Up close and personal with DC-7 airtankers: Introduction

 

 

I want to begin by introducing Butler's three DC-7 airtankers: T-60, T-62, T-66. Tankers 62 and 66 are straight DC-7's originally built for United Airlines. Tanker 60, on the other hand is a DC-7B that was built for Eastern Airlines. Larry's tanker, since 1983, is T-62. His co-pilot is Ron Carpinella. A two-person crew, pilot (aka PIC or pilot-in-command) and a co-pilot flies Butler's DC-7s, there is no flight engineer. While each crew has a primary tanker, they do flew each of the three DC-7 tankers. The picture below is the original data plate from Douglas Aircraft for the plane that eventually became T-62. Butler has contracts with the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) and with CAL Fire for its DC-7's. As I understand it, specific tankers are committed to specific state contracts. In 2009, T-62 and T-66 were on ODF contracts, where tanker 62 was based in Medford and tanker 66 was based in Redmond. Tanker 60 spent three weeks in 2009 based out of Chico CA on a call when needed (CWN) contract.

The first DC-7 flew commercially for American Airlines in November 1953. Passenger capacity ranged from 74 to 99 in the DC-7's and DC-7B's. I was interested to learn from Larry that "the wingspan was exactly the same from the DC-4 through the DC-7B,although the wing structure changed considerably between models.The fuselage length grew a great deal from the DC-4 through the DC-7 as well.

The heavier DC-7C was slightly longer allowing for an extra row of seats, increasing the passenger capacity to 105. The DC-7C also had longer wings allowing for a larger fuel capacity. By the mid- to late 1960s most major U.S. Airlines had replaced their DC-7 with newer jet planes on their coast to coast and international runs. For more on the history of this magnificent aircraft go here.


 

Early on in my writings on aerial wildland firefighting, someone sent me links to a two-part video starring the DC-7 airtanker. Watching these videos only wetted my appetite to learn more about aerial wildland firefighting. These videos were put together by Bob Webb, one of Larry's former co-pilots who has since moved on from Butler and is now a PIC in his own right. Being an aficionado of aviation history, I enjoyed the images showing historical pictures of various commercial DC-7 airplanes. You will also a couple of images of one of Butler's DC-7 tankers when it was used by United Airlines.  For the last several minutes of part 1, you experience retardant drops from the pilot's point of view (aka the left seat). There is also some incredible footage of a thunder storm. Allow about thirteen minutes to watch this video. It is an incredible video! It may be found here. Note on May 13, 2013, the original link for this video was on Patrick's Aviation, a few months ago I noticed that it was no longer around, but only recently did I find this same video on youtube, but without the audio. Still, you get the pictures and video.