Story of the CL-215 the first purpose made water bomber

[LSP_Ron]

An interesting history of this plane. It's developed into the CL-515 and is assembled here in Calgary.

 

 

[chrish]

Built the Heller CL 215 and 415 of course in Saskatchewan colours love em, I should build one of each province…

[thierry laurent]

Possibly one of the best evidences that the jack of all trades plane is not a realistic philosophy...

[Alain Gadbois]

I was lucky to visit the CL-215 assembly line at the Dorval Canadair plant in 1987.

I was a student then and I brought my camera of course because that would make great pictures. Was told very quickly that photos were strickly verboten!

A very cool visit, being able to climb into one and sitting in the cockpit. Strong WWII vibes with that aircraft!

By coïncidence, a CL-215 buzzed our school on the slope of Mount-Royal some time after.

The sound of the big radials getting closer and louder was quite exciting!

[Out2gtcha]

This would make such a cool LSP.

[alaninaustria]

Walk down memory lane for me… I have many seasons flying this classic bird in aerial firefighting missions! She is a beauty to fly and a pain in the ass with the radial PW R2800 engines - the cowl flaps need constant attention and if the props don't have the streamlined spinners, it is even more work in maintaining proper cylinder head temps. The -215 doesn't have powered flight controls either, that came later in the -415. The real Cadillac is the -215T (Turbine conversion) - the two door drop system is much better then the -415/515 four door system - you can punch through the forrest canopy much better but you can’t string a long line of water as neatly as the -415 can which is favorable for grass fires etc. I loved carrying the fuel hose up to the top of the wings for refueling, helped keep us in shape. When the hose was pressurized she weighed over 150 lbs. The manual controls made your arms tire after a full day working a fire. Most women that were hired went straight to the -415 for this reason, they just don't have the upper body strength to handle the refueling, or the long hours on the controls. Never mind lifting a 50kg bucket of oil up the ladder into the fuselage, and then up through the hatch above the copilot’s seat and out to each radial. She drank oil like we drank water… the good thing was we were always sent back to our base of operations after each mission - you can’t get AvGas everywhere now in the modern age and she needed a lot of TLC after each mission. But man, flying a PW R2800 beast was a career highlight! I’m glad I got the experience on this Canadian beauty! She is the only purpose built aircraft for aerial firefighting in the World. Most retardant bombers are conversions from surplus civilian or older military aircraft. 

On a side note, the modern version of the -215T is now known as the -415EAF and Bridger Aerospace in Montana, USA operates them. The new production version (-515) was supposed to be a larger, more powerful version of the -415, but it is actually a -415 with modern avionics, and larger tanks. Thats it. We were hoping for the PW-150 engines (same from the Q400 aircraft) to be used for the extra power, but that isn't going to happen. They will stay with the PW 123 F (F for firefighting version - when the pilot goes to flight idle the props go to 1 degree of pitch to allow more precise control over engine thrust - needed during certain maneuvers etc). Bridger bought up all the conversion kits to convert the -215 to the -215T (or, in this case the -415EAF). But, the -215 series V are the only ones that can be converted to the “T” Turbine version. The earlier series are not convertible as the wing structure and fuel tanks are not easily converted, only the later series V can be converted. So Bridger has been scouring the world in search of series V aircraft for conversion as Bridger wants to stay with the 2 door drop system.

Anyhow, I could go on… 

Just a lovely purpose built aircraft that happens to come from Canada! 

Cheers

Alan

[Jager]

Very neat aircraft. I built the Hell-er kit. All positive rivets contributed to the challenge but was worth it. I built it with the Q400's props. Looks cool. That was my first and probably last Hell-er kit I will build. I liked the subject and they were the only game in town. Keep those water bombers coming, Mother Nature is still pissed.

 

Jager

[MikeC]

23 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

This would make such a cool LSP.

I didn't really want to give you a "like", but I did because there's no reaction for "OMG yes of course, wouldn't it just? I'd love to see one!"  

Strangely enough, I was flying out of Calgary airport last Sunday, heading home after the holiday of a lifetime in Vancouver and Banff. @LSP_Ron if I'd known exactly where you lived I'd have waved in the appropriate direction 

Edited May 9 by MikeC

[Martinnfb]

Common Mike, we could go for a quick lunch or something.  

 

Thank you for posting Ron and Alan,  I have learned a lot. 

[Martinnfb]

[alaninaustria]

The Buffalo -215’s are all early series birds - not convertible to T’s (Turbine). They still get the job done and are a flying museum of sorts! Lovely aircraft!

Cheers

Alan

[BloorwestSiR]

Here's some pics of the one at the Bushplane Heritage Museum in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

 

 

 

 

There's a plexiglass panel in the way of the cockpit so not the best pic. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The museum has a section devoted to firebombers and has a great documentary film on flying a water bombing mission. 

 

Carl

[LSP_Ron]

I go to Thunder Bay at least once a year for the past 33 years.  I had no idea there was a bushplane heritage museum! 

[BloorwestSiR]

Whoops, it's in Sault Sainte Marie. I got it mixed up as we visited on our trip to Thunder Bay. 

 

Here's a link to some other pics I took there. 

 

https://carlkung.smugmug.com/Canadian-Bushplane-Heritage-Museum

https://carlkung.smugmug.com/Canadian-Bushplane-Heritage-Museum

 

[chrish]

A few of us were standing around in the open doors of the hangar watching some 215 T’s running up before heading out to wherever they were going, one of the guys (an AME) has a contact at Viking said some rich dude in Europe ordered a 215T with executive seating so he could fly it to his island getaway….no idea if it’s true but rich people are weird so it makes sense