Australian fires

[carrmillus]

..glad to hear you are o.k., grant!!!.............. ...................

[orvet]

Lord I ask for for enough rain in Australia to put out the fires and end the drought.
Amen

[philco]

Amen to what Dale prayed.

Stay safe Brothers Down Under.

[jerryd6818]

Grant, it's been awhile. Good to hear from you. I'm glad you're safe.

[WillyCamaro]

My thoughts and prayers go out too all my brothers and sisters in arms down under . And also to my friends done in sunshine state.
God bless and protect you all through this trying time.

[dlr110]

I just saw a TV news report about the American C-130 that crashed helping to fight the fires. It's hard to believe that we're now into January and those fires are still raging on. Everyone take a moment today and pray for the people of Australia, the families of the C-130 crew and that these fires will be extinguished very soon.

[TPK]

Praying for rain for our friends.

Please stay safe over there folks.

[Mumbleypeg]

I just saw a TV news report about the American C-130 that crashed helping to fight the fires. It's hard to believe that we're now into January and those fires are still raging on. Everyone take a moment today and pray for the people of Australia, the families of the C-130 crew and that these fires will be extinguished very soon.

You're right on David with the prayers. January however is mid-summer in Australia so unfortunately the weather isn't likely to provide sustained relief. All the more reason prayers are needed.

Ken

[Montanaman]

The C-130 is not used in the U.S. for fighting wildfires, the wings have literally fallen off in flight. Extremely sad, one pilot was from Montana. The company was a Canadian firm based in the US, which have different rules. My mothers husband is a Senior Pilot for Erickson Tankers, they have flown their MD 87 over to Australia and will be based out of Perth. 35,000 gallons of fuel used and three stops for fuel to get there. Prayers for everyone involved.

[jerryd6818]

The C-130 is not used in the U.S. for fighting wildfires, the wings have literally fallen off in flight.

The wings fell off a C-130??? Hmmmm. I've flown in those once or thrice. I thought they were a pretty good airplane. A real workhorse.

[Montanaman]

They are old military planes, outdated and dangerous, can not be used by companys in the US to fight fires as a tanker.

[TwoFlowersLuggage]

My nephew used to fly the C-130 in this squadron: https://www.146aw.ang.af.mil/News/Photo ... 2000136244

[treefarmer]

The C-130 is not used in the U.S. for fighting wildfires, the wings have literally fallen off in flight.

The wings fell off a C-130??? Hmmmm. I've flown in those once or thrice. I thought they were a pretty good airplane. A real workhorse.

I hear you, Brother!
Semper Fi
Treefarmer

[dlr110]

Don't count them out just yet. Lockheed Martin just won a 3B+ US order for 50 C-130J transports. California Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection have ask for budget increases in FY19/20; FY20/21 & FY21/22 C-130 FireFighting and Training programs. Like the B-52 it's just too good of a air platform to go away.

But back to the subject of the fires, in my worst nightmare I can't think of how bad those fires are. Everyone continue to keep the people of Australia in your prayers.

https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/new ... -130j.html

[Quick Steel]

The C-130 has a reputation of being an unusually strong airframe. There may be some technical reason that makes it undesirable for fire fighting. Or, if stress fractures developed without being identified by good maintenance, perhaps there was a catastrophic failure. But I would be very interested in learning the cause of any wing failure on this rugged plane.

[TwoFlowersLuggage]

There was a crash back in 2002 of a fire-fighting C-130A where the wings buckled. However, that was on a very old airframe - that C-130A was from the 1950s and had been retired from the military in 1986. The one that crashed in Australia was a much newer airframe - an EC-130Q that had been delivered new to the US Navy in 1981 and was acquired by Coulson for fire fighting in 2017.