The 747, T-944, drops near Santiago Peak August 8, 2018 on the Holy Fire in Southern California. Credit: Evver G. PhotographyThe article below is written by Jim Barnes, a former pilot of CAL FIRE S-2T air tankers.
It is a low-down dirty shame that the decision was made to cancel the 747 Super Tanker this fire season. Especially in the light of another potentially catastrophic fire season for our western states ahead of us. Some-how we never seem to heed the hard learned lessons of the past. The failure to be prepared is to prepare to fail. The 747 is not cheep for sure but the great work and many great saves it has made cannot be measured merely in dollars but potentially in the lives and property that might be lost by not having that capability.
In the week before I retired from tanker flying, I was relieving in Grass Valley. I woke up in a motel room just before daylight and flicked on the television on the way to the bathroom. I was shocked to learn that several fires were burning in the Grass Valley and Nevada City area. It was hot and it was windy so I got dressed, threw my s*** into my car and headed for the base with a short stop at Jack in the Box for of one of their delicious breakfasts.
When I got to the base it was still dark and I was the only one there. Looking out toward the city you could see the orange glow. I started pre-flighting with my flashlight when the base pilot, Colin Rogers showed up. He was soon followed by the Chief and his Air Attack Pilot who ran out to the OV-10, kicked the tires and blasted off toward the fire. Within minutes he called for both tankers to respond. Colon took the lead and I taxied into position to do a section go. Colon started his roll and within seconds aborted takeoff because of a mechanical problem. That put me first in.
The Chief wanted me to start a protective line in front of a house at the top of a steep hillside. The wind was terrible so I used two wingspans for correction. That wasn’t enough and the entire load was blown down into the canyon. On the way back to base I heard tanker 88 checking in with Air Attack. His mechanical problem was fixed and Colon was back in the hunt. I briefed him on the effect of the wind as we crossed paths. On my way back out I heard Colon in tanker 88 calling the tanker base.
“We better get prepared to operate eight tankers out of Grass Valley all day long.”
But we never saw any more S-2s at our fire. They were already committed to project fires all over the state like the one that was devastating Santa Rosa. We did get one C-130 out of Chico and he did a great job but because he was in Chico his longer turn arounds gave us about two drops an hour.
So, we had two S-2Ts hot lapping making about 13-minute turnarounds, all the helicopters and ground forces that they could muster and the fire was still outproducing us badly. The fire now posed an imminent threat to several communities, including Grass Valley and Nevada City. One residential area was about to be over burned which would have resulted in catastrophic losses.
Somehow CAL FIRE got a hold of the 747 Very Large Air Tanker. Air Attack assigned him the job of picking up an entire flank that was about to impinge on homes, a school and businesses. Without the aid of a lead plane the 747 lined up on the target, made a perfect drop and covered the entire flank with a massive load of retardant. We never saw him again for the rest of the day but that one drop made the difference between success and failure on a devastating wildfire. We will never know what would have happened had he not been there. Unfortunately for our Citizens and Firefighters we may find out this year. My prediction is that when the s*** hits the fan the powers that are will be scrambling to get the 747 back on contract. I have seen this story play out many times in my thirty-five years of aerial firefighting. Damn, I’m sure tired of being right.
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25 Comments
CALFIRE, USDI, USFS, BLM are you paying attention? Do you get the message or are you so stick in the bureaucratic B.S. that you’re choosing to send people to their deaths this year? How many homes? How much loss is it going to cost California this year?
While I understand the decision behind the operational decision for the company, im left wondering why this tanker hasn’t been purchased using federal and state funds or why a consortium of private and public entities aren’t making the purchase to ensure we have it available here and around the world?
The lives of those who live in the west who will face fires this year are in your hands and the question that is on everyone’s mind is, what’s my life worth? The blood of those who will be lost are on your hands!!
Daniel why don’t you breakout your checkbook and buy it then? Probably for the same reason nobody else has, they can’t afford to operate it, for the 1 day a year it got used for the press spectacle.
Clearly you didn’t bother to read my comment and you then decided to use sarcasm to mask that fact. Obviously it’s not a profitable venture which is why it should be the Federal Government or some combination of investors. By making it a government asset, it will cut through red take, have the tools to refine the process and it could be something useful as a diplomatic tool for countries in need.
