Friday Fun: A Look Inside a Yukon Airtanker

 In the video that I am sharing below about the Yukon Airtanker, according to CBC News North, the supervisor of the airtanker program mentioned at 35 seconds is not Chris Mullen, it is Chris Boland.

Direct link to May 28th video from CBC News North on YouTube

Walk around Conair's Convair CV 580 and Lockheed L-188 Airtankers

 While I am not a pilot, I am what I call an aviation enthusiast. To that end I do enjoy seeing the workings of airtankers up close and personal. I rarely get such a view, depending for the most part on videos. I do not quite recall how I came across the video that I am sharing with you by Mile High Aviation on a walk around Conair Aviation's Convair 580 and Lockheed L-188 Electra airtankers with retired pilot John Lord. Allow over 16 minutes for the entire video.

I am reasonably certain that Conair is still flying Convair 580 airtankers. I am not sure if Conair is still flying Lockheed L-188 Electra airtankers. I am uncertain of when the video was filmed.

Correction (February 1, 2023) I made an error in this post. The Convair 580 air tankers were still flying in 2022, but that was their last fire season. In early 2021 Conair made plans to retire the Convair 580 air tankers and the Lockheed L-188  at the end of the 2022 season. They will be replaced by Q-400s, see this January 2021 post on Fire Aviation for more information

Enjoy the video

Direct link to video by Mile High Aviation (uploaded by Aviation Whys)  on YouTube

2021 wildfire season: wildfire at Vermont Quebec border

I was catching up on two days worth of Mike Archer's Wildfire News of the Day e-mail newsletters this morning when I saw that he posted a link to a short report from WCAX in Burlington, Vermont about a wildfire (size unknown) that burned at the Quebec-Vermont border, go here for the article. The wildfire started on April 14th in Quebec and burned into a remote area of Franklin County, Vermont. I do not know the exact location of this wildfire, but in years past I have driven through this area and can attest to its remoteness. Having spent portions of some summers in northeastern Vermont not far from the Canadian border, I often found myself wondering about wildfires near the border and how Quebec and Vermont agencies would respond. This fire gave me my answer. Quebec sent a spotter plane and two tankers while Franklin Vermont provided ground resources. 

SEATS - AT802 Fire Boss: 2019 edition

When I wrote about SEATS the other day (see my August 19th post), I did not specifically mention the Amphibious SEATS, namely Air Tractor's AT-802F Fire Boss (Fire Boss) Often, when I refer to SEATS in this blog, I am referring to both 800 gallon SEATs with conventional landing gear including but not limited to Air Tractor's 802F as well as the Fire Boss. Then of course, I should mention that there are SEATs with smaller tanks such as those manufactured by Thrush as well as Air Tractor (and others) that may be used in both agricultural and fire fighting operations.

Today I am specifically interested in the Fire Boss, the subject of this post. I do know that some of the contractors in the United States who have SEATs do have the Fire Boss in their fleet, but I do not know off hand which ones, nor do I know how many of the Call-When-Needed Contracts in the United States go to Fire Boss SEATS. I did want to have a blog post focusing on the Fire Boss, but was waiting to see some good video of them in action, especially scooping.

hanks to my friends at the NJFFS Section B10 Video of the Week (videos updated weekly) who recently shared a wonderful, but somewhat long (10 minutes) video of a group of three Fire Boss SEATs scooping water from Osooyos Lake in British Columbia, Canada while fighting the Richter Mountain Fire near Cawston British Columbia (see about this video in the link below). I did enjoy seeing this group of three Fire Boss SEATs, from Conair in Canada scooping as a group. (see this Conair page for more information on their Fire Boss fleet). I won't repeat the specs and other information here in this post, rather I will leave those of you who are interested in learning more to follow the links in this post. But I do want to mention that the tank capacity is 800 gallons and there is a separate foam tank to inject foam into the water prior to the drop.


Direct link to video by VMC Aviation Videos

Airtankers at Penticton Air Tanker Base, British Columbia (2013

As we in the northeast experience another nor'easter today, I hope that you enjoy this footage of airtankers at Penticton Airtanker Base (July 28, 2013) in British Columbia, Canada. I enjoyed this 19 minute footage, made my day.


Direct link to video from VMC Aviation Videos

Air Spray (Edmonton Alberta) celebrates 50 years

Direct link to video

Air Spray, out of Edmonton Alberta, has been in the aerial firefighting business for fifty years. Air Spray's roots began as Air Spray Ltd in 1954 as an Ag Aviation operator. Air Spray Ltd's first foray into aerial wildland firefighting began in 1958 with  a contract with Alberta using two Stearmans, later switching to TBM Avengers in 1961. Air Spray Ltd went out of business in 1996 and was resurrected and reincorporated in 1967 as Air Spray (1967) Ltd. To read more about the history of Air Spray, go to the Air Spray History page.

Air Spray's current air tanker fleet consists of

• BAE 146 
• Lockheed L188 Electra
• Air Tractor 802F
• Air Tractor Fire Boss

I don't know how long this will be freely and easily available on the web, but Skies Magazine has a nice spread about Air Spray in their May 2017 edition. As I post this on May 15th, Skies Magazine's May 2017 article on Air Spray (with nice photos) may be found here.

Congratulations to Air Spray on 50 years in the tanker biz. 

Air Tankers working wildfire in Canada (2015 season)

I am always on the prowl for interesting videos to embed and share with you, especially of Air Tankers and Helicopters working wildfires.

In the video that I am embedding below among the aircraft that you will see are: Lockheed L-188 Electra (Air Spray), Twin Commander 690 Birddog (Air Spray), Cessna Caravan Birddog, Air Tractor 802 Amphibious SEAT (Conair), and an Aerospatiale AS 350 B-2 Helicopter (see the information from HD Aviation who uploaded the video, here (and click on show more under the video description) for more information on the video.


Direct link to video

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 action near Kamloops, British Columbia

I saw this video on youtube earlier in today of Canadian airtankers fighting a fire, probably earlier this summer, near Kamloops, British Columbia. I believe that I have seen tankers from Air Spray and Conair along with some helos. Allow just over 14 minutes to watch the video.



direct link to video

Canadian Airtankers in action

I am pretty sure that I may have posted this video a year ago as a way of thanking our friends in Canada for the loan of their tankers last year. On this labor day, or I should say a day when I am not laboring, I wanted to embed a video for you to watch. This came across so to speak. I love the video and the music.