California Dreaming: The Aero Experience Tour of Cal Fire Tanker Bases - Paso Robles

By Fred Harl

By Mark Nankivil

Earlier this year, a friend offered the donation of a large photo collection to the Greater St. Louis Air and Space Museum. My son Jack and I decided to make it into a vacation trip, and fellow The Aero Experience scribe Fred Harl decided to join us on the adventure.  To make the most of the time we had, a flight out to Sacramento and a drive home with plenty of visits worked out the best.

Our next stop was the Cal Fire tanker base at Paso Robles, and we were excited to see an S-2T on the ramp, an OV-10 in the hangar, and a Neptune Aviation Services BAe-146.  Matt Mihalco, Fire Captain/Air Attack Officer for the base, graciously took us around and even had us sit in on the morning briefing.  A huge thank you to Matt and the staff for making us feel welcome and sharing the start of the day with us.