Air Attack: California 2008

Take six minutes, go here and watch this six minute video. You will see a variety of air tankers, helicopters, and a helitack team working one of the California wildfires. Note that this is you tube video where embedding is turned off, so I had to post the link for you.

Raw footage of CA-SCU Mustang - Wildland Fire - Henry Coe Park

A couple of weeks ago I was reading the initial attack hotlist forums on wildlandfire.com where I found a link to some raw footage from ktvu of a wildland fire that was then burning near Santa Clara, CA. This is about four minutes of footage, probably shot from a news helicopter. About one or two minutes into the video, you will see a tanker making a retardant drop. I am not sure, but I wonder if it is a CAL FIRE S-2T.

I am posting this because I found the footage interesting, for the shots of the smoke and flames, and the shot of the tanker retardant drop. Finally, if you look at the top of the ridges in the video, especially after the shot of the retardant drop, you can see the "red" retardant line on the top of the ridge.

There is some information on this fire in this thread on wildlandfire.com's initial attack hotlist forum.

In addition, you might want to go here where the blogger reports on the Mustang Fire (dated May 13) and includes some shots from the ktvu footage and a map of the fire area. For a larger view of this map, go here. The blog I referred you to, among other things, reports on fires in CA and is not affiliated with any government agency.

And Speaking of SEATs

Take four minutes and go and check out this awesome video on Patrick's Aviation on SEATs working fires in France. Some of this is taken from the cockpit of a SEAT. You will see some footage of an AgCat shot from the SEAT cockpit. TL Stein tells me that the single-winged aircraft are an Ayers S-2R and confirmed that the bi-wing planes are AgCat G-164A's.

For a refresher on AgCats, see this earlier entry to my blog on AgCats. I wrote about the Ayer's Thrush aircraft here.

Reflections, S-2T's, SEATs and initial attack

I love the light tankers (S-2T’s and single-engine air tankers) in a special way. Perhaps it is because I live in NJ, and I have grown to appreciate and the role that single-engine air tankers (SEATs) have in initial attack (and extended attack). And it is not only NJ that uses SEATs, many states contract for SEATs. In the case of NJ, I am aware that the majority of our wildland fires are small in size. I also know that during our spring season that the NJ Forest Fire service deployed SEATs and helicopters to fires that were only a couple of acres in size. I am aware of this because of a couple of websites that I have followed, not because of the media.

Some of you know that I got interested in wildland fire fighting last July because I have a couple of friends who lived in or near the area burned by the Basin Complex Fires. And I have written about a couple of other larger California fires. I have written about CAL FIRE’s S-2T’s. Up until now, I have neglected to write about the very important role the S-2T’s, a light tanker, play in initial attack. Until now when I want to focus on initial attack.

California has an impressive number of large fires that make national news. I don’t know the numbers, but most of California’s fires are small in size, being 2, 5, or 10 acres. I have recently engaged in an e-mail exchange with an experienced air tanker pilot who will be flying S-2T’s this year. He was telling me about the importance of initial attack in keeping fires small and manageable until ground crews can get in:

Regarding the use of tankers, the best tactic is initial attack. In initial attack, S-2T tankers and helicopters are deployed to the wildfire as soon as possible in order to stop the spread and hold until ground troops have access and put it out. The goal is to keep the fire small: 2, 5, 10 acres maximum so it is ‘easy’ to manage. Roughly ninety-seven percent of fires in California are put out this way. The public may not hear about it. But...if you're not aggressive enough you get behind the power curve and then get complicated fast (wind, fuel, terrain...).

I understand that things can get complicated, especially with the drought, sundowners and the Santa Ana winds. And the terrain. I get that. Sometimes initial attack is not going to keep the fire small. But most of the times it does. How many houses have been saved, lives saved? You light tanker pilots -- the workhorses of CAL FIRE, other State fire fighting agencies, and the national fleet -- what you do is special. I want you to know that.

From a former air tanker pilot in memory of Mike Flynn

This story was sent to me by Gordon, a former air tanker pilot. I post this here with his permission.

In 2003, flying on a fire near McCall, ID, we experienced a malfunction of the computerized drop system in our Lockheed P2V. Without warning, the system suddenly jettisoned 2450 gallons of fire retardant. We were no where near the fire at the time and since we had plenty of altitude, we were not in any danger.

