Forest Service Promises To Pay For Data On Lockheed P-2V Tankers

One of the reasons 33 vintage firefighting tankers were grounded by the Forest Service earlier this year was that, in many cases, owners just couldn't come up with the maintenance records for their aircraft. Now, at least one major player in the tanker wars is getting some help from the feds.

Congressman Denny Rehberg (R-MT) says he's reached an agreement with the Forest Service to have the government pay for finding the records Neptune Aviation needs from Lockheed-Martin on its P-2V tankers.

"The best news in all this is that we've made it an important enough issue that Lockheed and the Forest Service have already begun the work on getting the necessary date for certification," Rehberg said in an e-mail message. He was quoted by the Montana Missoulian newspaper. "I'm optimistic this will be wrapped up in a matter of days, rather than months, which is crucial for our efforts to get Minden Air and Neptune Aviation back in the air to fight these wildfires."

Now, you'll pardon the folks at Neptune if they look a bit askance at the offer of assistance from the Forest Service. After all, they say, this is help being provided for a requirement that was just instituted.

"That's fantastic that they're looking for that from Lockheed," Neptune President Kristen Schloemer said Friday. "But the Forest Service request for information on June 2nd didn't request operational service life reports from Lockheed. They asked for this 10 days ago. Our point is there's no reason we can't be operational in the meantime."

Neptune and the owners of other vintage tankers were grounded after three aerial firefighters went down in the line of duty last year. None of them belonged to Neptune and no Neptune personnel were involved in any of the accidents.

This latest request from the Forest Service involves the reports Lockheed wrote while developing the P-2V. The folks at Neptune are a bit miffed at the request.

"We own all the Lockheed engineering data except for the developmental data," Neptune director of operations and maintenance Greg Jones told the Missoulian. "This report is for an early version of our model aircraft, and doesn't figure for our modifications of jets, or wingtips, or fuel. That's why we can't figure out why the Forest Service is hanging their hat on this data."

Specifically, Jones said, the report requested by the Forest Service was written by Lockheed engineers in 1949, when they type was first developed. The P-2V was manufactured through the 1960s. Jones said it's kind of silly to ask for the 1949 paperwork. It's sort of like asking a doctor to guess the lifespan of a baby he just delivered, without knowing what environmental factors might lengthen or shorten it.

As Lockheed searches for the documents, Neptune's P-2s sit on the ground, mute witnesses to the fires that rage across the American West.

FMI: www.neptuneaviation.com