Huey's: part 2

In earlier posts I have written that Huey’s (and similar classes of helicopters) are used for water drops on wildfires and transporting wildland firefighters to remote or inaccessible areas to fight wildfires. To answer the question of how Huey’s may be used by wildland firefighters, I offer links to two webpages, California and Florida.

A word about California’s state fire agency, CAL Fire. CAL fire is what is known as an all risk fire department. I recently had the opportunity to ask a CAL fire employee what an all risk fire department is. He said:

An all risk fire department means that whatever type of an incident there is, CAL Fire is trained to handle it. Schedule A stations are counties in california that have contracted the state to handle there fire protection services so they are county employees but CAL FIRE trained. Schedule B are the Wildland guys. There primary concern is for wildland fires but can still go on house fires traffic accidents medical aides any emergency that may pop up.

The reason why I am mentioning the all risk aspect of CAL Fire is because CAL Fire Huey’s are used for non-fire emergency missions. You will note the mention of the non-fire emergency use of Huey’s when you go here to read about the CAL Fire Huey’s (loaned to CAL Fire through FEPP). This pdf file also has some specs for their Huey’s. Note that you will need adobe acrobat or some other pdf viewer in order to read this file.

Speaking about my own State of New Jersey, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service (NJFFS) is available to respond to non-fire missions. For example, they helped with some tree work in the aftermath of a recent ice storm that left thousands of homes with out power in Sussex County New Jersey. I suspect that the NJFFS would make their Huey’s available to respond to non-fire emergencies as appropriate.

In my wonderings on the internet learning about and researching wildfires, I always find myself looking to say what is happening in Florida. I recently did a search and found a short description (and a couple of pictures) of how the Florida Dept. of Forestry uses aircraft on this page. They refer to aerial ignition, you may go here to find a brief definition (just scroll down and you will see the definition. I believe but am not sure that aerial ignition can be used in both prescribed burns and in fighting wildland fires. I'll try to find out some more specifics about aerial ignition and make a post about it.

In the meantime, I'll write about bambi buckets in a day or so.

Huey's: part 1

I have spent the last couple of days doing two things: getting ice off of my long driveway and reading about Huey (UH-1H) helicopters. I got interested in finding out a little more about Huey's because the New Jersey Forest Fire Service (NJFFS) has two UH-1H helicopters. Huey's, manufactured by Bell, were widely used in the Vietnam war. These military helicopters were modified for use by federal and state forest fire agencies for wildfire fighting. The equipment (e.g. including but not limited to helicopters and land vehicles) that many State forest fire agencies use to fight wildfires are in the Federal Excess Personal Property Program.

According to the FAA registration database, the two Huey's used by the NJFFS are in the Federal Excess Personal Property Program. That is, according to the FAA registration database the owner of these two Huey's is listed as the USDA Forest Service FEPP. Under FEPP, the USDA Forest Service owns the equipment, in our case the Huey helicopters, and loans them to State foresters to fight wildland fires.

The two Huey's used by the NJFFS, known as Delta 5 and Delta 6, have 300 gallon bambi buckets. A bambi bucket looks like an upside parachute suspended from the belly of the heliocopter. If you go here and click on air operations in the menu at the top of the page, you will see some photographs of Delta 5, including a couple of Delta 5 with a bambi bucket.

Forest Fire Services in other States including but not limited to California (CAL Fire), North Carolina, and Florida use Huey's that are in FEPP.

The CAL Fire Huey's are equipped with water tanks and bambi buckets. To see a CAL Fire Helicopter making a water drop from it's tank see this you tube video. Note the long tube suspended from its belly used to fill the tank with water.

Huey's can also carry 10 passengers, and perhaps as many as 14, so they can also be used to transport wildland firefighters.

More on Huey's tommorrow.

SEAT dropping retardant

Check out this really cool (but short) video of a single engine air tanker (SEAT) dropping retardant (the red liquid) on a fire in Idaho. Remember that retardant slows down the fire.

I'll be writing more about retardant in a later post. I need to spend a little more time reading about retardants before I do so.

foam and the fire triangle

Three things must be present in order to have a fire: Fuel, heat and oxygen. This is also known as the fire triangle. All must be present to ignite a fire. Remove one element and the fire goes out. As I am finding out, in fighting wildfires, it is not quite that simple. And putting the wildfire out may take time.

The AgCats used by the NJFFS are loaded with 300 gallons of water mixed with 1/2 gallon of firetrol foam additive. As I understand foam is a suppressant. Suppress or smother the fire, and it has no oxygen. Retardant on the other hand is designed to slow down a fire.