The resulting steep pitch-up of the aircraft's nose when that eleven tons of retardant suddenly left the plane was a little disconcerting, but with full forward stick and a bit of swearing, we were under control.

We knew we would be in trouble with the Forest Service for wasting an expensive load of retardant and when we returned to base, we were told the load had landed on a house and the owner was hopping mad. The base manager told us to expect a phone call from the director of heavy airtanker operations and that we'd have to fill out a bunch of paperwork. We were prepared to take our medicine when the base manager's phone rang. He listened and nodded a few times, said he understood and hung up.

It seems that the telephone over at dispatch had been ringing off the hook with "thank you" calls from grateful neighbors of the fellow whose house we had painted with retardant. Apparently, all summer long he'd had an illegal burn barrel going in his yard.
Repeated complaints to the various authorities, especially the Forest Service, went unheeded and the callers were just phoning in to express their thanks. Our retardant load had squashed his burn barrel and the neighbors all thought it was a deliberate act of law enforcement.

I send this to you in honor of my co-pilot that day, Mike Flynn, killed this past April 25th in the crash of a P2 airtanker near Stockton, UT. Mike was a wonderful man, a consummate pilot and a true gentleman.

Associated Airtanker Pilots

I have had the pleasure of spending time on the Associated Airtanker Pilots (AAP) website. There is a lot of good info on this site, including a good photogallery. I was lurking on their message board one day, and it got me thinking that it would be good for you to hear some of their stories. To make a long story short, I reached out to one of the AAP members who liked my idea and gave me permission to post a message to their message board (it is a closed board) to share my idea and ask for their help. So, the idea is that from time to time, I hope to get stories from air tanker pilots, the idea being to give you an idea of what it is like to fly air tankers. In addition, I may also share my own reflections based on my correspondence with air tanker pilots.

I have the first air tanker pilot story, which I will post tomorrow. I will follow that up with my first reflection post. Actually there will be two reflections in two posts, the second is a video that I found. So stay tuned.

At this point, I only have one story and one reflection to post. I am hoping to get more, and I am being patient. As I do get more, I will post them here.

Evergreen 747

Evergreen International Aviation announced on March 24, 2009 (link no longer works) that its B747 supertanker received interim certification from the Interagency Air Tanker Board (IATB). IATB certification is required before an air tanker can be under federal contract. Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today reported on the 747 receiving IATB approval here.

Capable of flying at 600 mph, the 747(tail number 979) can drop more than 20,000 gallons of retardant.

The 747 recently completed what is known as a drop test. Briefly, in a drop test an air tanker (or helitanker or helicopter with bucket) flys over a cup-and-grid matrix to test the coverage level for each type of drop.

Evergreen produced a seven minute video on the 747 supertanker:





Updated on August 3, 2015: I had to delete some old and outdated links from Evergreen Aviation that no longer work. At the time I wrote this article, they had a photogallery of the 747 and a page describing her capabilities. According to Bill Gabbert's May 2nd (2014) article on Fire Aviation it seems that Evergreen has declared bankruptcy.

DC-10 tanker: videos

For another good video, see this youtube video, and be sure to read the explanation of the video.

DC-10 Tankers: Tanker 910 history and specs

The first of the Very Large Airtankers (VLAT) put in service is tanker 910, first seeing service on a call when needed (CWN) contract with CAL FIRE in 2006 where it flew retardant drop missions on fires in southern California and one fire in Washington State. Tanker 910 is one of the DC-10 family of passenger jets. The first DC-10, designed and built by the Douglas Aircraft Company of Long Beach, CA, now the Long Beach Division of Boeing Commercial Airlines.

Starting in 2007, tanker 910 is under an exclusive use contract with CAL FIRE from June 15 through October 15.

Tanker 910 was modified and tested over four years by 10 Tanker Air Carrier with mostly private investment capital. Three external retardant tanks are mounted along the bottom center of the aircraft, capable of holding 12,000 gallons of retardant (50 tons!) capable of dropping a line of retardant in about eight seconds. Typical drop height is 500 ft. above ground level at about 170 mph. A crew of three -- pilot, co-pilot, and flight engineer -- flies the plane working with a lead plane when drops are made. They are not as maneuverable as CAL FIRE’s S-2T working on ridge tops or flat lands. But as they carry 12,000 gallons of retardant to the S-2T’s 1,200 gallons, one of the advantages of the DC-10 is that they can save the S-2T’s for initial attack.

See this page for more specs and technical information on the aircraft. CAL FIRE’s DC-10 tanker fact sheet (requires a pdf viewer) may be found here. Wikipedia’s article on tanker 910 may be found here.

10 Tanker Air Carrier now has a second DC-10 tanker, tanker 911 that was available earlier this year for fire fighting duty. It saw service in the recent Jesusita fire.

My next post: more pictures and video of the DC-10 tankers.

Very Large Airtankers

The last group of air tankers that I am writing about are known as the very large airtankers (VLAT). These are DC-10’s and 747’s. There are two DC-10’s (tanker 910 and tanker 911) and one 747 (tanker 947). All three saw service as commercial passenger jets before being modified for service as very large airtankers. The two DC-10 tankers can drop 12,000 gallons of retardant and tanker 947 can drop 20,500 gallons of retardant. I will be making one or two posts on each, starting with the DC-10 tankers.

copyright 2009 K. Tyler Miller

Martin Mars: US Forest Service contract and video tour

The Hawaii Mars will be under a new contract with the U.S. Forest Service this year, based at Lake Elsinore, California from June 1 through November 15, 2009. A Sikorski helicopter equipped with thermal imaging equipment will work with the Hawaii Mars filling the role of a “lead.” See this article by Bill Gabbert for more information. Bill also has a link to articles he wrote about the Martin Mars last summer when one of their tankers was based in northern California.

The Westcoaster, a newspaper based in Port Alberni, British Columbia has an article announcing the U.S. Forest Service Contract that may be found here.

For a 10 minute ride around the outside of the aircraft and a tour inside take a look at this video:

Martin Mars (part 1 of 2): history and specs

The Martin Mars, capable of landing on water, was developed for the U.S. Navy towards the end of the second World War as a transport aircraft. A total of six were built two were lost by 1950. The remaining four were retired by the U.S. Navy in 1959 and purchased by a Canadian Company known as Flying Tankers Inc. One crashed in 1961 and another was destroyed the next year in a typhoon. The remaining two, Hawaii Mars and Philippine Mars were converted for fire fighting in 1963 and are currently operated by the Coulson Group, based at Sproat Lake near Port Alberni, British Columbia.

A wikipedia article on the Martin Mars may be found here.

Each tanker is capable of carrying 7,200 gallons of water and has a 600 gallon foam tank. Finally are capable of delivering thermo-gel. Thermo-gel, also known as a water enhancer, does what its name implies. It enhances water’s suppression capabilities and is better able to coat fuels. If you are interested in reading more about water enhancers, see Fire Management Today, volume 67, issue 2. Starting on page 24, you will find a short article called: “The Latest on the evolution of chemical fire supression – water enhancers eyed for the future.” The authors include a text box with a brief description of foam, water enhancers, and retardants. The current issue of FMT along with archives of most back issues may be accessed on this USDA Forest Service webpage.

Refilling the water tanks involves “skimming” the water surface while maintaining a speed of 70 to 80 mph. Through the use of a scooping system water is injected into the tanks. It takes approximately 25 seconds to fill the water tanks. The video below shows this process:



For more information on the two Martin Mars aircraft, see this Coulson Group webpage. This page also includes a link to a specifications page.



A pilot, co-pilot and two flight engineers make up the crew of the Martin Mars.

Specifications:
Overall Length: 120 ft.
Height: 48 ft.
Wing Span: 200 ft. (61 m)
Gross Weight: 162,000 lbs. (73,483 kg)
Cruising Speed to Fire: 190 mph
Drop Speed: 138 mph
Landing Approach Speed: 115 mph
Touchdown Speed: 92 mph
Fuel Consumption (Cruise): 420 US gal
Fuel Consumption (Operations): 780 US gal
Operations Duration (normal): 5 1/2 hours
Area Covered, single drop: 3 to 4 acres
Drop Height: 150 to 200 ft.

Stay tuned for part 2 on the Martin Mars coming in a couple of days.

S-2T: end of season retardant tank maintenance

At the end of the season, or when maintenance on the retardant drop system is required during the season, the retardant tank is washed out. When this happens, the flapper valve and the tank doors at the bottom of the aircraft are in the open position. In addition the hotload cap is off. This allows any standing water to be vented from the system.

