BOEING 737-300 (N137CG)

In addition to this Coulson B733, there is a Coulson Hercules, an Aeroflite RJ-85, four Bridger Aerospace CL-415 Super Scoopers, an MD-87, three SEAT aircraft, and several helicopters (NevArmyNG, Reno PD, and private agencies) equipped with Bambi buckets making continual drops, but pushed by strong winds coming over the Sierra Nevada from the southwest, the fire continues to move closer to the southern suburbs of Reno. Extreme high winds are being forecasted for late this evening and tomorrow and due to those winds, most of the firefighting aircraft will be grounded at RTS tomorrow.

At Reno-Tahoe International, only one runway is open. (Major reconstructive work at the intersection of runways 8-26 and 17R-35L means that both of those runways are closed.) And since the Davis Fire is only a few miles south of KRNO, and advancing closer, the tower controllers are dealing with a wide variety of fire fighting aircraft flying at low altitude in close proximity to the southern end of the airport. Also, thick smoke is obscuring visibilty. One of the problems is that aircraft approaching from the south are at low altitudes where the fire fighting aircraft are operating in the smoke. So, to keep the pax aircraft out of the area, the tower has had to have approaching paxbirds come in to the only open runway from the north (to land on 17L) while departing aircraft make wrong-way departures TOWARD the north (on 35R). Meaning aircraft arriving are flying in a headon situation with aircraft leaving. So the wrong-way departures must be held up by 35R until the arrivals have landed on 17L. Plus the firefighting aircraft are flying back and forth from RTS to the fire which is almost a straight line directly over RNO. So the tower personnel are doing tremendously in keeping aircraft apart and everyone safe.

Great catch Gary! I haven't seen this one before so TY for sharing!