Originally Posted by
Daveroo
the calfire air tankers are just the twin engined grumman S2T's,the jets ,MD87 ,BAe-146,RJ85,and the props,C-130Q,Lockheed P2V's are all USFS contract aircraft,but that doesnt mean they cant fly on state fires,on wedensday(8th) and thursday (9th) we had a fire in placer county,the "Applegate Fire" and they flew tankers 160 an RJ85 3,100gallons from Aero-flight,tankers 101 and 103 4000gallons MD87 from Erickson Aero,and tanker 07 2,000gallons a Lockheed P2V from Neptune ,on a side note,CalFire will not hire a SEAT tanker,BUT the USFS has several SEATs on contract,and if the fire is a USFS or BML fire,they can and will use the SEATs ,even inside the state of california.they also used the DC10,i think it was 912 on both days..but im not sure.they carry 11,600 gallons per trip.
the CalFire Grumman S2Ts were back online as of 10am local time on today the 10th of oct. another side note,back in the 80s when i was active,we only got tankers (in northern california,airattack images may know differant for socal??)from 11am starting in mid to late june,and cut off was dusk through mid september,now they are on duty at 10am to dusk and beyond,and they go on contract from late april to oct31,and can be called out at anytime year round.
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