Prescribed Burns - USFS

Over the next three or four posts, I am going to posting about prescribed burns.

This is a video from the United States Forest Service on how they do prescribed burns in the Mark Twain National Forest. I like this video because they talk about the importance of prescribed burns. The specifics of preparing for and conducting prescribed burns in your area may differ from what is shown in this video. And the vegetation may well be different.



direct link to video

Historic footage of the Grumman S2A and TBM Avengers (CDF) and B-26 (Lynch)

Historic footage of the S2A (California Div. of Forestry), TBM Avenger (California Div. of Forestry), and B-26 tankers (Lynch).



direct link to video

Brush fire in NJ Meadowlands (Hudson County)

The nor'easter that is over the atlantic and moving towards Canada may not have any measurable snow in northern New Jersey, but it has left some rather impressive winds. As you can see from the following special weather statement issued by the National Weather Service in New York, NY there is enhanced fire danger in northeastern NJ, New York City and adjoining counties and southern CT. New York City and adjoining counties and southern CT.

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
1100 AM EDT WED MAR 26 2014

NORTHERN FAIRFIELD-NORTHERN NEW HAVEN-NORTHERN MIDDLESEX- NORTHERN NEW LONDON-SOUTHERN FAIRFIELD-SOUTHERN NEW HAVEN- SOUTHERN MIDDLESEX-SOUTHERN NEW LONDON-WESTERN PASSAIC- EASTERN PASSAIC-HUDSON-WESTERN BERGEN-EASTERN BERGEN- WESTERN ESSEX-EASTERN ESSEX-WESTERN UNION-EASTERN UNION-ORANGE- PUTNAM-ROCKLAND-NORTHERN WESTCHESTER-SOUTHERN WESTCHESTER- NEW YORK (MANHATTAN)-BRONX-RICHMOND (STATEN ISLAND)- KINGS (BROOKLYN)-NORTHWESTERN SUFFOLK-NORTHEASTERN SUFFOLK- SOUTHWESTERN SUFFOLK-SOUTHEASTERN SUFFOLK-NORTHERN QUEENS- NORTHERN NASSAU-SOUTHERN QUEENS-SOUTHERN NASSAU- 1100 AM EDT WED MAR 26 2014

...WEATHER CONDITIONS TO PROMOTE RAPID SPREAD OF BRUSH FIRE ACTIVITY...

IN THE WAKE OF THE STRONG COASTAL STORM MOVING AWAY TO THE NORTHEAST...STRONG NORTHWESTERLY WINDS OF 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 50 MPH WILL OCCUR. THE AIR MASS WILL ALSO BECOME QUITE DRY WITH SUNSHINE DEVELOPING...WITH RELATIVE HUMIDITY VALUES DROPPING BETWEEN 20 AND 30 PERCENT.

THE STORM DID NOT CAUSE WETTING PRECIPITATION. THE MONTH OF MARCH HAS BEEN VERY DRY...WITH DEPARTURES OF OVER TWO INCHES IN MOST LOCATIONS. THESE CONDITIONS HAVE LEFT FINE DEAD FUELS VERY DRY AND SUSCEPTIBLE TO BURN AND SPREAD.

ANY FIRE THAT WOULD IGNITE WILL SPREAD RAPIDLY WITH THESE CONDITIONS PERSISTING THROUGH THE EARLY EVENING.
IF RESIDENTS SHOULD SPOT A FIRE...PLEASE REPORT IT TO THE AUTHORITIES IMMEDIATELY.

With this enhanced fire danger in mind, and knowing that it is spring wildfire season in NJ, I was wondering if there was any wildfires in northeastern NJ. I was not terribly surprised to read that there is a brush fire burning in the NJ Meadowlands in Hudson County NJ. I don't have a lot of details at the moment. As you can see from this article (with a map) from the Jersey Journal multiple fire departments responded. According to a CBS2 (NYC) report, rail service on New Jersey Transit was suspended and is now restored. PATH service was (light rail) between Newark and Jersey City was also suspended and is now restored. By the way the picture on the CBS2 report is on I-280 looking east. I-280 does run near portions of the Meadowlands before it terminates at the New Jersey Turnpike.

To the best of my knowledge the Meadowlands is not in a primary response area of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service but they do provide assistance under mutual aid. I saw a picture of what appears to be a New Jersey Forest Fire Service truck in one of the photos from the Jersey Journal so it seems like at least one of the crew from NJ Forest Fire Service Division A was on scene.

