Mark12:
You are indeed a hard one to convince however your concern for the young boy on the right edge of the last photo is duly warranted. The boy had initially been playing (while waiting for the return of the Mars with his family) much closer to the centreline of my brother’s landing approach and the photographer (the Lake Elsinore undertaker) thoughtfully warned the boy to move back to where he appears in the photo. CalFire officials did a great job keeping the public back from the base of operations on the east side of the lake (where refueling the Mars from tanker trucks took place) however they did not restrict the public from accessing the approach area at the northwest tip of the lake. My brother actually remembers seeing that boy (out the corner of his eye) on the shoreline as he passed over on one of his landing pick-ups. The boy was standing approximately one wingspan (200 ft.) to the right of the approach centreline in actuality.

It was necessary to put the Mars down literally in the first few feet of the lake and get the probes down within 2 seconds of touchdown to be able to scoop an 18 second load (25 seconds required for full load). See additional attached photo, taken at the instant the probes were being lowered, @ 150′ from shoreline. The largest load my brother was able to extract from Lake Elsinore was @ 5,400 USgal and still have sufficient room at the southwest tip of the lake for terrain clearance at his 3 engine climb speed (with load discharged). Despite the notorious fire-fanning Santa Ana winds, Lake Elsinore (being in a hole) was remarkably calm, making take-offs and water pick-ups much more difficult. The media will undoubtedly cover the planned demo drop in Vancouver harbour tomorrow afternoon at 3:00PM (Pacific time) when The Mars will drop a full load (7,200 USgal) of salt water which is slightly heavier than fresh water. Perhaps someone will post a copy on YouTube.
Regards, Mk1
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Mk.I

Now if only you had said in the first post that your brother was flying the aircraft… 🙂

This stuff circulates around and around on the net…and photoshop etc.

Mark