![]() “Most air tanker bases across the United States, and certainly in California, are designed for smaller, initial attack aircrafts, or maybe up to the larger air tankers. “The services and equipment at McClellan are uncommon for most air tanker bases, especially in California,” said Brian Estes, Cal Fire Deputy Chief. ![]() MAFFS aircraft and crews require larger facilities and infrastructure specific to the Air National Guard operations that suits McClellan, a former Air Force base, well. These aircrafts are configured with self-contained aerial fire retardant dispersal systems with the ability to hold 3,000 gallons of retardant. Recently some of the MAFFS units (Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System) in the Air National Guard C-130 aircrafts have been dispatched to and are operating out of the McClellan Airport. The improvements allow the reload base to simultaneously load multiple tankers in the “Very Large (VLAT) and Large Air Tankers (LAT) categories with retardant loads of approximately 12,000 and 3 to 5,000 gallons respectively per aircraft. McClellan Airport can support the largest of any air tankers operated or contracted by Cal Fire of the USFS. “We may pump a minimal amount of retardant one day but the next day it may be in excess of 100,000 gallons”. ![]() “ The number of flights and gallons delivered vary from day to day depending on the needs of the incidents or on other factors”, said Robert Wheatley, Cal Fire Battalion Chief. This far exceeds the typical delivery at McClellan for an entire fire season of just over 1 million gallons. After opening this newly improved facility in July, 2015, Cal Fire has dispatched 406 aircraft missions delivering over 1.6 million gallons of retardant in less than 30 days. During 2014 and early 2015, Cal Fire, in conjunction with McClellan Jet Services/ McClellan Park and ICL (Cal Fire’s contract company providing reload base personnel, equipment and the actual retardant product) collaborated in order implement significant improvements to the reload base by increasing its tanker reloading pits from two to five, increased the retardant storage capacity from 13,000 gallons to 86,000 gallons, improved mixing capability from 300 to 700 gallons per minute and upgraded permanent delivery plumbing and nozzles for refilling the tankers. The USCG Air Station plays an important role in providing maintenance support for the aircraft.įully loaded C-130’s and Very Large Air Tankers(VLAT’s) deploy from Cal Fire’s McClellan Airport Retardant Reload Base to battle drought induced wildfires in all of Northern California, Nevada, parts of Oregon, as well as more immediate surrounding areas. As of this date there have been over 40 missions flown using McClellan as the base of operations for the USFS tanker 118 C-130. Everything is running smoothly”, said Jeff Powers, USFS Regional Aviation Officer. “We are very excited about this partnership. The collaborative efforts between US Forest Service, and Cal Fire allows for critical firefighting coverage in the surrounding areas. ![]() (August 17, 2015) - McClellan Airport is serving as a critical Northern California hub for the collaborative firefighting efforts led by Cal Fire and the United States Forest Service.
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