Kudos to the NJ Forest Fire Service

Well I go away for a few days and came back to heightened fire concerns here in NJ. I reported in the NJ Forest Fire Service section on the right side of this page about two major fires, a 900-acre fire over the weekend, and a 400-acre. And this is a few weeks after the end of our spring fire season in NJ, and the last of the SEATs went off contract in the middle of May.

Now I go to either the NJFFS Section B-10 website or the NJ Forest Fire Service webpage to get fire stats, at least for most weeks. And I keep a spreadsheet with the numbers. So according to my spreadsheet, from Jan 1 through June 13,1,600.75 acres burned. The math on the two fires that I spoke of is simple, 1,300 acres burned in a few days in late June. During a dry spell. Now the acreage burned that I report for this week, 2,553.75 acres burned does not include the 400-acre fire that I spoke of. That fire began on Monday at Ft. Dix. Nor does it include the other, probably numerous smaller fires that have kept the NJ Forest Fire Service Crews busy the last couple of days.

And things may not get better before next week, as we continue with dry weather through next week. I will be making daily posts early in the AM reporting on that days fire weather, so check out that section on the right side each day.

If you check out this post on the wildlandfire hotlist, you will see that Division B of the NJFFS is going to level 1 patrols starting tomorrow and at the same time is moving to stage 1 campfire restrictions.

I believe that the fire in the video is a brush fire in the Lakewood, NJ area on June 24.

I post this today to thank all in the NJ Forest Fire Service who work so hard to keep us safe here in NJ. Nice job everyone. Stay safe and know that you are appreciated.

T-44 overshoots runway at Jeffco - crew uninjured

When I got back home yesterday, I had four e-mails from friends telling me about that Neptune Aviation's T-44 overshot a runway (or a taxiway??) at Jeffco Airport (aka Rocky Mountain Metro Airport) in Broomfield Colorado on Saturday, June 26. I am happy to say that the media is reporting that the pilot and co-pilot walked away uninjured. Early indications are that there may have been a hydraulic problem that led to brake failure.

Air tanker operations from the tanker base at Jeffco were suspended after the crash on the 26th. Tanker operations from Jeffco resumed sometime on Sunday, June 27th.

Kudos to the pilot and co-pilot!!

The video that I embedded here is from 9News (kusa) in Denver Colorado (from their 10 PM broadcast on June 26). Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today reports here about the removal of T-44 (Sunday, 6/27) from the road where it came to rest crashing through a fence and the resumption of air tanker operations on Sunday, June 27.

June 29
Those of you who pay attention to such things will notice that I had originally posted links to four articles about the T-44 crash that my friends sent me while I was away. Much of the pertinent information in these articles duplicates information reported on in the video that I embedded above. For example, one of the articles is the text version of the 9NewsDenver video that I embedded here. In the interest of brevity, I am deleting links to these articles. I am also deleting a link to a video that more or less duplicates information from Wildfire Today that I have already linked to.

I remain very grateful to my friends who kept me informed while I was away. You are the best!

B-25 in WWII Pacific Theatre

I am posting a four part video series shot by WWII troops from "Lefty's Wolk Pack", 7th Army Air Force, 41st Bomb Group, 48th Bomb Squadron in the South Pacific. Allow about 20 minutes for all four. The B-25's are shown in parts 3 and 4.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4

Major Fire in the NJ Pine Barrens: Cedar Bridge Fire

I was out of town for a few days, back today, and only just found out about the Cedar Bridge that is burning in the NJ Pine Barrens. I'll write more about this tomorrow.

From what I understand it has burned about 800 900 acres in Barnegat Township NJ, see a map of the approximate location here (courtesy of the Press of Atlantic City). and is 70% contained As of 1600 hrs on 6/27 it is 100% contained. It is in a remote area, so no evacuations were necessary.

The NJFFS Section B-10 website has a brief note about the fire and some links to photos and an article from the Press of Atlantic City. A thread on wildland fire with situation reports may be found here and another thread with other discussions on the Cedar Bridge Fire may be found here.

A brief report from CBS-3 in Philadelphia may be found here.

I believe that I have summarized the latest information about this fire and its containment. I'll make a follow-up post if I get new and updated information.

About the B-25: Doolittle's Raid

April 18, 1942. 16 B-25 Mitchells led by Lt. Col. James Doolittle on a bombing raid to Toyko. USAAF crews underwent extensive training in San Francisco before sailing on the carrier Hornet. The plan was that the B-25’s would launch from the Hornet 400 miles from Tokyo on April 18, 1942, bombing Tokyo after night fall and then flying to a friendly air field in China. Unfortunately, the Hornet was discovered by Japenese forces when she was 650 miles from Tokyo. The B-25’s took off early, carrying as much extra fuel as possible. Although they arrived in daylight, the raid was a success. They did achieve a measure of surprise. The damage was minimal, but the Americans had made a statement.

The B-25s did not fare well. All or most were lost when they ran out of fuel. The crews either bailed out or crash landed, with most surviving including Doolittle.

About the B-25 Specifications

I found a couple of websites that provide an overview of the development of the B-25 in the late 1930s for use as a medium bomber including information about the different models of the B-25 from the B-25A to the B-25B used in the Doolittle Raid through models C-H, to the B-25J that was eventually used as a fire fighting air tanker, and later models. These websites may be found here and here. Both sites are worth checking out, I hope that you take a few moments to do so.

At least some of the B-25’s that, after being modified, saw service, in some cases limited service, as fire fighting air tankers were model J’s. Fortunately, this site, that I referred you to in the preceding paragraph has specifications for a B-25 model J that I am reproducing here.

North American B-25J “Mitchell” Medium Bomber

Dimensions
Wing span: 67 ft. 7 in.
Length: 51 ft
Height: 16 ft. 4 in.
Wing Area: 610 sq. ft.

Weights:
Empty: 19,530 lb.
Gross: 26,122 lb.
Maximum take-off: 35,000 lb.

Performance:
Maximum speed: 285 mph (458 kph) at 15,000 ft.
Cruising speed: 230 mph (370 kph)
Service ceiling: 24,200 ft
Normal range: 1,350 miles with 3,000 lbs. of bombs
Maximum range: 2,200 miles with ferry tanks

Powerplant:
Two R-2600-29 Wright ‘Cyclone’ 14 cylinder, air cooled radial engines development 1,700 hp each for take-off.

Armament:
Eighteen .50 caliber M-2 Colt-Browning machine guns. Up to 3,200 lbs. of bombs.

B-25 Mitchell: coming attractions

Two things happened recently that drew my attention to the B-25 Mitchell, a WW II medium bomber that saw limited use as an air tanker in the lower 48 and more extensive service as an air tanker in Alaska and Canada. The first thing was reading a book, In the Shadow of Eagles: From Barnstormer to Alaska Bush Pilot, written by Rudy Billberg. I’ll write more on Rudy in a little later article next week. For now, suffice it to say that Rudy flew a B-25 for a few fire seasons in the mid 1960s in the State of Alaska. The second was watching Pearl Harbor recently on cable, where I watched the dramatic re-enactment of Dolittle’s raid on Japan in early 1942 using B-25’s.

There is a long list of historical aircraft, most of them former military aircraft, that have seen service as air tankers at one time or another. It has been on my mind for awhile now to write about some of these aircraft, its military (and/or civilian use), its use as an airtanker, and restored versions.

After reading Rudy’s book, I got interested in the history of the B-25 and quickly found out about her use in Dolittle’s raid. So when Pearl Harbor was showing on cable recently, I took the opportunity to watch the portion of the movie with the dramatic re-enactment of Doolittle’s raid. And I saw the B-25’s used in the movie.

