Testing of Hawaii Mars (circa 1945)

This video from the United News Newsreels is posted on fedflix, more info may be found on this fed flix page. I am embedding this video because I was fascinated by the first feature in the newsreel showing what I think may be the first test flight of the Hawaii Mars circa 1945. Part 2 of the newsreel shows the 2nd Marines landing on and securing an atoll in the vicinity of Okinawa sometime late in WWII. Part 3 shows President Truman and other dignitaries arriving at Antwerp along with some scenes from the Potsdam Conference.

The newsreel says that the Hawaii Mars is the first of twenty of her type. It turned out that only four or Five were built, including the Hawaii Mars. Two remain, the Hawaii Mars and the Philippine Mars, see this page on the Coulson Flying Tankers website for more information about the two Mars aircraft.

I loved seeing the Hawaii Mars, albeit in black and white, in her military colors. Enjoy!

Some of the scenes of emaciated Japanese citizens and children might be a little disturbing to some.

Blue Angels Winter Training

During this holiday week, enjoy these two videos from Envenometer1 showing the 2012 Blue Angels winter training.

Bambi Buckets

Before Christmas, I was posting about firefighting helos:

Thanks Firefighting Helos!
CAL FIRE Super Huey Bucket Work Demo

I want to continue with one more post, at least for the time being, on the good work that Helos do as aerial wildland firefighters. To that end, I hope you enjoy this video on bambi bucket training.

Happy holidays everyone and stay safe!

The Shepard

For more info on the Shepard see the information on youtube.

I love this story. Merry Christmas everyone! Safe travels.

NTSB update on Morris County NJ airplane crash

Yesterday I reported here on an airplane crash on Interstate 287 in Morris County NY. Here is this afternoon's NTSB briefing on yesterdays plane crash. I believe but am not certain that the wreckage has been cleared from the highway. The plane, a Socata TBM 700 (single engine prop-turbine), was at an altitude of close to 18,000 when it went into an uncontrolled spin crashing into the I-287.

The names of those who died in the crash, widely reported in the press, have not been released by the authorities. My prayers go out to their family, friends, colleagues, and school mates.

CAL FIRE Super Huey Demo (bucket work)

Here is a nice video of a demo of CAL FIRE Bell Super Huey 106. You will see her firefighting team exit the helo and attach the bucket before the helo goes off and does a demonstration bucket drop.

Thanks firefighting helos!

I want to pause and remember all of you helicopter pilots and crew who play such an important role in aerial wildland firefighting. You might be under a federal contract. Alternatively, your helicopter might be owned by or under contract with a state or local government agency. You helos come in various sizes performing various missions.

I know you are there.

Perhaps you are a Bell Super Huey (medium helo) with a 300 gallon bucket. Your state agency got you through the federal excess property program. You get the call, a wildfire in your division. The ground crews need your help, they need your bucket. You fly to the fire, there is a pond minutes from the fire where you can dip your bucket. The incident commander on the ground has been in touch with your pilot telling him where to drop. You dip and fly to the fire to make your drop. You fly back and forth to the fire for as long as the incident commander needs you, dip and drop, dip and drop. Dip, oh there is a spot fire outside the fire line, you drop on the spot fire. Dip and drop, dip and drop. . .

I know you are there.

Perhaps you are another Bell Super Huey (medium helo) flying for an agency in a different part of America. You carry up to 8 firefighters, you have a 360 helitank with a snorkel hose and a separate foam tank. You also have a 324 gallon bucket. There is a wildfire in a remote area in the hills within range of your base. Your job, drop off your firefighters and their captain at a safe landing spot near the fire. You drop off your firefighting team. This time your bucket is needed. They quickly unload their gear and attach your bucket to your belly.

The fixed wing tanker and air attack platform from your base are already at the fire when you arrive. You will support your firefighting team, with your bucket, and your pilot talks to Air Attack and the captain of your team on the ground. As long as necessary you go back and forth, dipping and dropping.

I know you are there.

Perhaps you are an Erickson Air Crane with a 3,000 gallon tank and a snorkle hose. Your tank can carry water as well as retardant. You are working a large fire, there is a portable retardant tank set up at a temporary base near the fire.

You are working with some fixed wing tankers, and another "Crane. After you fill your belly tank with retardant you circle the fire in the fire traffic area at an orbit and altitude assigned by an aerial supervisor. The aerial supervisor tells you when it is your turn to drop. If requested by the aerial supervisor, you make multiple drops. You go back and forth from the fire to the retardant tank, to the fire traffic area, dropping, and then back to the retardant tank.

I know you are there.

small plane crash in NJ - five dead

updated on July 18, 2013: video that I had embedded here reporting on crash of the Socata killing all aboard is no longer available. :-( 

For more info go to this NJ dot com article. My prayers go out to the family and friends of those who died in the crash.

Single Pilot Firefighting Aircraft

Some tanker pilots fly alone, without the aid of a co-pilot. Their tankers have one or two engines with fewer gauges to keep track of than their heavy cousins. But that doesn't make what you do any simplier. There is nothing simple about flying fires whether you are a single pilot or part of a multi-person crew of a heavy tanker.

As a single pilot you do all the flying. Running through the checklists, working the radio, making the drop, watching the gauges. All of it. You love the flying, but it isn't simple.

You know and respect your own limits and you respect the limits of your aircraft. You are always aware of the situation and you follow your intuition. If something is wrong you go around or land. And if you are working with a Canadian bird dog pilot, an American lead plane pilot, or a CAL FIRE air tactical platform you have told them about your problem. The goal is to stay safe so that you can go back to your home base and fly again the next day.

You may be alone in your tanker but there may be other aircraft over the fire. On the other end of that radio there may be a Canadian bird dog pilot or an American lead plane pilot, or a CAL FIRE air tactical platform. If you talk to other tanker pilots from your group or agency you do so on a predetermined private channel. Perhaps you are a pilot for a state forest fire service, in that case you may be talking to a pilot or incident commander in an observation aircraft.

I write this short piece for all of you tanker and helo pilots who are flying as single pilots. I know you are there. Thank-you for what you do.

Safety in the tanker and helo biz

I've been thinking a lot about the safety in the tanker and helo biz recently. I believe that I can say that one common thread to various communications with those of you in the business of aerial wildland fighting is a concern for safety. A common concern for safety. I now have the experience of attending aviation ground school, passing the FAA private pilot written exam, and while I am not in flight training I do go on scenic flights. While it is likely that I may never get a pilot's certificate, I can say that out of my own experiences with aviation that I have thought about aviation safety in a new way. In a new way because, perhaps, I have role in the safety of my scenic flights. My role is confined to being a knowledgeable passenger, but it is a role I take seriously.

Some of you know that I have spent some time on this blog writing about safety as relates to the world of aerial wildland firefighting. As I reflect on safety in the aerial wildland firefighting business, I have been thinking about these earlier posts. I also find myself thinking about all that I have learned about aerial wildland firefighting. And of course, I have my own experiences in aviation ground school and my scenic flights to draw on.

Regarding safety, I have recently written about emergency retardant drops and using checklists. For reasons that are difficult to explain, I felt the need to sit down and write about my reflections on tanker and helo safety. What I thought would be something that I could sit down and have ready for posting today is turning into a longer piece, something that I am spending some time on.

While I am working on these reflections, I'll be making some additions to the pages on this blog, adding a page on tanker and helo safety. Stay tuned. I'll let you know as I work on the other pages to this blog. Further, I'll be posting the as yet unwritten reflections here when they are ready. In the meantime, I may continue to post more specific posts along the lines of what I have recently written about emergency retardant drops on take-off and using checklists.

Stay safe out there.

Using checklists is important for all pilots

I first learned about check lists in my studying and reading about general aviation and flying. I learned that the check lists are in the aircraft's POH, Pilot's Operating Handbook. When a pilot friend takes me on a scenic ride, most of the planes also serve as trainers withaircraft specific checklists (laminated) on a ring in each airplane. Most every detail that happens during a flight is on that check list. In a few of my scenic flights, upon request by the pilot, I have read the checklist to the pilot where s/he responds by repeating the item and the result.

As I continue to go on my scenic flights and gain appreciation for the importance of checklists, my appreciation for the importance of checklists in the tanker biz grows. I remembered an e-mail that my tanker pilot friend G sent me about checklists over a year ago. I recently dug it up, this is what he says:

Use of a checklist in any airplane is essential. Even if your personal checklist is just a mnemonic like "CIGAR" (controls, instruments, gas, attitude, run-up) or whatever, it is absolutely foolish to not use your checklist. Accident statistics are full to the brim with guys who were too cool to use a checklist.

In large, complex, multi-engine aircraft, the written checklist is the bible. You read it religiously. In a multi-crew cockpit, the checklist is always a call and response type exercise, unless it's a checklist that the non-flying pilot can accomplish without distracting the flying pilot from flying, eg: the pre-drop check performed by the non-flying pilot before a retardant drop. My co-pilots would always have to say something like, "Pre-drop check complete, standing by the jets". I would always acknowledge the check list complete announcement with something like: "Pre-drop check complete, thank you, light 'em up", which was a call to start the jets before the drop.

It's the same in the taxi check. When the co-pilot was finished with the taxi check, he would say, "Taxi check complete" and I would always acknowledge with a "Taxi check complete, thank you" to let him know I had heard him. Sometimes, you are listening to a radio transmission and you don't hear the checklist call. The guy running the checklist should always demand a response if one is necessary.

Missing even one item on almost any flight checklist can kill you. It is not a student pilot exercise, it is a matter of safe flight. Flying is absolutely unforgiving of sloppiness and tanker flying is more unforgiving of any carelessness or "Mr Cool" attitude. Miss one switch, and you become the latest accident statistic.

Given the importance of checklists in aviation in general, including multi-engine airtankers, it is appropriate and within sound aviation practices that the 2011 Federal Airtanker Contract requires checklists be present in the cockpit. The copy of the tanker contract that I have mentions these checklists. I'd expect that there may be additional checklists not listed in the contracts:

• before starting engines
• before takeoff
• cruise
• before drop
• after drop
• emergencies
• before landing
• after landing
• stopping engines

The oncall SEAT contract that I have for 2011 has a similar list of required checklists. What is on these checklists will depend on the type of aircraft, the tank configuration and perhaps by the contractor.

Not included in the list above is the all important pre-flight checklist where the crew inspects the aircraft before and sometimes after each flight.

Regarding helicopters used in aerial wildland firefighting. I don't know nearly as much about helos as I do about fixed wing aircraft. However, I suppose that what is good for fixed wing aircraft is also good for helos. Following that logic then it may stand to reason that checklists are just as important for helos as for fixed wing.

P-2 Tanker (T-48) Landing

The same person, Kyler Boylan , who posted the video on youtube of T-48 taking off also posted the above video on T-48 landing. Recall the article here where my friend G who was a P-2 tanker captain provided some commentary on that video. G does the same for this video on T-48 landing. Remember that there is no audio on the video, so G is only providing commentary on what he is seeing in the video. Also, tanker captains may run t heir cockpits a little differently.

This is a normal landing, both recips are running, so there are no extraordinary measures in place.

0:13 - CP is flying with both hands on the yoke. He reaches up to adjust the throttles with left hand. Goes back to flying with both hands. These aircraft are heavy on the controls, so it usually takes
two hands to maneuver the yoke.

0:18 - P reaches up to advance the prop lever to increase RPM. If the props are not brought forward, they should be pushed full up on touchdown for the upcoming reversing of the props.

On landing, the pilot takes the throttles, reaches ahead of the throttles and grabs the reversing handles. The copilot reached overhead and hits the reverse override, which allows the props to reverse even if the squat switches in the landing gear are not fully made yet. He also takes the yoke to hold the nose wheel on the runway to improve the hydraulic steering response.

If this were a single engine landing, the pilot flying would be manipulating only one recip throttle. The jets would be online and the non-flying pilot would be handling the jet throttles for use as necessary on the  command by the flying pilot. The jets would be ordered off on short final when the landing is safely assured.

Emergency retardant drops on take-off

One more point that I feel has to made regarding tanker take-offs, whether they be P-2's or other tankers, is the need to make an emergency retardant salvo. There are many things that can go wrong on take-offs, an engine or hydraulic failure are but two examples. The ability to jettison a load of retardant in the event of an emergency can be crucial to a safe return to base by the tanker. As I understand it, most tanker bases have an area, usually stated by coordinates, where tankers may make emergency salvos of their retardant in the event of an emergency.

Different tankers have different cockpit controls and tank configurations. Many tankers have an emergency drop switch in addition to the normal drop switch. What switch the pilot presses in the event of an emergency on or after take-off may depend on the pilot's knowledge of what happens when the emergency drop switch is pressed. Dropping ten tons of retardant at once leaves the tanker uncontrollable for a few nerve wracking seconds. Something that may not be desirable in an emergency. There might be other options.

For example, when I was writing about retardant drops in the DC-7 T-62 two years ago, Larry Kraus (T-62 pic) told me here that the emergency drop switch on all of Butler's DC-7 tankers (including T-62) is configured to salvo the load at a coverage level of five. If I am correct in understanding how this works, a salvo at a coverage level of five might avoid the sudden pitch-up of the nose.

My friend G told me that he always armed the normal drop switch for a coverage level of four:

The emergency dumps I made were all done through the normal drop switch
on the pilot's yoke.  If you use the normal system, the load goes out at a more even rate. It's a controllable, predictable pitch-up.  At a coverage level four, that only takes about 3 seconds, so it is over in a heartbeat and the airplane climbs like it is homesick for the sky.

USFS to contract for turbine tankers in 2012

I got a couple of e-mails last week from friends telling that the USFS has a solicitation for what they are calling Next Generation Tankers. As I understand it, next generation tankers means that the tankers must be turbine powered with a minimum retardant tank capacity of 2,400 gallons. A three to five gallon retardant tank capacity would be optimal. As for numbers of turbine tankers, it will be from 7 to 35 tankers. The contracts will be awarded in January of 2012 with mandatory availability starting in May of 2012.

