These photos of aircraft that were working on the Contreras Fire were taken by Ned Harris June 16, 2022 at the Sierra Vista Municipal Airport, a joint-use civil-military airport which shares facilities with Libby Army Airfield on Fort Huachuca in Southern Arizona.
We posted more of Ned’s photos yesterday, June 24, 2022. Thank you Ned!
These photos of aircraft that were working on the Contreras Fire were taken by Ned Harris June 16, 2022 at the Sierra Vista Municipal Airport, a joint-use civil-military airport which shares facilities with Libby Army Airfield on Fort Huachuca in Southern Arizona.
The lightning-caused fire started June 11, 2022 and burned more than 29,000 acres. It threatened the 20+ observatories at Kitt Peak National Observatory, destroying a dormitory and three other structures unrelated to the science being conducted at the facility. As this is written June 24, evacuations are still in effect at the observatories. The early analysis is that the structures housing the telescopes did not receive any significant damage, but the effects, if any, on the optical systems will be assessed in the coming weeks.
We will post more of Ned’s photos tomorrow, June 25. Thank you Ned!
In an interview this week with CBS Bay Area, Joe Tyler, the new Director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said the seven C-130s that are being transferred from the US Coast Guard to CAL FIRE will go to Georgia this year to have the 4,000-gallon retardant tanks installed.
During Mr. Tyler’s first interview after becoming Director March 4, he told Fire Aviation two weeks later that it looked like the incorporation of the C-130s into their fleet might be pushed back to 2024 due the pandemic/endemic and supply chain issues. This was in spite of the agency’s efforts in attempting to facilitate movement of the project. In the CBS interview this week he generally confirmed the 2024 timeline, but also maintained hope that one or more would be in service before 2024.
Below is the CBS Bay Area interview with Mr. Tyler.
The U.S. Air Force was directed by Congress in December 2013 to perform maintenance on the seven aircraft and convert them to air tankers. At that time they were given $130 million for the project. In 2018 Congress appropriated an additional $20 million, bringing the total cost to $150 million. It has now been 3,066 days since the process started.
Joe Tyler, in his first interview since becoming Director March 4
In his first interview since he started as the new Director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Joe Tyler told Fire Aviation on Wednesday that the state of California may have up to 10 additional firefighting helicopters in 2022 to assist firefighters on the ground.
Director Tyler said the current approved budget enables CAL FIRE to issue 120-day exclusive use contracts, based on fire potential, for up to three large air tankers, eight Type 1 helicopters, two Type 2 helicopters, and two lead planes. That budget authority lasts until the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 2022 and the Director’s staff is working on implementing the option now. The Governor’s proposed budget for the following fiscal year beginning July 1, 2022 includes exclusive use contract funding over the next three years for 10 Type 1 helicopters, but that budget has not yet been passed by the legislature.
CAL FIRE also has access to a San Diego County Type one helicopter through a cooperative agreement.
These numbers are in addition to the 10 helicopters already operated by CAL FIRE.
Director Tyler told Fire Aviation that he was offered the Director position on March 3 and he started the next day. He is overseeing an appropriated budget of $3.7 billion and more than 9,600 civilian and uniformed staff who responded to more than half a million emergencies in 2021. His predecessor, Thom Porter, retired in December.
Director Tyler is a 31-year veteran of CAL FIRE and most recently served as the Deputy Director of Fire Protection, overseeing statewide fire protection operations and cooperative fire protection. He began his career with CAL FIRE in 1991 working in several counties and programs throughout California and has an extensive background in executive level operations and programs. Prior to his appointment as Deputy Director, Tyler served as the Assistant Deputy Director of Fire Protection with oversight of law enforcement/civil cost recovery, fire protection operations, aviation management, tactical air operations, and mobile equipment.
“It is my commitment to take care of our people,” Director Tyler said in the interview Wednesday. “The health and wellness of the people who work for us are of utmost importance. As I have said to our people, they are our greatest asset.”
Director Tyler said the incorporation of the seven former Coast Guard C-130 aircraft into the state’s air tanker fleet might be pushed back to 2024 due the pandemic/endemic and supply chain issues. This is in spite of the agency’s efforts in attempting to facilitate movement in the project. He said they had hoped to see some of the C-130s flying on fires this year. CAL FIRE is working with the Coast Guard, the Air Force, and the contractor who will install the retardant delivery system, Coulson Aviation.
