Air Force Reserve C130 over the Rimfire

[Drew99GT]

Cool vid! This is apparently one of the new C130 J models and they can't get the audible landing gear warning to stop when they come in low to drop fire retardant.

 

[morepwr]

That is a very good vid! Thanks for posting that.

 

[tom slick]

That's not a Reserve plane, that's the Air National Guard unit at Channel Islands Air National Guard Station that I used to belong to. I just happened to be in Fresno last week and watched #6 land at FAT.

The video shows how low and how close to the fire they fly. The MAFFSII system the C-130J use for retardant drops is a neat setup. The C-130 wasn't designed for fire fighting and only a few units use them with MAFFS. There are several issues the pilots and ground crew adjust to and train for for that mission.

 

[Drew99GT]

Did you work on the MAFFS Tom?

Those C130s are like the Ford F150 of planes; they can do just about everything, and do it well.

 

[tom slick]

I did not work directly on MAFFS but I did "support" a couple MAFFS missions. I was an engine and propeller mechanic and went along to help with other tasks such as operating support equipment, washing the retardant off the plane (it's corrosive), etc. The MAFFS missions took a back seat to middle east deployments after 9/11/2001.

They are the dump truck or delivery van of the aircraft world and are modified into all sorts of neat variants. In that video they were flying a C-130J, the newest version. I worked on very old C-130E aircraft.

 

[sleddriver]

Excellent video! Thanks for posting!