Air tanker 66 on the Range Fire, August 27, 2016. Photo by Trey Spooner.
We have some excellent photos of aircraft that worked the Range Fire on August 27 six miles east of Arvin, California — thanks to Trey Spooner and the Kern County Fire Department. The fire burned 518 acres and is 100 percent contained.
Kern County’s Helicopter 408, a Bell UH-1H, made 81 water drops at the fire on August 26.
H-408 on the Range Fire, August 26, 2016. Trey Spooner photo. Air tanker 66 on the Range Fire, August 27, 2016. Photo by Trey Spooner. Air tanker 12 on the Range Fire, August 27, 2016. Photo by Kern County Fire Department.
Above, Neptune’s Tanker 12, a BAe-146, drops on the Soberanes Fire near Big Sur, California. Credit for the video: Eric Tebbets, Captain, CALFIRE, Cuesta Camp Fire Crews.
Next, one of 10 Tanker’s DC-10’s drops on the fire.
Click on the arrows at the bottom-right to see it in full-screen.
Above: Tanker 12 drops on the Trailhead Fire. A Cobra helicopter is in the background. Photo July 1, 2016 by Matthew Rhodes.
Matthew Rhodes sent us these photos he took July 1, 2016 on the Trailhead Fire on the El Dorado National Forest 11 miles east of Auburn, California. Thanks Matthew.
The 4,000-acre fire is causing evacuations in Placer and El Dorado counties.
Tanker 131 on the Trailhead Fire. Photo July 1, 2016 by Matthew Rhodes.
Neptune’s “new” Tanker 12, going through last minute checks at Missoula, July 14, 2015, before it was due to depart for its contract with CAL FIRE. Photo by Bill Moss.
Bill Moss photographed Neptune’s newest air tanker for us, Tanker 12, on Tuesday as it was going through last minute checks and inspections the day before it was due to report for duty with CAL FIRE. It is expected to begin the contract at 10 a.m. on July 15 at Porterville, California. (We first wrote about this contract on July 10, 2015.)
CAL FIRE is also contracting for a second large air tanker, Erickson’s Tanker 60, a DC-7, to supplement their 22 S-2Ts.
Neptune took delivery of Tanker 12 on May 15 from Tronos Aviation of Summerside, PE, Canada and converted it into an air tanker in house at Missoula. This is one of the Missoula company’s seven BAe-146-200s. The tanker numbers are 01, 02, 03 (still being converted) 10, 12, 40, & 41.
Mr. Moss tells us that the first flight for what is now T-12 was on May 13, 1991, after which it was operated by six different foreign carriers from June 1991 until August 2012.
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This article was corrected to indicate that the conversion of this particular aircraft was done by Neptune, unlike at least one other of their BAe-146s that was done at Tronos.
Tanker 41, a BAe-146, over the University of Montana, May 21, 2014. Photo by Bill Gabbert. (Click to see a larger version).
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) has contracted with Neptune Aviation for the services of one of their most recently converted BAe-146 air tankers, Tanker #12.
The 3,000-gallon capacity jet aircraft will report for duty at 10 a.m. on July 15 at Porterville, California. Initially it will only be staffed six days a week, but will begin 7 day a week coverage on August 15. It will be carded for initial attack, can be hot loaded with all four engines running, and will sit on the ramp loaded with retardant like the S2Ts.
The tanker number, 12, had previously been used by one of Neptune’s P2V air tankers.
CAL FIRE is also contracting for one of Erickson’s DC-7s, Tanker 60.
Below is a video of Tanker 60 making a drop on the on the Calgrove Fire June 24 in southern California north of the intersection of the 210 and I-5 freeways. It is sporting a new paint job, having adopted Erickson’s new design that has been seen on their MD-87s and their other DC-7, Tanker 66.
