Friday Fun: AeroFlite Images from Spring Aerial Firefighting Training

 It is spring and that means that the spring aerial firefighting training for new and current pilots continues. Here are some nice images from shared by AeroFlite Aerial Firefighting on their Facebook account on March 5th with some nice photos by Eric Kiehn

Low Fire Danger in New Jersey (March 4)

 

NJ Forest Fire Service Fire Danger for March 4, 2026 

Knowing that at least in my area of New Jersey that there is still snow on the ground and the ground may be wet in areas where the snow has recently melted I had a feeling that fire danger in New Jersey is low as you can see from the images I posted. What I suspect but don't know for certain is that the snow on the ground coupled with wet areas where snow has melted might mean a delay in prescribed burning in New Jersey. I suspect that as soon as conditions improve for prescribed burning that the New Jersey Forest Fire Service will start on prescribed burning and fire danger may increase. The New Jersey Forest Fire Service has a dashboard for wildfire conditions and restrictions that may be found here (note I could not access the full features on this site from Chrome but can in Firefox and Safari)

NJ Forest Fire Service Deployed to Texas

 I continue to be aware of the severe wildfire season that have impacted Texas, see my February 25th post. Information on the current wildfire situation in Texas (updated daily) may be found here (note that I am unable to view all of this site on Chrome). I am, as always, very grateful when New Jersey Forest Fire Crews are deployed out of State to help fight wildfires. I was happy to note in a February 25th post on X that a NJ Forest Fire Service Crew has been deployed to Texas to help fight wildfires.

New Jersey Forest Fire Service staff have been deployed to Texas to assist with wildfire suppression as the state experiences elevated wildfire activity. pic.twitter.com/yxNJBzFiIn

— New Jersey Forest Fire Service (@njdepforestfire) February 26, 2026

Friday fun: Helicopters Fighting Wildfire (Jan 23, 2026) in Western Australia

Direct link to Jan. 23rd video by Outbacktruckie on YouTube

Obtained from Google Earth on January 23rd, 2026

This is the end of summer in Australia which means that bush fire season may still be ongoing. I wanted to find a video of firefighting aircraft involved in fighting bush fires in Australia. What I found was this video of three helicopters refueling while fighting a bush fire on January 23rd near Boddington, Western Australia. What intrigued me about this video by Outbacktruckie was that he identified the three helicopters that are refueling. In addition, I got a somewhat closeup view of these helicopters while they are refueling. In the video you will see two Sikorsky UH60 helicopters (678. 679) and one Bell 214 helicopter (671). I was not able to find any information about the January 23rd bushfire near Boddington Western Australia on the Western Australia EmergencyWA website. 

2026 Wildfire Season: Oklahoma and Texas (February 23rd)

Direct link to February 23rd post from Bridger Aerospace on Facebook

I have been reading bout the wildfires burning in Texas and Oklahoma of late, see for example these articles:

• ABC7 Amarillo on February 22nd
• KBTX on February 23rd

I knew that airtankers and helicopters were responding to help wildland firefighters on the ground to battle these wildfires. Bridger Aerospace is only one of the responders, deploying two of their super scoopers. See the February 25th Situation Report from Oklahoma Dept of Agriculture, Food, and Forestery (note link might be updated daily), and the current wildfire information from the Texas A&M Forest Service (updated daily, I could not get map to display in Chrome but it worked in Firefox and Safari).

Aerial Firefighting: Getting Ready to Fly Fires in Fire Season

As various airtanker and helicopters companies under contract with State or Federal firefighting agencies two important things must happen, The first is that aircraft undergoes maintenance to be sure that each aircraft in the companies fleet meets various safety and  maintenance requirements. All features in the aircraft are looked at including but not limited to engines, pilot controls. the airframe, etc. See this January 30th Facebook post from Dauntless for more information and pictures about their winter maintenance program.

In addition to maintenance, annual winter/spring training of pilots and crews happens, including training for new pilots and refresher training for pilots who have previously flown fires for the company. The specifics of new and refresher training is usually mandated by the agency who contracts for the aircraft, covering the specifics of flying fires, aircraft safety and the like. See this short February 19th video from Aeroflite Aerial Firefighting on Facebook for a short glimpse into this training.

Friday Fun: 10 Tanker Turns Twenty

Direct link to May 2024 video from 12News on YouTube

My memories of 10 Tanker Air Carrier go back to the early days of my blog in 2009 when I was learning about different types of airtankers and what was involved in flying wildfires. I spent many hours over e-mail and on the phone with my friend Tom Janney, a former air tanker pilot in those days. I have distinct memories of watching many videos of a 10 Tanker working wildfires. 10 Tankers do a lot of good work dropping high volumes of retardant on wildfires. Tom Janney has since passed, and I am forever grateful for all that I learned from him as well as other tanker pilots who helped me out in those days. When I first saw this video from 10 Tanker on Facebook I thought immediately of Tom Janney, thank-you Tom. I share the link to this video in your memory. Unfortunately I am not able to embed the video here, the video is a little over two minutes long, please take a couple of minutes to watch this video.

Bushfire Threats in Victoria Australia Easing Up on February 18th

I continue to follow, as best I can, the bushfire situation in Victoria, Australia, a map of the location of current bushfires burning in Victoria may be found here  The bushfire that I am focusing on is the Trawool bushfire noted by the orange triangle, south of Seymore, on the map I linked to. Please note that this map is probably updated daily and depending on when you are reading this post, the information may be different. I took the liberty of taking a screenshot of this map at the time I am posting this article so that you may see the current map. You will note from the map that I linked to that there are other bushfires burning in Victoria. I am not familiar with exactly how bushfires are classified in Australia so I cannot say for certain if the other bushfires currently burning are of a lower threat condition.

According to a Feb 18th article by ABC News (Australia) a bushfire broke out near Trawool in Victoria Tuesday afternoon. The bushfire had burned about 148 hectares (or 366 acres) with 30 homes threatened and evacuations were in place. A February 17th video report from 7News Australia reports on the  Trawool bushfire may be found here, unfortunately I am not able to embed this video. 

As I write this post today, the latest information (see the screenshot that I copied below) I have on this bushfire is that the threat is reduced and officials continue to monitor and work the bushfire which is not yet under control

Extreme Bushfire Danger on Feb 16th in Victoria Australia

Direct link to February 16th Severe Weather Update from the Bureau of Meteorology

While winter continues in the United States, Australia is in the summer months meaning bushfire season. I have been wondering about bushfire danger in Australia and while I am not in the position to know weather conditions and attendant bushfire danger in all of Australia I do know that Victoria, Australia is experiencing extreme bushfire danger today (February 16 and 17th). According to this February 16th ABC News report and the video I shared above dry fuels and high winds in Victoria mean extreme bushfire danger, however weather conditions may change to lower this extreme fire danger later on.

Friday Fun: A Review of Helicopters and Air Tankers Battling Wildfires

For today's Friday Fun post I am posting a short video on some of air tankers and helicopters that help wildland firefighters on the ground fight wildfires. This video focuses on aircraft used in California.

Direct link to January 2026 from the National Wildfire Tracking Team on YouTube