A more technical explanation of foam is that:

"foam products form bubbles when mixing with water. They adhere to the fuels and reduce combustion by cooling, moistening and excluding oxygen." SEAT Training, SEAT 2: SEAT Operations. Aviation Fire Fighting Course. Slide 20 of 48 obtained from https://www.iat.gov/Training/modules/seat/seat2.html on January 27, 2009.

AgCat aka FireCat

In my previous post, I referred you to the web page of NJFFS Division A, Section2 that has several different pages of photos including a page of air operations photographs. I ask you to go back to the air operations page by clicking the link at the top of the home page. While you are looking at the photographs of the fixed and rotor winged aircraft, check out the four pictures of the FireCat, aka AgCat. Pay attention to the two photographs labeled "FireCat at Strawberry Field." You will see that what is known as the N number (on the tail) is N6620Q. The AgCat is a biplane manufactured by Grumman and Schweizer from the late 1950s through the late 1990s. The AgCats were built for crop dusting.

You may go here to see a video of an AgCat in action. I believe that this is NJ Forest Fire Service (NJFFS) contracted AgCat making a water drop.

Those of you have have read the previous entry of this blog may recall that the NJFFS contracts with Downstown Aero, located near Vineland NJ, for AgCats during the March through May fire season. In addition, Downstown makes AgCats available to the NJFFS later in the summer as needed.

Anyone can go to the FAA registry website and obtain some basic information on a particular aircraft (fixed-wing or rotor) by searching on the N number. If you want more information on the aircraft, you have to pay for it, which I did not do. According to the freely available information the AgCat N6620Q, a model G-164A with a Pratt and Witney model R-1340 engine, was manufactured in 1976.

I'd like to thank T Janney, aviation historian, for his help in showing me the FAA registry website, for helping sort out two engines commonly used in the AgCats, and for obtaining the design specifications for the AgCat model G-164A biplane. What is known as the airframe of the G-164A's was originally designed around R-985 450 HP Pratt and Witney engine. In some cases, as seems to be the case with the N6620Q, a Pratt and Witney model R-1340 engine was installed. There are 15 variants of R-1340 engines ranging from 425 HP to 600 HP. A variant known as the R-1340B (450 HP) is commonly installed on the model G-164A. The original design specifications of the G-164A are:

450 HP engine
speed: 128 knots
service ceiling: 13,000 ft.
empty weight: 2,690 lbs
max. take off weight: 4,497 lbs
wing span: 35.9 ft
wing area: 393 sq. ft.
length: 23.3 ft
height: 10.7 ft
tank capacity: 300 gal mixed with 1/2 gallon of firetrol foam additive
tank type: standard Gruman style dump gate / salvo time: 2.5

New Jersey State Forest Service: Airsupport

The New Jersey Forest Fire Service (NJFFS) uses both helicopters and single engine air tankers (SEAT) in their air operations. I found good webpage from NJFFS Division A Section 2 with a page with some wonderful photographs of some of the aircraft that they use. Go to their main page and click on air operations in the menu at the top of the page. As an aside, I normally would provide a direct link to the specific webpage, however, I don't think that would work in this case.

A word on geography, the NJFFS breaks the state down into three divisions (A, B, and C), go here to see a map of these three divisions. Each division is divided into sections.

They have some really cool photos of firetowers in NJ, along with several photo sections (photo sections 1 through 3, featured photos, on the road, the scardo era, etc) and photos of the DC-10 air tanker. You can spend awhile on the site checking out all their neat photos.

Back to the aircraft. The NJFFS has a fleet of five state operated helicopters (rotor winged) in service including two UH-1H Huey rotorcraft with 300 gallon bambi buckets. What is a bambi bucket and does it do? Check out this you tube video of one of the NJFFS helicopters and bucket. The bucket suspended from the belly of the helicopter in the video is known as a bambi bucket (also refered to as a bucket). By the way, the video appears to be a demo drop. Helicopters with buckets such as the two NJFFS Hueys play an important role in wildland fire fighting.

In addition to the helicopters, there are two state operated fixed wing aircraft in service both Cessnas and a piper cub that can be put in service if needed.

During the spring fire season (March to May), the NJFFS contracts with Downstown Aero for nine AgCat biplanes (eight are their own, and one is leased from Merv Lewis of New York State). In addition to the AgCat biplanes, Downstown will be providing an Airtractor. These aircraft are what are known as single engine airtankers (SEATS). Both types of SEATS are used to drop retardant or foam on wildland fires.

For more information about Downstown Aero, see this article written in September 1999. Note the Dromader referred to in this article has been sold.

I will be writing about the AgCats in my next post followed by a post (or two about the Airtractors. So, stay tuned . . .

Note: For a complete listing of the equipment, including fixed wing and rotor aircraft used by the NJFFS, go here.

March 14, 2012, The last I checked the article about Downstown Aero that I linked to was no longer available on the web.

Looking at aviation in wildland fire fighting: Intro

I have gotten interested in the role of air support or the use airplanes and helicopters in fighting wildfires. My hope is to start writing about air support with a series of posts focusing on some of the types of aircraft currently in use in the United States in fighting wildland fires. In a perfect world I would post pictures, videos, and specifications of the aircraft. I'm not sure if I will be able to find videos of some of the aircraft that I want to write about If I'm not sure about the specifications, I won't post the specs. But, I am finding that it is not all that hard to find pictures of aircraft on the web from the websites of wildland fire fighting agencies.

Those of you who have seen pictures of wildland fires on television or in newspapers have probably seen pictures of single or multi-engine aircraft or airtankers flying over wildland fires. Helicopters are also used in fighting wildland fires. Both types of aircraft may be used in observation. Helicopters are frequently used to transport wildland firefighters. Then there is the smokejumper program where wildland firefighters parachute into remote areas to fight wildland fires. On the theory that a picture is worth a thousand words, I'm going to count on the pictures (or videos) telling a story of how the aircraft are used to fight wildland fires.

Because I am just beginning this endeavor, I'm not quite sure how long it will be between making posts on different types of aircraft used to fight wildfires. Given the volume of reading material that I have on wildland fire aviation, I suspect that I will have other aviation related issues to write about.

I am going to start with air craft used by the New Jersey Forest Fire Service, hopefully in within a couple of days. Stay tuned ...

Wildfire Magazine

I followed through on Bill Gabbert's comment to my blog earlier this week and have checked out Wildfire Magazine. As you may recall, it is the official publication of the International Association of Wildland Fire. A big plus is that at least some articles from issues dating back approximately six years are freely available. This is a big plus because I don't seem to able to have electronic access to the publication through my local library. I have downloaded a few articles, and have enjoyed what I have read.

For example, one of the nagging questions that I have had in some of my reading is wondering about some of the engines that are used in wildland fires. One example being that I had read about type 6 engines, wondering what they might be, and I found an answer in an article in the Sept. 2008 edition of Wildfire Magazine, Match Maker, where they describe seven types of engines as defined by the incident command system. Now, I was not necessarily planning on writing in my blog about engines used in wildland fire fighting, at least not now. But as I continue with my reading and my research on wildland fire fighting, I am slightly more familiar with some of the terminology in regards to engines. And that is always a good thing.

Out of Ashes: 15 to 19 mo after fire in NJ Pine Barrens

We took a trip to the NJ Pine Barrens this past Sunday, driving south on County Rte 539 through an area in and around the Stafford Forge Wildlife Management area that was burned in the May 2007 Warren Grove Fire. This fire burned in excess of 15,000 acres.

Looking at the google earth image, I believe that the fire started where the yellow pin is off of County Rte 539 in Warren Grove, NJ. To see a blog written at the time of the fire plus a more detailed map of the fire area see this blog from pineypower. The area where I took the pictures is about a five minute drive south of Bombing Range Road.

The photos are taken in an area of the Pine Barrens known as the Pine Plains, a forest of rare dwarf "pygmy" pitch pines. The pygmies stand about five feet tall, meaning that most adults can look out over the "tops" of the forest pygmy pines and scrub oaks. The "pygmies", as I like to call the dwarf pitch pines, are specially adapted to fire. That is, the cones require the heat of fire in order to open. If you look carefully at a couple of the pictures, you will see burned pines with open cones, those are the burned trunks of pitch pines (both dwarf and taller pitch pines. Out of the ashes comes life, literally. Look at the small pitch pines growing and the young scrub oak in two of the pictures (taken in late Aug. 2008).

You will notice the dead oak leaves in one of the pictures. I took that photo on Sunday. Many oaks hang onto their "dead" leaves through the winter, not dropping them until the spring when the tree is ready to leaf out.

Fire Management Today

In my wonderings on the internet looking at the webpages of various federal agencies with wildland fire fighting arms (forest service, bureau of land management to name but two), I came upon a periodical called Fire Management Today, published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. Under various names, this periodical has been in existence since 1936, with a break in publication during WW II.

