Coulson Aviation C130H Tanker Walk Around: Redardant Tank System

 

Direct link to July 12 video from Coulson Aviation on YouTube

Enjoy this nine minute video of Coulson Aviation RADS Modification Supervisor providing a walk around of the RADS retardant tank system on a Coulson C-130H airtanker (tanker 132)  RADS stands for Retardant Aerial Delivery Systems. I enjoyed this video because I love airtankers and appreciate getting a close-up view of the RADS system that I otherwise would not experience because I live across the country from Coulson's Thermal CA base.

Coulson Converts Ex-Military C-130H to Airtankers

Direct link to video by Skies Magazine on YouTube

A common occurrence in the Airtanker business is in converting military or commercial aircraft into airtankers. Coulson Aviation is not the only contractor that does these conversions, most contractors flying airtankers will convert aircraft to an airtanker configuration as necessary. I liked this video by Coulson because it highlights the conversion of an ex-miliatry C-130H aircraft into an airtanker.  While specific to the C-130H that Coulson uses, I'd like to think that this video gives us an idea about how these conversions work. For example, any size airtanker needs a retardant tank which may involve reconfiguring the interior of the aircraft, controls have to installed for the pilots to make a drop, the aircraft has to be configured to refill the tank, obtaining any necessary FAA certifications, and inspections&maintenance.

2025 Spring Training: Coulson C-130 Stall Training

I know from my reading on aviation and flying that any pilot (or crew) needs to know how their aircraft reacts in a stall and how they can get out of a stall. Simply, a stall happens when the wings lose lift making it difficult for the aircraft to continue to fly. Airflow over the wings is crucial for the wings to maintain lift and continue flying. In a stall, the necessary airflow over the wings to keep the wing flying is no longer there. Each aircraft has different ways to counteract the stall and keep the aircraft in the air so it is good that spring training in the airtanker business includes stall training and recovery from stalls. Go to this report by the Pilot Institute to read more about stalls.

I was not surprised to see this Facebook Post from Coulson Aviation on stall training as a part of their 2025 spring training (direct link to Coulson Aviation's Facebook post on stall training).

Coulson Aviation Acquired Four C-130's from New Zealand

Coulson currently has six C-130 airtankers. As you can see from the above news release (direct link to news release), Coulson has purchase four C-130's from New Zealand. After Coulson has converted these four C-130s  to C-130 airtankers with the RADS-XXL tank system Coulson will have a fleet of ten C-130 airtankers.

To learn more about the C-130 airtanker and its conversion watch the video below.

Direct link to video from Coulson Aviation on YouTube

Coulson C-130 Drop with Lead Plane

 I know that many air tankers work coordinate with a lead plane in making a drop on a wildfire. I enjoyed this two-minute video from Coulson Aviation with a split screen between one of their C-130's and a lead plane including radio transmissions. Enjoy.

Direct link to video from Coulson Aviation on YouTube

Coulson Aviation Flying Fires in Chile (March 2024)

 As I write this in late March, Coulson Aviation continues to fly fire in Chile South America. I am embedding a short clip from the Coulson Aviation Facebook Page of Tanker 131 working a fire in Chile.

2024 Wildfire Season: Wildfire in Chile Feb 9th update

On February 5th I wrote about the wildfires in Chile, see my Feb 5th post, and I am writing to provide an update. I want to give a shout out to Mike Archer of Wildfire News of the Day for his February 8th WNOTD where he included the two articles about the wildfires in Chile that I am referring to in this post. But first, I know from the following post on Facebook recently shared by Coulson Aviation that Coulson continues to have a presence in Chile with at least one tanker deployed to Chile. According to Coulson's November 14th (2023) press release, one of their C-130's and crew plus a Citation 550 departed to serve in the Summer wildfire season in Chile. While I do not know for certain, I think it is logical to assume that Coulson's C-130 flew these recent wildfires in Coulson if conditions allowed.

A February 7th Barron's article on the Chile wildfires reported that

Firefighters said Wednesday they had extinguished all wildfires in Chile's coastal region of Valparaiso, where flames razed entire communities and left 131 dead.

The forest emergency that began on February 2 is considered to have been overcome,' said the fire department in the seaside resort town Vina del Mar, one of the worst-hit areas.

The Barron's article goes on to report that local officials say that something in the order of 15,000 homes have been impacted by these wildfires. I am not sure if Barrons has a paywall for this article, I was able to access this article.

The APNews has a nice photo spread of images of the Chile wildfires, see their February 7th article.

