On September 16 the air tanker base at McClellan Airfield near Sacramento set a record for the amount of retardant the base has loaded onto air tankers in one day, putting 187,761 gallons into the aircraft, according to William Appleton, Operations Manager for McClellan Jet Services. For most of the day the base loaded from one reload pit, Mr. Appleton said.
All of the retardant was used on the King Fire 43 miles east of McClellan near Placerville, California.
Two DC-10s, Tankers 911 and 912, each made eight trips to the King Fire, and smaller air tankers took a total of seven loads. 10 Tanker Air Carrier which operates the DC-10s that usually carry 11,600 gallons, said that was “by far the busiest day our company has ever had.”
6 Comments
I live about 10 miles E of MCC and the action today has been nonstop. 2 146’s, the RJ85, and 2 DC-10’s have been flying over my house all day.
Can they commit the third DC-10?
I’d love to see any analysis made between the airplane types (turnaround times, coverage levels on the ground, actual cost-per-gallon figures). I understand these numbers will likely not be made public or shared between agencies, but this fire appears to be a perfect opportunity for an apples-to-apples-to apples comparison.
To be honest, what I’d really like to see is a head-to-head between the RJ85 and a L-188 Electra. Is the Air Spray plane in Chico yet?
I put out a camping chair in front of our Fair Oaks home and watched the orange and white birds flock toward the Sierra’s. It made for quite a show! You don’t see these planes everyday, well, until lately.
I live in Fair Oaks as well and I’ve spent a lot of time these last few days finding excuses to do yardwork so I can catch these guys doing runs.
I live about 1/4 mile from the air base and it’s quite a site keep up the great work!
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