If you are like me and you follow wildfires, for example those in the western United States of in Australia, than you have probably seen videos, similar to those I have embedded here, of a DC-10 tanker working a wildfire. Carrying up to 9,400 gallons of retardant, they can do a lot of good to help wildland firefighters on the ground. Whether a DC-10 tanker makes one drop or multiple drops, they can do a lot of good. I have never seen a DC-10 tanker drop in person, so to speak, but I have seen them on live stream, it is truly awesome to when the drop either a full or partial load.
10 Tanker Air Carrier has a fleet of four DC-10-30 tankers. I am sure that some of you already know that these DC-10's used to be commercial airliners before they were acquired by 10 Tanker Air Carrier and converted for use as tankers (I got the specs and other information on the DC-10 tankers from 10 Tanker Air Carrier's DC-10 Fact Sheet where you may go for more information).
The four DC-10 tankers are:
- Tanker-910 N612X
- Tanker-911 N17085
- Tanker-912 N522AX
- Tanker-914 N603AX
A crew of three flies the DC-10: pilot in command, second in command, and a flight engineer. A maintenance crew of seven follows the DC-10 with trailers to their assignments.
Mission Specs:
- cruise speed of 300 to 350 knots to the fire.
- drop speed is 140 knots.
- going back to tanker base to load and return, 380 knots.
Bill Gabbert of Fire Aviation provided an update on the 2020 US Forest Service Large Tanker Contracts on May 2nd. According to Bill's post 10 Tanker Air Carrier will have two DC-10s on this contract. These contracts may change during the fire season, and I expect that Bill will provide updates on Fire Aviation.
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