Given these two events, I decided to write about the B-25. I am still in the process of working out this series of article as I write this, but I do have the next couple of articles worked out:

June 23: About the B-25
June 25: Dolittle’s raid
June 28: B-25 in WW II, South Pacific Theatre

DC-7 aircraft jacks (3 of 3)

Larry Kraus sent me some photos of T-62 over the Memorial Day weekend of T-62 undergoing maintenance in preparation for the summer fire season. Of interest are the very large (500-ton?) jacks used under the main landing gear and under each wings. Needless to say, these jacks are not carried on T-62!

DC-7: aircraft jack (2 0f 3) and self sufficiency

I continue where I left off in my preceding post where Larry Kraus was explaining to me about the tailwheel/nosewheel stand used by Butler's DC-7 airtankers. Larry describes this unique stand that he carries on his tanker (T-62):

If we didn't have this stand, we'd have to find a full sized jack to change the nose tire. It's actually pretty ingenious. It can be broken down into pieces and it weighs less than 70 lbs. I know this because we had to send one to Rapid City once by UPS Next Day Air when it was accidentally removed from T62 during maintenance and not returned and we had to change the nose tire.

For changing the main tires, a 30-ton hydraulic jack is used that is carried aboard T-62. According to Larry, the 30-ton hydraulic jack

fits under the center of the bottom of the main landing gear strut where there is a jacking point. Using the 30 ton jack we can change tires and brakes. We carry spare tires and spare brakes.

The spare tires (a nose tire and a main tire) as well as the spare inboard and outboard brakes act as both ballast and spares.We just have to carry the used tire and brake in the airplane as ballast until we can replace them with new ones. Getting the tire back in the airplane can be a challange without a fork lift. Getting the new one out of the airplane isn't easy either,but gravity works better going down than going up.

I don't have a photo of the 30-ton jack that is carried on T-62, but Larry found this 30-ton hydraulic jack on an internet search, which he says is similar to the one he carries on T-62:

He also sent this link, to ColumbusJack / Regent, a company that sells various aircraft axle jacks and related equipment.

In the photo of the jack adaptor that he uses as a tail stand and for the nose wheel jack, Larry has added a drawing in blue, showing where the 30-ton hydraulic jack fits in the picture.

Finally, Larry speaks of his need to be self sufficient:

Small general aviation airplanes wouldn't carry a jack around as they have no need to be self sufficient away from their home base. We pretty much have to carry any and all spare parts and tools with us. Most fixed base operators have no idea of our needs. Whenever we go to someplace that isn't used to our airplane and try to order oil they'll ask "How many quarts do you need?".....We work in drums....

You can figure our oil consumption as varying between about 2 and 5 gallons per hour per engine in a fire fighting operation. Multiply that by 8 hours for a full day and you'll see that, even at 2 gallons per engine per hour,we'd need 64 gallons of oil. We also carry a portable oil pumping system (with a small gas engine driven pump) that attaches to the top of an oil drum with appropriate fittings and has a 50 ft hose with a shut off nozzle.Again, getting the drum of oil into the airplane (it weighs about 350 lbs) is a challenge. On the Oregon contract, we can get by without carrying extra oil in the airplane because we only fly from bases that are set up for our operation.The engines have 46 gallon oil tanks.
I want to point out that I do not know what the other airtankers under national or state contracts carry with them.

DC-7 tanker: aircraft jacks (1 of 3)

Last December, I wrote a series of articles up close and personal with a DC-7 air tanker, thanks to the help of the pilot of T-62, Larry Kraus. A couple of months ago, Larry Kraus sent me a couple of pictures of (Butler's) T-66 as it was sitting on a ramp outside of Butler's maintenance hanger in Redmond with it's retardant tanks removed. According to Larry, the retardant tank was on a dolly in the maintenance hanger getting some repair work. These two photos are shown above. I looked at these photos and asked Larry what was hanging from T-66's tail.

This is Larry's reply:

It's a home made combination tail stand and nosewheel jack adapter.Sometimes when it snows heavily around here,enough weight in wet snow will accumulate on the horizontal stabilizers and elevators to cause the tail to squat down enough under the weight to lift the nosewheel off the ground. This is undesirable, especially if the wind is blowing.

So, with the tailstand in place, the tail can't settle enough (before the tailstand touches the ground) to lift the nosewheel clear.If you look closely at the pictures,you'll see holes in the vertical shaft of the tailstand and a metal pin inserted near the top.The shaft is actually two concentric shafts (a smaller diameter one inside the outer shaft) that can be adjusted to lengthen the shaft and the pinned to the new length by aligning the holes in the shafts.

Larry goes on to explain how this device is attached to the DC-7:

The "Y" shaped fixture that connects the tailstand to the hole in the tailskid (with another pin) is removable. The actual top of the shaft is concave to mate with a jacking adapter that's permanetly mounted on the airplane just aft of (behind) the nosewheel well on the belly of the airplane. 

In the photo below, Larry has put in a blue arrow showing the location of the nosewheel jackpad underneath the boarding ladder in the picture.

And Larry sent me a photo of T-66 as showing the repaired retardant tank just before it was put back in T-66. The retardant tank is below T-66 on the dolly.

Next up: more jacks used on the DC-7 tankers, changing tires, and self sufficiency

An airplane ride in the winds

On a windy day late last February, I went on what some in general aviation call a scenic ride. It was my first scenic ride. I wrote this a few days after the flight.

In the world of Cessna trainers (172P) the day of my first scenic ride dawned with strong winds. The folk at the general aviation airport canceled student pilot's flights. As I was going on a scenic ride, my ride was not canceled. I did have the option to cancel without penalties. I did not. One of the phenomenon that I wanted to experience was strong winds so I went up. Winds on the ground were about 15 to 20 knots (from 290 degrees) and winds aloft were about 30 knots. We started out flying into the winds towards the Delaware Water Gap in the Appalachian Ridge.

It was a bumpy ride, especially after we arrived at the Ridge and just before Mike turned the plane around. The winds at the Ridge were the strongest of the trip. I thought about the strength of the winds as the Cessna was knocked about a bit. I was glad for Mike's skilled piloting and knew that the winds we were experiencing were within the safety margins for the Cessna. I was grateful for the opportunity to experience, in small measures, some strong winds and turbulence. At this point, the ridge (about 1,200 feet give or take) was about 1,500 feet below us. We were flying at 2,800 ft and broken clouds were about 500 feet above us. There was a tower of some sort on the PA side of the ridge.

At the same time, I knew that Mike was not pushing the envelope in taking me up. And I had confidence in his abilities as a pilot. I knew that I would be safe. I was mostly afraid that I might get air sick and I did not! I knew that the winds that we were experiencing were nothing like the winds and mountain turbulence that tanker pilots experience. I am not going to try to think that what I experienced comes close.

So what can I say? I can say that I have respect for the power of winds and turbulence. As a passenger, I trusted Mike's abilities. I trusted the Cessna trainer. I found myself reflecting that the tanker business is not easy.

Flying is all about the wings.

On other matters, I spent a lot of the flight looking out the window and not watching what Mike was doing with the yoke and the rudder pedals. And when I go up again, I can watch what he is doing instead of the scenes from the windows.

I observed other maneuvers. Early in the flight, after we got to straight and level flight and Mike trimmed the plane (I did watch this), he took his hands off the yoke and I saw that the Cessna did reach stable straight and level flight on her own (positive dynamic stability, I think).

Flying is all about the wings.

I felt slight creepy when Mike demonstrated a power off stall at a fairly low angle of attack. I heard the stall warning. Mike was explaining what he was doing as he was flying. In fact he explained everything he did. Anyway, the creepiness passed as I saw and made a mental note that Mike knew what he was doing. A short time later, he put the nose down a little and the stall warning ceased. He powered up, put the flaps up (I think that he put the flaps down to 10). And we flew on.

Flying is all about the wings.

