Inside Three Airtankers

Direct link to April 15, 2026 video by "The Lookout and blancolirio" on YouTube

I always enjoy watching videos about different kinds of airtankers. I enjoyed this video by "The Lookout and blancolirio" and I hope that you do as well.

Columbia AAB Tanker Ops on Detwiler Fire

I found a nice short video on tanker operations at the Columbia Air Attack Base (CA), while CAL FIRE Tankers 82 and 83 were working the Detwiler Fire in Mariposa County - 45,724 acres, 8 structures destroyed, evacuations in place, 7% containment as of July 19, 2017 at 12:30 PM EDT. For those of you who are interested in further coverage of the Detwiler Fire, Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today has been covering the fire in this July 19th post.

I had been reading about this wildfire, but my interest was peaked when I came across this July 17th article with video by Giuseppe Ricapito of the Union Democrat. The video was by Maggie Beck with audio by Giuseppe Ricapito. I always enjoy watching and learning more about tanker operations at air attack bases. I hope that you take the time to read the article because there is some information in the article that is not in the video (embedded below).

Ricapito talks about the number of drops made on Monday, July 17th along with some information about flying to the fire (Union Democrat, July 17 2017, Giuseppe Ricapito)

By about 6:45 p.m. on Monday, Air Tankers 82, 83 and 88 (which is stationed out of Grass Valley) had performed 35 retardant drops near the fire site in Mariposa and Jesus Maria Road in Mokelumne Hill. The operations had begun at around 8:30 a.m. Monday, with helicopters deployed to the area not expected to return until evening. The helicopters were not required to return for a refilling of material or fuel, Podesta said, since they could access water at Lake McClure, about two miles from the blaze.  

With around 30 nautical miles to the drop zone, each of the planes has a turnaround time to Columbia Air Attack Base for a fire retardant refilling every 20 to 25 minutes. Every four to five drops, the aircraft would return to the Columbia Air Attack Base for a longer refueling by a mobile Shell jet fuel truck that would pull up alongside the plane on the runway.  

While in the Mariposa area, the air tankers fly at a designated elevation and flight path, dropping the liquid retardant ahead of the movement of the fire. 

Direct link to Union Democrat You Tube video

DC-10 and USFS C-130 arriving at Santa Maria Tanker Base

Thanks to Mike Archer at WNOTD for steering me to a nice story from KSBY with a video about the arrival of T-116, a USFS C-130 at Santa Maria Tanker Base. The C-130s were based out of Sacramento, but with the closure of that tanker base, the USFS C-130 will be based out of Santa Maria. She arrived last Saturday, joining one the 10 Tanker Carriers DC-10s which has been based out of Santa Maria for the last couple of years. Because of the wet winter, the fire season in California is expected to start later and last longer. T-116 and the DC-10 tanker (T-911?) will provide important aerial support to wildland firefighters on the ground fighting wildfires this season. Go here for the story and accompanying video. I am sorry that I could not get the embed code to work, which may be for the best as I am never sure how long videos from local media will be live.

Ramona Air Attack Base (Ramona, CA)

Some of you may recall that I spent some time in and near San Diego in southern California over two years ago. And those who know me knew that I was itching to go and visit the closest CAL FIRE air attack base. So my friend and I spent a day, driving first to Ramona to visit CAL FIRE's air attack base at Ramona. For a sense of geography and to see where all the CAL FIRE air attack bases are located, the California Fire Pilots Association has a map with clickable links.

My friend and I had a great time, and the lady at the base was very nice to us, letting us in to look at one of the tankers and answering my questions, I wrote about this visit on July 13, 2012 (with photos).

Why am I writing about this today? Well, I came across a nice article about Ramona Air Attack Base from U-T San Diego written by J. Harry Jones on October 28th. I learned more about Ramona: base operations and aircraft, the new Chief John Francois who oversees all operations, base staff, and one of the S2-T pilots, Bob Forbes. I thought you'd enjoy the article. So I am sharing it here.

Enjoy! And stay safe out there.

Control Tower at Ramona on FAA list of ATC Towers to be closed

I posted a short article on  March 16 about the then possible closure of the Air Traffic Control Tower at Ramona Air Attack Base linking to a letter that Walt Darran of the Associated Aerial Firefighters wrote to the FAA urging them to keep the Tower at Ramona open for the safety of aerial firefighters and other aviation interests. Well, as I am sure that some of you already know by now, the FAA released a list of 149 Contract ATC Towers to be closed this past Friday.

The tower at Ramona is on the list of towers to be closed, according to a March 21st article from the Ramona Sentinel, the FAA will begin to close these towers starting April 7 over a four week period. The Ramona Sentinel article has a nice quote from San Diego County Supervisor Dianne Jacob giving voice to local concerns about the closure:

This is so critical. We will continue to make the FAA aware it is a wrong-headed decision. …. We want to prevent another mid-air collision, another disaster. Lives are at stake. (Supervisor Jacob, Ramona Sentinal, March 21, 2013).

Added on October 12, 2015. The March 21, 2013 article from the Ramona Sentinal is no longer available on line, I have removed direct links.

I don't know how many towers at Air Attack/Tanker Bases are on the FAA list of closures. I do know that Fox Field (CA) is on the closure list, as is Klamath Falls (OR) are on the list, and I am pretty certain that both are tanker bases. Bill Gabbert of Fire Aviation posted the list of California towers that are on the closure list, in an article he posted on March 22. One of his commenters remarked that both Ramona and Fox Field are Tanker Bases. NBC San Diego reported on the closure of the tower at Ramona and a tower at Brown Field in San Diego (not a tanker base) in a March 22 report.

