First of Seven C-130s Ready to Fly Fires for Cal Fire

Direct link to Cal Fire video on YouTube

I have know for a few years that Cal Fire took delivery of seven C-130s that were retired from other government service. These C-130s will be converted to fly fires along with other repairs, see for example this March 2024 article on Fire Aviation. I try to monitor various pages on Facebook of air tanker contractors as well as some state and federal agencies. I noted this Aug 26th post from CAL FIRE reporting that the first of seven C-130H airtankers went into service that day, sharing the video that I embedded above from Cal Fire's YouTube page. 

I thank Mike Archer from the Wildfire News of the Day newsletter for sharing this August 26th news release from Gov. Newsome's office on the C-130H air tankers that includes the above video as well as a link to a C-130H fact sheet as well as a video (not on YouTube) of the first drop of the C-130H. The first C-130H will be based at McClellan Airtanker base.

Some facts about the C-130H:

• range loaded of 800 miles, no load of 3,000 miles
• tank capacity of 4,000 gallons of retardant
• four Allison T56-A-15 turboprops. Each turboprop produces 4,300 horsepower
• requires a pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer