NJFFS Division A Wildland Fire Fatality

It is with profound sadness that I write today about the death of New Jersey Forest Fire Service (NJFFS) Firefighter Jeffrey Scheuerer On March 28, 2013. Jeffrey, a wildland firefighter with Division A of the NJFFS died after being struck and killed by an automobile while doing a prescribed burn at the Round Valley Reservoir in Clinton Township, Hunterdon County New Jersey. Jeffrey was also a member of the Readington Volunteer Fire Department.

The winds shifted resulting in heavy smoke near the road that may have contributed to the accident.

I live in Division A and am quite familiar with Round Valley Reservoir and the area surrounding the reservoir. Like many other places in New Jersey, that area had seen a lot of fallen trees as a result of Super Storm Sandy or the June 29 Derecho. Jeffrey died trying to keep the Clinton Township residents safe. Jeffrey, you won't be forgotten. My thoughts and prayers are with Jeffrey's family and friends, the New Jersey State Forest Fire Service, and the Readington Volunteer Fire Department.

Story from the Hunterdon Democrat

Story from CBS2 in New York

Wildfire Today story

Super Storm Sandy Tree Damage in Stokes State Forest (Branchville NJ)

I came across this video courtesy of my friends at the NJ Forest Fire Service Section B10 website, they posted the video on their video of the week page the week that I posted this article. Like a lot of places in New Jersey, Stokes State Forest in northern New Jersey had an enormous number of fallen trees during Super Storm Sandy on Oct. 29, 2012. Stokes State Forest is located in Sussex County NJ. It is a beautiful forest, I've been hiking their in years past. The video speaks to the enormous number of fallen trees in Stokes, the fire danger posed by fallen trees, and how some of the removed fallen trees will be used. 

The video is from NJTodayOnline, a direct link to the video may be found here.

Control Tower at Ramona on FAA list of ATC Towers to be closed

I posted a short article on  March 16 about the then possible closure of the Air Traffic Control Tower at Ramona Air Attack Base linking to a letter that Walt Darran of the Associated Aerial Firefighters wrote to the FAA urging them to keep the Tower at Ramona open for the safety of aerial firefighters and other aviation interests. Well, as I am sure that some of you already know by now, the FAA released a list of 149 Contract ATC Towers to be closed this past Friday.

The tower at Ramona is on the list of towers to be closed, according to a March 21st article from the Ramona Sentinel, the FAA will begin to close these towers starting April 7 over a four week period. The Ramona Sentinel article has a nice quote from San Diego County Supervisor Dianne Jacob giving voice to local concerns about the closure:

This is so critical. We will continue to make the FAA aware it is a wrong-headed decision. …. We want to prevent another mid-air collision, another disaster. Lives are at stake. (Supervisor Jacob, Ramona Sentinal, March 21, 2013).

Added on October 12, 2015. The March 21, 2013 article from the Ramona Sentinal is no longer available on line, I have removed direct links.

I don't know how many towers at Air Attack/Tanker Bases are on the FAA list of closures. I do know that Fox Field (CA) is on the closure list, as is Klamath Falls (OR) are on the list, and I am pretty certain that both are tanker bases. Bill Gabbert of Fire Aviation posted the list of California towers that are on the closure list, in an article he posted on March 22. One of his commenters remarked that both Ramona and Fox Field are Tanker Bases. NBC San Diego reported on the closure of the tower at Ramona and a tower at Brown Field in San Diego (not a tanker base) in a March 22 report.

Mike Archer of Fire Bombers Publications provided a link to a March 24 article from KPIC on the five ATC Towers in OR due to close, including the tower at Klamath Falls. 

I am not exactly in a position to state with any certainty whether or not other ATC towers at other air attack/tanker bases in the U.S. are on the FAA list of 149 Contract ATC Towers to be closed. If I should become aware of additional ATC towers at air attack/tank bases that are due to close, I'll report back here.

Update on March 26, 2013: Just today I revisited a March 22 article from the AOPA regarding the 149 Towers that the FAA is planning to close starting on April 7. In the course of reading the article from the AOPA I came across a link to an FAA list of 24 FAA Contract Towers that will remain open; it seems that the tower at Klamath Falls OR is included on this list of towers that will remain open. 