Bill Gabbert of wildfire today did an excellent job on reporting on this on Dec 1 and Dec 2, including some additional information on the USFS solicitation, and a nice analysis of possibilities for these Next Generation tankers. There are some good comments on both of his articles as well. Good reading!

Included in the mix of possibilities will be the BAe-146, recall that Neptune Aviation has one (T-40) that has temporary approval from the Interagency Tanker Board. T-40 carries at least 3,000 gallons of retardant and
was working wildfires in Texas in the fall of 2011.

B-17 from WW II speaks

I wrote a series on the B-17 in March of 2011 focusing on her military history, the first article in this series (March 21, 2011) may be found here. Prior to writing this series, I did a lot of reading about the role of the B-17 and her crew during WW II. I was profoundly moved by the stories that I read. Just this morning, thanks to a friend, I came across the video I have embedded above. You will learn a little about Marvin Skubick a WW II B-17 pilot who made it back home after flying 35 missions. He shares a little and then takes a flight on the Yankee Lady, a restored B-17.

I found the video very moving. Thanks Marvin!

Reflections on a tanker taking off

I enjoyed the video on the P-2 tanker take-off that I posted the other day because it gave me a sense of sitting in the cockpit during take-off. A great feeling. But, I found myself wishing that I could look at the P-2 cockpit instruments during take-off. That is unlikely to happen anytime soon, if ever.

However, from time to time I do have the opportunity to go up in a Cessna Cutlass (172 RG) when I go on a scenic flight. Unlike the trainer, the Cutlass has a fuel pump, retractable landing gear, cowl flaps and a constant speed propeller. The engine is carburated. There are about four instruments in the cockpit of the Cutlass that are not in the trainers that I usually go up in.

Before our flight, I showed the pilot the P-2 tanker video along with G's comments.

Some of the instruments are the same as that found in the P-2V in the video. I wanted to watch these gauges for myself during a short flight to a nearby airport. By the way, a great day for flying. I was watching the gauges so no pictures from the flight.

So I watched the instruments. And got a bit of a sense of what my friend G was saying in his commentary describing the P-2 take-off. When we were on our take-off roll in the Cutlass the manifold pressure was 28" with a prop rpm of 2700. A point of comparison, G tells me "in the P2, we would pull about 52 inches and 2900 turns (of the prop) on take-off."

I have one important job on take-off and landing, when the pilot said that he was lowering the gear, I looked out my window and told him that the gear on my side is up (or down). He calls out that the gear on his side is up (or down).

As we climbed in the Cutlass, the pilot reduced the MP to 25" and a prop rpm of 2500. As we climbed the MP goes down but the prop rpm stays the same. Cruise power is MP of 21" and a prop rpm of 2300.

I watched the gauges as we flew and listened to the pilot as he spoke. And I learned more. I had dug up some Cutlass check lists on the internet so I had an idea of what the power settings would be. And I understand more thanks to a great pilot and teacher. But there was more. I thought about flying a tanker with two large recips and the jets used on take-off. And an awful lot more instruments to keep track of.

I thought about the how the pilot and the co-pilot in the video worked together during the take-off. Each had their jobs. Two pilots are needed to fly the P-2V. It was awesome watching them work together in the video. Elegance in action.

The role of the co-pilot is to watch the gauges as the pilot flies the airplane. And I thought that there is nothing simple about flying a tanker loaded with retardant. Or as Larry Kraus told me once, "See, I told you that the tanker business is complicated." Elegant but complicated.

P-2 tanker take-off

Several days ago I found the video that I am embedding showing the take-off of Minden T-48 (Lockheed P2V-7). I enjoyed the video and wanting to more I asked my friend G who was a P-2 tanker captain for many years if he could tell me what was going in the video. When you read the commentary and watch the video, perhaps you will want to open the video in a separate browser window so you can read along while you watch.

I should point out that captains may run their cockpits a little differently from what you are seeing in the video.



This is what G says:

In the P2V-7, all the throttles and such are on the overhead panel. From left to right they are: Fuel mixture levers; Recip throttles; Jet throttles.  The prop lever is a single lever behind the recip throttles and you can't see it in this video.  The two round things attached to the front of the recip throttles that look like bicycle hand grips are the reversing levers for the props.  They are used after landing to help slow the plane on the runway.

On the P2V-5, all this stuff is down on the center console.

Here's what I can see. There are verbal commands in there that we can't hear, so this is based on what I see:

:06 - CP takes jet throttles as P lines up on runway centerline.

:10 - P does last minute checks to be certain the props & mixtures are up tand the boost pumps are on high.  The boost pump switches in the -7 are on the overhead panel.

:12 - CP advances jet throttles to 100%, calls "Jets up".  P advances
recip throttles to T.O. power (determined by alt and temp)

During this time, the P is steering down the runway with the hydraulic steering tiller (nose wheel steering) on his left side panel.  CP is holding the yoke down to keep the nose wheel on the ground for steering. He is also calling out speeds as they accelerate.

:45 - P takes the yoke in both hands whenever he feels he has sufficient rudder authority to let go of the tiller.  CP takes over the recip throttles.  

:56 -  CP or P calls "Positive rate" (refers to rate of climb), P calls for gear up, CP throws the gear handle with his left hand.  P takes the recip throttles.

1:06 -  P calls for Meto Power (Maximum except Take-off), CP pulls prop lever back to climb power. P sets recip throttles to climb MP.

1:24 - CP reduces jets to METO power.

That's about it.  The Pilot flies the plane, looking out the window. The co-pilot is scanning the gauges constantly, looking for proper temperatures and pressures on a host of things.

Conair T-48 (DC-6)

Here is a nice video of Conair tanker 48, a DC-6 from 1990. You will see her being loaded with retardant, taking off and then dropping on the Thunder Fire that burned near La Ronge, Saskatchewan (Canada) in June 1990.

I believe but am not certain that you see a Firecat early in the video as well as a CL-215 a little later.

A belated Happy Turkey Day

Duff fires in northern CA: A tanker pilot's story from 1978

My friend, Tom Janney, wrote me a couple of days after I wrote about peat fires two weeks ago. He thought that you'd like this story that his told him, giving me permission to share this with you. Thanks Tom! He said:

Your writing about peat fires reminds me a lot of duff fires, particularly in the Northern California coastal areas. This story was related to me by my Father during his assignment in Northern California during the summer of 1978.  Dad and I only talked about it once...and that was 33 years ago, thus with age and time, I can't claim 100% accuracy

Back in 1978, my Dad was sent to Rohnerville Air Attack Base (about 100 miles South of the Cal/Oregon border, on the coast) for that fire season.  Having never been stationed that far North before, he realized it was a different world when it came to fighting fire.

As the thunderstorms would roll in off the ocean, they'd hammer the Redwood forest from the shore to about 150 miles inland.  I remember my Dad telling me of his first night of storms up there.  They woke him up about Midnight and continued for a good 2 or 3 hours, then subsided and cleared out.  Still in the SoCal mode of thinking, he was at the airport shortly before sunrise, ready to fly.  After about a 3 hour wait, everyone slowly started flowing onto the base.  At first, Dad had a hard time comprehending why there was no immediate action like there was down South.  Welcome to duff fire.