Coulson Aviation: Meet Joshua Kryzsko

 Meet Joshua Kroyzsko, Coulson Aviation's newest C-130 captain. As I understand it, Joshua is now in South America where he and his crew will be providing air support to the wildland firefighters on the ground. In the reel that I embedded below you will hear Joshua talk about his training and his long flight to South America. Thanks Joshua for all you do. I was able to see the video reel that I embedded below on my smart phone and I hope that you can, apologies if you can not. The direct link to Coulson's Facebook post with this video reel may be found here, you may have to turn on the audio.

2023-24 Australian Bush Fire Season: Coulson T-132 Going to Australia Soon

Coulson T-132, one of Coulson's C-130 Hercules air tankers, has recently finished her 2023 contract with the US Forest Service and is currently undergoing maintenance. When this maintenance is completed she will go to Australia, perhaps by cargo ship, where she will go on contract with New South Wales in Australia for their summer fire season. She will be based in Richmond, New South Wales. See this March 2023 article in SkiesMag for more information on Coulson's fleet of C-130's. Coulson's C-130 Hercules air tankers have a 4,000 gallon RADS-XXL tanking system that can be rolled on and off the tanker.

Coulson Aviation: 2022-23 international operations

As many of you may know, one of the aviation companies that have wildland firefighting contracts for their air tankers and helitankers in the United States and outside the U.S. is Coulson Aviation. Coulson has been on my mind of late because it is wildfire/bush fire season in the southern hemisphere and I know that Coulson has contracts in the southern hemisphere. I recently saw a December 5th article on Aerial Fire reporting that Coulson just signed a four-year contract with the Western Australian Government for one of their C-130 air tankers. Knowing that Fire Aviation would have reported about this contract, I found this December 5th article on Fire Aviation by Kelly Andersson reporting on the contract for the C-130 and another contract for a 737 air tanker. So Coulson will have two of their large air tankers on contract in Western Australia during their summer fire season. According to this December 13th Facebook post by the Dept. of Fire and Emergency Services in Western Australia, Coulson’s C-130 saw action on or about December 12th.

Among the other countries with Coulson's firefighting aircraft are according to Coulson's May 2022 news release Argentina purchased a Coulson 737, also see Bill Gabberts May 12th article on Fire Aviation. This year according to this December 20th Coulson Aviation Facebook post Coulson also has a C-130 air tanker and a CH-47 helitanker in Chile. To the best of my knowledge Coulson still has a presence in New South Wales, Australia this season, see Coulson Aviation's Australia website for more information. I know that in prior years, Coulson have had a presence in on or two other countries that I have not listed here. 

Direct link to video by Coulson Aviation on YouTube

Coulson Aviation: Scenes from Chile

 I have recently been writing about Coulson Aviation's operations in Chile (February 10th and February 12th), today I will wrap up this short series about Coulson's operations in Chile by sharing some of Coulson's Facebook posts. They are also posting about their operations in Australia. If you have difficulty with the embedded posts or you prefer not to disable any tracking extensions, I hope that the direct link below each of the embedded posts will work, depending on your browser it may not work, I am sorry if that is the case.

Direct link to post on Facebook

Direct link to post on Facebook

Direct link to post on Facebook

Direct link to post on Facebook

Short term plans for this blog in light of T-134 crash

Some of you may have figured out that in late December into January I was in the midst of writing reflection pieces on some of the tankers and helicopters that I first wrote about over ten years ago. I had also just began to post about some tankers that I had not devoted a lot of time to in this blog.

Then Coulson tanker 134 crashed in the Snowy Monaro region of New South Wales Australia on January 23rd. 

Out of respect for the loss of Ian, Paul and Rick when T-134 went down and also out of respect for the larger wildland firefighting community, I have suspended writing about tankers and helicopters for the foreseeable future. I am not quite sure when I will resume this series. The first of the remains of the crew were given a hero's farewell at Sydney yesterday prior to being flown back to Houston Texas (see this February 5th article from Reuters). As I write this on February 5th, I will continue to wait a respectable amount of time before resuming this series.

Coulson T-134: scenes from memorial service in New South Wales

I came across a video of the memorial service for the crew -- Ian H. McBeth, Paul Clyde Hudson, and Rick A. DeMorgan Jr. -- the crew of T-134 that perished last week when T-134 crashed:  It is a moving video except for one thing, about six seconds of footage from the scene of the crash. I have a policy of not showing footage of crash sites. So, I have (hopefully) started the video after the crash footage. The footage is from Nine News Australia.




The New South Wales Rural Fire Service has a photo gallery of photos from the memorial service on their Facebook Page that may be found here.

RIP Ian, Paul, and Rick. May you always fly in favorable tail winds. My heartfelt prayers for your family. friends, colleagues at Coulson Aviation, and all who love you.