When we turned around at the Ridge, I asked Mike if we were turning at a 20 percent bank angle. We were. I was looking at the wings out the window as we turned. Later on he demonstrated patterns at 1,000 ft. AGL. I looked out the window and noted that he was crabbing into the wind. I noted the steeper bank angle as I was looking at the wings.

Flying is all about the wings.

As we approached the airport and entered into the pattern for landing, we again crabbed into the wind at the appropriate points. As we were on final, I asked Mike how far out we were. He said about one quarter of a mile. I said so we can glide in to landing in case the engine fails? He said, that is right.

Flying is all about the wings.

Mike did a nice job piloting the airplane. I learned a lot during this flight by watching him fly the plane and listening as he talked about what he was doing. Just as important I thoroughly enjoyed my first scenic ride.

Air Tractors battle grasshoppers

On earlier occasions, I have written on here and here about the important role that Air Tractors play in aerial firefighting, both in their role as SEATs and in post fire remediation (e.g. applying hydromulch. The various models of Air Tractors also play an important role in crop dusting and/or insect control.

When I got my paper copy of the New York Times this morning and turned to the national news, I saw a picture of an Air Tractor being used in grasshopper control. I was reminded that plagues of grasshoppers and locust are not just something that I read about when I was studying American history and reading the devastation caused by very large swarms of grasshoppers and locusts during the dust bowl of the 1930s and earlier. This is not about Pa Ingalls always finding a way to feed his family when the grasshoppers ate his crops. For farmers in many sections of this country, farmers are worried about the possibility of grasshoppers damaging their entire crop. One of the important tools in our arsenal are the Air Tractors and other agricultural planes along with their pilots. With that in mind, I thought that some of you might enjoy this article and the accompanying photo slideshow.

wildfires bloomed in Station Fire burn area

I ran across a link to an LA Times story and photo gallery on wildflowers blooming in the area of Station Fire burn. The wildflowers do not hang around for long, so they may already be gone, but seeing these photos made me smile.

Thanks to a post from May 25, 2010 wildland fire hotlist forum thread on the Station Fire for bringing this to my attention.

Rambling Chief has a new website

Some of you probably already know that Rambling Chief has a new website. Nice job! He has moved his blog over to the website, and is in the process of implementing other new features, including a forum page, links to online video streaming, and a very nice video page that he is calling wildfiretube. Be sure to make a visit.

Rambling Chief, you are doing a great job with this website. This has to be a labor of love. Thank-you!

Update #2: Rio Fire (NM) and Gilles Creek Fire (AK)

I want to take a few moments to update you on the two wildfires that I wrote about last week.

Delta Complex Fire (formerly the Gilles Creek Fire and other fires (AK)

To the best of my understanding, the Gilles Creek Fire has been merged with a few other nearby fires (Big Swede, Healy River, South Fork of Healy, and the Upper Gerstle Fires) under the Delta Complex Fires. The inciweb page for the Delta Complex Fires may be found here. The inciweb page for the Gilles Creek Fire is no longer being update, but there are several nice photos of this fire on the this inciweb photo page. The wildland fire hotlist has created a new thread for the delta complex fires that may be found here.

At the time I write this article, inciweb is reporting the all the fires comprising the delta complex total 27,546 acres with the Gilles Creek Fire coming in at 19,400 acres and 50 percent containment. As I understand it, the link that I have provided from inciweb will link to the latest incident information for the Delta Complex, so the information that I provided here will be superceded by later information.

Rio Fire (NM)

The New Mexico Fire Information Center is reporting that the Rio Fire is 100% contained at 2,200 acres. The fire was caused by humans over the Memorial Day weekend from multiple abandoned campfires. I am not sure how long this final report of the Rio Fire by the New Mexico Fire Information Center will be available. An alternate source of information is this thread from the wildland fire hotlist forums or the InciWeb. As of this writing, the inciweb page was last updated about noon EDT on Sunday, June 5 with a report that the fire is 85 contained. There are a few photos from the fire on this inciweb incident photo page.