As the coastal moisture and daily rain keeps the top 12 -18 inches of soil wet and damp pretty constantly, everything below that is dry.  When I say everything below, I'm talking in feet - sometimes maybe 30 or 40 feet.  Duff is the accumulation of Pine needles under the trees that pile up over time.  As they eventually start to mulch out, the Pine oil that is resident within the needles themselves leaches out and forms in little pockets that crystallizes.  As the lightning strikes the trees, most of the electrical charge follows the sap down to the roots and discharges there.  I think you see where this is going!

Anyhow, the morning after these thunderstorms, usually an air attack or spotter plane will fly a certain route through the inland forest range, noting the smokes on the ground.  The lumber companies paid for these flights to keep check on their harvest areas.  Unless there was visible flame, nothing was ever done...as the fire was burning deep down in the duff.  Duff fires usually put themselves out over the course of a day or two, so there was not an immediate rush to scramble tankers or ground crews.  Occasionally, a lightning strike would drop a limb or two and ignite the top layer of duff.  One or two tanker drops and it was a done deal.  Fires burn very slow in that area.  I don't think Dad ever got over how slow everyone reacted to reports of fire up there.  A call would come in, notes and location were written down...and the feet would go back up on top of the desk.  Not moving from the office chair, the base Captain would look up at the map on the wall and study it for a few minutes.  "We'll check it out after lunch" was a common ritual.

Dad enjoyed his one season up there.  Clean air, good fishing and wonderful people, but he asked that he never get sent there again.  It was just too slow of a pace for him.  Tactics have changed over time, as well as equipment, however, it's still a slower paced response than most anywhere else.  I think the one thing that bothered him the most, was the Redwood harvesting.  When you drive up US Hwy 1, all you see for miles are these stately Redwoods, towering over everything.  From the air, the forest only exists for about a quarter mile off the highway and is non-existent from there.  Clear-cutting had stripped a lot of forest that was hundreds of years old to nothing but bare land.  A year or two after the cut, they'd come back in and replant certain areas, while letting nature take it's course in others.  With the advent of Google Earth, the scars on the land are evident yet today.  Most of the lumber companies have shut down or relocated to another State, as logging regulations haves changed since 1978.  Eventually, the forest will grow back and duff fires will be someone else's problem - in about 100 years or so.

Northern Maine Wildfire (1992): Helo Ride Along

Ride along with Mr. Harold Jones in a Maine Forest Service UH-1H Helo to a 1992 wildfire in Northern Maine. According to the info on youtube, Mr Jones died in 2007 at the age of 81. He worked for the Maine Forest Fire Service for 30 years, logging over 10,000 hours. The video Is presented by the Minnesota Chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association. There are some great shots of the helo cockpit, you will see some footage of bucket work. More importantly and of special interest to me was listening to Mr. Jones talk about his experience doing bucket work with helos to fight wildfires in Maine.

Plan on about 35 minutes to watch the video.

Caughlin Fire (Reno, NV): update 2

According to this report from the Morning Call, the Caughlin Fire in Reno NV was contained yesterday at 1,935 acres. In addition, you will want to see Bill Gabbert's latest report on the fire here. Bill, of Wildfire Today has reported on this fire on Nob 18 and Nov 20. Of interest to me was Bill's reporting that snow aided in the containment of the fire.

The cause of the fire may be due to downed electric wire, see this Washington Post report for more information.

Caughlin Fire (Reno NV): update #1

The video embedded here is taken at the Skyline Canyon near the Caughlin Ranch in Reno NV. Here is a direct link to the ABC 6 video.

The fire burning in Reno NV, known as the Caughlin Fire has burning about 2,000 acres and destroyed about 20 homes. KOLO TV is reporting that a firefighter has been injured bringing the total injured to 17, go here for more information. Sadly, the fire is said to have lead to the death of an elderly gentleman as he was fleeing the fire, see this Chicago Tribune article for more information.

There is an inciweb page for the Caughlin Fire. I believe that air tankers and helos are not working the fire because of the winds.

This just in: wildfire near Reno NV

updated on July 18, 2013: video that I had embedded here on the fire (below) in Reno is no longer available. :-(
A friend of mine just wrote to tell me about this 400 +/- fire near Reno. From what I understand 20 residences have been destroyed, and evacuations are in place.

This goes to show that wildfire season is not over in that part of the country.

Wildland Fire hotlist thread on fire

Las Vagas Sun article on fire

KOLO tv

About the NJ Pine Barrens

Two great videos from the Pinelands Preservation Alliance. These and other videos by the Pinelands Preservation Alliance may be found on their youtube channel.

I have witnessed the growth of baby pitch pines after fires. It is awesome to see. To read some of my earlier posts about the NJ Pine Barrens, go here, the latest post is at the top.

Flying in favorable tail winds

I ran across this video this morning. The Greek pilot who made the video died in a tanker crash. The aircraft that you see in the video are Canadair/Bombardier CL "super scooper" turbines. I do not know if either of the aircraft in the video is the one that crashed.

I'm not quite sure of the names of the pilots who died in the crash. The names were given in Greek on the you tube. I felt uncomfortable relying on the translator, and did not want to get it wrong.

I know that you, crew and tanker are flying in favorable tail winds. I look forward to meeting you one day, and we shall fly together.

Phragmites, marshes and brushfires

 I have lived in various locations on the east coast of the USA all my life in various states boarding the Ocean. I have spent a fair amount of time in various fresh and salt water wetland areas and am very familiar with a tall wetland invasive known as a phragmite or common reed. I have also lived near wetlands where phragmites had invaded the wetland where the agencies overseeing the wetland worked to control the invasive. I have also seen my fair share of fires in these marshes. Fortunately, the marsh fires that I saw posed next to no threat to residences but the smoke did interfere with traffic on nearby roads.

So, I was very interested when I came across and article from NY1 on efforts by the National Park Service to use a machine known as a marsh master to cut firelines in a marshy area of Staten Island to make the area safer for residents. I do recall at least one, possibly more brush fires in these Staten island marshes within the last couple of years. Go here to read about these efforts by the NPS in Staten Island.

I will be interested to see how things turn out in this area of Staten Island during the next fire season in the residential neighborhoods of Staten Island adjoining marshes.

Fires burning underground in peat

The other day I was in the shift briefing section of the hotlist of the wildlandfire today where news articles about wildfire news in the US are posted. I saw an article about a fire burning in the  Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota. According to the inciweb page the fire, aka the Silo Fire, has burned about 200 acres. It started out as a prescribed burn on Aug. 23 with all going as planed until on or about Oct. 23 when it escaped prescription after four days of Red Flag conditions.

The fire, however, is not burning above ground. Rather most of the fire is burning underground in peat. What peaked my interest when I read this article in the Grand Forks Herald is the discussion on the difficulty in bringing such underground fires under control. I was especially interested in the discussion of the techniques used by wildland fire crews to battle the fire. These techniques are different than those employed in wildfires burning above ground, and you will want to read the article to learn more. Simply, instead of using air tankers and heavy ground equipment, the fire fighters use light ground vehicles with 300 gallon water tanks. The goal is to "surround and drown" the fires.

I then remembered the Honey Prairie Fire that is still burning in the Okfenokee Swamp in Georgia. This fire recently passed its six month birthday, having started from lightening on April 30, 2011. At the time I write this, it has burned 309,299 acres and is at 76% containment. Anyway, I remembered that some of the fire activity in the Honey Prairie Fire is burning underground in peat. So I went to the  to review the  inciweb page (obtained Nov. 9, 2011). This report says in part:

Incident Commander Steve Abbott says, 'We need a storm to dump at least six to eight inches of rainfall over the entire swamp to bring the water level up and extinguish the fire. The US Drought Monitor indicates that most of Georgia including the Okefenokee Swamp is in an extreme drought. The NOAA Drought Outlook predicts that drought will persist or intensify in the area through January 31, 2012. It does not look like the fire will be out soon.'

I now have a new appreciation of the difficulty in fighting fires burning underground in peat.

Oct 29 snow storm: thanks to utility and forestry crews!!

As a friend of mine said to me recently, power restoration in New Jersey and elsewhere was a massive effort.

Focusing on NJ, I want to pause a moment to say thank-you.


Thanks to all the forestry crews who did the tree work. Some of you work for my town, county, and state. Others of you work with the utilities. And I'm sure that others of you came from out of state to help us out.

Thanks to an unknown number of private utility contractors.

I only know about utility crews from out of state from the JCP&L twitter feed and some references in local media. Thanks to utility crews from:

Pennsylvania
New York
Indiana
Georgia
Florida
Mississippi
North Carolina
Louisiana
Delaware
Alabama
South Carolina
Michigan
Kentucky
Wisconsin
West Virginia
And anyone else I didn't list here.

Last and by no means least, I want to thank the utility crews from Jersey Central Power and Light (my utility) PSE&G, and Orange and Rockland Utility. I live just a couple of miles from a JCP&L location so I saw for myself the bucket trucks congregating at that location, including JCP&L crews.


To my meter reader, I know that you were there doing whatever it is you do help the guys in the bucket trucks repair the electric lines. I know you are not stringing wires and the like, but I know that you provide whatever assistance that is within your abilities. Thank-you!

To those working customer service, answering telephones, thank-you!

Last week, I had a chance to thank someone from one of the forestry crews for their efforts. Just this morning, as I was taking the photo that you see above, a JCP&L employee came out to his truck. He saw me and wondered what I was doing. I told him about my blog, and about this post thanking all the utility workers who helped restore power. I thanked him. I told him that I was sorry that I was not able to get a photo of someone in a bucket truck doing repair work, but it wasn't possible. I went on to tell him that I did want to get a photo of a bucket truck for the article, the one you see here from JCP&L. I wish that I'd been able to get a photo of a bucket truck from an out-of-state utility, but I passed you on the road last week.

I may not have been able to get a photo of you working, but I'm here to say that I know you were here. Not only have I seen a lot of your bucket bucket trucks, but I have seen the repairs you made.

Thank-you!

Oct 29 2011 snowstorm - nine days later

Nine days after the October snowstorm that brought down utility lines leading to power outages from Maryland to Maine, I can say that much progress has been made in my corner of NJ. In my travels around my county, I can say that roads that were closed last Friday due to downed trees and power lines are now open. I drove on one such road today and saw the repairs. New poles in place and it looked to me like the electric lines were in place. I'm no expert, but it looked to me like a couple of poles were downed in the storm of Oct. 29.

Similar repairs, albeit on a much smaller scale, were made a couple of miles down the street from me.

As I understand it, most of the power has been restored in NJ, with scattered outages remaining, see this News12NJ report . Connecticut is not quite as fortune. As I write this 64,000 are still without power, and power may not restored to those folk until this Wednesday (Nov. 9), see this report from WCBS for more info. To read about power restoration in Massachusetts, see this Boston Globe article. I don't know about the electric power situation in other states impacted by last Saturday's early snow storm in the northeast and mid atlantic.

Airtankers at tanker base in Austin TX Oct 3, 2011

About a month ago a friend told me about the great video done by KVUE in Texas. I've been meaning to embed the video to share with all of you for awhile. One thing lead to another and to be honest I forgot about this particular video until I was going through some of my notes just now. So, I want to share this video with you. You will see both tankers, lead planes, and I believe that you may also see a CV-580 and her birddog (from Conair, our friends in Canada). I think, but am not certain, that many of these planes may no longer be in Texas.

Enjoy!

Always fire season somewhere

As wildfire season may be winding down in parts of the U.S., I am reminded that it is always fire season somewhere. For example, the summer wildfire season is approaching in Australia. Recent rains may have provided relief from years long drought in Australia. But with the rains, grasses have grown raising fears of grass fires. Two media outlets in Australia, Geelong Advertiser and Sidney Morning Herald report on the possibilities of grass fires.

A wildfire is burning in a UNESCO world heritage site, La Reunion National Park on La Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. The fires started on October 25 and have burned on the order of 6,400 acres with some 400 personnel responding. Go here for some information,

And in the U.S., Santa Anna Winds in Southern California continue to be a concern. See this Daily News (Los Angeles) article regarding fire concerns from a Santa Wind event on Nov. 2. Reports of two fires in California on Nov. 2, may be found in the California and Hawaii hotlist forums on wildlandfire.com: here and here.

update on late October snowstorm in the northeast

Utility crews continue to work to restore power to New Jersey. Progress is being made, but it could be at least two more days until the last customer is restored.

As I was driving today I saw evidence of one of the problems plaguing utility and tree crews as they work to restore power: a tree leaning on another tree near some electrical lines. I reported this to the appropriate government agency. Point being that as utility crews restore power another tree could fall on a power line taking out more customers.

So we wait . . .

As do many others in the northeast.

Follow-up on 767 belly landing

Yesterday I wrote here about a LOT airline 767 that made a safe belly landing in Warsaw Poland after a landing gear failure. I found a nice article from the Daily Mail in England reporting on the incident with a nice human touch, the article may be found here. It seems that the pilots knew of the landing gear failure long before landing in Poland so that everyone had time to prepare.

Again, kudos the pilots, the cabin crew, the air traffic controllers, and the responders at the Frederic Chopin International Airport in Warsaw Poland.

Boeing 767 makes safe belly landing in Poland

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A LOT airline Boeing 767 that took off from Newark-Liberty International (NJ) last night made a safe belly landing at Frederic Chopin International Airport in Warsaw Poland earlier today. The flight from Newark NJ was routine until a warning light in the cockpit revealed that the landing gear was not down. A fighter jet did a visual check, emergency preparations were made at the airport including putting foam on the runway, and the pilots circled for 80 minutes dumping fuel. According to media reports, all aboard survived.

Kudos to the pilots!

