2019 fire season: large tankers on contract with US Forest Service

I knew that it was getting to that time of year when we would start seeing large air tankers on contract with the US Forest Service. So, I went to Bill Gabbert's Fire Aviation site to find out if he had posted about the 2019 large air tankers. My efforts were rewarded when I found hist April 15th article, updated on April 17th on 13 large air tankers under contract for 2019.

I know that many of you follow Bill's blogs, and you will already know about the13 large air tankers on exclusive use contracts with the US Forest Service in 2019; according to Bill it is likely that another five air tankers will be going on contract soon. As I do write about aerial wildland fire fighting, I think it is important for me to post about these exclusive use contracts for large air tankers.

Bill writes the following in his April 15th article on these 13 large air tankers:

Currently six of them have been activated according to the estimated starting dates of the Mandatory Availability Periods (MAP). On April 17 a seventh will begin. The rest will come on between May 1 and May 29. 

The 13 air tankers confirmed so far on exclusive use contracts for 2019 are:
• 10 Tanker Air Carrier: 910 and 912 (DC-10)
• Coulson: 131 (C-130Q)
• Aero Air: 101 and 107, (MD-87)
• Aero Flite: 160, 161, 163, and 167 (RJ85)
• Neptune: 01, 15, 16, and 40

You will want to read Bill's April 15th in its entirety to read about related issues.

If five additional large air tankers go on exclusive use contracts sometime soon, whatever that means, the 18 large tankers on exclusive use (EU) contract are not enough. The advantage of exclusive use contracts over call when needed (CWN) contracts is that air craft under exclusive use contracts are paid to be available during a contract specified mandatory availability period while call when needed aircraft are only paid when they are called up to be ready to fly and at a higher cost as compared with exclusive use aircraft.

In June of 2018, I wrote about my concerns over the decrease in air tankers and helicopters on contract to fly fires. I don't know the status of CWN contracts for 2019. My concerns remain the same this year. On June 8, 2018, I wrote in part:

Following up on Bill Gabbert’s comments on the higher costs and other concerns about the CWN contracts along with the reduction in available EU contracted aircraft, it is just a matter of time during this 2018 wildfire season when all EU contracted aircraft will be assigned to fires, so the call will go out for additional aircraft to work wildfires. So, the USFS asks those contractors on CWN contracts if they have available aircraft. As Bill points out in his February 21st [2018] article, the cost of aircraft under a CWN contract is higher than under an EU contract. It stands to reason that the contractors may try obtain other contracts for their CWN aircraft. Or perhaps, sadly, they haven’t other contracts, deciding that it costs too much to keep a CWN aircraft and crew ready to fly fires so the aircraft sits without a contract. What happens then? 

Not only does the CWN contractor have to have available aircraft, they also have to have available crew and maintenance personal. What happens if that crew can not afford to sit around with no pay waiting for the call to fly? Perhaps they get other flying jobs in the meantime. What happens then?

It is important to note that at this time, I do not know about the status of any CWN contracts that the US Forest Service might issue. If the number of available aircraft and crew on CWN contracts this year is lower than in 2018 then the scenario that I wrote about last year might be worse.  With a reduced number or no aircraft on CWN contracts in 2019, what happens once all available EU aircraft are assigned to a fire? Could a call go out for a large air tanker or a helicopter to work a fire with a response that none are available? What happens then?