USFS cancels contract with aero union

[Daveroo]

the title says it all.....none of the tankers are airworthy according to the reports ive read,of the 6 tankers that were on contract that is,and the USFS canceled the contract,all thats left right now are the pv2 neptunes...i have an email in to norm cook at aero union for a little more detailed account...if hes still there that is.....we'll see...makes me sick to my stomach.....lots of land is going to burn...

[Roadburner440]

Dave, wasn't this the same company a few months back where they downed a bunch of planes while inspecting the logbooks/records? This truly is a shame. I would hope that they were in fact doing everything that was required of them to maintain standards, and hopefully this comes down to being a paperwork glitch of some kind. I find it odd that they are cracking down on Aerounion which has not had any catastrophic failures that I am aware of, but SWA has gotten a slap on the wrist when you have multiple cabin decompressions/skin seperations on their 737's.

[Daveroo]

this is the reply i got from Norm Cook..he is the chief pilot for aero union as of now


Yes, the Forest Service grounded us. And, yes politics is always present. They would like to put the private contractors out of business, and replace them with new airplanes. No one but the government can afford new airplanes. If the government takes over the firefighting role, it will be about tonnage dropped, not how effective was the drop.
Sad,
Norm

[Railrunner130]

Aero Union has had their share of bent airplanes. The one I remember was the C-130B that eventually lead the USAF to ground the C-130Es due to wing cracks.

By the sounds of it, I don't think that has anything to do with the issue at hand.

The first problem that I see is that the older airplanes have high maintenance and operating costs if they are to be safely operated. The second problem that I see is that the USFS really can't fund CL-415s or any other new airplane. (Which, quite frankly, I think they should've done a very long time ago.) Lastly, there aren't enough MAFFS kits for the USAF C-130 fleet to take over responsibility for that role. And that leads to a whole other set of issues.

What's the solution? I'm not sure. Perhaps funding Aero Union until the economy can improve and the USFS can fund new airplanes would be the answer.

[Flyboy208]

I used to do Aerial Fire Fighting for the USFS (Helo's) ... So much more cost effective for the Government to contract out Air Attack aircraft rather than to maintain a USFS Fleet, airframes degrade over time - especially in high stress and heat environments, sorry to hear that such a prominent company is going through tis ... Mike :running: