Hawaii Mars, the fire-fighting seaplane from Canada, left for home this morning, leaving a few days ahead of its scheduled departure date.
According to one lake official I spoke with, the contract date was actually Dec. 12, but with all the Southland areas still wet from Monday’s rain and more forecast through the weekend, there was no need to prolong things. The sudden turn in the weather also had meant that Diamond Valley’s benefit tournament on Saturday would not be interrupted by the plane scooping water there.
The WWII aircraft, owned by Coulson Flying Tankers, was hired by the U.S. Forest Service and arrived at the lake in July where it was berthed just off the Lake Elsinore City campground near the fishing area known as “the pipes.” With the plane leaving, and soon, its support teams and equipment, the pipes as well as the flooded launch ramp will be fully fishable from boats again by next week.
PS–I also discovered that high winds on Monday prevented the RAF parachute training operation, and halted the planned night jump on Tuesday evening as well. The paratroopers did make a jump on Tuesday mid day.