OK guys, time to vote on March (the money month) 2010 Calendar Wallpaper Good luck and... ...

Every year, the Land Rover Owner's Club of Victoria (LROCV) (http://www.lrocv.com.au/) takes over the Wonnangatta... ...

THE explosive growth of mobile broadband has been due to the popularity of 3G enabled devices such as phones and... ...

Winner: hunger
Photo: F/A 18 Hornet

Congratulations to this month's winner; hunger for his F/A 18 Hornet photo



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Firebomber tested in Aussie bush

BY KIM STEPHENS
29 Jan, 2010 12:33 AM

THE Victorian Government's multi-million dollar investment in an American firebombing air tanker was put to the test for the first time in Australian conditions near Trentham yesterday.The 45,000-litre capacity aircraft, based at Avalon airport near Geelong for the duration of the fire season, was leased by the Government from the Californian Government to bolster firefighting efforts.
Yesterday, the former passenger aircraft released 42,000 litres of fire retardant over a 1.2-km stretch of bushland near Trentham to gauge its effectiveness in fighting blazes in the Australian bush.
"(It's) about testing how appropriate it is to be used in Australian conditions and how effectively the water released penetrates the tree canopy," Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre chief executive officer Gary Morgan said.
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THE sighs of relief from Pumper Tanker 22's crew when their jinxed truck makes it to a fire scene are sometimes as loud as from the people they're helping.

MFB officers assigned to the chronically defective vehicle can never be certain it will arrive intact.
The fault-ridden fire engine has needed repairs costing $370,000 since it hit the road in late 2002 at an initial cost of about $600,000.
Problems have stretched from bumper to bumper, with crews at times unable to accelerate, blow the horn, rewind the hoses, open the doors, turn on the air-con or use the flashing lights.
The problematic pumper has spent 573 days at the mechanic's workshop, more than a fifth of its life.
Its first failure - a faulty horn - happened less than a fortnight after it was commissioned.
The Herald Sun used Freedom of Information laws to obtain the truck's 10-page MFB maintenance log detailing more than 500 faults.
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