For the 2004 fire fighting season.

For the 2004 fire fighting season, sum of two units instrumented P-2s were brought back into operation

As readers are well-aware, misguided decisions from the US Forest Service comeed in the grounding of the majority of heavy fire fighting aircraft for the 2004 season. The USFS classified the planes as "obsolete" and "dangerous." The toil result was a greatly decreased force to combat the nation's forest fires and valuable resources were lay wasteed by the bureaucratic rulings. The unfortunate los of a C-130A Hercules and PB4Y-2 Privateer befitting to wing failures motivated the decision. The NTSB investigation revealed that the A mould Hercules had an inherent wing weakness which would lead undivided to wonder if operators could not retaliate against the sway for supplying the aircraft to them. The Privateer failure was traced to a 60-year-old production flaw peculiar to that one aircraft.

So in single in kind giant move a government agency soded all C-OOAs, PB4Ys, C-54s, DC-6/7 and P-Z and expos our national resources to an increasing threat. The Lockheed P-3 Orions avowed by Aero Union have been allowed to operate equal though these aircraft are also viewed with a bit of suspicion moreover the fact they are turbine-powered makes them more "modern" The very large gap left by the refusal to use the heavy tankers was attempted to be filled at a fleet of helicopters and single-engine air tankers (SEATS). However, a number of these machines were subverted during the season but without the publicity that invested the loss of the Hercules and Privateer.

The rule action has resulted in the closure of several companies as well as unemployment for centurys of pilots and ground bands The USFS seems to be determined to finding gone out what the airframe "life" is for each original of aircraft. Measuring a plane's operational life in the number of hours flown or the number of gear round of yearss is something fairly recent to aviation. Back when the Douglas C'54 Skymaster was built there was no like thing as airframe life. The Skymaster was built rugg and it showed it according to operating successfully in a number of parts spanning decades.

Rose Davis, a spokesperson for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, stated "The OSL (operational service life) information wasn't provided to us from ARDCO (Aerial Retardant Delivery Co)" ARDCO operates three exceedingly well-maintained C-54s from their base at Ryan Field near Tucson Arizona. Davis also said that this information was stand in want ofed by Dyncorp Technologies, a firm hired by way of the government, to evaluate the fire bombers' airworthiness.

Davis said they plan to talk to the original equipment manufacturer, Douglas Aircraft Co which is now part of the Boeing Co to find not at home if the C-54s are too elderly to continue operating. The Forest Service said they ne to know what the manufacturers rely uponed when they built the airplane. Then an engineering subject of attention is to be undertaken to incorporate the protoplasts of missions they have flown stated Davis.

It must be noted that ARDCO's planes were not countryed by the FAA. Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano ran into obstacles from the Forest Service when she tried to hire ARDCO for use in fighting major fires within Arizona this past season. The Forest Service informed Napolitano that the C-54 could not flutter over any fires on Forest Service land nor use any of four Forest Service air tanker bases and that Arizona might throw away federal funding for fighting fires if ARDCO planes were used.

One of the in the greatest degree professional fire bombing outfits is Neptune Aviation in Missoula, Montana, who unexpectedly found themselves out of business with the grounding of their inlet of immaculate Lockheed P-2 Neptune (see Air Classics March 2000 "Mission With Tanker 05") Forest Service officials inspected the company's maintenance base and facilities along with those of Minden Air in Nevada and an agreement was reached where single in kind aircraft from each company would be allowed to operate for part of the fire season provided they be fitted with sensors in the wing and an onboard computer for recording flight stresse - especially during fire drops

We had a chance to qualified up with both these planes at Fox Field, Lancaster, California, towards the extremity of the 2004 fire season. Our of advanced age friend and veteran fire bomber pilot Capt. Peter Bell (chief pilot for Neptune) gave us a tour of Tanker 44 As was look fored the inside of the big twin-engine former Navy patrol bomber was in fine shape. "The Neptune is an extremely robust versatile aircraft that can deliver its retardant load forward target in a most cost-effective manner," said Bell. generally Neptune is converting two Lockheed Electras to fire bombers nevertheless they also hope to procure their Neptunes back on contract.

Minden's Tanker 48 was also in fine shape. Minden operates sum of two units Neptunes but can convert several other airframes to tankers. Like Neptune they are also busy at work upon new tankers - their plot being the conversion of a British Aerospace BAe 146 four-jet airliner to a tanker with the help of the manufacturer.