VLAT

[RetFSFireCop]

whats the deal with this VLAT thing that everybody is worshiping. aircraft dont put out fires, ground crews put out fire.

Ya might want to take three very large steps backwards and do some research on the VLAT. There have been several very good thread on WLF over the past few years that would give you pause....you are stating the obvious, all of us have been there and know that A/C do not put out fires, but the VLAT is another tool. As a former Engineer at Pozo, I have some very personal knowledge of the terrain of this fire. The VLAT could be very useful to the IC to buy some time. Do your homework!

[afire87]

Ya might want to take three very large steps backwards and do some research on the VLAT. There have been several very good thread on WLF over the past few years that would give you pause....you are stating the obvious, all of us have been there and know that A/C do not put out fires, but the VLAT is another tool. As a former Engineer at Pozo, I have some very personal knowledge of the terrain of this fire. The VLAT could be very useful to the IC to buy some time. Do your homework!

Put all available resources available to work on your incident. LAT, VLAT's may be overkill at times but they do help to buy time in many cases. The objective on SRA fires is to put them out!!! All those tools are out there and available - Fire management should use them!!!

[rzintelDan]

It doesn't matter which agency has T911 under contract. If it's under a Fed contract and it is used on a state fire, the state will get a bill from the Feds and will reimburse the Feds. If it is on a State Contract and is used on a federal fire, the state will bill the Feds and the Feds will re-imburse the state. That's one nice thing about California fires, USFS and Cal Fire have a relatively close working relationship. Both agencies discuss, argue and sign agreements during the 'off' season, so the don't have to during the summer, when they are too busy to negotiate.

[wildlanddrew]

Having these MAFFS activated to Sacramento has been a huge help to ground resources across Northern and Southern California. Having worked with them in Texas last year they do good work, but i am unsure on the behind the scenes actions on them. Do they favor Federal or State requests since its a Federal resource? Or does it depend on who puts the order in? Any Logistical knowledge is welcome!

[airattackimages]

Your post is labeled VLATS, but you ask about MAFFS. Which one are you asking about?

[BigWhiteDog]

IIRC, the VLAT needs >10000' of runway for a margin of safety. The runway also has to be rated for "double-doubles" or multi-wheel/multi-axle, and must be able to handle the weight of the aircraft. Victorville and McClellan are about the only airports that have low enough traffic, and enough spare space to run the mixing and loading. They could probably run ops out of Castle in Atwater, but I don't know if they have enough fuel storage and accessible water sources to do so.

Castle has both the fuel and water capacity. There have some "informal" studies on options for Castle such as staging, VLAT, and the like.

[bluefirebear]

I believe they have also used stockton metro (KSCK) as well

[wildlanddrew]

Your post is labeled VLATS, but you ask about MAFFS. Which one are you asking about?

MAFFS. My bad.

[bcjack]

MAFFS might be able to land at Santa Maria (SMX).

[RetFSFireCop]

MAFFS might be able to land at Santa Maria (SMX).

But does it have the water supply and space for the portable retardant plant that it takes to support a MAFFS operation? I have no idea of the answer. Some of our LPF folks would know.

Correction--just checked the 2012 MAFFS operational map. SMX is listed as one of the 23 designated reload bases.