Coulson T-134: memories from your friends in California

To Coulson Tanker 134, your friends in California remember you and I know you will be missed. I know that you spent some time in California last summer, I am not quite sure what your home base was, but I know that you were spotted at Ramona AAB in southern California (see Bill Gabbert's Fire Aviation post of August 4th). I don't exactly know how long you were at Ramona working fires near San Diego. I have some friends in southern California, I am grateful that you took care of them last summer, even if it was only for a couple of days, those were important days to me. I do not know how many wildfires you worked in California last summer or where they were. That does not matter, what matters is that you did good work in California working with and protecting the firefighters on the ground. You did good work and your service in Australia and California will always be remembered. Your sacrifice in Australia will not be forgotten.

RIP Ian, Paul, and Rick

Post script, February 9, 2020. I would like to thank an anonymous friend who contacted me over the weekend about this post to remind me. They reminded me that I did not cite a source for the information about Tanker 134's presence in Ramona Air Attack Base for what may only have been a couple of days. I edited this post to correct those errors.

T-134 saved a ranch

Direct link to video on Youtube

T-134 at Sacramento AAB

direct link to video

Coulson T-134 crash update: January 24th

T-134, a C-130Q from Coulson Aviation crashed on January 22nd in the Snowy Mountains. They were working a bush fire near Snowy Monaro, see my article of January 23rd for more information. 

Coulson Aviation has identified the crew of T-134 that perished in the crash.

Captain Ian H.McBeth, 44, Great Falls MT

Ian is survived by his wife, Bowdie and their three children: Abigail, Calvin and Ella; his parents Willian and Anneliese; and his siblings Rick Fernandez, Eleanor McBeth and Aislinn McBeth.

First Officer Paul Clyde Hudson, 42, Buckeye AZ

Paul is survived by his wife Noreen

Flight Engineer Rick A. DeMorgan Jr., 43, Navarre FL

Rick is survived by his two children Lucas and Logan; his parents Rick Sr. and Linda; and his sister Virginia.

Bill Gabbert of Fire Aviation has included the press release from Coulson Aviation in his January 24th post where you may go to learn more about Ian, Paul and Rick.

Ian, Paul and Rick, may you always fly in favorable tail winds along with T-134. I offer my prayers for your families, friends, co-workers at Coulson Aviation, and all who love you.

Coulson T-134 crashed in New South Wales Australia

It is with deep sorrow that I report the crash of a Coulson C-130, T-134, in New South Wales. She was working a bush fire in the Snowy Monaro Area in New South Wales Australia when she crashed on January 22, 2020. The three crew are dead. RIP T-134 and crew. May you always fly in favorable tail winds. My prayers go out to your family, friends, Coulson, and all who loved you.

The crash site is in a remote and rugged area of the Snowy Mountains, it took the emergency response team several hours to access the crash site.

Coulson is sending a team to help with the crash investigation and they have grounded their fleet today to remember the fallen. All large air tanker operations in New South Wales (and perhaps all of Australia) have been grounded as a sign of respect for the fallen.

A friend sent me a link to report of the crash by the media outlet France24, the report is dated January 23rd and may be found here. Bill Gabbert of Fire Aviation reports on the crash  in this post.


Direct link to ABC report on T-134

Obtained on January 23, 2020 from Coulson Aviation

Bushfire season in Australia - New South Wales

As we head into the holidays at the end of 2017 and then the New Year (just two weeks away), I find myself thinking that it is summer in Australia and that means bush fire season. Perhaps because I have a couple of contacts in New South Wales in Australia, I was wondering what is going in New South Wales. The bush fire agency in New South Wales, NSW Rural Fire Service has a nice webpage chock full of good links with a map of bush fire activity at the top of their entry page. The NSW Rural Fire Service has a nice Facebook page where they post videos, photos, and of course, information about bush fires. For those of you who prefer Twitter, the NSW Rural Fire Service Twitter page may be found here.

I knew from following Bill Gabbert's Fire Aviation that one of 10 Tanker Carrier's DC-10's (T-910 aka Southern Belle) and a Coulson C-130 (T-132, aka Thor) are under contract to New South Wales for their summer bush fire season. As I understand it, air tankers in Australia are considered a national resource and shared across Australian States as needed during bush fire season. Which probably explains why Coulson's T-132 was in Avalon, Victoria (Australia) when Coulson's T-131 (known as bomber 390) arrived in Avalon last week to start a contract in Victoria.

Fire Aviation posts on New South Wales (good videos and photos)

Coulson's T-132 arrives in New South Wales

10 Tanker Carrier's T-910 arrives in New South Wales

Coulson's C-130 on Facebook

10 Tanker Carrier on Facebook

Here are two Youtube videos of bush fire activity in New South Wales, both taken in late 2016.

Direct link to video

Direct link to video