As I lived in a town adjoining the Meadowlands for 16 years and would frequently see brush fires in the Meadowlands outside the window of my apartment, I can attest to the fact that the fire departments in municipalities adjoining the Meadowlands know how to handle these blazes.  I'll update this article later with updates on this brush fire.

4:20 PM Update I'm not quite certain if the brushfire in the NJ Meadowlands in under control, I'm hearing conflicting reports. Two news outlets, CBS2 (NYC) and the Jersey Journal are reporting brush fires in other parts of the region [northern New Jersey, Long Island, and Rockland County (NY)]. The Riverhead News-Review provides a little more detail on brush fires in eastern Long Island.

March 27, 8:55 PM Yesterday's brush fire(s), apparently there were two, in the Meadowlands in Hudson County NJ were both brought under control by early evening on the 26th. See this article from the Jersey Journal for more information. In my various wonderings on the internet and elsewhere I have the impression (and could be wrong) that there were other brush fires on March 26th in northern New Jersey asides from the two in the Meadowlands. I have no specific information nor do I have anything to link to. I can attest to the strong winds yesterday (gusting in the 30 to 40 mph range). Small brush fires are not always covered by local media, but I'll keep my eyes open.

Smokey Bear Hotshots

When tankers and helicopters drop retardant or water/foam on a wildfire they are doing so to support the wildland firefighters on the ground. There are many types of wildland firefighting crews. The video that I am embedding below shows one type of wildland firefighting crew, a hotshot crew. Hotshots or type 1 crews are highly experienced wildland firefighters, to read a little more about hotshot crews, read this page about hotshots from the U.S. Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management website.

This is a video showing the 2013 season of the Smokey Bear Hotshot Crew. The Smokey Bear Hotshot Crew is based at Lincoln National Forest in New Mexico. You might want to read a little more about the history of the Smokey Bear Hotshots and how they got there name by going to the Smokey Bear Hotshot webpage on the Lincoln National Forest. They also have a page of photos on Flickr (go here for that page).

Allow just under 10 minutes to watch the video, some of it is time lapse videography. Towards the later half of the video you will see a couple of airtankers including what looks to me like a Single Engine Airtanker dropping retardant on a fire in support of the Smokey Bear hotshots and other firefighters on the ground as well as a helicopter and bucket.



direct link to video

Stay safe everyone!

Spring Fire Season is almost upon us here in New Jersey

As some of you no doubt know, it has been an interesting winter here in New Jersey and elsewhere in the northeast and the mid-atlantic regions of the United States. And spring is or was upon us yesterday. And with spring comes the spring fire season here in New Jersey. I suppose you get what you wish for, and I was hoping for wet winter, with rain and not snow. But we got snow instead. But even with all of our snowfall, I know that it doesn't take all that long for the ground to dry out and lead to wildfire danger. I can look around my region and see the leaf litter, and can see that the top part of the soil drying out. And then there are always the trees which can catch fire in the form of crown fires. Point being that I have learned never to be complacent or think that a wildfire can not happen. It can always happen.

As you can see from the current New Jersey Forest Fire Service 2014 Contract Aircraft Schedule, also posted in red near the top right side of my blog, our aircraft (single engine air tankers aka SEATs) begin to go on contract starting on March 28th. We have one SEAT in each division, down from as much as ten SEATs covering the State a few years ago (see this article I wrote a couple of years ago. Three SEATs are not enough.

New Jersey Forest Fire Service -- 2014 Contract Aircraft (Revised March 12, 2014)

Division A - Aeroflex

Alpha-3, 300 gallon Ag Cat -- March 29 to May 4 (37 days)

Division B -- Miller Air

Bravo-3, 300 gallon Ag Cat -- April 3 to April 17 (15 days)

Bravo-1, 600 gallon Air Tractor 602 -- April 18 to May 11 (24 days)

Division C -- Downstown

Charlie-2, 400 gallon Turbine Ag Cat -- March 28 to April 19 (23 days)

Charlie-1, 600 gallon Air Tractor 602 -- April 20 to May 12 (23 days)

1 is the designator for the 602 Air Tractor (600 gallons)

2 is the designator for the 400 gallon turbine powered Ag cat.

3 is the designator for the 300 gallon Ag Cat.

4 is the designator (if needed) for a second 300 gallon Ag Cat.

Mid-Atlantic: Brush Fire, Rx Burn, and SEATs

Some news from New York City, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania as we prepare to enter the spring fire season in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S.

Brush Fire in Queens - Howard Beach

On Saturday evening March 15, 2014 a brush burned in a marsh near Howard Beach in Queens, the fire was brought under control in two to three hours.

direct link to video

For more on this fire check out a NewsDay article and a NY Daily News article

Prescribed or Controlled burning in New Jersey

New Jersey Forest Fire Service Firefighters have been conducting prescribed or controlled burns around the State. An article with an embedded video of a Prescribed burn at Monmouth Battlefield State Park in New Jersey from Newsworks may be found here. There is a short article on prescribed burns that were done the weekend of March 15 and 16th on NJ dot com; the article discusses some legislation pending in the NJ legislature that will mean more prescribed burns if the bill is passed and signed into law as written.

SEATS in Pennsylvania

Finally, two Air Tractor 802's (SEATs)  will go on contract for the spring fire season in Pennsylvania starting March 29 through early May. The SEATs will be based at the Mid State Airport in PA. For more information please read this article from the Gant Daily.

A very brief introduction to winter maintenance

Regular maintenance is important to any aircraft operation whether it be the owner of small plane, a tour operation, charter operation, airline. military, rescue or aerial firefighting. 

Aircraft used in aerial firefighting may only be active for the period when they are paid by the contracting agency to be available for aerial firefighting duties. Sometimes these aircraft are only used part of the year. At other times, and depending on the business the operator is in and the type of aircraft they fly, the contractor will be flying their aircraft through out the year.

As many of you know, when an aircraft hasn't been flown in awhile, it doesn't come out of the hanger ready to fly, maintenance is performed. Many operators have what is sometimes known as a winter maintenance period when maintenance that requires a lot of time is performed by their maintenance staff. Of course, aircraft are maintained year round, not just in the winter or off season. Maintenance checks are preformed through out the year. I am in the process of putting together some articles focusing on winter maintenance. I am not quite sure when these articles will be ready, could be at least a couple of weeks, if not longer.

In the meantime here is an article that peaked my interest in winter maintenance, a press release from the American Helicopter Services and Aerial Firefighting Association that may be found here. You will learn a little about winter maintenance performed by Columbia Helicopters and Neptune Aviation in what has turned out to be an earlier fire season out west.

A-26 Tankers in Canada: Reflections (part 13 of 13)

To the A-26 tankers who flew in Canada:

I wish I could met one of your kind when you were flying fires in Canada. You were capable of flying at a high rate of speed so that you were able to cover vast distances from base to fire and back for reload fairly quickly. I hear that you were fun to fly. 

• What stories you could tell:
• Stories of flying with other members of your group and your birddog from base to fire, 
• Stories of fun on the ramp and being washed at the end of the day, 
• Stories from the crews at the bases who filled your belly with retardant,
• Stories from dispatchers 
• Stories from other ground and ramp crews at the various bases where you flew,
• Stories of being loved by your mech who kept you running at peak efficiency, 
• Stories of flying the fires to help the crews on the ground fight wildfires, 
• Stories about your pilots who flew you, 
• and stories the wildland firefighting crews on the ground on the fires you flew.

You served long and well flying fires in Canada, in some cases serving as a tanker in the U.S, and before that your military service. You were and are loved by all those who came in contact with you during your years of service as an airtanker in Canada.

How many wildfires did you fly over your many years of service? How many gallons of retardant did you drop? A lot, the numbers don't matter. What matters is that you flew fires and dropped retardant.

Thank-you for you for your long service in Canada. I wish that I had known you then, but I've been privileged to know you through a couple of pilots who flew you, through the videos that I have seen and the material that I read on the internet. Perhaps one day I'll get to meet one of your kind in a museum. Or even better, to see one of your kind flying. 

I love you too. Someday we will both be flying in favorable tail winds and we can fly together.

________________

Note: To see a list of all the articles in this series go here.

Tanker Notes - updates on status for the 2014 season

With many thanks to Bill Gabbert of Fire Aviation, I can provide a somewhat overdue article on the status of heavy tankers as we move towards Spring 2014. Bill does a fine job of keeping up with and reporting on the current status of aviation resources used in aerial firefighting in  Fire Aviation, and other wildland firefighting news in Wildfire Today. Some of you may already follow Bill's blogs and are already up to speed. With the exception of a couple of articles from Missoulian, all the articles that I link to are from Bill Gabbert's Fire Aviation.

Neptune Aviation Legacy contract

On February 12, Fire Aviation reported on the status of Neptune Aviation's Legacy contract under which Neptune Aviation will supply six Lockheed P-2V tankers and one BAe-146 jet tanker this coming fire season.

