Temporary VLAT retardant base established at Colorado Springs

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Fixed wingTags ,
temporary retardant base Colorado Springs Airport

Above: MAFFS #2 reloads at the new temporary retardant base at the Colorado Springs Airport. Screen grab from the video below.

A new temporary fire retardant base has been set up at the Colorado Springs Airport. A spokesperson for the airport told us that it can handle Very Large Air Tankers such as the DC-10 and 747. In the video below one of the DC-10’s can be seen in the background.

This is part of a joint effort between the Colorado Springs Airport, the U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. Army Fort Carson to provide a reload facility in the area.

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10 thoughts on “Temporary VLAT retardant base established at Colorado Springs”

  1. Back in ’68 I missed my IR crew’s departure to a fire from our Fort Carson base in Colorado Springs. Since I was technically on duty though USFS assigned me to trailer a mobile retardant mixing tank not unlike the one in the image, except in lime green, from Colorado Springs to Loveland Airport (the Tunnel Fire… a bomber went down on that fire… was way up the Cache La Poudre and those were TBM days). A long bed Dodge 2x, no electric brakes and me, solo with no towing experience up through Denver on I-25. Yee-haw!

    1. Correction on my last! It was 1969. ’68 the crew was still in Fort Collins.

      It seems the older we get there are more things to reminisce about, contort, confabulate and/or forget. Gees! I prefer my list continues to grow!!

  2. The high viability paint is only when the MAFFS are activated and needed for bothe air attack and groud troops. Removed when the aircraft are released.

    During the Waldo Canyon fire the MAFFS worked out of Peterson not Pueblo. Might have reloaded once or twice there.

  4. During the Waldo Canyon fire four C-130’s worked out of Wright-Patterson AFB adjacent to COS.
    Only the SEATs reloaded in Pueblo.

  5. C-130 H’S —GOOD IDEA, BUT A LITTLE LATE AS USUAL, PER USFS . AS BG ,ONCE MENTIONED “HIT THEM EARLY [ WILDFIRES ] AND HIT THEM HARD!!’
    THIS ALSO APPLIES TO THE NO .CAL WILDFIRE !

  6. Just got back to COS from overseas, and the C-130s have been very busy today headed west up Ute Pass (looks like they have been hitting the fires burning in Park and Teller counties). No sign of the DC-10s yet to the west, so I assume they are working the fires further south. Interestingly enough when the Waldo Canyon fire was burning here in 2012, the MAFFS tankers were based out of Pueblo instead of the Springs.

  7. Am very surprised that there isn’t more high viability paint on the C-130 for safety reasons. Need to check the MAFFS Operating Plan

    1. Why would they repaint the planes? They are military aircraft, which are converted to firefighting use in a matter of hours.

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