Firefighting Tankers and Bombers

[WARBIRD KEITH]

Which C-130 is #83? Civilain or Mil?

Civil ,  Hemet Valley Flying Service,  thats on of the first civil firefighting Herks

[kick Z tail out]

Which C-130 is #83? Civilain or Mil?

Yep, like Keith said it was owned by Hemet Valley Flying Service. They had received 5 Hercs and had painted up most of them, but that one was rushed into service in it's camo.

It was part of the federal air tanker scandal that later ended up causing quite a to-do. A total of twenty-two C-130As and six P-3As were given out to several private contractors for use in firefighting. Half the C-130s were diverted from AMARC, and the other half were taken from AFRES units. The scandal mainly involved the Hercs, and a couple individuals that acted as brokers. They were supposed to be obtaining the aircraft and just distributing them to the contractors. In reality, one of the brokers was transferring them into his own name and selling them for profit himself. The majority of the firefighting companies had conducted themselves as they should have and have unfairly been tarnished by the whole thing.

Aero Union received all the P-3s and used them as intended. A few of the C-130s were also sold back and forth for profit by a couple of the private companies that received them. There were even incidents in which a pair of the C-130s owned by T&G Aviation had been leased out to "people" in South America and had ended up flying drugs.

Anyway, to make a long story short, a couple people ended up going to prison, but the tankers continued to fly. Then, three of the C-130s crashed due to wing box structural failures in flight. The most well known case of this was Hawkins & Powers Tanker 130, in which the wings were caught seperating from the aircraft on video while fighting a fire in Yosemite. In 2004 the entire fleet of C-130As was grounded by the USFS claiming they could no longer in good conscience declare them safe, and most of the companies that were operating the C-130s went under.

[kick Z tail out]

Tanker 20 on the "Long" Fire off Ortega Highway this afternoon. Hadn't gotten any action shots of 20 until today.

[kick Z tail out]

Some S-2Ts from the Ortegas.

[Scott D]

A quick shot from tonight's fire in Thousand Oaks.  The Firehawk and 2 Ventura County Bell's were dipping into Lake Sherwood to refuel.  I'll post more later.  I'm 2 tired now 




IMG_0056 by Scott D 91, on Flickr

[Scott D]

OK One more for tonight.  I was lucky enough that one of the people in the Sherwood neighborhood let me come onto his property to shoot some of these photos.


IMG_0183 by Scott D 91, on Flickr

[Scott D]

Last one for now...so I guess he did see me standing there for an hour 


IMG_0208 by Scott D 91, on Flickr

[Dragonskiss]

Well done Scott! *Hands clap*

[Code20photog]

Seriously, the pilot saw me standing on the lake bank and flew right at me.



Sorry Skip, I didn't think of going down by the fire station to shoot down the lake and only noticed this angle on the way out, but this is a pretty good crop with a 400.

[Code20photog]

I was lucky enough that one of the people in the Sherwood neighborhood let me come onto his property to shoot some of these photos.

We didn't get that lucky. Love that angle of Copter 6 dipping.

[robin990]

Ken , the rocks behind the hawk look great.......thanks for your help today. I woulda had trouble finding the lake.

[Code20photog]

More of the Firehawk

[Code20photog]

Gotta give the Ventura County guys some love

[Code20photog]

Copter 7

[phantomphan1974]

Great shot you three!!!  Love the wave!