This week, the giant C-130 military plane soars through the Angeles National Forest and trains military pilots learning to fly modified aircraft over steep terrain to combat wildfires.
The Behemoth four-engine turboprop military transport equipped to fight fires is part of the training classes for staff at the Channel Island Air National Guard (ANG) station in Port Hueneme. Training begins on Wednesday and continues until Saturday.
The C-130, also known as Hercules, is equipped with a modular airborne fire system (MAFFS), which transforms the plane into a temporary air tanker when it helps the Air Force fight wildfires.
The plane drops a designated zone in the northwest of the Angeles National Forest in LA County. All drop zones are remote. Nearby residents and forest visitors will see aircraft flying low lead planes during exercise.
The plane drops water rather than the red fire delay, which is familiar to Southern Californians during training.
The MAFFS-equipped aircraft were part of the response to the Pallisard and Eton fires in January. The MAFFS program’s eight C-130 Hercules aircraft can drop up to 3,000 gallons of firefighter in under 10 seconds on a quarter-mile line, helping to slow and stop the spread of a fire.
The MAFFS equipment slides to the back of the C-130 military aircraft and releases return agent or water through the nozzle on the left side of the rear of the plane.
Part of a decades-old program, MAFFS planes become active when all commercial air tankers, which are part of the National Air Tanker Fleet, are already assigned to the fire or are not immediately available. Congress established the MAFFS system in the 1970s after a massive fire in the Long Beach area, which destroyed hundreds of homes and extended a civilian tanker fleet.
“The MAFFS program is an important supplement to our national air tanker capabilities,” said Sarah Fisher, director of fire and aviation management for the USDA Forest Service. “This program is a tremendous example of how federal and state Wildland Fire Agency works in collaboration with the military.”
Also, on Wednesday, anyone in the forests and Big Tojunga area near the La Canada Flintridge community may smell the Litrelock, Juniper Hills, Pier Brossom, Devil’s Punch Bowl and Crystal Airport, seeing smoke from the prescribed burns.
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