A map of the fire (dated June 5, 2010) may be found here.

Cerro Grande Fire 10 + years later

In early May of 2000, a prescribed burn in Bandelier National Monument broke containment, eventually burning about 48,000 acres, destroying 235 homes. For a retrospective, including photos, KRQE has a webpage with links to photos, a couple of video reports, including the one I embedded above, and other information marking the tenth anniversary (in early May) of this fire. The first tanker you see looks like it is a P2V-5 (from Neptune Aviation?) and the second tanker appears to be a PB4Y-2.

The fire threatened but did not burn Los Alamos National Labs, they have a webpage with links to information about the fire. Here is a link to the Wildland Fire Staff Ride Library page on the Cerro Grande Fire. The Los Alamos Amateur Radio Club was involved with emergency communications during this fire, you may find their report on this fire here. Wikipedia has an entry devoted to the Cerro Grande Fire.

Update: Gilles Creek Fire (AK)

Inciweb is reporting that the Giles Creek Fire has grown to 17,800 acres and is 35% contained. The photo page on inciweb for this incident has been updated with new photos, check it out!

And speaking of photographs of wildland fires in Alaska, check out this photo page on picasa for other photographs of wildland fires in Alaska. There is pretty cool picture of what looks like a CL-215 water scooper.

Update#1: Wildfire near Jemez Mountains, New Mexico

The wildfire, known as the Rio Fire, that is currently burning near the Jemez mountains in New Mexico has burned 2,000 acres according to a KOB-4 news report that may be found here. The fire is 10 percent contained, and 83 structures are threatened.

Look for the latest update on the Rio Fire at New Mexico Fire Information website. According to the press release issued mid-day on June 2, four air tankers and four type-1 helos were working the fire on June 2 (along with a lead plane) in support of several wildland firefighting crews. Wildland Fire has a good thread in their hotlist forums on this fire, with details from earlier press releases on the fire along with other information.

Edited on June 3 to correct a bad link and provide an additional link for further information.

Wildfire near Jemenz Mountains in New Mexico

I ran across information about the fire shown in the video clip (courtesy of KOB-4 in Santa Fe, NM) when I was reading this thread on the wildland fire hotlist forums. I was interested in this particular fire because the folk who were making the post reported tanker and helo activity -- three P-2V's (the type II tankers) and one P-3 (the type I tanker, and a type I helo. Thanks to the link that they provided, I was able to the video clip that I embedded here.

Evacuations of nearby communities were ordered last night.

Gilles Creek Fire (AK)

Fire season is underway in various parts of the U.S. and Canada. I am always interested in noting the role of air tankers in wildland firefighting in support of the crews on the ground working to contain and then control the fire. It is my intention to report on individual fires from time to time where aerial operations are working hand in hand with ground crews.

The Gilles Creek Fire In Alaska, started by lightening on May 26 has burned about 16,400 acres as of May 31. I noted when I was reading this thread from the wildland fire hotlist forums (for Alaska), that two CL-215 scoopers had been deployed to this fire. See, for example, these photos from the inciweb photo page for this incident.

The Alaska report from the BLM for Monday May 31 reported on the role of the CL-215's: "the CL-215's worked with dozers and other equipment to reestablish containment lines."

The current Alaska report may be found here. You will see a long list of fires in the Alaska report. The Gilles Creek fire (AK-DA- Gilles Creek #219). I found the entry for the Gilles Creek fire by searching the pdf document for "Gilles Creek".

The Gilles Creek Fire is only one of several fires burning in Alaska. For more information on wildland fires in Alaska you may want to check out Alaska Wildland Fire information from the Alaska Dept. of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry, or the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center, both sites have links to the report that I linked to in the preceding paragraph.

The Fairbanks Daily News Miner reports on how firefighting agencies in Alaska are mustering resources to fight wildfires in Alaska here.

Finally, you may find information on wildfires in Alaska on the Alaska IA hotlist forum from wildland fire.