NJ Prescribed Burning Season (2013)

A nice video from FlyingPhilsPhotos showing a prescribed burn done by the NJ Forest Fire Service in the Pine Barrens west of Toms River NJ. The video was shot from the air at an altitude of about 3,000 feet.

direct link to video

Go here (courtesy of the wildland fire hotlist) to see the Feb. 28, 2013 press release from Gov. Christie's office announcing the 2013 prescribed burn season in NJ.

Here is a March 4 article and video from mycentralnj of a prescribed burn done in Jamesburg (Middlesex County NJ) in Division B. And here is a March 1 article on another prescribed burn in Burlington County NJ from phillyburbs.

I know that it may be a little late to be posting about this year's prescribed burning season in New Jersey, but I do want to acknowledge the work that the NJFFS does each year doing prescribed burns before the spring fire season, especially this year after so many fallen trees after Super Storm Sandy and the June 29-30, 2012 Derecho.

New Jersey Forest Fire Service contract aircraft start to go on contract in a few days (starting March 29) for the spring fire season. I'll do my best to keep an eye and ear out on wildfire activity during the upcoming spring fire season here in NJ and will report back here.

Flood Safety Awareness Week

Regular readers of my blog know that I sometimes post about flood events in New Jersey and elsewhere in the Northeastern corner of the United States. Some of you also know that I doing various things to learn more about weather, including reading various materials from the National Weather Service (USA). If any of you are regular readers of National Weather Service (NWS) webpages, whether they be national or your local NWS office then you may know that this week (March 18 to 22) is Flood Safety Awareness Week, at least in the U.S., please take a moment to check out this site as the NWS has put together some very good materials on flood safety.

Flood safety is a very big deal to me because the father of one of my high school classmates died  in his automobile in a flooded underpass during Hurricane Agnes in 1972. Please don't let this happen to you. Turn around and don't drown. As little as six inches of water can knock you down or cause you to lose control of your car. Two feet of water can cause even a large SUV to be swept off the road.

Sure, I admit that there have been times when I have driven through flooded areas that I had no business being in, I was lucky. Over the last several months being safe has taken on new meanings to me, so I am trying to do all I can to be safe. And that means not playing on the edge of the cliff, even though I've lived to tell about it. So, I no longer drive through any flooded areas. I turn and around and don't drown (TADD).

Please turn around and don't drown. Yeah, if you are living in a remote rural area this might mean driving many miles out of your way. Been there down that in Vermont a couple of times. I arrived late, but I arrived alive.

Please take about 3 minutes to watch this video on the dangers of flash floods and why it is important to turn around and don't drown.


direct link to video

NJ Forest Fire Service 2013 Contract Aircraft Schedule

I am happier than I usually am to see the NJ Forest Fire Service 2013 Contract Aircraft Schedule. As I have driven around my little corner of western New Jersey in the months following Super Storm Sandy, I have seen a lot of fallen trees of all sizes in forested areas near the roads I travel. Many of these fallen trees in forested areas remain where they are after the winds from Super Storm Sandy brought them down. I don't want to forget the wind damage that southern NJ saw from the June 29, 2012 Derecho. I probably can not begin to imagine the tree damage in some of the larger forests in New Jersey.

I have been wondering what the spring fire season will bring to us in New Jersey as we have seen below average snow fall totals over much or all of NJ so far this winter. Some of you might have heard about some pretty substantial snow storms that affected the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S.. I want to speak a little about what our snowfall has been like in New Jersey so far this winter to address possible misconceptions. That is, as far as I know, New Jersey has not seen any one sno storm with the substantial snow accumulations that portions of New England and Long Island have seen (2 to 3 feet+) this winter. Yes, areas of northern New Jersey saw accumulations of 10 to 14 inches during one or two snow storms, but not the 2 or 3 feet that other areas saw. With the possible exception of extreme northern areas of New Jersey, I believe that we have had a below average snow fall so far. As I write this, we are getting another mixed precipitation event in New Jersey. Perhaps 4 to 6 inches of snow up in northern New Jersey with lower amounts in central New Jersey and all rain elsewhere in New Jersey. I am in the 2 to 4 inch forecasted snow band.

Since it is snowing as I write this, it is a little hard to think about fire danger today. Yet we had one day list week with heightened fire danger, and I'm sure that we will get more. All it takes is about ten days (maybe less) of dry weather, the soil will dry out. and we will be ripe for fire danger in northern NJ. In the Pine Barrens and elsewhere in southern NJ, the soil is sandy and can dry out in a far shorter time then up north.

I am very happy that we will have an Ag-Cat here in my corner of NJ (Division A). If I luck out and get to see her, I'll try to get some photos to share here.

Just today, I got notice of the NJ Forest Fire Service's 2013 Contract Aircraft Schedule. I have included the schedule at the end of this article. I want to talk a little about the Ag-Cats. The Ag-Cat marked "400 Ag-Cat" is a turbine Ag-Cat. My friends at Downstown Aero did the turbine conversion over the fall and winter. She carries 400 gallons of water/foam with a 680 hp engine. The piston Ag-Cats carry 300 gallons of water/foam with a 600 hp engine. They have some photos of the conversion on their facebook page (should be publicly available), their photos of the conversion may be found here. Downstown shot a video of her first flight that is also available on their facebook page, go here to see the video.

DIVISION A:

AEROFLEX, (ALPHA-3) 300 AGCAT, MARCH 30 - APRIL 7

AEROFLEX, (ALPHA-2) 400 AGCAT, APRIL 8-29

DIVISION B:

COYLE FIELD,(BRAVO-3) AGCAT 300, APRIL 1- APRIL 7

COYLE FIELD, (BRAVO-1) 602 AIR TRACTOR, APRIL 8- MAY 8

DIVISION C:

DOWNSTOWN, (CHARLIE-3) AGCAT 300, MARCH 29-APRIL 7

DOWNSTOWN (CHARLIE-1) 602 AIR TRACTOR,  APRIL 8-29

DOWNSTOWN, (CHARLIE-2) AGCAT 400, APRIL 30-MAY 12

Control Tower at Ramona Air Attack Base due to close

Ramona Air Attack Base

I have been been aware that many air traffic control towers (ATC) at smaller airports in the U.S. are due to close because of the sequester. For example, at least two towers in northern New Jersey are due to close, see this article on NJ dot com. I was distressed when I read an article on Michael Archer's Firebombers Publications Blog this past Wednesday (March 13) from News 7 in San Diego that the air traffic control tower at CAL Fire's Ramona Air Attack Base. Another article on the pending closure of the Ramona ATC tower may be found here.

I have included a couple of photos that I took at Ramona Air Attack Base when I visited Ramona Air Attack Base early in the Summer of 2012 Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of the affected air traffic control tower.

I want all pilots, including pilots flying aerial wildland firefighting aircraft, to be safe. I was very interested to read that Walt Darran, chairman of the Safety Committee and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Associated Aerial Firefighters has submitted a comment to the FAA urging the FAA to take the ATC at Ramona off their closure list and to keep the ATC operational. Walt writes of two mid-air collisions at Ramona, one as recently as 1995. Both mid-airs happened before the ATC was open. Walt says in part:

Maintaining an operational FAA control tower at Ramona is essential not only for the safety of pilots and aircraft, but also to maintain an orderly and efficient flow of aerial firefighting aircraft to protect lives and property subject to wildfires in the surrounding area.

I hope you take a few moments to read Walt's comment to the FAA that may be found here.

Douglas A-26 Invader - Learning about her service as a tanker

As I write this I am still very much in the process of learning about the the Douglas A-26 Invader's long service as a air tanker in the United States and in Canada. I am enjoying the process of learning about her service as an air tanker, a process that I expect to be engaged in over the course of the next 2 to 4 weeks, perhaps a little longer depending on what is happening in the world of aerial wildland firefighting as we enter the spring fire season here in NJ in a few weeks. And of course fire season is already under way in other parts of the country, and I do try to keep an eye out of current wildland fire activity, thanks to my friends at Fire Publications Blog and Wildfire Today and other friends who send me articles of goings on in their part of the world. Oh, and I should not forget the good folk at the Wildland Fire Hotlist.

