C-130 Pilot Profile
In many parts of the world, summer is wildfire season, and North America is already having a challenging time with the heat waves and the fires of 2021.
This year, Coulson Aviation has deployed their aerial firefighting fleets, and their dedicated teams on missions to support firefighters on the ground in California, Arizona, Oregon and British Columbia, Canada.
Mac has been with Coulson Aviation since 2019, and is currently flying a Coulson-owned Hercules C-130 Airtanker based out of San Bernadino, California. Mac has extensive experience flying for airlines, corporations, and aerial firefighting companies.
As an airtanker pilot he works with a co-pilot and flight engineer to provide the optimal delivery of retardants on a multitude of complex fire missions, all with the assistance Coulson’s state of art FIREWATCH technology.
Capabilities of a Coulson C-130 Herc
“The C-130 was designed and built to deliver large amounts of payload via landing or by dropping it out of the aircraft while inflight,” Mac said.
“The C-130 Hercules (Herc) was also designed to be highly maneuverable, with ability to land and take-off on relatively short runways. These characteristics help to make the C-130 an ideal firefighting aircraft.”
Mac is currently flying Tanker 132, which is also known as Ty. Ty flew its first aerial firefighting missions in Australia this past summer. The necessary modifications had just been completed on Ty, and the aircraft was commissioned in time to protect Australian communities.
Mac was also one of the Coulson pilots based in Western Australia who flew Ty working to support the Western Australian government and their respective firefighting agencies.
Fighting Fires Around the World
Since returning from Australia earlier in the year, Mac and the team have flown aerial firefighting missions in California and Arizona. Recently they worked on the Telegraph fire near Phoenix, Arizona. Mac mentioned that fire was one of the largest wildfires (burning 180,000 acres) in Arizona’s history.
There are slow days and busy days for the crews, but a normal routine means being available at the tanker base from around 9am to 6pm, unless elevated fire dangers exist, in which case they stay longer. The aircraft is made ready first thing in the morning and the crew waits in readiness to be dispatched on firefighting missions.
The team can fly up to 8 hours a day and they have to be prepared to engage a multitude of different aerial firefighting missions.
“Each night we are prepared to end the day at any tanker base we’re assigned to, so we take all of our gear with us on the plane,” Mac said.
“This is the most rewarding job that I have had.”
“Being able to help other people, as well as the earth’s beautiful landscape, is very satisfying. Not to mention working with the crew members here at Coulson – that’s been ‘icing on the cake’ for me.”