The CBS affiliate in New York has a nice report about the belly landing with a video that I was unable to embed here. To read their article, view some photos and watch the video, go here.

Late October snowstorm in the northeast

These two short videos represent what has been happening here in northwest New Jersey and other areas of the northeast and mid-atlantic since Oct. 29. I believe that the first video was shot on Saturday (10/29) sometime during the afternoon or early evening.

In my little corner of NW NJ, we had about five inches of heavy wet snow on Saturday, most of it in the span of about five or six hours during the middle of the day. However, areas just a few miles away got twice as much snow.

I took a drive around my town and near by towns just now. As I drove down my street to get some gas this morning, downed tree limbs were the rule. Peoples yards, including my own, are littered with downed tree limbs. You hope that they don't fall on your house, car, or power lines.

Of course, the trouble comes when limbs or trees fell on power lines. I saw some downed wires a couple of miles from my house, along the side of the road. As I drove to slightly higher and more rural areas, I passed three or four roads that were closed due to downed power lines. Forestry crews have to work with the downed trees before the utility crews can begin to work. Yet, I saw signs of progress. Early yesterday morning, the guy that plowed out my driveway told me that most of the nearest commercial strip was without power. This morning, they were powered. And I saw at least two caravans of utility trucks, and a third was parked at a lunch spot.

I am only writing about my corner of New Jersey. There are similar stories (or worse) from Maryland to Maine.

Early snow storm in northeast

As many of you by no doubt know, we are having an early snow storm here in the northeast. Hopefully, I'll be posting an article this coming Monday, but if I don't then . . .

Cedar Fire - Oct. 29 2003

In October 2003, the Cedar Fire (fueled by Santa Ana Winds) burned in Southern California, eventually burning 280,278 acres. Firefighter Steven Rucker died on October 29, 2003. Thirteen civilians died, 107 people were injured and over 2,700 buildings (residences, commercial buildings, and out buildings) were destroyed. See the Always Remember Memorial for Steven Rucker (Cedar Fire) for more information.

More videos of the Cedar Fire:



updated on July 18, 2013: one video that I had embedded here of the Cedar Fire is no longer available. :-(

Santa Ana Winds: Cause

Cause:



updated on July 18, 2013: video that I had embedded here on the effects of Santa Anna winds is no longer available. :-(

Esperanza Fire: Remembering those who died on 10/26/06

On a day when Santa Ana Winds are blowing in southern California with Red Flag warnings up, I want to pause and remember those who lost their lives fighting the Esperanza Fire in 2006. The Esperanza Fire was fueled by Santa Ana Winds. The fire eventually burned some 40,000 acres destroying 34 homes. Five firefighters died.

Let us pause and remember the five firefighters -- crew of San Bernardino National Forest Engine # 57 -- who died fighting that fire. Four died on the 26th, Pablo Cerda died on Oct. 31:

Capt. Mark Loutzenhizer, 43 of Idyllwild
Jason McKay, 27 of Phelan
Jess McLean, 27 of Beaumont
Pablo Cerda, 23 of Fountain Valley
Daniel Hoover-Najera, 20 of San Jacinto

We won't forgot you and our prayers go out to your family, friends, colleagues, and all those who love you.

Always Remember on the Espreanza Fire and the death of the crew of Engine 57.

Wildland Fire Hotlist Thread on remembering the Esperanza and Cedar Fires.

direct link to A tribute to USFS E57 video

One firefighter (Steven Rucker) died on October 29, 2003 fighting another Santa Ana Wind fueled fire, the Cedar Fire. I'll write more about that fire on October 29.

Santa Ana Winds later this week in Southern CA

This time of year is Santa Anna Wind season in portions of southern California around Los Angeles. This means the possibility of elevated fire danger. So, fire season is still very much in the picture for these areas. As you will see from this article from the Press-Enterpirse, the air attack base at Hemet-Ryan is ready.

In October 2008, I posted a short article on santa ana winds where I linked to a webpage on Santa Ana Winds by Robert Fovell, professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of California. He also has a FAQ page on the santa ana winds.

I meant to write more about santa ana winds, but I don't think that I did. So, I'll be working on more articles about the santa ana winds over the next couple of weeks.

The NWS out of Los Angeles and Oxnard California (here is their website) has issued a special weather statement at 3:52 AM PDT on Monday, October 24 for moderate santa ana winds and very low relative humidities for late Wednesday Oct. 24 through Friday October 26. They have an excellent graphic of this wind advisory that may be found here, and I should warn you that this graphic seems to updated regularly. So, don't be surprised if you see a different graphic.

For Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, peak wind gusts in the mountains are expected to be 40 to 50 mph and slightly lower in the valleys (35 to 45 mph).

I'll be keeping on eye on this and if anything of note develops firewise during this expected santa ana wind event, I'll let you know.

Update on Oct. 25, 3:10 PM EDT. I just checked out the NWS - Los Angeles/Oxnard CA webpage and saw a different graphic, dated Oct. 24, 10:24 PM PDT. And perhaps by the time you read this there will be yet another graphic, or perhaps none at all if the santa ana wind event is past.

Here is the special weather statement from the NWS that I referred to earlier:

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOS ANGELES/OXNARD CA
352 AM PDT MON OCT 24 2011

CAZ034>041-044>046-051>054-059-087-088-547-548-250100-
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY CENTRAL COAST-
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY CENTRAL COAST-SANTA YNEZ VALLEY-
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY INTERIOR VALLEYS-CUYAMA VALLEY-
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY SOUTH COAST-VENTURA COUNTY COAST-
LOS ANGELES COUNTY COAST INCLUDING DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES-
VENTURA COUNTY INTERIOR VALLEYS-VENTURA COUNTY COASTAL VALLEYS-
SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS RECREATIONAL AREA-
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY MOUNTAINS-SANTA BARBARA COUNTY MOUNTAINS-
VENTURA COUNTY MOUNTAINS-
LOS ANGELES COUNTY MOUNTAINS EXCLUDING THE SANTA MONICA RANGE-
ANTELOPE VALLEY-CATALINA ISLAND-SANTA CLARITA VALLEY-
LOS ANGELES COUNTY SAN FERNANDO VALLEY-
LOS ANGELES COUNTY SAN GABRIEL VALLEY-
352 AM PDT MON OCT 24 2011

...MODERATE SANTA ANA WINDS WITH VERY LOW HUMIDITIES EXPECTED
LATE WEDNESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY...

HIGH PRESSURE WILL BUILD INTO THE GREAT BASIN ON WEDNESDAY...
RESULTING IN INCREASING OFFSHORE FLOW OVER SOUTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA
FROM WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH THURSDAY. GUSTY NORTHEAST CANYON WINDS ARE EXPECTED THROUGH AND BELOW THE FAVORED PASSES AND CANYONS OF VENTURA AND LOS ANGELES COUNTIES...WHERE SOME AREAS MAY HAVE ADVISORY LEVEL WIND GUSTS BETWEEN 40 AND 50 MPH. BY THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY...OFFSHORE FLOW WILL PERSIST BUT THE NORTHEAST WINDS WILL NOT BE QUITE AS STRONG.

