Flying Pump

Posted 12/12/2007 at 02:00 PM by Dirk

It usually takes pumps to make wine. Therefore, winemakers notice pumps. We know they are cool...we just don't say it in public because people will look at us in strange ways.

Last weekend I got to talk with one of my heroes. Of course, I didn't really know that Guy was one of my heroes until I found out what he does. He flies helicopters and fights fires. How cool is that? He gets to fly and gets to be a fire fighter...and his name is Guy.

You know that every elementary school kid would go nuts over that combo.

So why did this blog start with pumps?  We have pumps. There are positive pumps (don't those sound like they have been through self help), air pumps, centrifugal pumps, must pumps, peristaltic pumps, and progressive cavity pumps (they sound like a dentist's dream). Our pumps are for pumping wine gently. Our fastest pump could go at about 150 gallons per minute at full speed.

Guy flies something that looks like a yellow school bus that really is a flying pump with a tank. It seems a bit like a bumble bee in that it shouldn't be able to fly but no one tells him...so it works. His flying pump lifts about 2000 gallons per minute out of any swimming pool or pond that is near the fire.  To put that in perspective from the winery point of view, he could swoop in (if heavy helicopters actually swoop) and suck up the entire production of Dragonfly Vineyard...in LESS than one minute.  The 2004 Dragonfly is long gone – sold out – it still took more than 60 seconds to disappear!  While wine was used to fight the big fire of 1906 in San Francisco , we are not ready to see Guy hovering above our cellar.

Guy was one of the guys who fought the big Castle Rock fire at Sun Valley this summer. (I mentioned it in a previous blog because it is one of my favorite spots for skiing to biking to hiking to eating.) I saw pictures and video of his yellow bird dipping in and out of the Big Wood River and dumping its load.  If you haven't ever checked out the forest service web site  for their fire fighting updates (they call them incidents), it is fascinating and you will come away with such admiration and respect for what they do and how they do it.

Funny thing is, Guy goes all over the place fighting fires but gets to call Napa Valley home, has a great sense of humor (he said that I could learn to fly), and likes wine. Most of all, it was fun to put a face with someone who you admired and watched without knowing who it was and be able to say thanks.

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