Mike Archer of Fire Bombers Publications provided a link to a March 24 article from KPIC on the five ATC Towers in OR due to close, including the tower at Klamath Falls. 

I am not exactly in a position to state with any certainty whether or not other ATC towers at other air attack/tanker bases in the U.S. are on the FAA list of 149 Contract ATC Towers to be closed. If I should become aware of additional ATC towers at air attack/tank bases that are due to close, I'll report back here.

Update on March 26, 2013: Just today I revisited a March 22 article from the AOPA regarding the 149 Towers that the FAA is planning to close starting on April 7. In the course of reading the article from the AOPA I came across a link to an FAA list of 24 FAA Contract Towers that will remain open; it seems that the tower at Klamath Falls OR is included on this list of towers that will remain open. 

Control Tower at Ramona Air Attack Base due to close

Ramona Air Attack Base

I have been been aware that many air traffic control towers (ATC) at smaller airports in the U.S. are due to close because of the sequester. For example, at least two towers in northern New Jersey are due to close, see this article on NJ dot com. I was distressed when I read an article on Michael Archer's Firebombers Publications Blog this past Wednesday (March 13) from News 7 in San Diego that the air traffic control tower at CAL Fire's Ramona Air Attack Base. Another article on the pending closure of the Ramona ATC tower may be found here.

I have included a couple of photos that I took at Ramona Air Attack Base when I visited Ramona Air Attack Base early in the Summer of 2012 Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of the affected air traffic control tower.

I want all pilots, including pilots flying aerial wildland firefighting aircraft, to be safe. I was very interested to read that Walt Darran, chairman of the Safety Committee and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Associated Aerial Firefighters has submitted a comment to the FAA urging the FAA to take the ATC at Ramona off their closure list and to keep the ATC operational. Walt writes of two mid-air collisions at Ramona, one as recently as 1995. Both mid-airs happened before the ATC was open. Walt says in part:

Maintaining an operational FAA control tower at Ramona is essential not only for the safety of pilots and aircraft, but also to maintain an orderly and efficient flow of aerial firefighting aircraft to protect lives and property subject to wildfires in the surrounding area.

I hope you take a few moments to read Walt's comment to the FAA that may be found here.

CAL FIRE Ramona Air Attack Base up close and personal

The top item on my to do list while I was in the San Diego area a few weeks ago was to visit the Ramona Air Attack Base. I drove inland (east) for about an hour to get to Ramona, a very pleasant drive. The coast where I was staying was cloudy, but when I got to Ramona, the cloud deck had lifted and it was a beautiful southern CA day, sunny with temps about 70. I found the viewing area and sat for about 5 minutes looking at the field. The two S2-Ts and the OV-10 Air Attack were sitting on the ramp.

I wanted to get closer, and I heard from a few reliable sources that they will give visitors like me a tour if they are not busy. And the were not busy. So, I went to the main gate with my cell phone and dialed the number on the sign telling them who I was, asking if I could come in and take some photos for my blog. The base manager came out and let me in, a very nice woman. She was so kind and welcoming. She let me take all the photos I wanted. The result are the photos that I am sharing with you here.

Air Attack 330 (OV-10)

Air Attack 330 (OV-10)

Air Attack 330 (OV-10)

T-70 (Grumman S2-T)

T-70 (Grumman S2-T)

S2-T tanker belly -- retardant doors are closed

S2-T tanker retardant loading valve

T-71 (Grumman S2-T)

T-70 (Grumman S2-T)

One of the S2-T tankers at Ramona AAB

One of the S2-T tankers at Ramona AAB

T-71 (Grumman S2-T)

T-71 (Grumman S2-T)

Santa Maria Airtanker Base (CA) is baaaccck!

In April of 2009, a few weeks after I started writing about aerial wild land firefighting in my blog, I remember reading somewhere that the Santa Maria Airtanker Base, 55 miles north of Santa Barbara CA was downgraded from a full service air attack base to a call when needed air attack base. I suppose that you can say that piece of news stayed with me, I did not forget. It did not take me long to find some articles that Bill Gabbert of wildfire today wrote about the situation, two of these include an article written on  April 10, 2009 and another on May 13, 2009. I do recall making a mental note of the article that Bill wrote last November with the good news that the Santa Maria Airtanker base would reopen.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, where I saw this report from KCOA on June 8 saying that the Santa Maria Air Tanker Base is up and running. Further, that a couple of air tankers and a helo had reloaded (or flown out of) Santa Maria Air Tanker Base for an early June fire in Ventura County.

A friend of mine told me about the Ozena Fire late Saturday night that was then burning in or near the Los Padres National Forest. I found an article in the Ventura County Star written late Saturday night (June 16) when the wildfire was still burning. The article speaks of a helicopter being used early on. I understand that air support for the Ozena fire was loading out of the Santa Maria Air Tanker Base on Saturday. That makes sense to me because it is so close to Los Padres.

According to an article from the Ventura County Star on the afternoon of June 17, the fire was fully contained earlier on June 17. Also see this report from KTLA. Both articles mention that the fire was fought from the air and from the ground. I am uncertain about exactly what aerial resources were used. Perhaps it doesn't matter that I don't know exactly what aerial resources where used to fight the Ozena fire on June 16, what matters is that the Santa Maria Tanker Base is up and running.

This is one time when my distance is a little frustrating. If I lived closer, which I don't as I live on the east coast, I would be at the Santa Maria viewing area with camera in hand to take photos. But I am here, so I can't do that for you. I will try, as best I can to keep an eye out for tanker and helo operations out of Santa Maria during the coming fire season. And when I do, I'll report back here.