“We have working groups that meet weekly between those groups to determine where we are at in status and we have executive steering committees that meet quarterly,” the Director said. “The last update that was just given to us in this last month, was that Coulson Aviation working with the United States Air Force and their engineers were going through the preliminary design review of the retardant delivery system and things were looking good to be able to continue to move forward.”
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.
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.
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.
Coast Guard aircraft #1714, an HC-130H, has returned to Sacramento McClellan Airport after having been gone for a month or two. Mike McKeig got a photo of it January 14 when mechanics were doing an engine run. It had brand new livery showing that it will be air tanker 117 when it eventually gets transferred to CAL FIRE. The new paint job appears to be about 98 percent complete.
Mike got a “before” picture of the aircraft in November:
And here is what it looked like 14 years ago…
The seven Coast Guard HC-130Hs 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. As best as we could determine, no retardant delivery systems have been installed in any of the aircraft. Some of them may still need depot level maintenance.
One of the seven Coast Guard HC-130Hs that may eventually be transferred to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), Coast Guard number 1714, returned to Sacramento McClellan Airport this month. The last time it was seen there was quite some time ago when it was still in Coast Guard livery. When it flew in from Ogden, UT on November 2 it had been stripped of paint. It is likely that the aircraft had been under the care of the 309th Aircraft Maintenance Group at Ogden Air Logistics Complex at Hill Air Force Base.
Mike McKeig got a photo of 1714 at the end of an engine run on November 17, two days before it departed for Roswell, New Mexico.
If the Air Force completes the maintenance and conversion into air tankers as Congress required in legislation passed December 20, 2013, the seven Coast Guard HC-130H aircraft will be transferred to CAL FIRE. They were originally destined for the U.S. Forest Service to be government-owned and privately-operated. But oddly, the agency lost interest and now they will be regifted to CAL FIRE if the Air Force follows through as required. Actually, all seven are still property of the Coast Guard and won’t be transferred over until all of the work is done. In the meantime, CAL FIRE is using at least one to train crews. At news conferences they take every opportunity to have one with the new CAL FIRE livery featured prominently in the background.
Collins Aerospace successfully completed a test flight proving the effectiveness of its Enhanced Vision System (EVS) on a C130J aircraft. EVS has, for many years, increased situational awareness on commercial and business aircraft. This latest milestone brings Collins closer to providing the same benefits to military customers across the globe.
Collins’ EVS-3600 uses multiple wave-length cameras to “see-through” poor visibility conditions better than the human eye. The images are shown on head-up displays, allowing pilots to better identify the runway environment in all weather conditions including fog, haze, snow, smoke, dust, blowing sand and low illumination nighttime operations. This technology is particularly beneficial for C-130 aircraft given its need in remote areas, its widespread use during natural disasters — such as wildfires — humanitarian relief efforts across the globe and search and rescue efforts.
“The feedback we received from the crew following the test flight confirms what we’ve known for quite some time — this technology can help save lives by improving threat detection while increasing safety margins and mission success rates for our militaries,” said Dave Schreck, vice president and general manager for Military Avionics and Helicopters at Collins Aerospace. “We’re particularly interested in seeing how this technology can assist firefighting crews. Not only will it help them to navigate through heavy smoke and pinpoint hotspots while using C-130s to help stop wildfires, but they can also land and refuel closer to the fires to increase the efficiency of their efforts.
In military operations, the EVS can also assist with:
Safer low profile terrain flying in low visibility conditions
Easier visual confirmation of Drop Zone markings
Fewer mission cancelations due to adverse weather conditions
Use of heat signatures to make search and rescue operations easier and more efficient
In addition, Collins’ EVS system is among the few solutions available that doesn’t need a dedicated cooling system and remains the most compact system certified for Enhanced Flight Vision System (EFVS) Approach and EFVS Landing lower operating minima.
Collins is currently working with Air Mobility Command on a longer, more comprehensive test of the EVS System and is on track to complete the prototype aircraft installation and airworthiness approval in 2023. The upgrade package is expected to be immediately available to the C-130J community thereafter.