THE OFFSHORE FLOW WILL IMPORT VERY DRY AIR INTO THE REGION AS WELL.
ON WEDNESDAY...AFTERNOON RELATIVE HUMIDITY WILL FALL IN THE LOW
TEENS AND SINGLE DIGITS ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS. THESE LOW RELATIVE
HUMIDITIES WILL THEN SPREAD INTO THE FOOTHILLS AND VALLEYS ON
THURSDAY AND FRIDAY. THE OFFSHORE WINDS WILL RESULT IN VERY POOR
OVERNIGHT RELATIVE HUMIDITY RECOVERY. THE LOW HUMIDITIES COMBINED
WITH GUSTY CANYON WINDS LATE WEDNESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY MORNING WILL
RESULT IN HEIGHTENED FIRE WEATHER CONCERNS. THERE WILL BE THE
POTENTIAL FOR RED FLAG CONDITIONS DURING THE PERIOD...ESPECIALLY
FOR THE MOUNTAINS OF VENTURA AND LOS ANGELES COUNTIES INCLUDING
THE SANTA MONICA RANGE...AND THE SANTA CLARITA VALLEY. A FIRE
WEATHER WATCH MAY EVENTUALLY BE NEEDED FOR THESE AREAS AS WE
DRAW CLOSER TO THE EVENT.

AS THE OFFSHORE FLOW DEVELOPS...A WARMING TREND CAN BE EXPECTED
WEDNESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY...BUT HOT CONDITIONS ARE NOT ANTICIPATED.
THE MOST NOTICEABLE WARMING WILL OCCUR ON THURSDAY AND FRIDAY WITH
MANY COASTAL AND VALLEY AREAS IN THE UPPER 70S TO MID 80S.

STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR YOUR LOCAL MEDIA FOR THE
LATEST UPDATES ON THIS SITUATION.

1991 Oakland Hills Fire

I was on the wildlandfire hotlist forums this morning when I came across this thread on the 1991 Oakland Hills Fires that burned from Oct. 19 to Oct. 22, 2001. I was curious so I followed the links referred to in that hotlist forum thread. The first one is from the the Mercury Newst about a photographer, Richard Misrach. who witnessed and then photographed the fire.

In addition there was a link to Always Remember where I learned more about this fire. I learned that the fire destroyed 3,354 structures, 790 in one hour on a Sunday morning after the fire went out of control. The fire started later in the day on a Saturday, by later Saturday evening the blaze was confined to five acres and was to be mopped up on Sunday morning. Only Sunday morning came with Red Flag conditions and high winds. During mop-up, a spark got away in the winds and the fire was out of control by about 11:15 AM. By noon, 790 homes were destroyed. You will want to read the Always Remember article and follow the links at the bottom of that page to view some photos of the fire.

Twenty-five people died including at least two responders.

I'd like to thank the webmaster of the NJFFS Section B10 website for embedded the video. When I watched the video, the final piece to today's article fell in place.

I am glad that my wonderings on the web this morning brought this catastrophic fire to my attention. At the time of the fire, I believe that I was completely immersed in some graduate school exams. So it is entirely possible that I knew nothing about this fire. I do know, and am stunned by the amount of damage done.

Update on wildfires in the eastern U.S.

Honey Prairie Fire (GA/FL)
The Honey Prairie Fire continues in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. According to the latest inciweb information available at the time I write this article (October 14), the fire continues to creep and smolder, advancing on the order of one-quarter of mile since the middle of September. The acreage burned stands at 309,173 acres with 72 people working the fire, and it is 76% contained. The Refuge is open.

• Inciweb on Honey Prairie Fire
• Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge Page on the Honey Prairie Fire
• Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge on Facebook (public)

Pagami Creek Fire (MN)
The Pagami Creek Fire in the Superior National Forest and near the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area (BWCWA) continues to burn. Areas previously closed in the Superior National Forest and the BWCWA are open. According to the latest report from Inciweb, the fire has burned 92,682 acres and is at 91% containment.

Lateral Fire, Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge (VA)
In my wonderings on the internet in September, I saw a news report somewhere that a fire in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was continuing to burn even after receiving several inches of rain. Unfortunately, I did not make a note of that news report. But I kept my eyes open, and saw this Washington Post article on the fire, reporting on the fact that it still burns in spite of receiving heavy rains in prior weeks.

According to the latest inciweb report, this fire (known as the Lateral Fire) has burned 6,577 acres and is 90% contained. It is burning on the ground in peat fuels.

TBM Avenger Tanker 13 (Bu# 53200, N9101C, CGLEL)

Last Friday, I wrote that TBM Avenger Tanker #13 arrived in the Museum of Mountain Flying in Missoula, MT. I continue with a brief history of TBM Avenger #13.

1945: Construction number # 3262
1945-52: US Navy Bureau # 53200
1952-58: Royal Canadian Navy #377
1958-69: Hillcrest Aviation, Lewiston, ID. N9101C. Flew as airtanker, #D6
1969-72: Johnson Flying Service, Missoula, MT. Flew as airtanker #A13
Late 1974: sold to Forest Protection Limited, New Brunswick, CA.
1975-2010: Forest Protection Limited (FPL), A13, 13
1975-93: aerial spray (Budworm, etc)
1993-4, 1996: fire suppression (spare)
1995, 1997-2010: Fire suppression

References for history of TBM Avenger #13
The Warbird Registry's page on TBM Avenger Bureau # 52300 may be found here.

There is a nice website with information archives for TBM Avengers and Forest Protection Limited that may be found here. There is a lot of history here relating to FPL's Avengers as well as TBM's from the U.S. and other Canadian operators used for budworm spraying operations in New Brunswick. You could spend hours on this site. These TBM Avenger/FPL information archives has a nice page devoted to C-GLEL, #13 with her history, names of pilots who flew her, and pictures. Please spend some time on this page to get to know #13.

The video embedded below shows FPL TBM Avenger #24, a sister tanker to #13. Here is a picture of FPL's fleet of air tankers in 2001 , including #13 and #24.:



I have grown to love #13 through spending a couple of hours on the TBM Avenger/FPL information archives. I expect that the folk at FPL and in Fredericton New Brunswick are very sad to her go. I hope that they can take some consolation that many in Missoula, MT are overjoyed to have her at the Museum of Mountain Flying. She is loved by many in Missoula and will be loved by many, many more.

A bit of aerial firefighting history: TBM Avenger air tanker arrives in Missoula

The other day, I read with interest Bill Gabbert's (of Wildfire Today) article on new and old tankers. He wrote about a drop that Neptune Aviation's new jet tanker, T-40 made on a fire in Texas, including a picture. But, it was his reporting on TBM Avenger Air Tanker (T-13) arrival at the Museum of Mountain Flying in Missoula Montana on Oct. 10 that caught my eye. Bill referenced two articles from the Missoulian, one on  Oct. 8 and another on Oct. 10, at the same time a friend of mine referred me to the Oct. 10 Missoulian article. The byline on both articles is Kim Briggeman.