Here is a video of what this operation looks like:

Jesusita Fire, Santa Barbara CA

For those of you who are interested in reading reports of the Jesusita Fire that has burned around 8,700 hundred acres as of early this morning (Saturday. May 9, 2009), a couple of firefighting blogs that I follow are reporting on this fire:

1. wildfire today by Bill Gabbert
2. Firefighter blog by Cap't Mike.

This fire is also listed on the inciweb national incident reporting system. I understand that this site may be prone to being down or busy.

The Santa Barbara County has a fire information page that may be found here.

The LA Times has a google map of the fire with informational links.

Finally, I was able to watch live feed shot from a news helicopter of T-911, one of the DC-10 air tankers making a drop on the fire. A Santa Barbara television station, kety, has a report on the drop with a video here. The site where I saw the live feed may be found here. This site has six feeds from southern California media. I believe that live feed was shot by the kcbs helicopter. I think. It may take a while to load, and I had to do some fussing to turn off the audio and video of the feeds that I was not interested in.

The DC-10 tanker was one of 14 (I think) air tankers along with numerous helicopters that were providing aerial firefighting support yesterday.

S-2T: in action (2 of 2)

If you have nine minutes and want to see a good video of a few S-2T's in action along at a helicopter with a bucket working fires in California, take a look at this video. SCU refers to Santa Clara Unit.

S-2T: in action (1 of 2)

Here are a couple of very short videos of S-2T's in action. In the first video, the S-2T is working with a lead plane in the 2007 Zaca Fire in Los Padres National Forest. The first plane you see is the lead plane showing the S-2T where to make the drop. A few seconds later, the S-2T tanker flies through to make the drop.



In the second video, the S-2T tanker seems to be working with out a lead plane. At least a lead plane is not shown in the video. The last few letters in the name of this video is cut off, it is "CDF Air Tanker 78 Drops on Felter Fire/Santa Clara Unit"

martin mars

S-2T: making the retardant drop

When an air tanker such as an S-2T is deployed to a wildland fire, the air tanker pilot will be in touch with either the incident commander on the ground or some one known as the air tactical group supervisor (ATGS). The ATGS oversees aerial support for the fire, including retardant drops from a tactical aircraft, sometimes known as an air attack plane flying over the fire. The ATGS will be in touch with the incident commander (IC) on the ground. CAL FIRE’s tactical aircraft are known as OV-10’s and there is one OV-10 at each air attack base. The ATGS, after consulting with the IC, will give the S-2T tanker the information that s/he needs to make the drop, including but not limited to the location. In initial attack the S-2T pilot may make his own determination about the necessary settings and where to make the drop.

The settings that S-2T air tanker pilot (and other air tanker pilot’s) use for the retardant drops are on a panel on the cockpit. This is the same one pictured in the preceding post, so I will be using that picture as a reference. Perhaps you will want to open up a new window in your browser so you can look at TL Stein’s photograph and follow along.

The pilot adjusts the dial on the left to set the amount of retardant to be dropped while the dial on the right is set to determine the coverage level (also known as gpc). The coverage level is gallons of retardant per 100 square feet. Coverage levels are somewhat technical, depending on the type of vegetation on fire (fuels) and the fire behavior. The coverage settings dial is scaled from .5 to a maximum of 8 (gallons per 100 square feet). A switch known as the arm-disarm switch is set in the disarm position until it is near time to make the actual retardant drop. This prevents accidental drops. The button that the pilot pushes to make the drop, drop control switch (not pictured), is on the pilot’s control panel for ease of access. The door control (switch in the middle), is set to automatic.

Once the settings on the two dials are made, and the pilot is at or near the location and correct altitude for the drop -- 150 feet above ground level for the S2-T -- the pilot flips the arm-disarm switch to arm the system. The pilot has only to push the drop control switch at the appropriate time, the tank doors open and the drop is made. It is not merely the cockpit controls that make the retardant drop possible, there are various avionics (aviation electronics) and hydraulics that make the retardant drop possible.

If there is an emergency situation, the pilot can make an emergency retardant drop by pulling an emergency handle (not pictured).

S-2T: Retardant loading at Ryan AAB

Loading retardant onto the S-2 is a reasonably simple process. The yellow hoses in the photo are called pit supply lines, running from the storage tank to a high capacity, high volume pump. Each storage tank has it’s own pump. TL Stein tells me that “as the pump pulls the retardant from the storage tank it sends it into the pit supply line.” Once the pit supply is fully charged, the black loadout hose (see picture) is connected to the hot load at the tail end of the aircraft (see photo). The gate valve at the end of the load-out hose is gradually opened allowing the retardant to flow into the tank on the aircraft.

