The Council and invited guests then moved to lunch and their quarterly meeting. This demo was a watershed event for a number of the Council members. There was no more doubt on flight performance so the discussion covered availability, ownership issues, costs etc. A couple Council members were especially interested in the mechanics of moving A-10s or other retired aircraft from the DoD to fire fighting agencies. They also asked a number of questions on possible cooperation with industry on research and development plus the incentives that would bring that industry cooperation.
Money is a serious problem for fire fighters.
Several Forest Service officers commented strongly that airtankers couldn't solve all their problems and said they resented over inflated claims. In context, they were reacting to the continuing saga of the Canadair CL-415 in Los Angeles by painting us with that same broad publicity brush. The Super Scooper was demonstrated on the day before the A-10 flight as Los Angeles politicians again leased that tanker over the objections of the county's fire fighters. The S-2T was also sold to California s Legislature on inflated performance claims. In spite of its potential, immediate fire reporting and recent airtanker marketing claims, aerial initial attack still failed largely due to equipment limits.