I haven't worked with it yet, and the facts are that it may not be able to do as much good as people would like it to--It's another tool in our box and may be able to be helpful when terrain is flat enough.
The machine is too unresponsive because of high weight and speed to be able to work down low in limited areas like hilly or mountainous terrain. Normal heavy tankers like a P-2V or a P-3 can slow to about 120 knots at 100 feet to make a nice concentrated drop thereby building a line of retardent with which the fire can slowed enough for the ground troops to catch it, plus, they can do it in canyons and steep uneven terrain. The DC-10 is simply too big to work in the majority of the places where retardant is needed.
As far as dropping water---that's something helicopters can do the best because the can concentrate it in a very small area. I'm afraid that the only thing a DC 10 can do with water is to change the relative humidity at the fire site for a few minutes at most (in most cases).
It's a high profile case of political foo faw to make agency chiefs and politicians look good when folks are pissed at being burned out. The money would MUCH better spent on engines and training personnel to put out the fires on the ground.
Let me repeat something---PEOPLE ON THE GROUND PUT THE FIRES OUT!
