Update on USFS RFP for Turbine Tankers

I have been wondering what has been happening with the US Forest Service RFP for turbine tankers (see the article that I wrote here). I suspected that at some point Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today would write a piece following up on the excellent articles he wrote on Dec 1, 2011 and Dec 2, 2011 reporting on the USFS RFP for turbine tankers.

When the USFS issued the RFP on Nov. 30, 2011 responses to the RFP had to be in by Jan 10, 2012 with the award date being January 31. Well, January 31 is tomorrow. On January 28, Bill Gabbert reported here that the USFS has reissued the RFP with a new response date of February 15, including a link to a question and answer page about the RFP. The revised award date is “to be determined".

We have 12 heavy tankers this year that will be on contract, including the BAe-146 which is currently under going maintenance (see Gabbert's January 28th article). We need more heavy tankers in the U.S.

Twelve is not enough.

In 2001-2 we had some 40 heavy tankers on contract. Perhaps our friends in Canada will help us out again this year when their fire season winds down, whenever that is. According to the 2012 Federal Contract Airtanker List it won't be until May 25 that all eleven P-2s are on contract. The start date for T-40, the BAe-146 tanker, is still to be determined.

Twelve is not enough.

Obtained from http://www.nifc.gov/nicc/logistics/aviation/aviation.htm on 1/27/2012

Tankers going on contract soon for 2012 U.S. fire season

PR Web is reporting that Neptune Aviation has moved up their maintenance schedule and pilot recurrency training to have their tankers ready earlier than in previous years for the upcoming 2012 fire season. Recall that Neptune has nine P-2V's and a BAe-146. The BAe-146 may still be undergoing maintenance at Tronos. The first tanker will be ready on or about February 26. You will want to read the PR Web article. In addition, Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today reported on this yesterday. Bill reports that Minden is going to have a tanker ready to go on contract early this season.

I just found the 2012 Federal Contract Air Tanker List from the National Interagency Coordination Center's (NICC) Aviation Page. I just downloaded my copy a pdf file from this link on the NICC aviation page. According to the list that I just downloaded (revised 1/23/12), Minden's tanker 55 goes on contract on Feb. 15 with Neptune's tanker 45 following on Feb. 26. The last Neptune P-2 goes on contract May 25. There is not date specified on this last for when Neptune's Bae-146 (T-40) goes on contract, with a TBD being listed.

Avro RJ85 / BAe 146-200 Airtanker

This just in! Conair Group in Canada and Falko have entered into an exclusive agreement to market the Avro RJ 85/ BAe 146-200 as a type 1 airtanker carrying at least 3,000 gallons.

Conair Group is based in Abbotsford in Southwest British Columbia. Conair is currently converting one Avro RJ85 / BAe 146-200 that they purchased in late 2011 for use as an airtanker. The plan is to have it ready by the 2013 fire season.

You may read more about this joint venture in this news release from aviationpros. I'd like to thank a good friend who sent me this article late last night.

Not quite in the clouds

I continue to work on learning to identify clouds. I went an scenic airplane flight with a great young pilot yesterday. It was a great flight, but a bit on the bumpy side. We were not flying very high, about 2,500 ft AGL going west and about 3,000 ft on the return flight going east.

As we were flying back, I told the pilot that I was studying weather, including identifying clouds. So we started talking about the scattered clouds that were about 1,000 ft or so above us. He pointed to one cloud just ahead of us, and said that is a cumulus cloud, and when we fly under it we will feel some turbulence. And yes, I felt the turbulence as we flew under the cloud.

I don't feel like am exactly in a position to say much more on clouds. But my flight yesterday did get me thinking about resources on the web where those of you are interested can go and learn more about clouds.

The National Weather Service has an online school of weather broken down into several topics. There topic on synoptic meteorology includes lessons on clouds and cloud classifications.

If you go to the cloud classification page, you will see that clouds are divided into high, middle, and low level clouds. Within each level are nine categories of clouds. You will see a sky watcher chart on this webpage with clickable pictures. You can learn about the 27 categories of clouds plus some special clouds. For example, here is a picture and some information about a cumulus cloud that may have been similar to the ones we flew under yesterday.

NASA has some nice resources for learning about clouds, including the aforementioned Sky Watcher Chart (you can download) and links to other resources on clouds, some of which are geared towards young people. I can tell you that this older person enjoyed these resources. Here is the NASA page on an Introduction to Clouds. Note, I tried to access this page on Feb. 13, 2012 and it seemed to be either offline or unavailable to the general public. In the event that this outage is temporary, I'm including the url here.

