MAFFS Mission Report

July 2nd, 2008

9:30 a.m.—or “0930 hours” in military terms—As the morning sun warms the tarmac the pilots, flight and ground crews assigned to MAFFS aircraft number 3 prepare for another day of a hazardous but highly rewarding flight sorties. They are getting situation updates as they prepare to be part of the highly choreographed aerial attack on the fires that have ravished over 400,000 acres of Northern California’s beautiful wildlands since last weekend’s lightning storms.

After the morning briefing, the crew gathers around their imposing airplane, waiting for their first flight sortie that will send them out once again to firefighters that are battling one of the almost 1,500 fires across the state. The crew waits for fire ground commanders to call for MAFFS’ crew to deliver yet another 2,800 gallons of red-tinted fire retardant from their C-130 air tanker. The fire commanders wait for conditions at the fires that will allow the pilots to safely navigate as the increasing heat of the day lifts the typical morning inversion that captures smoke causing it to hug the ground. And as the day becomes hotter, so does the fire activity.

12:20 p.m. While many people who work in the central valley area around the state’s capital just outside the gates of McClellan airbase are just sitting down to their lunch, the first order of the day comes through to Lieutenant Colonel Wylie D. Walno, II.

“Move to Pit Number 1.”

Burning conditions are heating up out at the fires and MAFFS 1 and 5 are being launched on fire missions. MAFFS 3 will now move to the ready area of one of the three loading pits to await a load of the fire slurry.

The ground crew connects the massive ground power unit to the aircraft, which assists in the starting of the first of the four powerful turbine engines. As engine number 3, just to the right of the cockpit begins to rotate the large, four-bladed propeller, the loud whine cuts through the air. Then engine number 2, on the pilots left side, is fired up which allows the plane to slowly taxi over to Pit 1 and once again wait for their order to load and launch.

2:30 p.m. Fire conditions on the Piute Fire (http://www.kerncountyfire.org/incidents.php?id=124) in the southern Sierras, east of Bakersfield, have the firefighters calling for airdrops. So the loading crew at Pit 1 quickly pump the liquid fire retardant into the five 500 gallon tanks lined up in the cargo hold of the C-130 as Loadmaster Senior Master Sergeant Doug Peterson carefully monitors his gauges.

Within a few minutes, MAFFS 3 is airborne on what will be a two-hour mission. The two Loadmasters sit in the rear of the plane, facing backwards, and control the critical system of tanks and pumping pipes that allow the slip-in units to deliver their load of fire retardant. When asked how it sounds back there during a drop, Peterson said, “It’s a big whoosh!”

After their drop to help cool the fire that is threatening over 1,000 structures they are told to return to McClellan to “load and return.”

4:30 p.m. Ground crews working in unison load MAFFS 3 with another load of slurry, pressurize the on-board air tanks that expels the fire retardant through the massive twin pipes hanging out the rear of the cargo hold, and fuel the plane. MAFFS then taxis out to the runway and takes off toward the south for another sortie.

6:30 p.m. MAFFS 3 returns to the McClellan base and is done for the day.

MAFFS 3, which is named “The Town of Upton,” is one of the two C-130s from Cheyenne, Wyoming. The crew is proud of the mission assisting the firefighting efforts.

Bryan Beyer, the flight engineer, said, “at the end of the day you have the most feeling of accomplishment.”

Wylie added, “it’s the best mission we have.”