News in the tanker and helo biz

It is a little past time to catch up on some news items in the business of aerial wildland fire fighting. So, I'll highlight some of the items that have run across in my wonderings on the internet the last couple of weeks.

1. The chief of the US Forest Service, Chief Tom Tidwell, testified before Congress on the USFS 2013 budget. Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today writes about Chief Tidwell's testimony on March 7. In a follow-up article a couple of days later, Bill spends a little more time writing on the 30 helicopters that will be on national contract this year, go here to read his March 9 article.

2. Here are a couple of articles, at least one of which a friend of mine sent me in e-mail, that Mike Archer of the Firebomber Publications Blog wrote about. On March 12, Mike referenced a March 12 editorial in the Press Enterprise on the current fleet of air tankers on national contract, the editorial may be found here. Three days later, on March 15, MIke included a link to another article on the state of the tanker biz from Mountain-News, that may be accessed from this webpage.

3. Walt Darran, since deceased (may he rest in peace) was the chairman of the Associated Aerial Firefighters safety committee at the time I wrote this article. He had written a nice commentary on the future of air tankers in March 2012. Unfortunately, I can not find Walt's commentary. I am familiar with all the good work that Walt did as a pilot and after he retired and feel it appropriate to reference this commentary.

Revised on October 12, 2015 to remove a dead link.