If you want to learn how clouds affect aviation interests, Pilot Outlook has a page on clouds.

Washoe Fire in Reno NV

I heard about the Washoe Fire that has burned about 4,000 acres in Reno Nevada yesterday. You may have seen reports about this fire on national news and weather outlets. I saw one report on the Weather Channel earlier today.

Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today reports on the Washoe Fire here.

California Fire News reports on the fire here.

There are two threads on the Wildland Fire hotlist forums. These are: West Basin initial attack on Washoe Fire and West Basin QandA on Washoe Fire.

More on Aero Union

I made a very short post here saying that Aero Union is having an auction on Feb, 28. There inventory of P-3 Orions, parts, various intellectual property and other assets. Specifically, sealed bids will be opened on Feb. 28.

I'd like to thank a good friend who told me that Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today wrote an article yesterday reporting on some recent correspondance he had with Mr. Gourley, CEO of Aero Union Corp. According to Gabbert, Mr. Gourley said that Aero Union is going to appeal the US Forest Service's decision of July 29, 2011 to terminate Aero Union's contract.

I don't know if I can add anything to what Bill Gabbert has already said, so I'll leave you to your own devices to go and read Bill's article. He includes a copy of Mr. Gourley's letter at the end of his article.

air frame icing

I've been thinking about and reading up on airframe icing recently. Every pilot that I have talked to has agreed that situations where airframe icing may be encountered should be avoided. A typical comment from one of my pilot friends on the subject of icing might be:

"airframe icing scares the wits out of me!"

I was wondering the best way to share some information about airframe icing with you and I found this short two minute animation showing the effect of airframe icing. Wings create lift, and icing disrupts the flow of air over the wings. In this animation you will see:

• ice build up on the wings disrupting the airflow over the wings
• ice build up on the propellers (watch the props slow down)
• ice build up on the wind shield
• and ice build up on other surfaces (tail, fuselage, etc)

You will want to see the information that the person who uploaded the video to youtube (trustyetverify) made here. The animation does not show one likely outcome, stall and crash. But you will get the picture. Pay careful attention to the changes in air flow during the animation. In the first few seconds you will see "normal" air flow before ice build up interferes with the air flow.

Before, or perhaps after you watch the video, if you want read a little more about airframe icing, here is a short article on the subject. Included in this article are two embedded videos, a 25 second animation on airframe icing and a 7 minute video from NASA on tail icing.

Spending time with Weather

I don't need to tell anyone reading this blog how important weather is to aviation interests. Whether they be fixed-wing or rotor-wing aerial firefighting and support operations, general aviation interests, commercial, etc. etc. I spent a lot of time with weather when I was in ground school two years ago preparing for the FAA private pilot written exam (which I passed).

Over the last couple of weeks, I have decided that I want to spend more time learning about weather as applies to aviation. But also about weather in general. To that end, I have spent some time reviewing things like the different types of clouds and how to identify them, air masses, weather fronts, etc. I'm spending more time with aviation weather charts along with looking up at the sky to (try) identify the clouds.

I'm not quite sure where I am going to this in my blog at this point. I'm still figuring that part out.

In the meantime, here in northern NJ a cold front passed through early today, its passage was marked by snow squalls. The winds kicked up a couple of hours before the cold front arrived, and we were under a wind advisory all day, due to end at 6PM. Winds were sustained at about 20 mph with gusts in the range of 35 to 45 mph. Winds will die down over night. Or so they say.

Kudos to NJ Aviation History

I am always on the prowl for interesting aviation books to read including but not limited to aviation history. From time to time I go and take a look at aviation books at my local county library. One of the great things about the internet is that I can do this online from the comfort of home. Before Christmas, I found a treasure, a book focusing on aviation history in NJ. It is called:

From the Balloon to the Moon: New Jersey’s Amazing Aviation History, written by H.V. Pat Reilly. Mr. Reilly is the executive director of the New Jersey State Aviation Hall of Fame & Museum (NJAHFM) located at Teterboro Airport (KTEB). I liked the book so much that I decided to buy a copy. I picked up mine at the NJAHFM in Teterboro.

