Helicopter Pickups

Having watched water pick-ups by army helicopters in the past days at Dusty and Denise's pond have left me and others with three kinds of feelings.
Gratitude how fast they came to our rescue and how effective they were in bringing down the flare ups on and behind Radical Ridge.
Admiration for their flying skills. The buckets the army choppers carry are on short cables and they need to fly into the pond at very low altitudes to submerge them for re-fill. They either fly an airplane landing style of approach the length of the pond and drag the bucket under water; or they bank into the pond, have the prop wash kick the bucket out sideways and submerge it that way. After filling - in very few moments - they need to gain enough altitude to clear the dam, fence and rock outcropping.
However when one of the choppers did not gain enough altitude and hit the crest of the dam with the bucket we wondered what we would do if there was an accident. In this particular instance, two days ago, on July 7, we saw the Buffalo Bird fire engine for the first time. They had pulled over and were keeping watch from half way up Find Yer Way. It was good to see them there.
Maria Gilardin