Quote Originally Posted by rondog View Post
Hell, even a fleet of C-130's would be good, just don't use ancient, worn-out ones from the 50's like that one that the wings snapped off of.
They have eight C-130s at their disposal. A DC-10 and a 747. From late April through Thanksgiving I have a suitcase under my desk waiting for the word to go.

The heavier tankers (DC-10, MARS & 747) do not fare well in the mountains at low altitudes. They are going too fast and too high above the fuels/trees. They are very effective in rolling hills. We worked the Austin Texas fires with the DC-10 last summer. Pretty cool.

The old tankers like the PB-4Y and C-130A belly droppers have not been used since late 2002. The pilot of Tanker 130 was a buddy of mine. We worked the same fire a couple weeks earlier in Utah.

Aircraft maint issues grounded the whole P-3 tanker fleet and put Aero Union out of business.

The Russian tankers are cool, but a nightmare to maintain. We offered up our C-130 fleet to them a few years ago when they had that huge fire.