Posted on 06/26/2007 12:05:20 PM PDT by BurbankKarl
A DC-10 firetanker that was fighting the White Fire near Tehachapi hit the treeline and recovered from severe turbulence, then made an emergency landing at its home base of Southern California Logistics Airport on Monday evening.
The wide-body jet, the first of its kind built to fight fires and the only one in operation, performed two drops where it did an “awesome job” on the fire, which was 9,100 acres Monday night, said Sean Dakin, fire information officer for state agency CAL FIRE.
With a 12,000-gallon capacity, it carries 10 times the amount of water or fire retardant as a standard S2T firefighting prop plane and has performed effectively on large-scale wildland fires, CAL FIRE officials have said.
On Monday, after helping out the 800 firefighters on the ground, the tanker started to have trouble near Bison Peak, south of Tehachapi, said Janet Upton of CAL FIRE.
“It encountered severe turbulence, which caused the aircraft to descend and strike several trees,” she said. “The flight crew was able to apply power and fly out of the turbulence, and they safely returned to their base at Victorville.”
Fire officials were standing by after the plane landed safely at SCLA at about 5:45 p.m.
There were no injuries to the crew or anyone on the ground, Upton said. The incident is under investigation, she added, which will include a complete structural examination of the aircraft.
A CAL FIRE team will be arriving today to look at the tanker, and the plane will be grounded until the investigation is completed, she said.
Rick Hatton, a partner with the plane’s co-developer, San Carlos-based Cargo Conversions LLC, told the Daily Press earlier in the day about the tanker’s activities on the White Fire.
After the emergency landing, Hatton did not want to comment.
“I have no information at this time,” he said.
The terrain at the White Fire is highly difficult to access, Dakin said.
“It’s a tough place to be, very steep,” he said.
About 50 structures were threatened, Dakin added, with some damaged but no information yet available. A team will be going in today to assess damage.
CAL FIRE recently hired the tanker exclusively for the next three years, at about $5 million per year — making the plane available for 122 days from June to October.
It has not yet been certified by the U.S. Forest Service, so on Forest Service lands, such as the site of the Angora Fire at Lake Tahoe, it is not authorized to fight fires.
Heck, even Edwards AFB would do in an emergency....
but you might get shot down on approach.
They need to change the mission profile; 'bomb' from altitude as a DC-10 doesn't handle turbulance like an S-2 Tracker. Maybe set up a B-52 bombsight as plenty of water would still hit the ground.
And...I don't understand this one at all: It has not yet been certified by the U.S. Forest Service, so...[for the Tahoe Angora] it is not authorized to fight fires.
How can it be certified to fight some fires, but not all???
&^%$#@ b'crats.....
Not being aviation versed, what’s the guesstimate on the weight with a full load?
what’s the guesstimate on the weight with a full load?
—
No idea, I hadn’t seen any specs myself, let me check around or someone may have seen them already and will post.
Here ya go..
http://www.fire.ca.gov/newsreleases_content/downloads/2006archive/DC10Facts.pdf
EXTERNAL TANKS:
Three separate external tanks mounted along the centerline which can hold 50 tons of water or retardant and are balanced with baffles to prevent shifting while in flight. The tanks’ ground clearance is approximately 15 inches above the tarmac. The tanks can be re-filled concurrently on the ramp in eight minutes.
DROP CAPABILITIES:
Tanker 910 can dump as much as 12,000 U.S. gallons of retardant in as little as eight seconds. Tanker 910 uses the computerized gravity-feed water dump system that is essentially a modified and scaled-up version of the system used by Erickson Air-Crane on its S-64 helicopter. The drop rate, controlled from the cockpit, is governed by the opening of the tank doors.
APPLICATIONS:
The 10 Tanker has maneuverability but is more geared for a large-scale drop, compared to the CDF’s S-2Ts aircraft which hold 1,200 gallons of water or retardant used for tighter surgical drops.
and a couple more pdfs from CAL FIRE
http://www.fire.ca.gov/newsreleases_content/downloads/2006archive/Tanker910factsheet.pdf
http://www.fire.ca.gov/about_content/downloads/Communique/W07/SuperTanker.pdf
700,000 lbs. total theresabouts. Thanks.
http://www.boeing.com/commercial/dc-10/tech.html
Now those had to be some tense moments.
Why, there it is again.
And I'd like to thank all the Green Tree Huggers for making our forests into tinder boxes.
I flew home Sunday and saw the Tahoe fire - it was UNBELIEVABLY HUGE at 3pm PDT.
damn tree huggers
grumblegrumblegrumble
I landed a mayday @ Castle AFB once.
And a friend landed his mayday @ Travis AFB.
It can be done.
It’s not pleasant.
who makes the mayday is it a cessna or a beechcraft ?
Piper
giggle
I work at the company at SCLA / VCV that maintains the 10 tanker. She’s a DCC-10-10, which puts full t/o weight at about 450,000lbs. They get pretty close to that with full tanks. Empty is close to 300,000. The reason 10 came to VCV instead of Mojave, or another closer airfield is that the tanker is based out of VCV. For the extra 20 miles, they could get back to their home base, with all the maintenance and repair facilities.
Thank you.
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