US Forest Service to acquire C-130's

Bill Gabbert of Fire Aviation has written many articles reporting on the transfer of seven C-130H aircraft to the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) for conversion to air tankers (Fire Aviation 12/20/13).  See for example Bill's article on the passage of the Defense Bill clearing the way for these transfers and the transfer of up to 15 C-23B +S Sherpas to the Smoke Jumping Division. You might also want to read his article on January 4 that two of the C-130's may not need major maintenance an article on January 11 about wing box replacement, and an article on January 14 about the management of the C-130 tankers.

The Missoulian reports on USFS's acquisition of the seven C-130s in an article by Rob Chaney on January 7.

A history of the Sole Source Air Tanker Award 

I reported on January 8, 2014 that The Sole Source Contract awarded Neptune Aviation is under protest. I understand that a decision by the GAO is still due by March 28, 2014. Yesterday, March 11, Bill Gabbert wrote an excellent article reviewing the history and developments behind the sole source air tanker award to Neptune Aviation. I commend this fine piece of reporting to you.

I had been wondering about the status of the Next Generation Tanker Contract and was glad to see that Bill provides an update in his March 11th article on the Sole Source Tanker Award. Recall that only two of the seven tankers under the Next Generation Contract flew in 2013, the DC-10 tanker and Coulson's C-130Q tanker. 

The other five missed their contractual start dates and in September the USFS issued “cure notices” to the three companies. The USFS contracting officer established new mandatory availability period (MAP) dates of March 30, 2014 (Minden), May 3 and 7, 2014 (Aero Air), and May 20 and 28, 2014 (Aero Flite). Fire Aviation, March 11, 2014, A sole source air tanker award, and how it developed.

You might also want to read this January 7th article by Rob Chaney in the Missoulian about the protest of the sole source contract.

Lead Planes

Speaking of jets, on February 27, Bill reported that the Bureau of Land Management has awarded the first contract for a jet-powered lead plane (A Citation CJ) in 2014. Bill reports on the USFS lead planes and ATGS platforms in an article he posted on February 28.

Bush Firefighting in Australia - engine crew with support from AirCrane

I hope you this video of the Mt. Macedon CFA brigade from Australia fighting brush fires on Feb. 23, 2014. You will also see what I think is an Air Crane dropping on the same fire, perhaps in support of the crews on the ground. What I like about this video and one of the reasons why I am sharing this with you is because it shows that air tankers and helos work in the air to support crews on the ground (whether they be in engines or on foot). I also enjoyed seeing this brigade in action doing what they do best.

Enjoy!



Direct link to video

CL-415 super scooper in action

I am taking a day off today to have some fun and play a little. I was looking around for a tanker video to share with you I found the following video through my friends at the New Jersey Forest Fire Service Section B-10's fire videos of the week page. Each week they share four new wildland firefighting videos. Depending on when you read this and access the NJFFS Section B-10 webpage, you may see a new set of videos. If so, they will be worth watching.

This is a nice video, a little under five minutes of a pair of CL-415's working fires and scooping water along with some cool cockpit shots.



Direct link to video

Scenic flight to Lancaster

It has been quite awhile since I have written about a scenic flight on this blog. This is partly because I haven't been on such a flight in five months. Various things such as end of the year holidays, a cold and then sinus problems that did not clear up until mid-January and finally bad winter weather kept me from flying. So, I went on a scenic flight to KLNS, Lancaster Airport in Pennsylvania with a great pilot whom I have flown with many time before. She and I always have a great time. Upon landing at KLNS we visited the pilot shop where I picked up some aviation charts. The weather was on the cold side, but the Cessna 172P was heated. Winds were light, some clouds at 5,000 ft. Snow still on the ground. I have included a few photos from the flight.

It was wonderful to be in the air again. I was home. I am hoping to go on another scenic flight in about three weeks. And if not, I'll fly in my own way as I have been doing for the last five months preceding today's flight.

Flying west over the Delaware River near Frenchtown, NJ

Over eastern Pennsylvania

Over eastern Pennsylvania

Taking off from KLNS on way home

On approach to home airport, windsock

 

Home again

Erickson Air Crane - Transmission Tower Construction in NJ

Every so often one of my friends will tell me that thought of me when they saw a helicopter working on electric transmission lines So when I found this video from my friends at Erickson AirCrane on Youtube the other day I just had to post it. Enjoy.



direct link to video

A-26 Tankers in Canada - last article to come

I have one more article to write about A-26 Tankers in Canada, something I am calling a reflections piece. I admit that I have yet to write this. Often when I work on series such as the one on A-26 Tankers in Canada I write a reflections piece that I post as the last article in the series. I sometimes like to wait until after I have finished the bulk of the series to write this piece. As sometimes happens, I am a little behind, and I don't want to rush into writing my reflections. I hope to get something out in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, stay safe out there.