C-130s in brief and reordering of upcoming air tanker postings

When I originally planned out my postings on different types of multi-engine air tankers available for nationwide aerial fire fighting, I was going to start with the C-130. As I began to learn more about these different aircraft, I learned that the civilian C-130 air tanker fleet has been grounded due to maintenance problems and some tragic crashes of civilian C-130’s. Newer and meticulously maintained military (Air Force) C-130’s, aka the Modular Airborne FireFighting System (MAFFS) are called into service only when all other multi-engine air tankers are in use and more are needed.

As I sat down this morning to write my first couple of air tanker postings, I decided to revisit the order of my postings. As the military C-130’s are only called into service for retardant drops if all other air tankers are in use, it made sense to write about the military C-130 aircraft only after I have written about “civilian” air tankers currently on nationwide contract for aerial fire fighting.