C-130 air tanker brought to Ramona for crew training

Air Tanker 118 training Ramona, California fire airtanker
Tanker 118, during training flights at Ramona, CA February, 2022. Photo by Ryan Grothe.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection brought air tanker 118, a C-130, to the airport at Ramona, California last week. Ryan Grothe who shot these photos said, “They conducted training flights in the area, including some touch and goes on the runway and pattern work.”

The seven Coast Guard C-130s will not be officially transferred to CAL FIRE until all of the maintenance and conversion to air tankers is complete, or close to it. That is expected to happen in 2023. No retardant delivery systems have been installed in any of the aircraft. Some of them may still need depot level maintenance.

Air Tanker 118 training Ramona, California fire airtanker
Tanker 118, during training flights at Ramona, CA February, 2022. Photo by Ryan Grothe.

Mr. Grothe said one of the C-130s is expected to be based at Ramona.

The relatively short runway restricts which types of aircraft can use the facilities at Ramona. When the U.S. Navy built the airport in 1945 as an emergency landing field it was only 4,000 feet long and remained that length well after it was conveyed to the County of San Diego in 1956.

CAL FIRE established an Air Attack Base there in 1957 and the U.S. Forest Service followed three years later.

Air Tanker 118 training Ramona, California fire airtanker
Tanker 118, during training flights at Ramona, CA February, 2022. Photo by Ryan Grothe.

In 2002 the runway was lengthened to 5,001 feet but it is difficult for most large air tankers and impossible for very large air tankers to work at the base.

In August of 2019 one of Coulson’s C-130s under contract to CAL FIRE was spotted at Ramona.

Air Tanker 118 training Ramona, California fire airtanker
Tanker 118, during training flights at Ramona, CA February, 2022. Photo by Ryan Grothe.
Air Tanker 118 training Ramona, California fire airtanker
Tanker 118, parked during training flights at Ramona, CA February, 2022. Photo by Ryan Grothe. Two S-2Ts were also there, Tankers 71 and 88.

A tour of Ramona Air Attack Base

Ramona Air Attack Base

On Wednesday CAL FIRE gave a live tour of the Air Attack Base at Ramona, California. They talked about the OV-10 Bronco, S2T air tankers, and the C-130 that the agency has under an exclusive use contract until the end of August which is serving as a training platform so their pilots will be ready for the planned acquisition of seven C-130 air tankers.

Here is the recorded version of the tour.

California: Brown Field is now an air tanker base

For the last couple of years San Diego County Supervisor Dianne Jacob has criticised the U.S. Forest Service for not allowing the air tankers they hire under contract to use the Ramona Airport as an air tanker base. CAL FIRE usually has two of their S2T air tankers at the base and has reloaded at the base a BAe-146 that they have under contract from Neptune Aviation. But the USFS contends the runway, at 5,001 feet, is too short for a fully loaded large air tanker.

When the Border Fire was burning near Potrero in eastern San Diego County a couple of weeks ago just north of the US/Mexico border, some of the air tankers had to fly over Ramona on the way to the next closest tanker base, Hemet-Ryan, 80 miles north of the fire, about 50 miles past Ramona.

Brown Field map

As of Wednesday of this week there is an additional air tanker base in San Diego County — at Brown Field Municipal Airport, which is on the southeast side of the greater San Diego area 1.5 miles north of the US/Mexico border. It is 31 miles south of Ramona and has a 7,972-foot runway which according to information from the USFS “provides ample length to meet safe takeoff requirements for the size and weight of a Next Generation Air Tanker with a full payload”.

Brown Field has a portable unstaffed retardant base that is under contract until September 30, 2016. After that, according to Oliva Walker, a Public Information Office for the Cleveland National Forest, the equipment will only be positioned there when it is needed, on a Call When Needed basis. She said the facility will only be staffed with personnel to operate the equipment and fill air tankers when there is a going fire and air tankers are flying out of the airport.

The Cleveland National Forest also has a fairly new Type 1 Helibase 30 miles east of the outskirts of San Diego near Interstate 8 half a mile from Cameron Fire Station on Kitchen Creek Road.