CAL FIRE inspection & maintenance of airtankers

In this short video from CAL FIRE TV you will learn a little how CAL FIRE maintains and inspects their air tankers (S-2Ts). CAL FIRE contracts with  Dyncorp for the maintenance and inspection of their S-2-T airtankers, OV-10 air tactical aircraft, and UH-1 helicopters, see this CAL FIRE webpage for more information on CAL FIRE's air program. All operators of aircraft used for aerial wildland firefighting have an inspection and maintenance program for their aircraft, with the specifics of those inspections varying depending on the aircraft and the operator.

According to the Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) most aircraft, including fixed-wing aircraft, have to have certain items inspected in a given twelve month period. This list is found in CFR 14 FAR part 43, appendix D.

The FAR sets forth the manner of doing these inspections with the specifics of these inspections varying depending on category (e.g. airplane, glider, lighter than air, and rotorcraft) class (e.g. single-engine land, mutli-engine land), type (aircraft with a gross weight in excess of 12,500 lbs) and use (e.g. flight schools, charter, airlines, public-use - air tankers) of the aircraft.

It is likely that the type of inspections that are being discussed in the CAL FIRE maintenance video that I embedded here are what are known as progressive inspections. In a progressive inspection, the inspection tasks that must be completed within a 12 month period are broken down into three or four "tasks". The benefit of progressives is that the aircraft is not taken out of service for a long period of time if the inspection is done only once a year. Rather in a progressive inspection, the aircraft is out of service for shorter periods. The operator of a fleet of aircraft can stagger their progressive inspections to minimize the number of aircraft out of service at one time.

Over the next couple of articles, I will be writing a little more about progressive inspections, so stay tuned!