It has gone under three different names, first as Fire Control Notes through 1961, then as Fire Management Notes through 2000, and now as Fire Management Today. In addition to containing a wealth of information about the world of wildland fire fighting, it is freely available on the web. You may go here, and use the drop down boxes to select the issue you want to download. It is a pdf file so you will need adobe acrobat or another pdf viewer (e.g. Preview on the Mac) to view the files.

A hint to finding articles, the first issue of each volume contains the index for the preceding volume. Volume 60, issue 1 has a 30 year index.

While many of the articles are written for the wildland fire fighting community in mind, I have used this periodical to learn about specific issues important to the world of wildland fire fighting. For example, I have spent the last few days reading several articles involving the use of airsupport in wildland fire fighting. While some articles have more technical information geared to professionals involved in air support, the fact that I am not familiar with this form technospeak does not hinder me.

I am certain that there are other periodicals devoted to wildland firefighting that I am unaware of. For example there was a periodical called wildland firefighter. As I understand it, the final issue of Wildland Firefighter was the May 2008 issue. Starting with the June 2008 issue, wildland firefighter is incorporated into the wildland/urban interface section of Fire Rescue Magazine, go here for more details. I suspect, but am not certain that internet access requires a subscription to the Fire Rescue Magazine. Alternatively, it might be available through periodical databases available at public libraries or University libraries. All I know is that I have not been able to find this periodical freely available on the internet and it does not seem to be listed in the periodical databases available to users of my public library.

Time out: new toy

Finally broke down and purchased a new Mac laptop. A 15 inch macbook pro. My old Mac powerbook G4 is almost 6 years old and I think that power supply might be going, and I can no longer use it on battery power. So it was time. Had the Apple store add memory, so it is fully loaded with memory, 4 gigs) and installed almost all of the updates. That took me most of the afternoon. So, between going to the gym, buying a new laptop, and installing updates most of my day is now gone.

In the meantime, I just entered various books, references, and reports on wildland fires in my bibliograhpic database software (Endnote X). Seventy documents, most of which I have either read or skimmed. I finished this task last night. So, I'll be back, hopefully tomorrow with another entry.

safety and new respect for wildfires

In all the reading that I have done to date about wildland fires, including a couple of blogs written by firefighters and (mostly) lurking on wildland fire (a website and discussion boards where wildland fire fighters –– and others –– hang out), there are two important points that I have come away with. One is the importance of the wildland fire fighter staying safe and the other is that fire is powerful and at times has a mind of its own.

I have written about safety here on this blog before, and I write about it again because it is something that I have seen stressed, in different ways, over and over again. I can talk about books, official investigative reports and other reports by fire researchers about wildland fires where fire fighters have died such as Mann Gulch (1949), Rattlesnake, South Canyon/Storm King, and the thirty–mile fire. Those are just the ones that I have read about. There are others that I have not read about. I will leave the analyses and comments on these analyses to those better able to speak to what went wrong in those fires where fire fighters died. What I can say is that reading about these deaths have given wildland fires a real and tragic face. So when I read posts on wildland fire where wildland fire fighters are either talking about safety or urging each other to stay safe, safety takes on a new meaning.

Related to safety, I think, is that I have come to see that fire is powerful, can be difficult to control, and at times can seem to have a mind of its own. I never did not respect fire, it is just that I have a great deal more respect for fire now than I did seven months ago.

All the more reason for wildland firefighters to stay safe and practice LCES:

Lookout
Communicate
Escape
Safety

Stay safe out there.

Time Out: catching up

In getting back into the swing of things, so to speak, after the holidays, I am a little behind with some other writing projects. My plans are, unless ole mother nature gets in the way, is to post something later tonight before I go to bed.

By mother nature, I am referring to what the weather channel -- you gotta love them -- is calling northeast nastiness.

Obama on wildfire policy

While checking out wildfire news on the Wildfire Today blog, I found this story on Obama's wildfire policy. The document can be found here.

I was especially interested in Bill Gabbert's (author of Wildfire Today) comment:

We don't recall any Presidential candidate having a specific, written position on wildland fire before this election.

I was interested enough to check out Obama's statement for myself. So, I thank Bill Gabbert and Wildfire Today for putting the statement out there. I'm not sure that I would have found it without his blog.

At this point, Obama's statement is just that, a statement of how he envisions the role of the federal government in wildland firefighting policy. I will be interested to see if, after Obama has been in office for awhile, there is any chatter about Obama's wildland fire policy on various wildland fire blogs and websites.

Speaking from the point of view of someone who is still learning about the world of wildland fire fighting, I hope that Obama is listening to and getting sound advice on his wildland fire policy from experts in the field, including those who are or have been wildland fire fighters.