The reality is, firefighting can’t be a “for profit” venture, we’ve known that for at least a century but the cost to the government to fight a couple of massive wildfires would quickly cover the cost it would be to purchase. By not having the risk and decision making mistakes will be a woulda, could, shoulda moment that may end up far more expensive.
Okay… I’ll bite…. The broader issue is that wildfire has been around and has remained unchanged since the beginning and will be around mostly unchanged at the ending. Current technological advances have made mapping and predicting and assessing the after effects easier; while aviation and new ground technologies have made for really great 30 second footage spots on the local news. The basics, 18 inches bare mineral soil and clearance of overhead hazards and fuel breaks have not changed. The unglamorous sides of fire are often underfunded and unseen; which is tragic because these are the things that put fires out; well then and time that is. The WUI has complicated suppression. Large air tankers and night flying helicopters DO NOT put out fires! It is the firefighters on the ground that do. Instead of investing in a worthless money pit like the 747 maybe pay a livable wage to firefighters and put the money into prevention… natural defensive space creation and outreach. Pontificating about the greatness of one aircraft makes the speaker above look callous and shallow.. very much not aware to what firefighting actually is. My advice is strap your whites on and go dig some line David. Be part of the solution.
A very well written response….im sure that all the technology is super helpful when a fire happens due to human error or bad infrastructure. Im also sure that the people who have died in the past few years would fully agree with you with the small problem that they are dead because they were unable to escape the fast moving flames.
No one is arguing that boots on the ground matter and it’s pretty clear that you are less than neutral on the subject but following your logic, let’s eliminate all amfirefighting aircraft…clearly a the experts have gotten it wrong and a it takes is better paid fire fighters on the ground. I’m sure everyone would love to learn this as well as gain the realization that because of their salary, fire fighters have been sandbagging up till now and all it would have taken is better paid humans.
Seriously? Give me a break. What some human does and what an air tanker does are two COMPLETELY different jobs and while you may have completely valid points…they have NOTHING to do with the value of large firefighting aircraft. No one was or is debating the human side because as you may notice…the subject of the blog isn’t about people on the ground. If that’s hard to understand, you can get a hint by looking up to the header of the web page.
Amen sir!!!
I was stationed for 6 years at Altus AFB where USAF Cargo Crews were trained.
The first time I parked my car at The Altus AFB Fire Station in front of five C-5A Galaxy I said to my 19 y/o self, why are there NOT any of these beasts full of firefighting equipment to fight the crazy fires we have in SoCalif???
Well the simple answer was their wings were not strong enough.
The reason after 45 years there are only one or two ULTRA LARGE FRAME AIR TANKERS is the people that are in charge of fighting what have become year round Suburban/Wild-land Interface Conflagrations are stuck on ancient firefighting tactics, a long time problem with the Fire Service dating back to The Benjamin Franklin Days of Fire Fighting — EMPLOYING NEW TECHNOLOGY AND TACTICS!!!
This Fire Tanker Pilot saw with his own eyes what is the only hope for The Future in Battling Wild-land Conflagrations — I hope someone outside The Fire Service sees this and finds some way to break through the BLOCKHEAD WALL STOPPING badly needed advances in this battle!!!
As a past volunteer firefighter i can am frustrated with the thoughts of how the almighty dollar, whether it by Oz or US , seems to overule sensible ideas & equipment. There were some who opposed the use of superscoopers here in Australia, one reason being that you cant drop sea water on a fire because the salt will harm the bush. So fires ravaged nearly half an island, and little mention was made that a Skycrane was in some instances using seawater. I have been pushing the utilisation of Fire Retardant Plants as “buffer zones” between bush and residental, to be told its not native to the area, Is housing native? not until humans moved in…Please let some common sense prevail and do evrything we can to prevent bush fires, and if they do happen use everything we can to stop them from getting to the threatening stage. Use equipment like the supertanker as soon as possible.
Well I see the problem, you’re providing a logical and sensible solution….thats guaranteed to fail. All joking aside, that’s a very good solution and since the alternatives are few and far between and the financial costs of inaction are ridiculously high it would make sense to weigh the issue of a native plant versus no plant, homes or any structures. The environment is important to protect but at what cost? Sometimes the options are limited and the solutions, while imperfect can help.
Amen to that
All good. Will CALFIRE & USFS listen? They will soon as this gains momentum with the previous discussion to CANX SuperTanker. Some of us are approaching our representatives, like Tom McClintock and Kevin McCarthy with our personal stories and strength of PURPOSE . . . ! BTW, thanks to Bob McAndrew who shepherded the first Evergreen SuperTanker thru STC . . . at the greatest of cost to Delford Smith. The Spruce Goose lives on in his Museum as a reminder of unrequited conflicts in the
Aero industry we all grew up in and love.