Simply, the Museum of Mountain Flying was able to secure funding to purchase TBM Avenger T-13, from Forest Protection Limited. She arrived with great fanfare in Missoula on Oct. 10 after a three day flight from New Brunswick, Canada.

I went and read the articles on the Missoulian website, and I hope you will too. Reading the article, I found out that T-13 was a part of Johnson Flying Service's fleet of tankers, flying as tanker A-13. You can read about this history of Missoulia International Airport operations including the Johnson Flying Service here. Johnson Flying Service was based in Missoula and sold A-13 along with five other Avengers to Forest Protection Limited of New Brunswick, Canada in 1974 where she flew as a fire bomber and spraying insects.

Among the interesting pieces of "trivia" that I learned from the Oct. 10th article was that Johnson's six Avengers did spraying in Maine in 1973. This interested me because I used to spend summer vacations camping on the Maine coast as a youth in the 1960s through 1970 and again a couple of trips to the same camping spot in the late 1970s. I had this idea as a youth that airplanes were used to spray for insects. I have no clue where the Avengers sprayed in 1973, perhaps they sprayed in the northern Maine forests. I have no clue if the Avengers sprayed on the Maine coast (for Mosquitos??). But, where ever they were, I rather enjoy the image of these Avengers spraying in Maine in 1973.  I wasn't in Maine that summer, but that doesn't seem to matter.

What came across to me through reading the reporting of Kim Briggeman in the Missoulian is that "A-13" is loved in Missoula. I feel a sort of bond with "A-13" and the other Johnson TBMs because they flew in Maine at least one summer.

But I also know that "A-13" flew for Forest Protection Limited (FPL) for thirty plus years under registration number C-GLEL, tanker 13. In my article on October 17, I'll write more about her history including her military service and her years with FPL. Stay tuned

New Jersey Forest Fire Service Ops during and after Irene

The New Jersey Forest Fire Service (NJFFS) does more than fight wildfires. The aftermath of Hurricane Irene provided but one example of non-fire related emergencies that the NJFFS are involved with. The following list may not include all the assistance provided by the NJFFS in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene. And it does not reflect any NJFFS assistance provided in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Lee and other heavy rain events in September.

Assisted in rescuing approximately 30 senior citizens and their pets from mobile homes in Buena Vista.

Deployed 6x6 high wheeled trucks to various Counties around the State at various time after Irene including but not limited to Morris, Passaic, Cape May and Salem Counties. The crew in these trucks assisted with various emergency duties including but not limited to evacuations from flooded residential areas.

Deployed a saw team to Egg Harbor Twsp to assist in tree removal from roads.

Water buffalos (a kind of water tank on wheels) were deployed to West Milford in northern Passaic County.

Bull dozers and backhoes crewed by the NJFFS assisted with road repair in Stokes State Forest (Sussex County).

NJFFFS saw crews along with crews in bull dozers and back hoes repaired roads and removed trees and debris in Alliare State Park and Monmouth Battlefield (Monmouth County)

Saw crews assisted with tree removal in Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park (Hunterdon, Mercer counties).

For more information see this thread on the wildland fire hotlist.

Kudos to the NJFFS! Thank-you.

Tribute to Aero Union

An awesome tribute to Aero Union by the Envenomator1. Please go here and click on more to read what he has to say.

To all my friends at Aero Union, you are not forgotten.

CL-415 (turbo) scooper

I've got a couple of projects in the pipeline for future blog articles. In the meantime, I found this nice video on the Canadian built Bombardier  CL-415 scooper. The CL-415 is purpose built fire bomber. It is an amphibious aircraft that "scoops" water out of a water body for eventual dropping on a fire. Originally built by Canadair , the CL-415 evolved from the CL-215 (also an amphibious aircraft. The original CL-215 had piston engines. Canadair started out by modifying some CL-215 airframes by, among other things, adding turbo props and calling them CL-215T's, Eventually, they built new airframes with turbo prop engines with the designation, CL-415. For more on the CL-415 see:

wikipedia on CL 415
Bombardier super scooper page

Two or three CL-215's had been flying fires in the U.S. during the later portion of the summer and possibly into September. I'm not quite sure if they are still in the U.S. at the moment. According to altadena (CA) online, the CL-415s will be in LA County through Nov. 31, 2011.

According to a Sept. 6, 2011 post on smokeshowin (article no longer available online), the Quebec Government-owned CL-415s (Tankers #240 and #241) are based out of Van Nuys airport and had already worked two fires. This is the eighteenth year that LA County has contracted with Quebec for two CL-415s.

Thank-you Canada!

update on Oct. 7, 2011 9:39 AM EDT: A good friend told me that the video that I embedded yesterday may have been of a model. Further, some of the maneuvers that were done are not maneuvers that occur on normal fire bombing runs. While the vide is fun to watch and nicely done, I wanted to show a CL 415 fire bomber. So, I went to you tube and found the video that I embedded here, honoring the men and women of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources aviation and forest fire management program.

Other wildfire aerial tactical operations

I have found myself thinking a lot about other wildfire aerial tactical operations recently. By these other operations, I am thinking about aerial tactical operations that may also be referred to as aerial supervision operations. In the video that I embedded here you are seeing one such type of aerial supervision, that of a lead plane leading in a tanker on a retardant drop. For the record, I am aware that the job of a lead plane pilot involves a lot more than what you are seeing in this video. I am hoping to write an article or two later this fall or early this winter devoted to lead planes.

There are also air tactical group supervisors (ATGS )who I believe manage the air space and air traffic over a fire.

In an Aerial Supervision Module, a crew of two is in an aircraft over the fire. The air tactical pilot who may also be a lead plane pilot flies the plane. The second person as an ATGS.

The Aerial Supervision Guide (NWCG) goes into a lot of detail about lead planes, ATGS, ASMs, and other air tactical operations.

CAL FIRE uses OV-10A's for their air tactical operations to supervise aircraft on wildfires working with the incident commander on the ground. The OV-10's have a crew of two, the pilot and a supervisor. As I understand it, the crew does not lead the tankers into a drop, but they do tell the CAL FIRE tankers and helps where to make their retardant drops.

The Canadians call their two-person air tactical planes birddogs. Some states use observation aircraft. There is a nice, short description of Conair's (Abbostford, BC) here., along with some nice photos of the Conair's fleet of A-26 tankers now retired from service).

All these operations deserve much more time than I can devote at this time. As I said earlier, I hope to write more about lead planes in a few weeks. At that time, I also hope to write about Aerial Supervision Modules, Birddogs, CAL FIRE's air tactical operations, and other operations that I have not listed here (including helo supervision) Until I do, please remember that there are often aerial tactical operations in place over a wildfire.

I am reminded of a phrase that I have used here before, something that Larry Kraus pilot of Bulter's T-62 told me when we were corresponding about T-62:

"see I told you that the tanker business is complicated"

So I'll add, the business of air tactical operations over wildfires are complicated.

To all who are crew of tactical aircraft working wildfires, I know that you are there. Thank-you.