Anyway, I have learned something about the A-26 from reading Allan MacNutt's book, Altimeter Rising (2000) , where he writes about flying A-26 tankers for Conair and Air Spray. I know that Air Spray was still using the A-26 as a tanker in 1992 when Allan celebrated 50 years in aviation (Altimeter Rising, pp. 238-242). 

And of course, there is Linc Alexander's book, Fire Bombers into Hell (2010), some of you may recall that I interviewed Linc in November 2010 go here and you will need to scroll down to the bottom the bottom of the page to read the first article. Linc had some time in the A-26 and he also writes about in his book. 

I have learned from reading a book (with a video) called Fire Bombers in Action by Frederick A. Johnsen (2010) that the A-26 was first used as a tanker in the U.S. in the 1960s, but by the 1980s, there were not that many in service in the U.S (p.48).  Johnsen also has a listing of tanker call signs and registrations in his Appendix A (pp. 123-133).

Thanks to a friend who pointed me to a History of Aviation in the BC Forest Service (in three parts), go to this webpage of the BC Forest Service - Centenary Society for more information and links to download this three part series. Part 2 is on Air Tankers. I learned from reading Part 2 of the History of Aviation in the BC Forest Service that Conair first flew the A-26 as an air tanker in 1970 (p.12), in 1978 Conair had ten A-26 tankers (16), and Conair retired their A-26 tankers from fire bombing after the 1985 season (17).

As I said, I am still learning about this magnificent historic air tanker, and I have some old and new friends who are helping me as I continue to learn. I am having a blast! I'm not quite sure where this process will take me, but I promise that I will share the results in a series of articles in what I hope will about 4 to 6 weeks down the road. 

Thank-you so much for your patience. 

Douglas A-26 Invader: firebombing tankers

The Douglas A-26 Invader saw long service as a tanker flying wildfires in the U.S. and Canada. I'm not yet ready to write about her service as I am currently doing some more research on her service as a tanker. It is possible that I'll write more article on the A-26 as a tanker before taking a time out to finish my research and write a follow-up series focusing on her service as a tanker.

In the meantime, I had originally shared a nice video of what I believe are a group of A-26 tankers from Air Spray in Canada. I'm not quite sure of the date, but I believe that this falls into the classification of historical tankers as I believe that it is been several years since the A-26 retired from service as a tanker in Canada. To the best of my knowledge, Douglas A-26 Invaders have not been used as a tanker in the U.S. since the late 70s or early 80s. More on these details in a later post.

The video is a little over 14 minutes long. I believe, but am not certain that the Arnie Schreder that you hear on the radio communications in the video is the same Arnie Schreder who was the Chief Pilot for Buffalo Air (Ice Pilots NWT); Arnie of Buffalo Air died in May of 2012 (go here to see an article).

Added on October 16, 2016: Unfortunately the video that I originally shared here is no longer available, so I have removed the link.

Douglas A-26 Invader in flight

Edited on October 21, 2016. Unfortunately the nice video that I had originally shared here showing the Douglas A-26 Invader is no longer available. 

Douglas A-26 Invader: First flight of restored A-26

direct link to video

This is a nice video focusing on the first flight of a Douglas A-26 Invader, serial number 44-34104. The restoration is being done by volunteers from the Historical Aircraft Squadron in Lancaster, Ohio. In the video, you will see a short flight of this A-26 followed by some pictures. For more information visit the Historical Aircraft Squadron Webpage

Coming attractions:

March 8: A-26 in flight

March 11: A-26 tankers (still being developed)

Douglas A-26 Invader: A-26A Counter Invader

direct link to video

I found this video a little while ago of a Douglas A-26A Counter Invader that was used in the Vietnam War. In this 8+ minute video you will see her start her engines and taxi. Then you will go on a short tour of this A-26A Counter Invader starting with the cockpit. You should go to the about page for this video on youtube and click on show more to read a little more about her.

I'm adjusting the timeline for the articles in this series about the Douglas A-26 Invader. I'll be posting a new schedule, probably in a couple of days.

Next up on March 6: Restoring a Douglas A-26 and her first flight after restoration.

Flying the Douglas A-26 Invader

direct link to video

I'd like to thank a friend of mine from Canada who used to fly the A-26 as a tanker for sharing this video with me. He said that he agrees with the techniques presented here and wanted me to share this video with you.