land today on Lake Elsinore, where it will be ready to scoop Advertisement
and dump tons of water on Southern California wildfires.

The four-engine Martin Mars JRM-3 "waterbomber" is expected to arrive today between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. after an eight-hour flight from its home base of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, the Press-Enterprise of Riverside reported.

Operated by Coulson Flying Tankers of British Columbia, the lumbering World War II-vintage aircraft will be rented to the U.S. Forest Service for its capacity to drop tons of water or slurry on wildfires.

Five years after a series of crashes prompted the forest service to ground the oldest of its fleet of large air tankers, the Mars -- with its 7,200 gallon capacity -- can haul more than twice the load of the agency's largest remaining contract aircraft, the Press-Enterprise reported.

Unlike traditional air tankers, the Mars does not carry the gooey red fire retardant that is designed to help corral wildfires. Instead, it carries a mixture of water and gel that is designed to be dropped directly onto the flames, the Press-Enterprise reported.

From its base at Lake Elsinore this summer, forest managers believe the Mars is about a half-hour from any fire in the San Bernardino, Cleveland and Angeles national forests.

According to Martin Mars, a flying boat flight crew picks up water by making a normal landing run at 70 knots -- about 80 mph -- and lowers scoops that can take on water at a rate of more than one ton per second.

When the tanks are full, the scoops are raised and the pilot uses near-full throttle for a loaded takeoff. Once airborne, a foam or gel concentrate is injected into the water load. When the water and concentrate are dropped, the tumbling action causes expansion which converts the water load into a foam load or gel load.

The Martin Mars can perform the scoop-and-drop cycle as often as every 15 minutes -- provided a large enough body of water is near the fire.

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