Jon Wright took this photo of Air Tanker 116, which is one of the first of the seven HC-130H aircraft the U.S. Forest Service acquired from the U.S. Coast Guard to be converted to an air tanker.
Mr. Wright said it spent several hours on February 27 and 28 conducting approaches at Mather Airport east of Sacramento.
That’s a real nice picture! Tanker 116 will be using MAFFS II again this season, and will not be flying any initial attack.
Has it been tanked, or is it still MAFFS? IA carded?
From the photo doesn’t look like its tanked. Most likely still MAFFS and I doubt IA carded unless the forest service hired some IA carded pilots.
Here is a link to a photo of the belly of Coulson’s T-131, a C-130Q, that shows the drop doors.