He explains how they know when the tank is full:

On some of the S-2T’s, there are a series of loading lights on the right side of the aircraft that light up to indicate how full the tank is getting. On others a mass flow meter is watched to indicate how much retardant has been pumped into the aircraft. As the aircraft fills, it will tend to settle due to the addition of weight and the tail will drop about six to eight inches. This settling action is not slow, but a rapid drop and signals the loader that the aircraft is getting close to full. When this happens, the loader will close the gate valve about halfway until either the full light lights up or the mass flow meter reads the desired amount of retardant has been pumped into the aircraft.

After the aircraft has been filled, the gate valve on the loadout is closed and the hose is disconnected from the aircraft. The ground crew leaves the area, and the plane is ready for take off.

Take a look at the annotated close-up of one of the panels in the cockpit. I will be talking more about the controls on this panel in my next post. On the top right, is a switch labeled “open - closed control for tank backflow valve.” This valve, also known as a flapper valve sits between the retardant tank and the hot load. To put it simply, the flapper valve seals the system. It serves three important purposes: (1) the valve is open when retardant is being loaded into the tank (2) when closed, prevents retardant in the tank from flowing back to the rear of the plane to the fill point, and (3) is left open when the retardant tank is washed out at the end of the season or when maintenance is necessary (more on this in a later post).

Recall from the post on S-2T specifications that the S-2T holds 1,200 gallons of retardant. There are times when the retardant tank will not be filled to capacity. One of these times is when it is very, very hot outside. TL Stein tells me that Ryan sits in a large basin, and when it is hot, it is very, very hot at Ryan. During times like this, the air density is lower. And when the air density is low, heavy airplanes do not fly very well. So, on a really hot day, the weight of the air tanker needs to be lightened. So, less retardant will be put in the tank on the S-2T. Retardant weighs about 8.5 pounds a gallon. Filling the tank with 1,000 gallons of retardant instead of 1,200 gallons saves 1,700 pounds. Lowering the weight of the air tanker by 1,700 pounds on a really hot day, according to TL Stein, makes a huge difference!

Still to come in this series of posts on the S-2T are (1) the retardant drop; (2) videos of the S-2T making retardant drops, and (3) cleaning out the retardant tank at the end of the season.

Retardant at Ryan AAB and S-2's

In today’s post I am going to be writing about retardant mixing at Ryan Air Attack Base (AAB). This is possible because I have learned about retardant mixing operations at Ryan AAB from TL Stein. Moreover, Ryan has an S-2 air tanker. This provides me with a unique opportunity to link mixing retardant with a specific type of air tanker. In addition, unlike Ramona AAB which uses a mobile mixing system, Ryan AAB has a permanent mixing system. Ramona, the oldest AAB, uses a (mobile) mixing trailer because they have little room for expansion. Ryan like many other larger AAB’s use permanent mixing facilities.

Ryan Air Attack was first used as an air attack base by the USDA Forest Service in 1957 and the California Dept. of Forestry (CDF) started air attack operations at Ryan in 1959, making Ryan the first joint air attack base in the U.S. In the 1960s a permanent retardant mixing system was installed and shared by both the USDA Forest Service and the CDF (now known as CAL FIRE). In 1998 the USDA Forest Service moved their air attack base to the San Bernardino International Airport.

Thanks to TL Stein -- who made a short video on retardant mixing operations, took some photographs and gave me an excellent write up of retardant mixing at Ryan -- I am in a position to make this blog entry. The video is included in this post. After you watch this short video, I hope that you will have a good idea of how retardant mixing at Ryan works.



In addition to the video, I am including a couple of TL Stein’s photos. One is a photo of an eductor assembly at Ryan where the water and retardant pipes are labeled. As you will learn in the video, as water flows through the eductor, it creates suction in the retardant pipe. Retardant is therefore drawn into the eductor. The powdered retardant mixes with water at the point (see the photo) where the water and retardant pipes come together. From there it goes into a storage tank. The second picture is of the retardant mix control panel where the mixing operation and flow of mixed retardant to the various storage tanks on the base.

In my next post, I will write a little more about the process of loading the retardant mixture onto the S-2 and share some of TL Stein’s up close and personal photos of the S-2.