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airtanker down in california

Daveroo

Daveroo

Members +
not much hard news at this point,but a CalFire grumman S2T tracker airtanker has gone down on the dog something fire along highway 140 just outside of Yosemite,early news states it went down just inside the park boundries,unknown on tail number as yet...or where it was based..but ive got my feelers out to several CalFire upper level people...it was said a USFS ground crew (hotshots im assuming) saw the plane go down in steep country.
very sad day..
 
Damn... Hate it when this sort of thing happens. Those guys are true warriors. Hoping for good news, but...
 
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.
 
Daveroo said:
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.
Click to expand...

The plane flying overhead is not in your list. It was flying low, I am assuming it was filling at KCIC. It may have had twin rudders. It was a four-engine job with a large wingspan. Bigger than a Herc. I remember when the Lockheeds used to be based out of KCIC. Shame they shut that program down.

EDIT: Should be specifying: it's a propeller-driven plane, doesn't sound turbocharged.
 
oh you know what i bet you saw was one of the contract L-188s (P3) from Canada,they are based at either redding or redbluff.but if its not turbocharged..would it possibly be a DC6?....i mean ive listed most all of the aircraft avalible to california.

well ive been searching and i cant find anything more.
 
Ah, there we go. It must have been a DC-6. Interestingly enough, I can't find a paint scheme on Google that matches the plane I saw. Had a lot of orange. Now I am really wondering what that plane was doing.
 
maybe if you looked for a DC-7...at one time AU was flying a DC-7 out of Chico,and last year id seen it flying several times...and im sure i saw it on the news earlier this summer.....might well be that DC-7 rather than a DC-6
 
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