I have met and worked with some of the BEST tankers pilots the west has ever seen , but Jimmy Barnes is one of the Best of the Best !
When he speaks, it’s from the highest level of experience !
You dumbass pencil pushers in the U.S. Forest Circus had better listen to him !
But I know from 33 years of attempting to work with your agency, YOU JUST DONT CARE !!!!!
Shameful
Interesting how the same people who constantly complain about the government wasting money are first to say that in this case either fed or state ought to throw taxpayer money to buy the ship and operate it.
That’s some skill you have there. I was unaware that someone had perfected the god-like skill of being all knowing. Congrats, Ontario because otherwise your comment would be nothing more than. Some halfwit running their mouth and believing that their ego makes them smarter then they are…and that’s certainly not the case with you, is it? Lol
Daniel I would like to focus on the topic of hand the large air tanker, but let me address you for a hot minute. I was thinking it might benefit you go read “The Man in the Arena”, but I’m not sure you would grasp the message. Ground pounding and helitacking, smoke jumping firefighters are not paid a livable wage to retain folks. My proof would be the hiring cycles that I can’t begin to explain. Physical and mental health along with morale is at an all time low. I am guessing you are trolling with a comment that implies firefighters are sandbagging for better wages. Back to the article. If one wants to see the effective result of a large air tanker I would direct them and you to any of Bill’s articles on the Aviation retardant Effectiveness study. Your main point seems to be that lives can be saved from a fast moving wildfire by this one asset. I don’t see it man. The juice is not worth the squeeze, Straw man fallacies. The emperor has no clothes……
I just do not understand what I call a lack of logic that you and some other writers here use.
I began my Fire Service Career as a 16 y/o Volunteer.
But the scenarios today in 2021 are much different than in The 70s.
I get what the Ground Pounders face with salaries, hiring/employment status, and benifits that are lacking to say the least.
In the last 50 years, wildland fires have changed — but sadly the Fire Service has not kept up with the requirements these changes need in order to hold the line during the new all year long Fire Season.
I personally believe the answer is fleets of regionally based Very Large Frame Tankers.
I do not know how many boots on the ground are replaced by a 747 SuperTanker; but when one AirCraft can drop a swath of fire retardant 3 mi long and as wide as 150 ft — IN LESS THAN TEN MINUTES, That’s A Lot Of Boots On The Ground Replaced — and those lives in that plane are much safer.
Yes we still need Boots on The Ground, WE ALWAYS WILL!!!
But using Hand Crews and Strike Forces to do the job which has grown exponentially so large in my opinion is more safely preformed from the air.
The numbers of personnel are reduced dramatically.
The speed of deployment is much faster (when deployed as early as possible).
The numbers of pieces of equipment is reduced.
But I Feel Most IMPORTANTLY — the level of safety is vastly improved both by the nature of aerial firefighting and the reduction in Boots On The Ground.
CalFire and USFS seem to have a love affair with 3,000 gallon capacity aircraft.
If ONE SuperTanker can do the work of 5 of these 3K gal Birds…
Why aren’t we INVESTING IN the Ultra Large Frame Aircraft???
I’m sick and tired of naysayers complaining about the cost and who should doing this, private sector or Federal or State Agencies!
Someone out there has the answer, but it sure the hell is not the same ole same ole way CalFire or USFS has been doing it for 75 years or so.
This is 2021, not 1950!
Concur . . . ! Plus the Wildfire Crew system is part-time event-driven. Had a friend news-featured with his crew in a CA fire resting after a particularly difficult terrain-scramble. Made a Santa Barbara paper (viewed online), so lifted the digital pic to his home-town paper, also affected by that traveling fire. After learning the young firefighter was interviewing out-of-state for a ‘direct’ position (benefits), called the wildland team captain about it. Discovered one of those pictured (not the friend) was hired direct. Got into trouble for that as Capt complained to young firefighter about looking for another job on direct hire. Yes, we need boots on the ground, but some “Boots” could be year-round trainees, instructors or outreach PR to communities for prevention/cleanup with local volunteers. Air Drones & terrain-tracked/vehicle robo-fire-tanker-hotspots (?) might be a good place for these folks (M&F) as safe-zone ‘pilots’, unless my instincts are wrong (past eng. vol. & Airdale). Drones could track fires and give visibility to ground robos to quench. Or perhaps something like that is already a WIP(?)