The book is organized chronologically, I am up to 1949. Having lived in northern NJ for over 30 years now (that is scary), so many of the places that Reilly wrote about in northern NJ were familiar to me, along with some places in the southern part of the state. I loved reading about some of the early aviators and the early airfields. I learned about the history of Newark-Liberty International Airport and Teterboro.

I learned about some of the early aviators. Barnstormers, airshows, air mail pilots, WWI, WW II, instructors. Then there were the early aviation mechanics, air traffic controllers, fixed base operators.

And the companies, some long gone. Here are some you may have heard of: Fokker Aircraft, Eastern Aircraft Division of General Motors, Curtiss-Wright Corp (engines and propellers), Aircraft Radio Corp., Bendix Corp., and Switlick Parachute Co. And many many more.

I can’t begin to do this book and NJ’s aviation history justice in this short article. But I will be writing more about moments in NJ Aviation history here in the blog from time to time.

I’d urge any of you who are interested in aviation history to explore your regions aviation history. Perhaps through a local aviation museum and or hall of fame. Perhaps there is a book.

And don’t forget your local general aviation airport, they have a history. An important history.

Brush fire management plan (draft) for Great Kills in Staten Island

Brush fires or wildfires can happen anywhere from urban to suburban to rural areas. You just have to brush to burn. Staten Island, one of five boros in New York City have seen brush fires in phragamite marshes on Staten Island. I referenced one such blaze in a post from Sept, 2010. A couple of months ago, I wrote here about phragmites, and invasive species and the efforts of the National Park Service to clean up the phragmite marshes in the Staten Island.

A friend of mine (Thanks!!) sent me a link to Staten Island Live (SILive) the other day. Tom Wobrleski, ne of their reporters wrote an article on Jan 5 of this year reporting on a draft Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) for the east shore of Staten Island. Components of this plan include cleaning up debris from the Phragmite marshes, mowing the Phragmites a few times a year and a 150' fire break. Included in the article are some documents, two graphics showing the CWPP maps. If I am reading these documents correctly, the plan includes areas in the Great Kill National Recreation Area. I believe that the fire I wrote about in Sept. 2010 was in the Great Kill. Below are the same two documents that Wobrleski linked to in his SILive article.

Wildfire Protection Plan Maps

More news on BAe-146 tankers

In late September BAe-146, T-40 (Neptune Aviation and Tronos) received interim approval from the Interagency Air Tanker Board. A few days later, T-40 was on her way to Texas. T-40 is a jet powered aircraft that can carry 3,000 gallons of retardant.

On January 2, The Missoulian reported that the US Forest Service has contracted for T-40 for one year. You may recall that the USFS will contract for turbine (jet) tankers in 2012.

There is one more BAe-146 tanker ready for testing this month, this one owned and operated by Minden Air. Further, Minden has a second BAe-146 that they will convert to a tanker after the first one is done. Bill Gabbert of wildfire today reports on Minden's BAe-146 tankers as well as the contract for T-40 here. Bill also reports that one of Minden's two P-2V tankers will go on contract in February with their second tanker going on contract in April.


MInden Air has a webpage devoted to their BAe-146.

Aero Union Auction

I am very saddened to report that an auction is being held on Feb, 28 in Houston TX Sacremento CA to auction off Aero Union's property including all of their P-3 Orions, parts, and intellectual property. Specifically sealed bids will be open on that date. Recall that the USFS terminated its contract with Aero Union in late July.

For information on this auction go here.

Flying School at Hemet-Ryan circa 1941

I want to share with you some great footage from the archives of the San Diego Air and Space Museum (SDASM) of footage of the Hemet Flying School circa 1941. I found this footage posted by the SDASM on youtube and was intrigued to see this historical footage of flight operations from well before Hemet was an air attack base for CAL FIRE.  I found the video on this youtube page. The San Diego Air and Space Museum has a channel on youtube with lots and lots of historical archives that may be found here.

You will see Stearmans and PT-16s in the video.

The Riverside County Fire Department has a webpage where you may read a short history of the Ryan Air Attack Base.

Hawaii Mars at Vancover Harbor

The Martin Mars a couple of years ago.

Updated Jan 2, 9:45 PM EST: thanks to two friends who pointed out the geographical error in today's title. The video is not at Shasta Lake, rather it was shot in Vancover Harbor a couple of years ago, possibly at a demonstration done at a fire expo a couple of years ago. I had also been looking at a video of the Martin Mars shot at Shasta Lake. Sorry folks and thanks again to my two friends.