The other day tankers didn't fly because the inversion made visibility unsafe and under their minimums. Today and going forward it will be based on triaging a resource that is in short supply around the country and putting them where the most is threatened. These aircraft are a national resource and finite. No different then the number of folks and equipment on the ground. It has been a very long summer for all of them.
Thanks Jim. The confusing thing is the contrast between what was a days-long air train coming out of San Bernardino to work the Lake fire, and the lack of aircraft activity on this fire. The inversion layer is practically a constant in the LA basin, but I could see the tops of our 10K-foot peaks during times when the aircraft were parked, so I don't understand how working these fires differs. From my layman's point of view it almost seems like there were a trigger point a few days ago where we gave up on fighting the Bobcat fire and fell back to let it burn up to a very large perimeter.
Also, does the San Gabriel Wilderness designation or the National Monument designation change the fire fighting approach at all? Lastly, I think I recall that the super scoopers are hired by LA County, and this was in LA County land, but I don't think I've ever seen them work in the National Forest. Is that true?