Those were H&P guys, as far as I know there aren't any USFS guys flying tankers each and every one of them is contracted out by private vendors. The only government guys flying tankers that I know of are some state guys.

The Captain's name was Steve I'd met him a time or two.

I hate watching that video. Kind of every pilots worse night mare come true. You know those guys had no clue the wings were gone other the lack of responce from the controls or power levers.

The plane was an old a or b model that was retired from the air force. It had a ton of time on the airframe and had known wing box issues. A good friend of mine flew that plane the season prior to that accident. He quit after he saw the condition of the plane.

There are 4 Air National Guard units in the country that fly MAFFS (Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System). Wyoming flying the H-3, Channel Islands flying the J, Colorado Springs flying the H-3, and Charlotte NC flying the H-3. All of these planes are maintained to the highest level and the Forrest service pays for the plane and the crew while they fly these missions. The positions the Forrest service is hiring for is "lead plane" pilots. They fly the lead planes that we (C-130s) follow into the fire areas. They show us where to drop the retardant as the herc crews aren't fire fighters and we don't possess the expertise for retardant placement to effectively contain the fires.

As far as the employment with the Forrest service as a pilot goes, I spoke to one of the contacts listed and they told me they want 90 days of "frontline experience putting dirt on fires". They aren't too thrilled as this requirement is new and put in place by non-pilot supervisors. The thought is that this requirement will go away as there aren't enough pilots with this experience to maintain the numbers of mission ready crews.

Does anyone have info on CalFire ? What times/experience are they looking for? Thanks

All I know about Calfire is that it is REALLY tough to get on there. But give them a ring and get the ball rolling you never know until you try.

Thanks, I'll check in to it.