Nice try hoss, but retardant does not put out fire, you still haft to follow it with hand line… you reach into your bag of 747 worship and find a way for that tin can to dig line?
Oh boy . . . here we go folks . . . “same people” . . . “complain” . . . “government waste” . . . !
Catch-all phrases like those and “climate change” stem from ideological differences rather than “Common Sense”.
Private industry comes up with solutions and we (The People) create a governing body assigned with THE mission to protect and serve that very same freedom to explore product improvement . . . and then provide & regulate $$’s toward that freedom, hopefully with “Common Sense” after individual experience “on the line” . . . and not politics . . . @ “Warp Speed” . . . !
Let’s see . . .how to compare above and beyond . . . without personal animus . . .?
OK . . . Lightning struck and “there was light” (and FIRE, by God) . . . for man in the dark. Tom Edison (post-industrial revolution private inventor) didn’t invent the light bulb in 1878, but he sure perfected (pre-industrial revolution inventor) Humphrey Davy’s 1806 first live concept.
In 1900 Peter Cooper Hewitt, an American electrical engineer did the fluorescent light & in 1976, Edward Hammer did a CFL bent tube (mandated, but now gone like mercury?). Meanwhile, in 1962, Nick Holonyak, Jr. (the LED’s “Father”) with the first LED (thx, GE) & later in 1994, Shuji Nakamura–our ultra-bright blue LED, which used an impressive 80 percent less energy and last 25 times longer than their incandescent counterparts (U.S. DOE fostered white LED technology).
[Just like that Super-Magnificent 747 is ‘A BIG Part Of ‘The Solution’ . . . in my ‘LESS-THAN-HUMBLE-OPINION’ . . . ! (ancient Industrial Designer, engine company volunteer, Navy flier (many), aero-design engineer (many ), inventor (many) & ‘swamp’ loudmouth (mostly) . . .!)]
Daniel,
Does your family own an air tanker company or do you own the mansion at the top of the mountain thats surrounded by 50 year old brush? To be naive enough to think any plane can drop something from the sky to compensate for your bad planning or to delay the inevitable.
Heres you perfect chance to contact your legislative representatives and try to have them add an amendment to the pork barrel CARES Act thats bouncing around DC and see if anybodys sympathetic enough to hear you out. Personally, im tired of hearing you ramble on and on about it.
LoL…
Well, Jimmy, you sure started a rumble here! Great to see my old friend using his gift of wordsmithing and prose to educate folks. We both started in the “bad old days” of low-bid contracts resulting in low pay, no benefits, hired and fired at will, but somehow we made it to the great days of the present with equipment, maintenance, and pay packages second to none (I think?). Thanks again for all your help with training etc. Keep up the good work!
Born into aviation (parents owned a crop dusting company) I was excited to see changes in fire aviation in the last fifteen years. Jet powered tankers that could carry about 10,000 gallons of retardant, the VLATs, which were not welcomed by the Forest Service. Or as the saying goes, “we have to wait for someone to retire to make change.” Even more exciting, a Super VLAT that would carry about 18,000 gallons of retardant, 747. About two months ago I suggested that Cal Fire develop and propose an immediate need contract for the Global Super Tanker Company for fire season 21. Present this contract to the principles of the company (GST) and hope they would postpone going into the cargo business until the end of 2021. There was little doubt that cargo hauling is a “red hot” business today., I understand go where the dollars are today. (Econ 101.) I worked with Jim Barnes in the tanker business and as a helitack captain at Columbia A.A.B. A wise old contemporary owl. So back to square one for Cal Fire. Need a line building mega tanker, see if anything is available from the F.S. VLAT store?
Rog that, ditto. Use the resources, test the system, discover workarounds. Still looking for hover drones, ground robos all pre-live firefighters boots in harm’s way. Not much heard about controlled burns anymore, unless I’m retarded. De-forestation seems prevalent in some areas (Mt. Pinos) and controversial. Are we the only country with this problem of ‘Bureaucratic Intervention’? The forests are ‘CLOSED FOR REMODELLING’ . . . and still advertise “Get your kids to the Forest”. Oh well . . . live in the forest since 1969, done Eng. Sixteen. . . and have seen too much.
Jim Barnes…. well done!!!!
so true.
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