'Beautiful choreography of chaos': How the DC 10 air tanker works with wildfire crews on the ground
PHOENIX - When firefighters on the ground need some extra support, they call in air tankers.
There are four DC 10 tankers in the world, and one of them is right here in the Valley.
"What we do would be considered less than safe by some," David Mauldin, a DC 10 tanker captain, said. "Maybe it is a risky job, or it can be, so, as a collaborative effort, we make it as safe as you can make it."
The DC 10 is the largest air tanker in the world, holding 9,400 gallons of fire retardant and two and a half hours worth of fuel, all coming extremely close to the Earth's surface in the firefight.
"It's not normal to take an airplane this large down to 250, 350 feet, which are roughly our drop heights without landing," Mauldin said.
That’s exactly what Mauldin does as he's heading into his eighth fire season.
"Tanker base comes to me to hand me a piece of paper with the coordinates of the fire, and we head out to the airplane," he said.
The plane used to carry passengers internationally, but now, it's all cleared out. They got rid of that nonessential weight to fight fires, not only in Arizona, but globally.
Once they get the call, it’s all hands on deck. It takes a team to get off the ground.
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"Get the airplane fired up. Let's go … Everybody does that job in a pretty professional and in-sync manner. Then the airplane is off the ground in less than 30 minutes," Mauldin said.
Once the retardant is loaded, it's wheels up and the aerial attack begins.
"Getting to the ultimate customer is the ground firefighter. That's the guy who's really got his life at risk," Mauldin said.
The captain, co-captain, and flight engineer are all in the cockpit assessing the ever-changing landscape while sharing airspace with multiple other planes and choppers.
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"It's not understated to say there are 5,000 variables that change every two minutes. What looks to be chaotic, looks to be dangerous, but the reality is it's a well-choreographed ballet," Mauldin said. "All goes right, it's a beautiful choreography of chaos."
The flight engineer is in charge of monitoring the tank's dispatch order.
"If it’s down the side of a mountain, we do that at 22 to 23 degrees, nose down, angle, 250 feet off the side of the mountain," he explained.
This exact tanker, fighting fires in Chile and Australia, has only been flown by 20 pilots, requiring a very specific skill set for the job.
"That's where you have to be a reasonably good pilot with reasonable, good decision-making skills, and then you live through it," Mauldin said.