Friday Fun: Super Scoopers in Action

Direct link to September 2024 video on YouTube

Direct link to August 2017 video on YouTube

Super Scoopers are a great aerial resources for aerial firefighting because as you see in these two videos they scoop water out of a water body and fly to the wildfire to make a drop. The Scooper can make a many drops, the number depending on the distance to the fire and available fuel. I know that two Super Scoopers were on contract In California starting September 1st of 2025, I am not sure how long the contract period is. In January of 2025 Bridger Aerospace sent two Scoopers to California to help fight wildfires. Last but by no means least Super Scoopers from Bridger Aerospace were deployed to Minnesota May 2025 to provide needed aerial support in fighting wildfires.

2024 Wildfire Season: Bridger Aerospace Sends Scoopers to Arizona

 I like to try to keep track of where Airtankers are deployed to help the crews on the ground as they fight wildfires. When I was checking social media just now to try to see what was going in the aerial wildfire community I saw that On July 13th,  Bridger Aerospace out of Bozman Montana is sent two of their Scoopers, 285 'Devils Brigade" and 286 "Matthew, to Arizona to assist in fighting wildfires. Thanks Bridger Aerospace, stay safe.

CL-215/415 "Scoopers"

 One of the aerial tools in the wildfire toolbox are the CL215/415 Scoopers, these are amphibious aircraft specially built to scoop water out of water bodies to fight wildfires. There are at least two companies that fly Scoopers, Bridger Aerospace  and Aeroflite. Bridger has a nice 3D Tour of one of their Scoopers that I hope you can access from Bridger's webpage on Scooper operations, go here for the desktop version, and look for the "access 3D tour link"; I could not access the desktop link on Chrome but could on Safari and Firefox. The link for mobile devices should be here.

I just came across a video from ABC 15 News in Phoenix showcasing Aeroflite's Scooper. I found this report from ABCC 15 on Scooper operations and their benefits to be very informative and I hope that you will enjoy this video, just over 2 minutes. The CL215 and 415 Scoopers from Bridger Aerospace should operate in the same as Aeroflite's. As the video points out, one of the important benefits of Scoopers is that they can scoop water out of a water body near a wildfire, fly the fire and then come back for another load and to the same thing again, as long as needed. ABC 15 Phoenix does have the video on their YouTube channel but I am unable to embed their video, but there is a direct link to video from ABC15Arizona on YouTube if you want other viewing options (report on the Scooper starts at 28 seconds).

Friday Fun: Super Scooper Tanker Up Close

Join me in looking at a video report from KRTV news out of Great Falls Montana as one of their reporters takes us inside a Super Scooper from Bridger Aerospace, probably one of their De Havilland Super Scoopers. According to the the webpage that I just referred to Bridger Aerospace has 10 Super Scoopers, six CL415EAF super scoopers and four CL215T super scoopers.

Direct link to video from KRTVNews on YouTube (uploaded July 27 2021)